This week at the best business coaching program in the universe I had another great week learning more and more about managing a team. Specifically how to follow up and get pissed to get things done. Managing means you are regularly pissing someone off. Colin Powell, the United States Secretary of State from 2001 to 2005 said that “Being responsible sometimes means pissing people off.”
Every week our business coaching team has a checklist to complete, a sales quota to meet, reviews to ask for, along with cleaning, and attending to clients. Daily I follow up on where we are in sales, reviews, and checklists getting done. The accountability has annoyed managers in the past BUT the reviews always went up and the assigned task always got done. Our team consists of both strong and meek personalities. This mix of characteristics in our team shows everyone’s management style. I have found that strong or meek, you still have the same responsibilities and the same amount of time to accomplish your tasks.
“Being responsible sometimes means pissing people off.”
-Colin Powell (Former U.S. Secretary of State and Retired 4-Star General)
Everyone has their level of how much they can accomplish, this level each of us sets up in our minds. I am no different, I have a level of how much I can achieve. In the past, I would reach this level and stay there. However, I have a manager who works to push the lid on what I see I am capable of. There are standards I am responsible to uphold for the shops. When something does not get done or does not get done properly in the shops it is time to investigate and get the make sure the task is complete. Who makes sure everything gets done? The manager in charge of the team; we go around and assumes everything is not done properly so that when low and behold something is not done properly we find out if the undone task is due to negligence or ignorance.
The key when managing a business coaching team is to find everyone’s lid as quickly as possible and the second key is to push that lid as soon as possible. These two key actions make a world of difference when it comes time for promotion or demotion. Without constantly challenging our leadership team we will not know when need to start looking for another member of the team or when it is time to recommend a promotion. Not only is pushing the lid excellent in determining when a person has reached their maximum potential but everyone enjoys working in an environment with ongoing education.
Whether it’s a team of ten or a team of ten hundred, everyone should be held accountable to their work and pushed to the limit on what they think is possible. The employees whose limit is sky-high will be grateful for the opportunity to learn and grow. The high level of accountability is a breath of fresh air for an A player on your team. Meanwhile, the B and C players show themselves quickly under high challenge and accountability environments. This allows you to continuously keep a strong fresh team of people who want and will do their best every day.
