Support Your Business’s QBR by Stepping Back and Empowering Your Team

Note From Donna… The thing about Clockworking your business is – you have to get out of your team’s way. True delegation is giving them the project and not taking it back. Giving them what the end result needs to be and then letting the team deliver that result in the most efficient way. What can sometimes be a big punch to your ego – They may do it faster, better and more efficient than you. It happened to me yesterday. I gave an admin project away to a team member and while showing them what I needed done they showed me there’s a faster way to do it. Letting go is hard, but a vital part of freeing us up to do the strategy work we need to do. Time to let them fly.

We have already talked about phase one of the Clockworking method. You can find that on our blog at www.sooterconsulting.com. To remind you all, the 3 phases are:

1. Align

2. Integrate

3. Accelerate

The integration phase is all about serving the QBR (Queen Bee Role). It’s that one thing the company must do, or you will not be able to deliver your BIG promise. Everyone in the company directly or indirectly supports the QBR. What may be a surprise is that as you Clockwork the business, you the business owner, will not support the QBR directly. That’s right – we are taking you out of the direct line of production. You do serve the QBR if it’s in jeopardy; however, the idea would be to keep you out of production … unless that’s your happy spot.

How do we serve and protect the QBR? There are 3 tools that help us protect and serve.

The 4 D’s... oh wait there are now 5 D’s

Time to do some time tracking. I hear your groans. Tracking everything you do and asking your team to track everything they do is not necessarily fun, but it’s so necessary. The revised edition has a great section for employees. What’s in it for them .. for that matter what’s in it for you?

The 5 D’s are:

• Doing

• Deciding

• Delegating

• Designing

• Downtime

Oh, don’t you just love the new D… downtime. Everyone needs it to be productive.

The goal is to get a company mix of: 80% doing, 2% deciding, 8% delegating and 10% designing.

The answer to what’s in it for you and them comes in the next step.

The 3 T’s... oh wait there are now 4 T’s

Trash

Transfer

Trim

Treasure

That’s right – if you do the time tracking you will then be able to analyze what you and the team are doing. Do you have an activity that no longer serves the company? Maybe it once did, but now it’s just being done because it’s always been done… TRASH it! It’s ok to let things go.

Do you have things on your “desk” that should be delegated to someone else – TRANSFER it. The key here is to truly let them have it – no taking it back.

Do you have things on your desk that you must do, but maybe there’s a better way to do it. Let’s get that task TRIMMED down.

Do you TREASURE it? These are the items that get you out of bed in the morning. It’s the real reason you started the business. Within reason you can keep it. Make sure that someone else is trained to do it, so you can take that 4-week vacation.

So, that’s what’s in it for you – the beautiful thing is … those same things are what’s in it for the team. As the business gets Clockworked, the team should be doing the things that make them thrive as well. They will have the same opportunities to Trash, Transfer, Trim and Treasure.

Capturing Systems

This is where all the beauty comes together in this system. Documenting as you work – no out of date SOP’s for you. If the steps in a project change, the person doing the project turns on their recording device and documents the new process.

I was in a Profit First Accountability group a couple months back when we were talking about Capturing Systems. The place that most people get hung up on is – I’m not perfect on camera. Stop worrying about being perfect. Leave those um’s in there. Leave the stuttered words alone. Why would I suggest this – Because the process will soon change, and another team member will be doing the next recording. The idea is to get the process documented so that the next person can pick up the project. Doing this while you work means they are “doing” while they are documenting. What a way to be efficient.

There you have it… the pathway to protecting and serving the QBR.