5 questions I use to manage my team
This is a great framework to have tough conversations
I am an entrepreneur. Success to me is creating something that I'm deeply proud of. To do that I make “daily-progress”. I don't have a destination. I am in it for the climb. I want to know what I am capable of. This is where I share my lessons from the week.
5 questions I use if my team does not do what I asked them to do
The next 10 years for India could be the best of this century
Are you doing what matters or are you pretending to work?
You can access previous editions of my weekly emails here. Let’s begin!
(1) 5 questions I use if my team does not do what I asked them to do
If you hand over tasks and they get worse, the fault is yours. It means you did not delegate them well or you did not hire well.
These questions also make tough conversations easier because it drills down on the root cause.
Here are the 5 questions. You ask them in this order:
(1) What? - "Did you know this is what I wanted you to do?"
"No" - "Great, now you know"
"Yes" (move to the next question)
(2) How? - "Did you not know how to do it?"
"No, I didn't know how to do it." (this you solve by training. Use checklists.)
"Yes, I do know how to do it." (move to the next question)
(3) When? - "Did you not know I wanted it by this time?"
"No, I didn't know you wanted it by this deadline." (assign deadlines to hold them responsible)
"Yes, I knew you wanted it by this time." (move to the next question)
(4) Motivations? - "Are they not incentivized to do it?" (ask yourself this)
If motivation is the issue then it's about stimuli. People do stuff they like and avoid stuff they hate. The best performers do things because they like doing them. The work itself is more reinforcing than any boss could be. They even do it in their free time because it does not feel like work.
Look for feedback loops. For example, editing and sales have immediate feedback loops. Your inputs produce fast outputs. But when projects are longer you need to include more feedback loops to encourage the stimuli you want.
You are motivated by what you are deprived of. If someone is very deprived of praise, giving praise motivates them. If someone gets praise all the time, praise might not motivate them. Figure out their motivating stimuli from the past so that you can motivate them. This requires getting to know your employees.
Money is a universal motivator. We have been taught that it gives us whatever we want. But it is not the only stimuli. People who have a lot of money may be driven by independence, fame or a need for purpose.
(5) Blocker? - "If motivation is not an issue then is there a blocker?" (ask yourself this)
A chef can't cook if there are no eggs! Slow internet might not allow the editing team to upload videos. So unblock the issue by buying the eggs or getting a fast internet connection.
Alex Hormozi calls this the management diamond. He manages 500+ people using this method.
(2) The next 10 years for India could be the best of this century
My buddy from school sent me a message asking me about my views on the US and Global markets. I told him that I did not hold a view. I pointed him to have a look at Marcellus because I default to them to make these decisions for me.
"I strongly feel that the next 10 years for India could be the best years in terms of growth in this entire century. India is going to go through a multiplier effect... this effect is going to be felt by all of us. Well managed businesses which are out performers will compound their businesses at 18-20% per annum over the decade, which means 6-7x returns."
I liked how Arindam later explained the difference between a country's economic growth (GDP) and a company's growth (Stock Market Returns). He said that no one has grown more as a country than China over the past 30 years but during this period investors in China’s stock market have not made much money. Over this time, India's GDP has grown 13x and US's GDP has grown only 4x. But the US stock market has given back a lot more money to equity investors than India or China.
Do not get confused between a “country’s growth” and a “company’s growth”. A country could have done very poorly in terms of GDP growth but a company may have made a ton of money for you during this period. Likewise a country may have had stellar growth but that may not be reflected in the stocks you own. A business does get impacted by the macro-economic environment but great investors look at the micro-economics of the business to make decisions.
Long story short - what matters for an investor is how well a company is governed, its earnings per share, and its return on equity vs its cost of equity. The GDP of a country may rise and fall, but if you hold great companies for the long run then you will make money irrespective of the high and low cycle that each economy goes through.
(3) Are you doing what matters or are you pretending to work?
If I had to make something more valuable in 1/10th of the time, what should I do?
If I break everything down to its essence then there are only 2 things which really matters to make more money:
(1) Getting more customers.
(2) Making them buy more.
How do I (1) Get more customers?
- By getting more traffic
- By converting a higher percentage
How do I (2) Make them buy more?
- By increasing my prices
- By making them buy more times
When you are building a business, this is what really moves the needle. Everything else is a waste of time. It is you pretending to work.
Harsh Batra (LinkedIn)
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