Are you letting your Sergeants do their jobs?

Remember when you were a kid and you played war? You likely wanted to be the rough and tough Sergeant, despite the fact that he still had to take orders from Lieutenants, Captains and other officers. Any idea why? It s pretty simple really. It s because it was the Sergeant who got things done.
Like the military, every organization has some form of chain of command or rank structure, and each member of that organization has a particular role to fill. Chances are that you are like the Captain, in charge of the big picture issues within your company. You may have one or more managers helping you oversee things, and they are most like the Lieutenants. Now we come to the people that have the potential to do the most to help or hurt your company your managers who are actually in the trenches with the majority of your employees, and of course, these people are most like the Sergeants.
Why is this particular group of people so important? Because like the Sergeants in the military, started off at the absolute bottom of the food chain in the real world, learning by doing, and as a result, they have a special insight that no MBA program could ever provide. They understand what your consumers need and want, they ve been through the frustrations and joys that your employees experience, and if you re doing your job properly, they know what you want to accomplish. If you empower this group of people, they will be able to bring everyone together to accomplish your goals more quickly and more effectively than you could imagine.
So how do we empower them to do their job as effectively as possible? Give them the ability to make decisions and make it clear to your staff that these decisions are to be considered just as valid as if they came directly from you. When I was in the Marine Corps, there was a critical part of very mission plan called "Commanders Intent" which basically described the end result of the mission. Instead of telling them what to do, tell them what you want accomplished. If you want to increase your penetration in a particular market, give them a goal to generate a particular dollar amount in that market rather than telling them how to do it. When you give people the ability to take responsibility for the results of a task, they will usually work a lot harder to ensure its success.
Keep in mind though there are going to be mistakes. Expect this and plan around it to minimize the potential impact. Make sure they know that while they don t have a free pass to ignore common sense or be reckless, mistakes are to be viewed as a learning tool. Present a powerful and professional image with full color business cards, full color postcards, and other full color printing from Wildfire Marketing Group.



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