The past few weeks have been transitional weeks for me in that I am relocating one of my businesses from my converted garage to a storage unit a mile from my house. For the last 15 years, my home has also served as my office which by default means it served as a warehouse as well. The business has around 20,000 different line items in stock at any given time, and while they are all very small computer parts, storing that many items does take up a lot of space.
In making this transition it has been important to not only keep business going and the items ordered by customers shipping, but keep some semblance of order so that once the different boxes are moved they can be found again when a customer needs that item.
Over the weekend the kids and I headed to the storage unit and worked for a few hours putting stuff in order in preparation for this next chapter of business. Not only was it incredibly fun getting an opportunity to hang out with my kids, but having the chance to work with them brought an immense joy. Even though at 12 & 9 they may think they have it all figured out, the reality is they don’t - and answering questions that they asked as to “why” things were done the way they were was fun and even a bit challenging.
Both kids respected the fact that I was the one leading the project. The man with a plan. The move wasn’t a simple pick up and just move it ordeal, it has been carefully executed in stages. It reminds me of one of those puzzles we all had as kids, where 1 piece was missing and you had to maneuver the other pieces around to get the puzzle completed.
But here’s the thing that really stuck out to me. A plan was necessary to get the job done. During the past few weeks we’ve had multiple people come help. Those people don’t have any vested interest in seeing the job done right, they are there solely for a paycheck - and there is nothing wrong with that. What they did however was need a plan. They relied on the direction and planning that I had laid out.
And when the plan wasn’t being executed correctly or not going as originally planned, they had an opportunity to stop working and wait while the plan was revised. Had each person who helped simply moved boxes without any intentional planning, customer who placed orders for specific products would be delayed in getting their orders as we tried to find the new locations that the product was moved too.
The crew that help was directed to ask many many questions along the way. They were there to help, not to make decisions.
Life is like that a lot though. Last week we talked about “Servant Leadership” and how important a trait that is in a good leader. That same principle was at work during the move, but at the same time making sure those who came to work knew what they needed to get done and how to do it was paramount to the success of the move.
As a leader it is important to know when to assert your authority and when to yield. There is nothing wrong with asserting authority, especially when you may be the expert in the room. At the end of the day, the job still has to be done and the leader is accountable to the team to insure the job was done right just as much as the team is accountable to the leader.
Going back to the cooking analogy I titled this post with, if you added salt to the soup and the person helping you added salt to the soup odds are you will end up with a salty soup. Knowing when to yield, knowing when to communicate, knowing when to lead will always create a better environment for you and your team.
Better environments create better finished products. So whether its moving boxes to a new location or cooking soup for others to enjoy, be aware of your role and embrace it with all that you have.
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