Years ago, on Saturday and Sunday nights, variety shows like The Ed Sullivan Show and The Milton Berle’s Show showcased a range of talent. Singers, musicians, comedians, and many others who would provide entertainment for the viewing audience. One of the more obscure artists who would be on the show from time to time was a more circus-level act of the person who would spin china plates on top of rods, which were secured to a table before them. It was always a competition to see how many plates the plate spinner could get spinning simultaneously before they started to wobble and come crashing to the ground. These artists were part actors, performers, and comedians wrapped up in a show of talent. If you have not witnessed such a performance, search for it on the internet or click here
Having recently been re-exposed to this talent-show plate-spinning process, it became clear that this is the daily routine of too many business leaders. As each day begins, the leader starts by addressing the day’s top priority, or, in our example, spinning their first plate. Once that is underway, another priority, project, or challenge is introduced, and they begin spinning their second plate. While these two areas of work-related effort are going on, another item gets added, and thus plates 3, 4, 5 … start to spin. While each new spinning item is in progress, they return to the initial spinning plate to give it attention and sustain its rotation. They do the same thing for each and every one of the additional spinning plates. The more they take on without reducing the number of other spinning plates, the more the initial plates (challenges) spread their attention, focus, and energy across all the spinning plates. Eventually, a plate or two goes unnoticed and crashes to the ground, triggering a domino effect on the plates that follow.
Now that you have a fairly vivid picture of your daily routine, you need to ask yourself how you move from being a plate spinner to a leader who takes obstacles out of the way for your team, allowing for more bandwidth not only on your plate (pun intended) but on each person on your team’s plate. It starts with clear and concise priorities, role definitions, and contribution expectations.
Everyone has to be playing in the same game using the same rules and common playbook. The architecture of your culture, Core Purpose, Core Values, and principles must be aligned and embraced so that each person on the team has their own priorities and understands the expectations for their contribution to the whole. Rather than the business owner spinning too many plates, each team member has a manageable number of key priorities and stays focused on those few until they are complete.
As the leader, you need to be aware of the number of spinning plates each of your team members is performing, and don’t add more plates than their talents can manage. This is removing an obstacle by not creating one. Equally, your team needs to upgrade their skills to manage more priorities as the business grows.
This week, determine if you are a plate spinner and what is your decision to implement improvements with your team to distribute the priorities, allowing you to focus on removing obstacles in their way, which will produce greater contribution to growth.
Looking to stop being a plate spinner and lead your business to greater contribution growth? Engage a Promise Guide by calling JKL Associates at MI (313) 527-7945 or FL (407) 984-7246.
Journey On!
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