To follow up to my Kinkos rant, I was in there again today (taking care of matters myself – "just print it, I’ll cut it, thanks. Because it’s so difficult to use a paper cutter accurately.") and when I walked up to the counter the girl looked at me, slightly horrified (I swear I am not making that up) and stammered:
"Uh, I don’t have the codes I’m not sure what to do, I’m usually just working in the back."
I graciously smiled and waited for someone who did have somewhat of a clue to help me.
But it brought up a point that I’ve hammered home to clients in the past, and yes, even been guilty of myself. People from corporate should know how to "work the store". Because there may come a time when they need to, for starters.
But more importantly, how can you grow and become more efficient and effective if you have no clue what the experience that your customers are getting even is?
To use a sports analogy, Peyton Manning is a great QB because he knows what the other 10 guys on his team are doing on every play. Not just his job, everybody’s job. That’s the mark of a leader, and generally successful people do that.
I can hear the argument already, "Henry Ford surrounded himself with people smarter than him, so all he had to do was pick up the phone and tell them to do something and it’d get done."
But that’s missing the point. Reggie Wayne runs a much better corner route than Peyton ever could, physically, but that doesn’t mean that Peyton can ignore how it’s run. He knows it’s 7 yards up 3 yards in and a 45 degree to the corner.
But what happens in business, is the visionaries, the leaders, the unbalanced "N" brain types, they dream up this grand scheme and then hire people to implement it, "it" being this broadly described idealism. And they hire people who are good with the details of day to day life, so it should be a good team effort, right? Big picture leadership, detail-oriented task laborers. But the problems start when the details are not defined.
So then Reggie thinks a corner route is straight up 10 yards and fade to the outside looking for the ball over the outside shoulder, and Marvin Harrison thinks it’s 4 steps a quick shimmy and a burst to the corner, and Peyton thinks it’s 7 yards up 3 yards in and 45 degrees to the corner.
Incomplete, or worse, interception. Then Peyton blames the receivers and they start resenting him and pretty soon you have a miserable atmosphere where nobody takes responsibility and there’s a breakdown in communication. That’s a team that doesn’t win.
Unfortunately, that’s a lot of businesses. Hopefully not yours. Definitely Kinkos.