Issue No. 32 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting asks if you know what you don’t know? Anthony Greenback wrote, “To live through an impossible situation, you don’t need the reflexes of a Grand Prix driver, the muscles of a Hercules, the mind of an Einstein. You simply need to know what to do.”
Nonprofits ministries and churches often get a bad management rap. A popular assumption is that they are poorly managed and have a high failure rate. Hello? Do you read the Wall Street Journal? Small businesses fail everyday. Ditto the big ones.
According to Michael E. Gerber, 40 percent of all small businesses fail in their first year. Of those that survive one year, 80 percent fail in the next five years. Only 20 percent that make it past five years are around for 10 years. Yikes! Click here and buy his book today: The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It.
Gerber’s insights on business development have stood the test of time. Every organization, he says, should study the principles of franchising. Many nonprofit leaders have built strong organizations by creating great systems (the franchise business model).
Read why technicians who become business owners (entrepreneurs) often miss the key steps for building a business when stricken with an “entrepreneurial seizure” (The E-Myth). It’s likely that your organization has content or program experts who are now managing departments or divisions, but still operating as technicians. This book could be a life-saver for them (or you).
Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions:
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1. According to Gerber, 75 percent of franchise businesses are still operating after five years. Why might that be?
2. Franchises use detailed operating manuals, written procedures, and consistent sales approaches. Every detail is delineated. How would you grade our operations here? Can this place operate for long without the head honchos around? Is there room for improvement?
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Insights from the Management Buckets Workshop Experience
Download The Management Buckets Self-Assessment Tool and distribute this 20-question eye-opener at your next staff meeting. Every leader and manager has unique strengths and competencies in many of the 20 management buckets—but rarely does one person score high in all 20 buckets. Where are you and your team members?
• Level 1 (Red): I don’t know what I don’t know.
• Level 2 (Yellow): I know what I don’t know.
• Level 3 (Green): I have an action plan to address what I know I don’t know.
• Level 4 (Blue): I am knowledgeable and effective in this core competency.
The Head-in-Sand Syndrome (I don’t know what I don’t know—and I don’t care) is a dangerous disease, especially in nonprofit ministries and churches. I’m always amazed when camps, colleges and rescue mission leaders (for example) use “God will provide” as their fundraising strategy—but not their food service strategy.
If you’re skilled in all 20 management buckets (Level 4), stay home. If you’re not, join other leaders on May 9-10 at our Management Buckets Workshop Experience. Email me and I’ll extend the early bird postmark rate for you.
Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions:
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1. The Book Bucket. A direct report is an extreme micromanager. She doesn’t know what she doesn’t know. What book should she read this week and what training would you recommend for her?
2. The Meetings Bucket. Patrick Lencioni’s book, Death By Meeting, suggests every team should have four kinds of meetings. What are they?
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Download the Management Buckets brochure
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