Tag: management

Formula for Forward Progress

Ingredients for Forward ProgressI’ve been working through a number of projects lately and I’ve started to see progress in multiple categories. It occurred to me that, in my experience, progress has a very simple formula. To use math lingo, I would contend that Progress is a function of New Ideas, Spare Bandwidth, and Resources. If you hold all of these constant, you will likely maintain the status quo.

Ingredients for Forward Progress

If you can increase at least one of the three, though, I believe progress will result. Here’s why:

  • New Ideas: If you only think about your challenges or operations the way you’ve always thought about them, you’re not likely to see change. New ideas, or innovation, can come from visiting someone else’s organization, going to a training event, or bringing new perspectives into the team. Increase your openness to new ideas and your capacity to think differently. It will pay off.
  • Spare Bandwidth: I’ve written more about margin here, but let me summarize by saying that you can’t build toward progress if you spend all of your time doing the same things. If you can’t break out of your own time routines, it may be time to bring someone in who can contribute spare bandwidth to your efforts. (In the not-for-profit arena, finding a volunteer with some experience in your area of weakness and bandwidth to help you build is a big way to add value.)
  • Resources: Sometimes you have plenty of new ideas and even the bandwidth to execute them, but your limiting factor is resources, financial or otherwise. If you’re a leader with financial decision-making authority, watch for this to be a lid for your team. If new ideas and spare bandwidth are going under-utilized, you may want to look for a way to allocate additional resources.
As in math, you don’t necessarily have to increase every value to achieve a greater result. Adding new ideas can cause progress even if you hold bandwidth and resources constant. And the same is true for each. In fact, sometimes new ideas or spare bandwidth can help you continue to make progress even if you need to decrease resources (cost-savings innovations, e.g.).
Paying attention to these three factors will help you lead your team forward toward your goals and vision.

Spend Second

I’ve been on a “blogs about decision making” roll lately, so I thought it might be good to offer a word of balance. Depending on your circumstances, spending money can be the right way to go as I mentioned in my last post, but I had a valuable revelation recently. 

I was walking into the office one morning and thinking about a situation I was navigating with one of our team members. It was a fairly simple thing but was potentially going to cost about $500 depending on how we went forward. $500 may or may not be a lot of money depending on your total budget, but it was a “Spend or Don’t Spend” decision that I thought merited consideration.

As I weighed the questions, I determined that the spend option would be investing in a tangible asset that would have long-term value for the team, and it would help multiple team members be more efficient. And then I had an idea; there was a chance, albeit remote, that we might have an alternate solution in storage that didn’t cost money. I asked my team member to check it out before we made the final decision. Turns out there were no alternatives so we will be investing, but I still contend there was value in taking a few minutes to consider and check things out. 

Just so you know, I’m not talking about a long deliberation (google the words “analysis paralysis” to keep you on track here); I’m talking about an intentional few minutes to consider alternatives. When I’m rushing along in the flow of business, I don’t always take time to explore options, and some decisions don’t require it. When needed though, it can be a valuable thing to do. In any situation, we may need to spend money but there is often something we can or should do first. Check with someone, pray over the situation, think about it differently, ask for a volunteer or a donor to help with the need, etc. 

I am committed to making the spend decision when it’s needed but I’m convinced it shouldn’t be my first go-to.

Tips on Making Hard Decisions

Last week, I talked here about how it could be costly to defer hard decisions.

I can honestly say that the higher I have progressed in an organization that the harder the decisions have been. But that’s part of your role as a leader. Here are a few hard decisions I’ve had to navigate and some tips on making them.

To Spend or not to Spend – Some people’s financial management philosophy is easy: just don’t spend money. But when you’re responsible for a team or organization, spending money in some categories is an investment in your future. Wise spending can help propel you toward your values and encourage positive organizational momentum. Good questions to ask yourself here:

  1. Are you investing in a tangible asset that will survive 12 or more months and benefit yourself and other members of your team?
  2. Are you providing resources that will help members of your team be more effective or more efficient in their roles? (Training, technology, and administrative support are all valuable ways to resource a highly functioning team member. PS. You are a member of your team so this applies to you also.)
  3. Are you providing for the maintenance of a tangible asset to increase it’s life for 12 or more months beyond what it would be without the maintenance?
To Hire or not to Hire – Proverbs tells us it is foolish to hire “any passerby” and unfortunately, we are sometimes desperate enough for help to come close. Here are a few questions to help you in the hiring process:
  1. Does this person have the skills and competencies that are critical to the position?
  2. Does this person have solid character? (You can’t get this in an interview alone. Contact references.)
  3. Will this person be a good fit for the culture of my organization?
  4. Does this person have the capacity for where I hope to be going with our team in the next season?
To Fire or not to Fire – This is by far one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make as a manager and leader. But it can also be one of the most costly decisions to delay when it needs to be made. When a fire was necessary, I have always worked hard to help the person find an off ramp that will enable them to prosper upon leaving us. But I usually waited far beyond when it was ideal and cost myself extra energy or team morale in the process. As an aside, you should never resort to a fire until you have made attempts to address weaknesses through training, better management or accountability. Good questions to ask yourself to evaluate whether a fire is necessary:
  1. Would you hire this person again, if they were interviewing today for the role? Consider the “To Hire or not to Hire” questions above.
  2. Is this person keeping other team members from performing to their potential?
  3. Will this person be better off?
Now, like I said last week, delaying the decision is costly. Take the time to consider the details, pray for guidance and then make the decision.