Does your rhythm of business have everyone playing the same song?

When I was in high school, I played in the marching band, participating in annual band camp, weekly practices and football games. I even performed at halftime during a Cleveland Browns game. As I reflect on the experience, I am in awe at how the band director managed to get 300 kids to stay generally in step and go to their designated spots on the field without it looking like chaos.

While the director plotted the formations and instructed us on execution during practice, it was the drum section that prevented pandemonium during performances. Specific drum rolls indicated which song was to be played, and they kept the rhythm going throughout the song. That beat or cadence had the band marching in the appropriate routes and playing the right song.

Every business has a rhythm. It may be an even cadence with daily huddles that keep the priorities front and center. It may be a syncopated rhythm with no regular reviewing process and only sporadic check-ins. The rhythm of a business provides a mechanism of keeping the team on the same page and everyone moving in the right direction.

Implementing a rhythm of business creates a cadence for holding yourself and your team accountable. It provides consistency for everyone involved to know the status of priorities and work through changes and challenges. As your business grows and more employees are involved in the daily operations, you cannot have your fingers in every detail. You need to delegate activities and initiatives to others. Your role as the owner is to hold your team members accountable for the work and projects necessary to move the business forward.

There are two valuable structures you can implement to start building a culture of accountability in your organization. Before we get grooving on the rhythm, I want to stress that these structures only create accountability if you have set clear expectations with each team member and everyone is clear on the goals and initiatives that need to be achieved. If you have not clearly defined someone’s role and what they are expected to deliver, you need to do that first. Then establish your rhythm of business to hold them to those expectations.

Team meetings

Bring everyone together regularly to review where projects and initiatives stand and work through issues that are slowing or preventing forward progress. Regular intervals could be daily, weekly or monthly depending on the specific projects or initiatives and the speed things are moving in your business. It might be a project team that convenes weekly until the project is complete and then disbands or it could be the whole company meeting monthly. Having these meetings with consistent regularity ensures they are anticipated and prepared for by attendees. A set agenda that covers the key areas of each meeting ensures richer content. When people know the meeting is happening and what is to be discussed, they can come prepared with the right information or questions.

A key to making the meeting valuable is to work through issues, not simply confirm you are “on it.” Holding your team accountable involves taking the opportunity to confirm things are on track and, if not, identifying the issue. This allows your team to work through the challenge and adjust. The team meeting is an opportunity to keep the team focused on the right activities. Everyone on the team stays on the same page with what has changed and what they need to do.

One-on-one meetings

Meet individually with your team members. The level of frequency should be based on the level of need by the team member or the urgency of their priorities. Your role in these meetings is to get updates on how things are progressing and understand the barriers or challenges they face. The meetings are an opportunity for you to provide feedback and determine what they need from you to be successful.

Your one-on-ones should be driven by your team members. They should come prepared with questions and challenges and be open to getting the help they need. If they are ill prepared or do not have the answers to your questions, work with them to identify the reason they are not delivering. This is you holding them accountable to the expectations you clearly set for them.

Maintaining the rhythm

Meetings, as a team and one on one, are what keep people accountable for getting work done well and achieving the goals of the business. Verbally addressing why something is not on track forces accountability. Team members cannot hide and hope the failures do not come to light. As the owner and leader, you are better equipped to adjust when you can have a discussion about issues that need to be resolved and ensure the team follows through on the agreements made in each meeting.

No one likes meetings for the sake of meetings. However, meetings that keep your team on track and provide a forum to work through challenges are a great use of time. Especially when you consider how much time might otherwise be spent making things right with a customer when things do not go as planned.

The saying “march to the beat of your own drummer” does not work well when you are running a business and have a team delivering to your customers. The band director leveraged the drum section to keep the band on track. You need to create a rhythm for your business to ensure your team is all playing the same song.

**Originally published on Puget Sound Business Journal, March 2021