With the fairly consistent and high small business failure rate, maybe it is time to begin embracing what the authors of Fail-Safe Leadership discussed in their book. Their premise was not only simplistic, but ahead of its time as more and more noted business experts and organizational consultants are returning to the leadership as being the lynchpin for sustainable small business growth.
Yes having a great niche idea for your small business is essential. Knowing your business has enough cash flow to survive six to 12 months is also critical. However without fail-safe leadership, sustainable business growth will continue to allude you.
Fail-Safe Leadership Temperature Check
In the beginning of the book, the authors do a quick temperature check and ask if your organization is facing some these issues among others:
- Lack of personal accountability?
- Unacceptable results?
- Can’t do attitudes?
This checklist is a great way to start constructing a positive and high performance culture from day one. Each issue can be re-framed into a proactive question such as:
- How do I develop personal accountability at all levels of my small business?
- How do I ensure acceptable results for all employees including myself?
- How do I encourage can do attitudes within my small business?
Note: If your small business is well established and yet you are facing these issues, then you may wish to consider a more detailed organizational assessment such as D.I.AL.O.G. This proven assessment is nearly 20 years old and is based on Baldrige criteria.
Misalignment Is a Real Barrier
Another key point in this great, truly ahead of its time book is the concept of alignment. Fail-safe leadership is all about creating alignment and avoiding misalignment. The authors tell a simple story about how a CEO wants to increase sales and then how his C-Suite executives all take different actions to achieved the goal. This is a classic case of organizational misalignment through poor leadership communication.
The 5 Star Model Works with Fail-Safe Leadership
By aligning people, systems and strategy from the very beginning works to avoid later organizational misalignment between strategy, structure, processes/systems, rewards and people. Jay Galbraith and his team developed the 5 Star Model for Organizational Development and this model works very well with Fail-Safe Leadership as the executive leadership is responsible for not only strategy, people and systems, but also rewards and structure.
Having a Fail-Safe Leadership is fairly simple. The barrier becomes beginning with the right elements in place and that starts with leadership. So grab a copy of Fail-Safe Leadership and work through each chapter. And to start that process, please download this Leadership-Audit that will support you to better understand you are not a bad leader but your small business may have leadership challenges.
