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"Operating Procedures" - Do you have them?

One of my CEO coaching clients recently had to let go one of his executive team members. This can be a difficult task. Sometimes it is so difficult that we wait too long to do it.

I coached a CEO a few years ago who waited too long to make that decision. When he finally did let the person go, he commented to me that he should have let her go months ago. I too had the same challenge years ago when, as an Executive Director, I had to fire my secretary. We all can learn from other's mistakes.

You know the old saying…. Hire slow, fire fast.

Well, as the result of my new CEO client letting go of his team member, he realized that each member of his executive team had a "job description" but there were no operating procedures to help people make decisions.

In his book “The E-Myth”, Michael Gerber proposes that we organize our business like a franchise (McDonald’s®, Wendy’s ®…). He suggests we act as if we were going to franchise our business in the future. Gerber recommends we systematize each aspect of our business. By doing so, we could hand over any aspect of the business to someone else and they could run it effectively for us.

Do you have operating procedures? Written guidelines to help your people and your team make better decisions? Give this some thought today.

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