By adopting simplicity as part of your leadership framework, you can improve practice performance without adding more complexity to your employees’ lives.
Overcomplicating things is a natural tendency for many business leaders. Executives and founders are usually intelligent, ambitious people. They don’t want to do less; they’re hard-wired to do more. However, many can forget they’re not working alone. They’re working with other human beings, and human beings generally deal better with simplicity than complexity.
And simplicity is more important than ever, as the world has grown more complex over the past two years. People have scrambled to adapt to new remote work situations, have worried about their health, the health of those they love, and have felt generally anxious about the future.
By adopting simplicity as a core part of your leadership framework, you can avoid adding more complexity to your employees’ lives and help everyone on your team – including yourself – avoid additional stressors that can lead to burnout. You can even open up more time and energy to focus on passions in life outside of work, like family and hobbies. Ultimately, simplicity creates a healthier work environment and a better balance that can keep teams motivated and successful.
To achieve this, focus on simplifying the following six key areas to see significant, measurable improvements.
1. Your company’s vision
It’s not possible to lead with simplicity until your employees know where the company is going and how you plan to get there. Make sure everyone understands why your business was founded, whom you serve, and what your objectives are.
To start, answer the following eight questions. Share your answers in plain, easily digestible language with everyone in your business. Re-evaluate the list quarterly to ensure it stays aligned with your direction.
- What are the core values that guide how your business operates?
- What is your core purpose or passion? In other words, why does the organisation exist?
- What is your 10-year target? Your guiding compass?
- Who is your target audience, and what makes you unique in their eyes?
- What will your organisation look and feel like in three years?
- What are the high-level goals you want to achieve in the next 12 months?
- What priorities would you like to accomplish in the next 90 days?
- What significant issues exist in your company that could prevent you from achieving any of those plans?
2. Your organisation’s people
Do you have the right people in the right seats? Conduct some due diligence to be sure your team shares your core values and that each person is in a role that suits their skills and attitude.
Ask your team which roles appeal to them: Would they change if they had the opportunity? Do they think they have the ability to fill a different role with the right training? Then make those changes – but with appropriate dignity – and make sure to keep HR involved.
3. Your business data
Are the data points you use to measure the success of your business as useful as they should be?
Imagine you’re on a tropical island resort with no technology or outside contact. However, the resort manager is able to give you a sheet of paper with seven to 13 numbers from your business. Which data points would give you the best view into your company’s progress and overall success? Your answers will reveal which data points are most important for your organisation. Begin recording those numbers weekly and using them to build a company scorecard.
4. Your corporate issues
All businesses have issues. The challenge is figuring out what your business issues are, so you can discuss them as a team.
Of course, identifying issues requires that you acknowledge and accept them. Don’t bury your head in the sand – make a point to name the issues and work towards solving them.
Bring together a diverse set of team members to brainstorm solutions. Make this a part of your weekly, quarterly and annual meetings.
5. Your organisational processes
Plenty of companies have massive manuals that document every workflow detail. But how many staff actually crack open the book and follow them?
Adopt the Pareto Principle (the 80:20 rule). Focus on structuring the 20 per cent of processes that will have an 80 per cent impact on your business. Or ask each department to pinpoint the 20 per cent of its workflows that are most critical.
Once you’ve outlined your simplified workflow processes, ensure that people have easy access to them.
6. Your company’s traction.
The best plans mean nothing without action and traction. As author Gino Wickman would say, “Vision without traction is hallucination.” To get that traction, make sure everyone in the company understands your quarterly priorities and follow a regular meeting schedule to keep things on track.
Schedule two sets of meetings. The first is for leaders and happens every quarter. Executives, supervisors and managers discuss what worked in the past quarter, set priorities for the coming quarter and resolve any outstanding issues.
The second set of meetings happens weekly. There, you’ll meet with your leaders. At the same time, the rest of your organisation’s departments and teams will meet, too. These meetings will all happen concurrently with set agendas aimed at gaining traction and getting results. These meetings should be brief and focused on moving the company forward towards its stated handful of priorities.
Leading a business has its challenges: people, profit, lack of control, hitting the ceiling. Why complicate matters when simplifying them can bring better results? At the end of every day, remind yourself that brilliance doesn’t lie in making chaos. It lies in moving towards simplicity.
Debra Chantry-Taylor is an Auckland-based Certified EOS implementer at EOS Worldwide.
