There is a sell-by date . . . but worry more about the expiry date
Every business, every contract and every person has a shelf life or sell-by date – some have extended dates and other reach theirs’ soon. Nothing is forever, neither is the existence of a business (they all change shape), contracts are lost due to running for “too long”, we lose our touch and don’t perform as on day one of appointment. Beware – you are going to reach your “sell-by” date! When you joined your company or when the contract was awarded to you, there was an unspoken sell-by date – it wasn’t declared or announced, as you would to a large extent “display” that date yourself. As an individual, you would be the person exposing that date.
In most cases a sell-by date can be extended, it is not likefresh meat. In the platteland (rural areas) the shop owners make sure that the cans or bottles on their shelves are dusted off regularly to ensure that they still look attractive for the potential customer. The same applies to us – from time to time we also need a bit of a dusting off. Normally our “duster” is in the form of a serious reprimand, a service review, internal transfer, a personal review or even a training session.
Many times we are proud to refer to our 10 or 20 years’ experience gained in a company or in an industry but how many times has stagnation resulted in the repeat of 1 years’ experience 10 or 20 times? Reaching a “sell-by” date and the ability to extend it before it becomes an “expiry date” is a leadership skill many managers lack.
Remember, as a leader we have the responsibility to lengthen the sell-by date of subordinates – they need your help unless you want the date to expire and that is too late. I used to have a manager working for me and when asked why he often takes long weekends he indicated that if he is at his ultimate low then neither me nor the company has the ability to get him out of the low – that expiry date.
It so often also happens that managers have gained experience in one field and in one operational aspect, repeating that year on year and fail to acknowledge that there are others that have had opportunities to grow in a wider variety of fields and thereby being more knowledgeable or having new (fresh) ideas. For example in the security industry, outsourced companies managing various contracts gain valuable experience at the various operations which would be to the benefit of their clients. Sometimes pride and resistance to change results in businesses not sharing in that valuable experience from their outsourced suppliers – exactly one of the reasons why companies should outsource. It is obvious that if a company provides security services to twenty different mines, that somewhere they will find best practices that work – compared to the person being deployed at one operation for many years.
Have you reached your sell by date and see the expiry date on the horizon?
In most cases a sell-by date can be extended, it is not likefresh meat. In the platteland (rural areas) the shop owners make sure that the cans or bottles on their shelves are dusted off regularly to ensure that they still look attractive for the potential customer. The same applies to us – from time to time we also need a bit of a dusting off. Normally our “duster” is in the form of a serious reprimand, a service review, internal transfer, a personal review or even a training session.
Many times we are proud to refer to our 10 or 20 years’ experience gained in a company or in an industry but how many times has stagnation resulted in the repeat of 1 years’ experience 10 or 20 times? Reaching a “sell-by” date and the ability to extend it before it becomes an “expiry date” is a leadership skill many managers lack.
Remember, as a leader we have the responsibility to lengthen the sell-by date of subordinates – they need your help unless you want the date to expire and that is too late. I used to have a manager working for me and when asked why he often takes long weekends he indicated that if he is at his ultimate low then neither me nor the company has the ability to get him out of the low – that expiry date.
It so often also happens that managers have gained experience in one field and in one operational aspect, repeating that year on year and fail to acknowledge that there are others that have had opportunities to grow in a wider variety of fields and thereby being more knowledgeable or having new (fresh) ideas. For example in the security industry, outsourced companies managing various contracts gain valuable experience at the various operations which would be to the benefit of their clients. Sometimes pride and resistance to change results in businesses not sharing in that valuable experience from their outsourced suppliers – exactly one of the reasons why companies should outsource. It is obvious that if a company provides security services to twenty different mines, that somewhere they will find best practices that work – compared to the person being deployed at one operation for many years.
Have you reached your sell by date and see the expiry date on the horizon?
