Look beneath the surface

I was perusing Facebook the other day, and I saw a photo of the underside of a water lily. The intricacy of the structure was nothing short of amazing, and frankly, was prettier (to me) than the side we always see floating on top of the water.

How often do we only notice the surface of things and neglect to look on the other side?

It’s easy to fall into that quandary, especially when it comes to running a business. You may be skimming the surface across all divisions and departments, just making sure everything is operational and nothing seems awry. But when you don’t peer beneath the surface, you’re missing clues and signals of things to come. It could be a small problem that will eventually snowball into a larger (and more expensive) one. Perhaps it’s a plant health issue that, for now, is being solved on the surface, but the rotation schedule isn’t being followed. Maybe a vital piece of equipment seems to be in working order, but the preventive maintenance duties haven’t been performed this year.

It doesn’t have to be related to something so dire. What if you have an employee that’s doing their job well, but if you dug a little deeper, you’d see their potential as team lead or in a completely different role? A deeper conversation with a customer could lead to you solving a major problem for them and garnering more sales and greater satisfaction. Maybe it’s a process you’ve performed the same way for years that could be tweaked to gain much-needed efficiencies.

I’m not condoning or suggesting you turn into a micromanager. That creates a whole other set of issues. One way to see the flip side of things is to foster an environment of honest and frequent communication. Put a leadership team in place that digs deeper into the big deals and the minutiae. And make sure they’re not afraid to tell you the truth. If a team is only telling you what they think you want to hear, you will only be able to react when things happen, not proactively try to keep problems at bay.

Normalize admitting mistakes and helping people learn from them.

Skimming the surface and seeing the status quo only helps you sleep better for a short time. Make sure you’re asking effective questions, listening to your team and flipping over that proverbial water lily to see how creative and sophisticated it is.