3 tips for inviting your team to consider they are running their own business

Several years ago I worked with a leadership team that were encountering severe problems. Fortunately they overcome the difficulties, but it called for radical surgery. They began by imagining they were running their own business – then went on to find ways to satisfy their key sponsors. Imagine you are a leader. Let’s explore how you apply this approach in your own team within an organisation.

1) You can invite the team to consider they are running their own business.

“We are the European arm of a global company,” explained the MD of the team mentioned above. “Looking back at the difficult time, we faced several key issues. First, we knew which of our products made money in the European market. Second, we knew how to run the business in this part of the world. Third, we were in trouble, however, because we spent masses of time satisfying head office. They wanted us: a) To sell the products they believed should be sold – but that didn’t fit the market; b) To follow complicated internal procedures that satisfied the bureaucrats but didn’t help us to make profits. We needed to do something radical – otherwise we wouldn’t be in business.”

You may or may not face similar issues – but it is still worth applying the thinking followed by that team. Gather your team together and invite them to go through the following steps. Say something like.

“I want you to imagine that we as a team are running our own business. Each of us has borrowed a significant amount of money – and we may get further backing from a potential investor. We are going to make a presentation to that investor, so I want you to produce a 3 year plan. This should cover the following areas:

* Profits. (Or performance if you work in a not-for-profit organisation).

Outline the profits you believe it is possible for the team to achieve in: a) One year; b) Two years; c) Three years. It’s also important to produce an estimate of the various items in the budget. These will be governed by what you include in the next two areas – products and people.

* Products.

Outline the ‘products’ that you would put into the business. Imagine you are starting the business again and can choose the team’s products, services and other offerings. You probably know what is profitable, so use this as a starting point. There may also be other products you want to include that will create future profits. Back-up your thinking with data about potential income.

* People.

Outline the people you would put into the business. Imagine everybody left tomorrow and offered their services back to the company. Who would you hire and what would you hire them to deliver? Which other people – or roles – would you hire into the business?”

Give people an hour to complete this part of the exercise. They are then to make presentations to the team. The presentations and discussions will probably take several hours. Continue for as long as you feel is appropriate before calling time. Explain that you will consider what people have said – then get back to them with a further piece of work to tackle.

Imagine you are doing this exercise with your own team. Try completing the following sentence.

The specific things we would focus on if we were
running the team as our own business – including
the profits, products & people – would be:

*

*

*

2) You can invite the team to clarify the principles they would follow to run the business.

Gather your thoughts – then decide on the team’s potential future focus. Put together the proposition in terms of the profitability, products and people. Go back to your team with the suggested ‘positioning’ – the products it would offer, the potential customers and the desired profit. Agree on this with the team. That is the ‘What’. The next stage is to clarify the ‘How’ – the principles the team will follow to make this happen. Invite them to brainstorm and then agree on: “The 3 key things we would do to give ourselves the greatest chance of success would be: a) To _______ b) To ________ c) To _________” . Imagine you are doing this exercise with your own team. Try completing the following sentence.

The principles we would follow
to run the business would be:

*

*

*

3) You can enable the team to follow some of these principles in the present organisation.

This is the difficult part – but it is a role played by many ‘protectors’ of great teams. They satisfy the centre, but ensure their team has the space to employ its talents. The team must also fulfil their part of the bargain, of course, and deliver the goods. It calls for you being able:

a) To encourage the team to focus on what they believe will deliver success – and the team then producing great results.

b) To know what must be done to satisfy the centre – then doing what is necessary, but not what is over-necessary.

c) To act in a super-professional way to connect with your key sponsors, making clear contacts with them and ensure your team delivers the ‘profits – the results that really matter.

“Deviants must over-deliver,” is the rule. Aim to exceed your targets – otherwise you may get fired. Be super-professional when dealing with the centre. Keep talking about the ‘What’ – the result you will deliver. This may call for saying something like:

“We will deliver x in terms of profits. We can do this by focusing our time on doing ‘a, b & c’. If we are also asked to do ‘d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k & l’, then this will have knock-on effects regarding the time spent with our customers and producing profit. We must, of course, follow the key principles within the business. But some of the complicated ‘add-ons’ produce unnecessary meetings and bite into the time spent with customers. Our goal is to produce great results. So we are willing to be judged by whether we deliver the goods.”

The MD of the ailing team took these steps. Going to the centre, he explained: “We can hit our targets in Europe. But it calls for radical measures. These include: a) focusing on the products the customers want to buy; b) spending all our time in the market, rather than on internal meetings; c) putting our people in the places where they perform best. Taking these steps will deliver the results.” He got backing to follow these principles – and the team over-performed.

You will follow these steps in your own way. Looking at your own team, try completing the following sentence.

The specific things we can do to follow some of
these principles in our present organisation – and
run the team as if it was our own business - are:

*

*

*

Many organisations like to say: “We combine the structure of a big company with the spirit of a small company.” The art lies in making this happen. You can enable your team to think like entrepreneurs - but also make their best contribution to the organisation.