Kicking the company can down the road

Winning new business it not always the royal road to growth.

In fact, sometimes it’s the last thing a company needs right now. Particularly if the team already has too much on their plates.

Trying to accommodate new clients that they can’t even service isn’t good for anybody.

The trouble is, we’re all human and sometimes we get greedy. Prospective clients flatter us by saying that they’ve heard great things and they will gladly pay us a premium to do what we do best.

Who could resist?

At a certain point, though, organizations have to embrace the power of no on an operational scale. Before granting a fast yes to every potential opportunity, they ask a few filtering questions.

1. If we landed this new piece of business, would there even be a home for it here?

2. Would the additional revenue from such an opportunity even be worth the stress of adding it to our portfolio?

3. Realistically, with the resources that we currently have, how many new projects can we even afford to take on?

Look closely at the key word in each of those questions.

Even.

It’s a word people use to emphasize something surprising or extreme. And when any company is in growth mode, it’s very hard to take a step back and reflect in that way. Leaders get dollar signs in their eyes.

It’s far easier to say yes today, and figure out how to get additional bandwidth tomorrow.

But that might just be kicking the company can down the road.

Maybe it’s smarter to get more efficient at your current size than jump to the next level.

Maybe instead of being blinded by yearning for more, your company can bow before the altar of enough.

Naturally, capitalism doesn’t incentivize that behavior. Ever since the industrial revolution, we’ve been trained to believe that bigger is always better, and that more is always moral.

But if the whole team has burned itself out saying late every night for the past three weeks, eventually, the growth will backfire.

My suggestion is, get ahead of the problem by setting some operational boundaries.

That way your team isn’t forced to compromise their personal boundaries to compensate.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
What if you could seek enough instead of more?