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Profitable Farmer

# 9 - 7 Ways To Run A World Class Team And Master Communication In Your Business

2018-07-10

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The 1st Component: CLEAR JOB DESCRIPTIONS It has to be written up. Making a clear job description for each team member has to be in writing – enumerate the tasks for clarity and better understanding. I endorse a great book called ‘The E-Myth’ by Michael Gerber. It’s a fantastic book to read if you are a business owner. The author talks about the importance of having an organisational chart, applying to every single business. Overview of Departments:

The 1st Component: CLEAR JOB DESCRIPTIONS

It has to be written up. Making a clear job description for each team member has to be in writing – enumerate the tasks for clarity and better understanding. I endorse a great book called ‘The E-Myth’ by Michael Gerber. It’s a fantastic book to read if you are a business owner. The author talks about the importance of having an organisational chart, applying to every single business.

Overview of Departments:

CEO

Responsible for setting the vision and direction of the business
An excellent leader
Thinks strategically about the future of the business

Marketing Department

Takes care of effective branding and presence of the business
Website maintenance as you need a method to reach new clients
Open up new markets
The brain of marketing
This position needs energy to take charge of the marketing tasks
Innovative
I’d like to call it the Production Line of the business

Sales Department

They find the clients
Highly essential in growing the business

Operations

Ensures every single task on your farms gets DONE
Ensures all systems are functional and effective|

Human Resource

This is not applicable for small farms but certainly becomes an area as you get bigger
The department that looks after the team
Makes sure everyone is happy
They facilitate performance reviews
Takes care of the recruitment and motivation systems
Manages training systems

IT Department

Sets up email addresses for each team member
Makes sure everyone can communicate and connect
Maintains all technical systems

Administration Department

Administration behind the book work
Filing
They work hand-in-hand with the Operations team
Takes care of all the back-office tasks
They are the behind-the-scene machine of a business

Finance Department

Responsible for budgeting
All other business financial matters

It is imperative that you split out these roles and get a lot of clarity as to what are all the tasks that need to be done to run your farming business.

What typically occurs is, you being the business owner are also the busiest person doing everything that nothing really gets done well.

And I find it humorous because you get to a stage where you feel you cannot do everything

OR,

You hire someone but not sure what you want them to do, resulting to them making a lot of mistakes

And then,

You start fixing all the mistakes and end up making a decision that no one can do the tasks as well as you. You take back all the jobs you have delegated which causes chaos because you failed to sit down and actually write out a list.

THE REAL FIX:

Have a concrete list. Write it out clearly.
What tasks do you want team/family members to do for you?
How do you want the tasks done?
When do you expect results?

Break the business up.

Bring accountability and responsibility to certain components in running your business.

START YOUR LIST NOW!

Once you have your tasks list, think of a team/family member best suited for the work and write the name next to it.

This is the easiest method to create a job description.

The 2nd Component: GWC

G – they Get it

W – they Want it

C – they have the Capacity to do it

In running a world-class team, it is critical to make sure that the person you choose for each job ‘gets and understands’ the details of each task.

I have had a number of examples on this in my career in running businesses and working with team members. Once I delegated a detailed job to a person that has an outgoing personality. This person doesn’t get detail. I was giving the wrong task but also this person may be way more suited in Marketing, as an example.

Lesson here is, align the job description to the right personality.

Kolbe.com is a fantastic tool I highly recommend. Get the team member do a personality profile. The results will tell you if a person is outgoing or an introvert, detail-oriented or people-oriented, and it effectively helps you to determine if the person gets it and wants it.

It is pointless giving someone a job they do not want and then later on find out that there is a passionate person out there to do the job for you.

In my case, I do not like doing the books for my business. This is why I outsource to someone who will do it. Someone who loves doing the books, wants it, is really good at it and can do the job quickly.

Now on capacity, I make sure I do not overload their back. Never assign a task to someone who does not really have room to do it. Obviously because when they do not have the capacity, the results are substandard.

So…

Now that you have identified the person who gets the job, wants the job, has the capacity to do the job –

It is critical that they are aligned with the values within your business.

Take some time to listen to my podcast on getting more organized. I talked about having a strategic plan and getting clarity on your values.

A lot of issues in business are actually related to you hiring team members that are not aligned to your business values.

Do your part – document your values.

Have clarity and documentation of your values. For example, reporting to work on time is one of your business values. This is already very clear but you have to make sure the team member also clearly understands and most importantly, shares the same value. For the documentation part, make sure it is written somewhere in the job description.

The 3rd Component: SET VERY CLEAR EXPECTATIONS

Honestly, how do you feel when your expectations are not met?

In a performance review, how would you rate a team member who does not meet work expectations?

A world-class business team sets very clear expectations and take note that this has to be a two-way relationship. Being the business owner, you have to clarify what you expect from the team and vice-versa.

Again, write it down. With your expectations written down, it makes it easier to deal with conflicts for existing members, and it clarifies expectations for the new hires.

As an example, in a case where I am employing a new team member, I would be clear right at the onset about the following:

I want you to arrive 10 minutes before work starts
I want you to not touch social media during work hours
Personal calls have to be made during breaks only
Every Friday, summarise what you have done for the week
Every Monday, plan your week out
Update your task list regularly and prioritise

Notice the clarity of expectations in the given example. As a business owner, you would like your team members to maximize the week and this happens when you clearly tell them what you want, as they are not mind-readers.

CLEAR COMMUNICATION GETS EVERYONE ON THE SAME PAGE.

The 4th Component: HAVE A WEEKLY, QUARTERLY and YEARLY PLANNING

When was the last time you went out on a team-building activity?

Or strategy-planning?

Get away with your team for:

1-2 days a year
Half a day to a day every quarter
At least 30 minutes every week

Brainstorm time

Ask the questions:

What are our goals for the year?
What do we want to achieve on a yearly basis?
What strategies could we keep or replace to achieve our goals?

Try the “rapid fire” activity. This is when you get to ask each of your team members in random order about your goals and they have to have an immediate answer.

You would easily find out who among the team members do not know what your 9-year goals are, your next 12 months, etc. Everyone in the team has to know your business goals by heart.

Imagine driving without any direction, you may still be able to continuously drive

But,

Where will you end up?

It is very crucial for a team/family member to know your business goals, otherwise, those who do not will just wing it.

Track your success. How did we go last week? Last quarter?

Then plan strategically. What can we do better? What are we going to focus on next week?

Are there any issues we need to resolve? This is the very time that team members should practice open communication and honesty.

The more you communicate, the smoother your team works.

There is more energy, more clarity, more professionalism in the team.

As a business owner, you cannot go wrong doing this because, if you want to be a profitable farmer –

YOUR TEAM IS YOUR BIGGEST ASSET

And ultimately, often your biggest expense, so –

If you can help your team become more productive, you will generate more profitability.

Get more out of your team – having ONE great team member will beat THREE average.

The 5th Component: PUT SYSTEMS IN PLACE AND TRAIN YOUR TEAM

Food for thought: You are better off training a team member and they leave, then not training them and they stay.

The very first thing you should do, even before training, is to put some basic systems in place. The top producing farmers that we currently work with have systems for everything:

Systems for operational duties
Systems for books and finance
Systems for administration
Systems for maintenance

A system is simply a checklist of what needs to get done into the standard that you want as the business owner.

The reality is, if you don’t put up systems in place, then the team members wing it.

And if they wing it –

Mistakes are made in tasks, it costs you time fixing errors - which ultimately leads to reduced profitability.

THE REAL FIX:

Get systems in place
Train the team on the systems
Maintain the systems
Keep systems up-to-date

THE RESULT:

Highly efficient team
Tasks are accurately completed in a timely manner
Team members become more energetic
You embrace new learnings and continue to look at what you need to continuously train the team on
You become a master in delegating tasks
You become overly comfortable in handing out the control and letting others do the work for you

You can never run a freedom farm if you are doing everything yourself.

You have to slowly let go…

As a matter of fact, the most successful farming business owners slowly hand over every task that they are doing on their farm to team/family members.

With the systems and proper training in place, they are able to maximise the team.

The 6th Component: REWARD and RECOGNISE YOUR TEAM. PROVIDE FEEDBACK. LOOK FOR PRAISE

Notice that in this current generation, service surveys are just everywhere. From text messaging to online surveys, hard-copy feedback sheet and of course, the infamous social media.

It just proves the power of giving feedback.

You do need to go out of your way and give that feedback to each team member for a job well done. A lot of farmers are a little bit guilty about this. Unfortunately, farmers that I meet are pretty hard on themselves.

Not to blame them completely because they were brought up in a very tough environment and because they are hard on themselves, they become hard on their family or team members (this is just a bit of generalisation from me).

As a business owner, you would want to be the very first person to praise your team. Just imagine how doing so extensively motivates and renews the energy of your team.

As a business owner, you would want your team members to see where they can improve. Then use the systems to train them. Make them feel that you’ve got their back!

I grew up in a farming community and looking back, there was not a lot of reward and recognition going on.

In my career as a business coach for 19 years now, I have seen the huge impact on business owners when they focus on rewards and recognition to teams and team members.

So, take the time to provide feedback –

Both positive and negative.

The 7th Component: YOU NEED TO TRUST

Where there is no trust, there is no team.

I remember when I was younger and played Rugby Union, was always in the forwards then moved to the backs when I got older. I was a breakaway – meaning I was like a defender and covered mistakes being made at the backs. My goal was to defend and also be there in attack.

But later in my career, I moved out into the backline and became an inside centre. I was so busy focusing on helping out others do their jobs having this breakaway mentality. Until I realised I was the one creating the holes in the backline. I was the one who allowed people to break through the backline and score thrice. This is all because I wasn’t trusting the people around me.

The loss of trust is very true in the business world. There are those who hand team members tasks but really do not trust that they will do the task well or might do it the exact same way they do.

As a result…

They become controlling as a business owner.

You can never grow as a world-class company if you are like that.

You have to be comfortable handing over tasks to others and TRUST them to do the work.

TRUST that they can perform the same way you do, if not better.

Besides, how can you run a freedom farm if you are doing all the tasks yourself?

This is why you have to:

LET GO

SLOWLY DELEGATE WITH TRUST

GRADUALLY HAND OVER RESPONSIBILITY

Because of trust, some of our top performing farmers in our coaching groups now go on holidays during the busiest times of the year. 3-4 weeks of vacation and come back to see for themselves that their team actually has done a better job than what they could.

THE ULTIMATE OBJECTIVE OF BEING A WORLD-CLASS FARMING BUSINESS OWNER IS NOT ABOUT BEING THE BUSIEST PERSON

But,

BEING THE MOST LAID-BACK AND HIGH YIELDING BUSINESS OWNER

Let go of your fear of control –

A lot of people fear that when they hire someone else, they make less money –

Hang on…

TIME IS YOUR MOST VALUABLE ASSET

…IT IS OKAY TO LET GO.

_________________________________________________________________________

For your quick reference – the 7 Components are: