Six Questions to Know if you Sanction Incompetency Part-II

Continuing with yesterday's article, the next three questions are

 

4. Do you underwrite and support work that falls short of the standard?

You can excuse incompetence, but you must never sanction it. Never, and I mean never, rob from strength to pay for weakness. One of my more successful failures was a brief venture in a partnership. It was a door and window manufacturing company. My part of the deal was to be the front man. I did the marketing, met with clients, and sold products.

 

Our very first job was for several window frames and doors, all made of hardwood. I turned the order over to my business partner, whose job it was to oversee the manufacture of the products. In due time the components were delivered to the client, who then called me the next day. He was not happy. I visited the job site and discovered why. Honestly, any high-school wood-shop class could have turned out better product. I brought back one of the defective windows, set it up on the bench, and gathered the crew.

 

“This is what we are turning out,” I showed them the window.

They looked it over and, incredibly, said, “What’s wrong with it?”

I then showed them, item by item, the flaws, and there were many.

My business partner then countered, “Well, we can’t do any better.”

 

“Then, we can’t be in this business,” I replied. Soon thereafter I sold my shares because it became clear that the manufacturing would not get any better. It wasn’t long before the company was out of business.

 

Be frank, be honest, be frankly honest, be brutal in your assessments of performance. Some people are excruciatingly nice, but they may not be up to the job. The decisions to be made are strictly business. We are surrounded by incompetence because we sanction it. Margins of error can broaden into highways of incompetence if we let them. If a situation requires you to check an associate’s work, to continually monitor her performance, to track her down and demand accountability, there is a problem and it won’t go away by itself. You might be able to fix it with training, but if that fails, it’s time to make the hard business decision.

 

5. Do your employees or associates mistake forbearance for indifference?

You may be patient, tolerant of error, slow to react, willing to invest time and effort to bring someone along. However, make sure all your associates know that your forbearance does not signal indifference. If you continually ignore poor performance, missed goals, and failed attempts, if you set a standard but do not enforce it, your associates and employees will lose respect for you and exploit what they assess to be weakness. I fired the manager yesterday because I am serious about the standards required by this business, and I intend to make certain they are in place.

 

6. Do you play fair?

Demand the same principled level of performance of everyone. Never let one get away with neglecting what is required of another. This fosters the concept that a good-ol’-boy system is in place, and truthfully, if you do favor one over another, a good-ol’-boy system is indeed in place.

 

What principles and practices of building competence have you tried? How well did they work for you?