In this Issue

🪢    Enough Rope to Lead
🤝    When the Rope Is Pulled
💼    Embrace the PIP

🪢  Enough Rope to Lead

Growing up in a family business, my parents had a stated goal: grow next generation entrepreneurs.

My parents had no intention of gifting their business to my brother and I. They weren’t interested in creating “caretakers,” they wanted us to have the talent and expertise to lead and create beyond their vision.

In our succession process, I was given opportunities and projects to take on more responsibility and autonomy.

My dad would say, “You’ve got enough rope to hang yourself, but not enough to hurt the business.”

It was intimidating, especially when I felt like I was in unknown territory, but I also had the security of my parents as mentors and advocates working to level me up.

Giving rope to lead is win-win. For myself, I acquired experiences and expertise I could not have gained anywhere else. For my parents, they were developing the next generation of leadership that could carry the mantle after them.

With the high performers on your team, you have a similar opportunity. Create challenges, projects, and tasks that enable them to grow and change. This is good for them, good for you, and good for the business. Give them the rope to lead.

One Stat to Watch

62%

of CEOs say they will need to rewrite their business playbook to win in the future, rather than play to existing strengths, according to the IBM Institute for Business Value, 2024 CEO Study.

🤝  When the Rope Is Pulled

The metaphor of rope in leadership is powerful because it goes both ways.

One of our clients is a large family business. It is well understood by their managers that autonomy is earned.

The team will say things like, “As you prove yourself, you get more rope.” This can be seen in bigger budgets, more procurement power, and autonomy on hire-fire decisions.

When you get more rope, it feels amazing. You are empowered and your credibility grows. It accelerates things.

But the rope can also be pulled. This is not spoken about as freely, but when managers are not meeting expectations the rope tightens.

They find they have to jump through more hoops to gain approval, decisions are scrutinized more thoroughly, and projects are “serialized.” Meaning, you can’t start something new until you finish what’s on your plate.

If you are feeling restrictions in your role, consider if the rope is being pulled.

This goes beyond employees and managers. Even CEOs and business owners can feel the rope constrict.

A leader who has lost the trust of their team will experience less autonomy and ability to move projects forward. A company that has lost the trust of its customers will experience more project management, contract scrutiny, and questioning of services.

More rope is earned, but it can be easily pulled.

💼  Embrace the PIP

Managers fear or misunderstand putting employees and managers on a PIP, or Performance Improvement Plan.

Some organizations use the PIP as a way to force someone out, but I disagree with that. If you want to get rid of someone, then don’t drag it out and make it painful for everyone. Be an effective leader and make the necessary, hard decision.

A Performance Improvement Plan can be extremely powerful and effective if you approach it with the objective of making the individual successful.

If the success potential is less than 30%, or even less than 50%, you have to question both the individual and the role:

• Does the person have the skills, experience, and capabilities to be successful in the position? If not, offer a new position in the organization or gracefully exit them.
• Is the position designed and supported for an individual to be successful in it? If the performance issue is due to role deficiencies, the PIP won’t work. Fix the position and the systems in your business so your people are successful. 

If the individual has potential and you want to recover them, build an effective Performance Improvement Plan. Choose one to five defined areas of improvement.

For each area document the following:

• Performance Expectation or Area of Improvement
• Objective or Desired Outcome
• Measure of Success
• Expected Start Date
• Scheduled Date of Review

PIPs are about change management and accountability. Set a standard of performance, and work with your employees and managers to meet and exceed it.

🤔  Thoughts on Today’s Issue?

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