MGMT Minute: The One Question That Eliminates 80% of Leadership Decisions

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I ran a leadership workshop with 120 small business owners last week.

An impassioned debate broke out about an often polarizing topic:

Costco snacks.

• Should the office have them?

• Should the owner make the runs?

• Could it be delegated to someone else?

• Would that person be on the clock to do it?

At first glance, this topic seems trivial. And people were laughing as the debate gathered unexpected steam.

But then someone quieted the room and asked me directly:

So what's the right answer?

I offered the disappointing answer I often give:

It depends.

It depends on the answer to one question:

What business are you building?

Because maybe you're building a small ecommerce business out of the first floor of your home. And you want it to feel like family. But you're also cost-conscious and are willing to run errands off-hours to save a few dollars.

Or maybe you're building a local services business with a strong brand and multiple regional offices. And every second you think about Costco is time you could have spent recruiting more contractors or scouting new locations.

Or perhaps you're a new grad just starting your first pediatric dentistry, and you need secondary ways to reward your employees because you can't yet afford market rates.

Without clarity about what you're building, it's nearly impossible to know where to place the next brick.

But this question is hard. It's the business equivalent of:

“What do you want to be when you grow up?"

To make it easier, here are 8 questions I often ask the CEOs I coach:

1. What's the biggest problem in your industry that you're uniquely positioned to solve?

2. What would you keep if you could only keep one aspect of your business and had to delegate everything else?

3. When someone describes your business to a friend, what three words do you want them to use?

4. What would you never compromise on, even for significant profit?

5. Which customers do you most want to serve, and which are you willing to lose?

6. If you could only measure one metric for the next five years, what would tell you you're on the right track?

7. Do you want to run a business or practice your craft?

8. Are you building this for purpose, profit, or pride?

There is no right answer. Only yours.

And even if you are a manager with one direct report inside a large company, that's your business to run.

So, spend a few minutes defining the business you're building. Write it down. Test your definition with some of these questions.

And revisit it often. It may change. It probably will change. What we believe we want and what we are willing to sacrifice for are often very different things.

But there's only one way to find out.

Lead on,
Dave & Mar

PS - MGMT Fundamentals starts next week. In an hour a day over two weeks, we’ll teach you the foundational skills to not just survive but thrive in your new leadership role. Ideal for managers in their first 3 years leading a team.