Slow Down to Speed Up - 405 Magazine

Slow Down to Speed Up

Before you can expect top-level execution from employees, first slowly build foundational trust to make them want to work hard to achieve shared goals.

Running a business is one of the hardest things to do in the world. Add in the personal dynamics of working with your family, and it can produce a lot of stress. It can be tough, but running your business (even with family) also can be one of the best things in life.

The choice is yours.

If you allow the annoying tasks of everyday life to overwhelm you, things will be rough. But if you lean in and work on maximizing your team performance, you can experience fulfillment that you have always wanted, but never known how to obtain.

Here’s a good way to start maximizing your team’s performance: Picture a flywheel, which is a device on a machine that produces the momentum for the machine to spin at the highest levels for maximized productivity.

If the flywheel doesn’t move, then the machine doesn’t produce. The same is true with your team’s flywheel.

To maximize team performance, you must go in this order:

1. Improve communication.
2. Build relational trust.
3. Get aligned on your strategy and tactics.
4. Execute the weekly tasks to move the business forward. 5. Monitor the capacity of each team member.

Years ago, I worked for a private equity group who was rolling up other companies. We had one leader who would constantly say, “Just get on the same page and make it happen.” He would then yell, “How hard can it be?”

This didn’t endear this person to anyone. We all wanted to turn it back around and ask, “How hard can it be to treat us like humans and built trust versus going behind our backs?”

Look back at the list. If you push for No. 3 and 4, alignment and execution, then you will get compliance from those in your team. But, you won’t get engagement. The truth is people want to work for people they like and trust. If you don’t focus on knowing your team and how they are wired, and communicate accordingly, then you are not going to get the best out of them.

Conversely, try to slow down to speed up. What I mean by that is try to learn to communicate and build strong relational trust. If you first slow down and build that trust, you are going to have an easier time getting aligned and they will want to execute, not have to.

People can handle a lot, especially if they like you and trust you. My GiANT team is constantly working, not because we force it, but because they want to. That took years to build a culture of empowerment, and while it was hard, it is vital if you want to get the flywheel started to maximize team performance.

Slow down to speed up. Get everyone on the same page by building relationships and communicating consistently, and you will watch people do what you could never think was possible.