Why you should delete the phrase ‘we’re a family’ in business

You often hear the term “we’re a family!” thrown around in the small business world. 

 It’s an endearing phrase that sums up the idea of a lovely and supportive company culture.

 I used the same phrase when I was starting out.

 But after a while, I found myself at a point of conflict.

 Supporting people above all else began to result in accepting mediocre results for the good of the person at the expense of the customer, our team and the business.

 It caused all sorts of issues...

 So I decided to scratch the term and look for a better model.

 You see, families are built on acceptance, emotion and enduring relationships.

 When you apply that to business, the result can sometimes lead to conflict biases, irrational decision making and complacency.

 At the time I was having trouble with this, I stumbled across a book about the Netflix story - No Rules Rules by Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer.

 It talked about the idea of building high-performance teams instead.

 This concept appealed to me so much more because high-performance teams are united by a common purpose or goal, which helps to foster a sense of collective responsibility, accountability, and alignment.

 I’ve since read a bunch more books on the topic and we’ve implemented many strategies.

 This shift has been a key component behind the success of my business because it helps to increase productivity, boost employee engagement, and ultimately drive business growth.

 It took us years to figure out what worked best…

 And today I want to share it with you in just two minutes.

 Let's dive in.

1. Set The Direction

It still blows my mind how many business leaders have no clue what direction they’re hustling in.

Let alone have documented a compelling vision that other people can get behind.

Commit your vision, mission and values to paper.

Then share it with your team over and over again.

2. Agree On Behaviours

Families accept a mixed bag of behaviours.

But successful businesses can’t operate like that.

So write down what you stand for and what behaviours you absolutely won't accept. 

Then reframe it into a positive.

Share them with your team.

And begin to praise people in line with them.

3. Connect The Dots

Once you’ve set the direction it’s your job to connect the dots between your big goals and the daily actions your team must take to get you there. 

This leadership practice helps your team to see exactly how their contribution will impact the company (or the world). 

And the most effective way I’ve found to do this is by using yearly/quarterly themes.

I first learned about quarterly themes in a book called Scaling Up by Verne Harnish. 

It’s an excellent read if you’re looking to grow a big business and need help with systems to get there.

The idea of themes resonated because in the past we’d often faced a crisis as a company.

And during those times we’d pull together and take massive action towards overcoming an imminent challenge. 

It was things like our start-up phase, competitors moving in, a pandemic, and moving our bakery across town with no downtime.

During those moments, the team had a clear and measurable thing to focus on. 

The energy was electrifying and we naturally moved in the right direction and crushed our goals.

Quarterly themes do the same job without the crisis (unless you create one).

Here’s an example of one we used that was super effective. 

Two years ago we were losing money after becoming inefficient during the pandemic.

So we created a quarterly theme to gamify the process of finding spare minutes in our organisation. 

We called it ONE HOT MINUTE

Every individual on the team was asked to contribute ideas that would save someone at least 1 minute per day. 

Of course, no one stopped at just 1 minute…

As a company, we found thousands of minutes through workspace redesigns, changes to processes and dropping things that weren’t effective.

I won’t go into detail because I’ve written about it previously.

My point is, that using yearly themes has transformed our culture of accountability. 

The entire team is aligned and solving a common goal in their own unique way with specific metrics.

And it’s a big step in the right direction for building a high-performance team.

I hope this helps you transform your culture and align your team towards building something incredible.