Important and Urgent

I get it, running a company requires you to have “a lot of irons in the fire.”

It is ALL your problem and your responsibility.

Unfortunately, many of the top execs I work with are spending time on things that need to be fixed, rather than on things that can grow their business.

It is all necessary, because those broken items are preventing the possibility of growth.

But, its so frustrating to all involved.

In the past 2 weeks, I’ve had multiple conversations with leaders of different companies and many of them are in the middle of a back-office software conversion.

And NONE of them are happy about it.

But, they each limped along with a provider until they just couldn’t do it any longer. Then, when there was no other option, they decided to make a switch.

And, the pain begins.

Sound familiar?

The effort and human energy required to make a switch is staggering. The time is always underestimated.

But it is necessary.

I don’t think most people calculate the opportunity costs involved. While you and others on the team are working on the conversion, what are you NOT focused on? What is lost or put on hold to fix something that is broken or holding you back?

I’ve seen it firsthand --- heck, I’ve participated.

A CEO of a rapidly growing company I know of has figured out a way to combat this challenge. It is fundamental delegation, but with extreme focus on key strategies. He has all the same issues as every other company but has determined the most important strategic initiatives for his company and delegated responsibility to various members of his executive and management team. Yes, he “owns” the problem, but he has given responsibility to advance them to individuals and their teams.

So, while he shifts his focus from one challenge to another he knows that key strategic initiatives are not stopping or slowing progress.

His company has gone through a massive overhaul of just about every system over the past couple of years and still achieved amazing growth.

It’s possible. You don’t have to stop progress while you fix things.

But, you have to know your strategic initiatives and know you have the team that can advance them.