Creating systems in your business is crucial to cultivating a positive, collaborative workplace culture.
First, it allows you, as the leader, to step back and work ON your business, rather than IN your business. You’ve outlined exactly how you want things done and given your team a roadmap for success.
With systems in place, you can focus on bigger picture things rather than being bogged down in day to day operations. When you are able to be the true visionary of your company, you can lead your team forward to places of growth and excellence that would otherwise not be possible.
More importantly, consistently following your systems creates a sense of security and stability in your workplace culture. When your working conditions are chaotic and unpredictable, your staff will tend to become reactionary, suspicious, and cautious.
When you create systems in your business and are consistent in holding your team accountable to follow them, your business will run more smoothly. This stable environment will allow other leaders to emerge on your team. They will be able to shine and stand out because they will move from a place of just surviving the workday, to thriving in their environment.
When these natural leaders in your team are revealed, you can begin encouraging them and developing them to move up in your company.
These people will become your support system, your leadership team – whether officially or unofficially. You will lean on each other, bounce new ideas off of each other, consult each other on decisions, work together to make changes, and lift each other up when one of you is down. You need a team like this around you – a team that shares in the responsibility of moving your company forward.
This is not some lofty, touchy-feely idea. It is demonstrated in nature over and over again.
Take Canadian geese for example. I am sure you have seen them flying northward in a “V” formation every year. Why do they do this? They’ve created a system that allows the whole group to be more efficient and go farther than they could alone.
Two engineers did some experiments and figured out why geese have created this system of flying in formation.
Each goose, flapping its wings, creates an uplift for the goose that follows. The whole flock gains 71% greater flying range working together than if they journeyed alone.
It can be tiring to always be the lead goose, though – the one facing the most wind resistance, the one that has to set the course for the whole flock. That’s why the leader of the “V” formation falls back periodically to let another leader take the point, and why the rest stay in line. These actions support the mission of the geese.
Even in a flock of geese, leadership is a shared responsibility.
know that they need to work together.
They are striving to go farther than normal, and they need to collectively follow their system for flying in order to reach their destination.
We could learn a lot from the leadership, teamwork, and systems of geese!
It is essential to have a team of leaders surrounding you to help drive the company toward your vision, each of you taking point from time to time.
When your leadership team is flying in harmony, the rest of the flock will support you.
It is also essential that the whole flock is on board with following the systems in place for success.
Could you imagine what it would be like if each of the geese thought they had a better way of getting to their destination? Complete chaos, isolation, and a lot of failure.
Creating systems in business is crucial for success.
