Quarterbackus
Okay, so you have an illness. Almanacus-Quarterbackus Syndrome. It’s bad, but you can fully recover. We’ve already addressed your Almanacus (being a walking desk reference set for your staff) problem. Now we will address your Quarterbackus (making all the important decisions for your staff) problem. This is going to be fun. I feel like a spiritual chiropractor. I am cracking my knuckles as I type.
I know how tough it is to think you are the smartest person in the room and that you should make all the decisions in the office. This is pride in one of its ugliest forms – vanity. It’s nice to show off how smart we are, but it kills the drive of those around us, and it severely limits our success to the boundaries of our own capacities. We need to be about empowering everyone around us so that we all become superstars. Don’t hog all the glory.
I am a detail-oriented (obsessive-compulsive) control artist (freak) with ADD/HD (Attention Deficit Disorder compounded by Hyperactivity Disorder). I am self diagnosed and not on meds. Pray for me. My mind runs at 100 miles an hour, and I hear lots of voices (all of which are my own, of course). One day, my cousin and Operations Manager, Dustin Martin, gave me one of his ADD pills (ADD apparently runs in the family). Within minutes, all the voices in my head stopped. There was nothing but silence in the background of my brain for most of the day. I could not believe how focused I was. I have never sought a prescription for whatever that med was, but there are those around me who would probably pay for them if I’d take them. Sorry, I digress.
What I’m saying is, I know what you’re dealing with. You don’t trust other people to make key decisions because they don’t know what you know. They don’t have your experience. They don’t think through issues and problems the same way you do. It isn’t their business that’s on the line. There’s your trouble. You are thinking little, instead of thinking big. Your people are not empowered. In 30 years of managing people and building businesses, I have learned that the most effective decision-making tool I can give my team is a thorough understanding of the principles by which I run the business. When I teach them my principles, and require that they adopt them and employ them in every aspect of their work, I am giving them a perfect framework for successful decision making. That’s empowerment.
Now, this does not mean that they will always arrive at the same conclusion or decision that I would have, given the same information. But, that is not what matters. Give ten talented and experienced executives the same set of data and circumstances, and they will not all come up with the same decision, even if the decision is a simple yes or no. But, they will usually still find success through the decision they made. That is because they will, more often than not, make their decision work for them. Everyone brings different training and experience to a decision. But, if you give your team the principles to make their own decisions, they will make their decisions work in their paradigm of experience, training, and control. I have seen this countless times. I am not the only one who can make a good decision and make it work.
Of course, some will err along the way. But, that is an investment in their training. You have to be willing to take risks with your staff by giving them the parameters (your principles) for making decisions and then giving them the room to make mistakes. Risk takers are profit makers, as the saying goes. If you don’t give your people the tools and the freedom to make decisions, you will never grow your business beyond the limits of your own capacities. When you delegate decision making to others, it is not with reckless abandon. It is in the controlled and predictable environment of your careful tutelage of their business skills. Teach them how to make decisions, and watch them soar. Everybody wins.
A key part of what Noel is saying here is that mistakes will be made. I made a mistake early on at Senior Partners. I mistakenly sold all of a client’s shares rather than half of them. The client was ready to leave the firm over this. Noel was upset, but because I was allowed to make the mistake and correct it, it never has nor ever will happen again. Mistakes will happen. Make sure to provide an environment where people are encouraged to learn and grow when they do happen.
I once transferred funds into an IRA rather than into the Inherited IRA that I had opened at the same time. Tracking all activity in the Production Log I quickly discovered my mistake (and learned about Letters of Indemnification in the process) and corrected it. The next time that I met with the client he commented that he noticed that the funds had originally been sent to the wrong account but also noticed that this was quickly corrected. He was less concerned with the mistake than with the fact that the mistake was caught and corrected in a timely fashion without his having to bring it to anyone’s attention. He was a satisifed client that day and has remained that way.
As a seasoned staffer, I can testify that there is no true economy in using the boss’s brain. What a successful business requires is not sterile leadership clones…but, unique yet competent personalities through which good principles are filtered, thus adding to the organization’s synergy. You build a championship team by encouraging individuals to find their own answers and solutions while simultaneously supporting mistakes.
I’ve been thinking about Quarterbackus. I love football, so I can see a parallel here. The quarterback is the one who guides the team in the direction is should be going. Running backs and wide receivers take the ball down the field and work toward the goal. At times the quarterback runs the ball himself, but he can’t do it for an entire game. He will be tired and beat up if he does. Just as it takes teamwork for a football team to reach its goal, the same goes for a team of boss and coworkers. A boss that guides you in a particular direction, but allows you to run the ball to the goal, empowers you. Sometimes we fumble, but we know we have the support of our quarterback to get back up and keep going.
A mistake is only a mistake if you fail to learn from it. Noel likes to empower us and in return he is gracious with our mistakes.
Mistakes are bound to happen because there are just so many daily interruptions in the financial services field. Checking over your work everyday is a great way to limit the unhappy client conversation. If we catch mistakes early, our clients feel we are indeed watching their accounts.
I am a person who does not like to make mistakes, but working for a company where you are allowed to make mistakes, learn by that mistake, and then correct that mistake, is a new area for me. It definitely takes the pressure off and allows me to grow both professionally and personally. I have learned that mistakes will happen, but it is what you do about them that matters.
You learn good decision-making by making decisions. Don’t take this away from your staff or you will be doing everyone else’s job except your own!
[…] Stay tuned for Part II… […]
One of the characteristics of a good company to work for is their ability to let the managers, supervisors, etc. perform their jobs with the liberty of making mistakes and learning from them. No one likes to make mistakes, but recognizing the mistake and how you deal with it tells a lot about the person or process. I have learned this from the ISO quality program I have been involved in for the last 14 years.
“Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit… But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” 1 Corinthians 12:4-5
Coming from a work environment of No Grace, I am truly encouraged by the responses to the posting. The posting gives me hope for this learning process, but the comments let me know that it is OK to be human & if I fall I can count on help to get up & go again. 🙂
As we learn life lessons by living life, we also learn career skills by experience. We will inevitably fall and bruise ourselves along the way, but we will be all the stronger and wiser for it. Allowing room for growth is a huge factor in why I enjoy working at Senior Partners.