A Slice of the Pie: How to Build a Big Little Business by Nick Sarillo

Author:Nick Sarillo [Sarillo, Nick]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9781101581544
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2012-09-12T14:00:00+00:00

A SCHOOL DISGUISED AS A COMPANY

As we’ve seen, building a high-performance culture in small businesses like mine means investing substantially in leadership training and then weaving that training seamlessly into the culture. Your company ceases to be merely a company and becomes a school disguised as a company. No one program or initiative is responsible for leadership training; rather, the whole culture is oriented toward training emerging leaders to succeed. One of our servers has likened Nick’s to a teaching hospital, noting that here food rather than peoples’ bodies becomes the occasion for and substance of the teaching. As another notes, the positive dynamic of learning and growing takes on a life of its own, becoming ever more deeply rooted in the culture and our people, even as we drive higher performance: “We take lots of time to learn, practice, coach, learn, practice, coach, and so on. Along the way, these giant lightbulbs go off for people, and they choose to do more next time, and to work more efficiently. Then they share that experience with someone else, providing that person with the same learning. We’re using ourselves and our experiences as teaching instruments; we don’t keep our learning to ourselves. Then, when there is enough self-confidence about owning their skills, people here choose to become trainers and perpetuate the learning at a much deeper level.”

As we’ve seen, a company that becomes a school in disguise is a far more cooperative place than most companies today are. As an owner, I find that can take some getting used to. I will admit that on a bad day I find myself just wanting to be the boss and tell people what to do, only to find them pushing back with yet another new creative idea. Jeez, do I have to listen to this? I think. I have things to do. The thing is, I do have to listen to it. In a learning organization, team members at all levels develop a sense of ownership. They’re putting themselves out there as leaders, pushing themselves and the company to be the best, so you have to be as excited as they are, and you have to meet or exceed the high-performance bar they’re setting. It’s no longer enough to be the guy with your name on the door and the keys to the place jangling in your pocket. You might legally still be the owner, and in my case, you might still have your name on the door, but you have to show respect to team members who feel that this place is an extension of them, too.

Structurally, a high-performance culture centered around employee growth and development is a far flatter place. I’m proud of the fact, frankly, that we don’t need nearly as many managers as most of our peers, and that they don’t spend much of their time babysitting. The more completely I can empower my teams and develop everyone as leaders, the less oversight I need and the fewer managers I have to keep on the job.

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