1: “When a professional tosses a bowling ball down a lane, it knocks over nine or ten pins,” Dan Martell writes in his book Buy Back Your Time: Get Unstuck, Reclaim Your Freedom, and Build Your Empire.
What happens when Dan’s eight-year-old son goes bowling?
More often than not, the ball goes right into the gutter.
Unless… Dan puts up bumpers.
“With the bumpers, he’s almost as good as the pros,” Dan notes.
This week, we’ve been examining Dan’s straightforward strategies to enhance our team’s success. So far, we explored:
- “Definition of Done,” where, as leaders, we share the specifics of what “done” looks like every time we give a team member an assignment
- “The 1-3-1 Rule,” where prior to asking us for help, we require team members to define the ONE problem that needs to be solved, offer THREE viable solutions, and make ONE suggestion from that list of possible solutions.
2: Next up? The $50 Magic Pill.
Here’s how it works: One of Dan’s clients gives his administrative assistant the authority to spend up to $50 to resolve a problem without obtaining his permission.
At Dan’s companies, team members can spend up to $500 to resolve issues without obtaining consent, and his CEOs can spend up to $5,000.
The only requirement? They must inform their leaders about the expense at their next weekly one-on-one meeting.
3: “The amount isn’t important,” Dan writes, “it’s the principle.”
Here’s Dan’s reasoning: “Why get bogged down fixing a small problem when someone else on our team could fix it just as well without our involvement?
“Whether it’s $50 or $5,000,” he explains, “give everyone on our teams an allowance that enables them to efficiently fix problems without ever having to get us involved.”
More tomorrow!
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Reflection:What “bumpers” have I put in place so my team can act independently and solve problems without me?
Action: Give everyone on my team an amount of money they can spend to fix problems without my involvement.
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