Here is a little insight into our world at The Latimer Group, and the world for any coaching and training firm.
Every single day of work is a job interview for future work. We are guaranteed nothing… We are not on direct deposit or retainer with our clients… We have contracts with all of our big clients, but those contracts define terms of the relationship, they don’t guarantee any amount of work… We don’t get tenure… We don’t get reviewed annually or quarterly or even monthly… We get reviewed daily. Every single day we have to justify our existence.
This reality is exciting and exhilarating and exhausting all at the same time. It keeps us sharp, which is the point of today’s post. What I love most about this reality is that it keeps me and my colleagues on our toes. We can’t get lazy, ever.
Leaders and managers always have to think about ways they will keep their own organizations sharp. How much pressure to apply? How often should things be reviewed? Is there such a thing as too much pressure? There definitely is. But there is also such a thing as not enough. And the two are equally dangerous to the future of the organization.
In our case, the pressure comes from the fact that our clients have a choice every single day whether to bring us back again for more work… Thus the concept that we are “interviewing” each day. We have to earn their trust and prove our value constantly.
The question for an organization like ours then becomes, “How do we deal with that pressure internally?” In our effort to keep our clients happy, we have to make sure that our team culture is one of performance, not constant and debilitating stress. The pressure is constant. But the ways in which we deal with that stress are a daily negotiation.
The point for you today is to consider whether there is enough pressure for performance on your organization? Or is there too much? The leader has to have a sense of when to dial up or dial down the pressure. And that decision will be driven by the current environment inside the organization, and the makeup of the people on the team. Every team is different.
Anyway… Today I am thinking about the business value of staying razor sharp. And while that is valuable, it also means that you have to give people time and opportunity to stand down and relax…. A topic for a future post.
Have a great day.
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