I spoke to my friend, Ben*, on Wednesday. He’s the business owner who had an employee suggest a new way of doing business. He was wrestling with figuring out how to make his employees suggestion happen. He took the simple road. He gave back to his employee, Tanya*.
Ben gave Tanya the open space to pursue Internet and phone sales. This is drastically different from their current sale model. Tanya delivered 75+% of the sales as the high-touch sales reps in her first week. Not bad for the first time out of the gate. This opens up huge possibilities for Ben. If Internet/phone sales delivers consistently, his business can scale much more quickly. That’s a big win.
Ben took the risk of asking Tanya to run with the idea she brought to him. She brought an idea. He “gave back” the idea AND permission to succeed or fail. That second part is critical!
Tanya figured out how to make it work on her own; Ben focused on running his business. He didn’t shift priorities to come up with answers. He asked instead. He asked Tanya to take the responsibility to find out what the answers were.
Tanya took initiative. With initiative comes responsibility. With responsibility comes growth. With growth comes opportunity.
Create opportunities for the people in your business. Ask people to be responsible instead of telling them what to do. They might surprise you.
Who can you ask to surprise you today?
* Names changed
