Chapter 1
Critical Team Meetings
We believe the single greatest predictor of your short-term survival, your medium-term growth, and your long-term success hinges on your team's ability to communicate.
Transcript
We believe the single greatest predictor of your short term survival, your medium term growth, and your long-term success hinges on your team's ability to communicate. According to the Small Business Administration, 50% of businesses with at least one employee don't make it to the five-year mark while over 75% of franchises do. The reason, we believe, comes down to communication and collaboration. The seminal insight that Michael Gerber found in working with over 70,000 small businesses was that those that succeeded didn't just work "in the business," but systemically, dedicated time to actually working on the business. Now that requires a quick definition. When we say working in the business, this is where you will apply your technical skills to the customer or the client. Think about how a doctor practices medicine or a CPA practices accounting, or any of us that's financial professionals, practice wealth management. Working on the business is where you and your colleagues sit down and hone and refine your operations, your business, in ways to increase efficiencies, reduce the stress and strain on your personnel, and ultimately foster a more predictable and higher quality experience for your clientele. Gerber, unfortunately, also found that technicians really enjoyed applying their technical skills and simply didn't make the time to develop and apply their business management skills. What you'll find in this tool is three critical team meetings that are designed to: prepare you for each day's responsibilities and challenges. It will also help collaboratively create a strategic plan for responsibilities and roles. It will help you to foster the growth and development of each of your team members, and ultimately build a strong esprit de corps within your team. The three meetings that we define as accretive are designed to address three distinct needs that all teams likely have. Your tactics, your strategy, and your personnel development. Given how dynamic, volatile, and rapidly evolving our industry has become, it's your team's ability to challenge its assumptions, admit and correct its mistakes, anticipate your client's needs and constantly fine tune your business model that may not only ensure your survival, but also ultimately your success. We too often allow the demands of our practice to consume us in a way that meaningful collaboration and conversations get swept downstream for another day. Suddenly we look up and another year has passed and it's time to start the fire drills all over again. Let's take these team meetings one-by-one.