by Devin Sizemore, Area Manager at BBSI
As a business owner, situations like COVID-19 can send you into a tailspin. When an unexpected circumstance hits, you tend to redirect your focus and resources towards that situation. COVID-19 has probably taken that to the extreme for you.
It is important to slow down and assess your current state, your desired future state and understand how the adjusted current state has impacted where you were going.
Here are some tools that will give you a way to understand your actual current state and make sure you are focused on the right areas of your business.
First, it is important to break your business down into manageable sections so that you understand where you need to focus your attention. For this example, we will use the cliché of “eating an elephant one bite at a time.” If you try to tackle your whole business at once, you are likely going to put out the hottest fire and move to the next, and you may not fully understand how that fire impacts other aspects of your business. To avoid that, here are the six sections we recommend evaluating: People, Process, Product, Pipeline, Finance and Structure.
In each of these sections, take time to think about what is working, what is not working and what actions you can take to make each section stronger and more aligned with your long-term goal for your company. It also gives you some visibility into how the six sections can impact each other.
Second, now is a great time to evaluate your people, which is one of the six sections noted above. Employees can be your biggest liability and your biggest asset. The next tool is the ABC player tool.
- An “A Player” is a team member who has an ownership mentality. They make decisions that move the business in a positive direction.
- A “B Player” is a team member who shows up on time, does what is asked of them and then clocks out. They don’t rock the boat, but don’t have the ownership mentality of an “A Player.”
- A “C Player” is the team member that when you go on vacation, they follow you out the door and then show back up five minutes before you return and tell you how great they were when you were gone. They are typically the ones that are causing chaos in your business.
Now is a great time to look at your entire team and determine if they an A, B or C Player. Make sure that as you are restructuring, bringing employees back, or expanding your team that you are looking for employees who have the traits of your current A Players.
Devin Sizemore is Area Manager at at BBSI.
Learn about lessons learned from COVID-19 at NCET’s Biz Cafe on Wednesday, May 27th. NCET is a member-supported nonprofit organization that produces educational and networking events to help people explore business and technology. More info at www.NCETcafe.org