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Policies, Procedures and Promises

Debra Templar-Group - Saturday, September 12, 2009
They're tough work and not all of us can handle it (even though we know we should).policy  It's like sleeping in a tent on stony ground.  You can handle it for a night or two because of the adventure but by the third day you pack up for home!

You need someone like me to tackle you on these issues.  I can't see many of you attending to all the issues though.  If you implement some of the ideas you will be a mile in front.  If you want to be a real achiever, address them all.

24 Questions

Whether you're in a strong or struggling position, answering these questions will help clear your sinuses.  It will show you where you stand in the broad scope of things.  You can't tell the health of a business just by looking at its balance sheet.  That only tells you about its money.

Naturally, if the business doesn't have enough money to survive this exercise is like doing a health check on a corpse:

  1. Are you secure financially?
  2. Are you profitable?
  3. Do you have a stable and dedicated staff?
  4. Are you doing what you are supposed to be doing - ie. baking bread, fitting tyres?
  5. Are you doing what your board or owners or shareholders or franchisors want you to do?

But in thinking deeper:

  1. Are you as financially secure as you could be?
  2. Are you as profitable as you might be?
  3. Is having stable and dedicated staff the most you should be expecting as an employer, and are you challenging each other?
  4. Are you stretching yourselves to serve as many people as you can?
  5. Are you doing more than what your board or owners or shareholders or franchisors want you to do?

Apart from that, in order to fulfill your mission:

  1. Are you as fully aware of the extent and capacity of your market as you ought to be?
  2. Are you as innovative as you could be?
  3. Have you assiduously thought through the implications of technology on your position in 10 years time?  For example, will there be a need for your product or service as you know the process now?  If so, how might they be produced?  If not, what might you offer in place of them?
  4. Is your level of service so attractive that people come to you to find out how you are doing it so well?
  5. Are you leaving no stone unturned in finding ways to be the best you can be?
  6. Do you train your people to a level of excellence no competitor can match?
  7. Do you know the real strengths of your people?
  8. Do you tap into the creative resources of your staff?
  9. Do your people believe that they have contributing interest in the destiny of your firm?
  10. Are you opening up new markets?
  11. Are you noted without fail for your quality of product and service?
  12. Do you have increasing numbers of 'customers' beating a path to your door imploring you to sell to them?
  13. If someone came to you with an assignment you wouldn't normally take on, but with stretching you could complete, is there a structure by which you could draw on the divergent resources of your people and accept the assignment anyway?
  14. In your staff is there that attractive Disney-like quality that keeps them looking and behaving in a dynamic and impeccable manner?

These questions encompass quite challenging expectation.  They are questions a healthy organisation should ask itself periodically.  They are questions you could invite each member of staff to ask of themselves.  If you have too many 'No' answers or you find the questions frustrating it could be because you have missed developing some of the system stuff.

Debra Templar

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   Over the past 20 something years I have gained many skills and worked with fabulous people! I am a retail enthusiast, keynote speaker, consultant and business coach, trainer, author and 'doer'.
Debra Templar: www.thetemplargroup.com.au   www.twitter.com/debratemplar   wwww.linkedin.com/DebraTemplar