So let’s take a look at what goes on…

The truth was that they never actually missed a deadline.

So, it wasn’t obvious that pulling themselves back from the brink of failure every week was burning them out.

The other truth was that they secretly loved the adrenalin rush of sorting a lot of problems at the last minute. It felt good to heave that huge sigh of relief as a deadline was met by the skin of their teeth.

You see, they were a skilled team, the easy comfort of experience and hours spent working together meant that they each picked up where someone else left off.  Things happened when they worked together.

So, when the beacon went up that a deadline was about to be missed, they assembled like a fourth emergency service and they got that job DONE.

But ongoing company growth meant that the overall team was now bigger, more people were involved and the continual firefighting was actually taking its toll on the original team.

But they couldn’t see a way out as when the issues arose, they HAD to be sorted there and then because of the deadline, so no-one else could do it but them.

The very act that was saving them from missing a deadline, was now also becoming their biggest Achilles heel.

I call things like this key transition points and it is so important that they are managed well and ideally, the plans developed before you get to the point where it really hurts to change.

But the above is often so hard to do, as pulling your head out of a pressing matter of today to make tomorrow better often looks like you’ve got your priorities wrong to everyone around you.

This is why entrepreneur leaders have to have time in their schedule to work on their businesses, not just in them.

It’s all about short term pain, long term gain and here’s 3 key things that you need to change:-

• You need to be clear about where the business is going and how growth is going to be achieved as without that vision, it gets messy and no-one really understands what they’re doing.
• When you have a plan, you have to ensure that all of the team understand what they’re doing and the effect it has on others, because without that your team is working in silos and very likely just lobbing the issues over the wall into the next process. Joined up thinking is key.
• Then you’ve got to convince a sceptical, tired team that taking a slower route will in time increase productivity and makes things easier – you need them to buddy up with other members of the team and ensure that the issues that are being fire fought at the end are captured earlier in the process and no longer arising just before the point of delivery of the product or service.

Finally, once your team has that clarity, it is key that when you take somebody new on, you actually take the time to induct them into the Company properly.

So, as well as the usual orientation and job training – also educate them on where the company is headed, company values and their place in the process (and the effect it has on others when they do their job well and badly)

The key message in this is that business success and longevity is firmly rooted in the company’s ability to change dynamically and someone has to lead that change.

Over time, businesses need to transition into their next stage of growth and someone has to manage that process, spotting where to go and setting a course for it.

That person is you, the leader, the entrepreneur, the owner.

If your role currently has no transition management in it, I can guarantee you will end up firefighting the transition at some point in the future…and that’s much more painful.

As the owners & leaders, are you doing the future-oriented job you should be doing or are you trapped in the detail, preventing you from doing that forward looking role?

If it’s the latter, you need to make moves to change that, before it’s too late.  It’s time to get up and out of your today business and start working on the one you want to be leading tomorrow. (N.B. This applies to all ambitious entrepreneurs – even if you’re a team of one!)

So, if you’re a business owner – DM me or pop a comment below, how are you doing?

Are you stuck in the detail of today or setting the path to your tomorrow business?