Less Is Not More | 120 Seconds to Better Leadership

*Video Transcription*

This is straight from my case files right now.

I just want to talk super briefly today. I'm seeing a lot about how you can't expect more out of an under-resourced business.

What do I mean by that? It can be a couple of things. I see this quite a bit in private equity where they come in and they demand better margins but invest less.

Some of them do this. Some of them don't do it this way, but some of them do. They drain the organization of resources. They push down on costs and demand more margin from their folks.

That can work for a short period of time. It cannot work for a long period of time.

I see the same thing when someone takes a new role, which we do quite a lot of, and they may have inherited a function or a business that has been under-resourced for several years, five years, ten years, twenty years, sometimes.

The purchasing organization expects more of the same thing—more margin, more profit. Again, it can only last for so long.

By under-resourced, I tend to mean that either the organization has not been given the infrastructure that they need to be successful. So, supply chain, IT, I hear about all the time, in this talent economy, just people. There aren't enough people, and that's hurting organizations. There's only so much you can do about that.

I'm seeing a lot of creativity. I don't see anyone that's having an easy time of this, though.

The under-resourced can also be that there was maybe a toxic leader in the past who was difficult or hard on people or toxic or abusive, and I see that plenty too.

So, if your resources and infrastructure aren't in place to enable growth and increase margins. If your people are beaten down by low morale, that takes some time to fix. Sometimes you can, sometimes you can't, but either takes time at this point.

Organizations just need to be…I'm not a patient person, frankly. I certainly don't coach people to have all the patience in the world. But you have to be realistic that if things are in a bad place, you can't expect more until someone has the time and opportunity to come in and make their own things right.

Provide the right resources, and provide the right environment for decent morale. Until you get those things in place, you can't really expect more out of people. I think the expression is "you can't get blood out of a turnip."

Organizations need to be more realistic about what humans are and are not capable of.

Given the resources and the state of mind that they're in and understanding that if things are in bad shape, you need time to clean that up before you can push people to move faster and further, which they can do, but not overnight.