“We’re only as strong as the weakest link.” You’ve heard this saying before. You may have even heard me say it before, but it’s so true! Do you want to strengthen your home services business and scale it up? Identify your weakest link—not so you can cut it out, but so you can work on fixing it.
This is one of the most powerful concepts that I brought into my business to get everybody aligned. You simply cannot afford to have under-performing employees. They bring down your whole team… because we’re only as strong as the weakest link. After acting on this concept in my business, the result was everyone performing at a higher level.
What do you do once you identify your weakest link?
Employees are not expendable to me. I don’t say “You are the weakest link! Get the hell out of here!” We don’t do that. I say “Look, you’ve got to understand what you’re weak at. We’re willing to help you with the skill sets and the mindset and the action set. We’re willing to train, coach and manage you. We want to make sure we have clarity, alignment and accountability. We’ll do that, because we don’t want you to be a weak link.” You know in almost every case we’re able to turn it around for that employee. As long as they’re not a moocher and they’re willing to work hard, if we have to we’ll even move them to a different position that better matches their strengths.
What if you’re the boss and you’re the weakest link?
It takes a big person to admit that even though it’s their company and they are the leader, they are the weakest link. But it happens. After all, not many of us went to business school or took leadership training along the way. Most of us learned a trade and worked hard. And a few of us went into business for ourselves.
At a CEO Warrior event last year, Frank admitted, “After 50+ years of being in business, I had never invested in my training as a leader or business owner.” He always blamed his employees for the miserable shape his company was in. At the event, he had to identify and face his limiting beliefs. With the help of the CEO Warrior Team, Frank says, “I have crushed my limiting belief that you cannot find good people that want to work.” He came to see how toxic that belief was to developing the team and the company culture. Since then, Frank has confidently hired four new employees and brought them onboard in a way that is improving the culture. He’s actually excited about finding and hiring the best workers for the company. I tell you his story because it’s proof positive that a weak leader can get stronger… And when that leader rises up, they will lift everyone in their company with them!
Summary
Whether it’s you or an employee, work on strengthening your weakest link and you will strengthen your entire home services business.
