Tribal Leadership Tip #4

Get Out the Managerial Weed Whacker

We’re often asked why companies with great cultures don’t always stay great.  Over time, most slip in the self-interests of Stage Three or the “my life sucks” of Stage Two. 

One of the reasons for this slide is that people deal with temporary problems (budget shortfalls, reimbursement policies, appraisal processes, etc.) with new policies, systems, processes and procedures.  Each one, taken on its own, is a good idea.  But the mass of them squeezes out creativity, innovation, and the excitement of Stage Four.  People begin to say, “my job sucks because I can’t get anything done that I want done, and nothing I do seems to matter.”  The solution is to have meetings every month, and no less than each quarter and, as a group, figure out what bureaucratic weeds need to meet the managerial weed whacker, so that the tribe is free to make their highest contributions.

Needle moving challenge–get everyone together and ask the following questions:

1.  What values unite our tribe? 

2.  What do our values insist that we stop doing? 

3.  What do our values insist that we start doing—that will make an immediate difference in our business?