In the day–to-day grind it can be hard to know what’s needed to make the biggest difference.  It’s easy to get caught up in the details or the personality clashes that surface in work environments.  As a leader, you’re charged with having the insight and vision to make changes that strengthen the organization, yet sometimes even the most obvious actions feel daunting.  I’ve found it can be helpful for leaders to take a step back and unpack current challenges to identify what’s truly needed for a significant shift to occur.  Is it a tweak in a key area, or is it time to transform the organization?  A brief guideline:

When to Tweak:

People – You can identify 1-3 people where their removal from the organization would make a significant improvement on morale, productivity, and engagement.  More often than not, I see the resistance of removing poor performers or those who don’t possess the skillsets needed.  Sometimes it’s plain attitude that is dragging down a leadership team or division.  Being bold on people decisions is a tweak with huge upside potential.

Size – Sometimes in order to grow faster, a company needs to retract to focus and align to their greatest potential.  While this can be a significant undertaking for an organization, I classify it as a tweak because the foundation is in something the organization is already doing, presumably well with the predictor that resources focused in that one area would yield the greatest return and opportunity for growth.

Marketplace – There are always external factors that impact business.  I’ve seen clear vision and strategy being executed when all of a sudden a competitor gains significant ground or enters the market.  Leaders who stay the course and work their plan proactively, make adjustments to capitalize on the situation.  They don’t become reactive, they tweak, and continue to carry their vision forward.

When to Transform:

People – In interviewing CEOs about effectiveness, all pointed to people as both the greatest asset and the biggest mistake they’ve made.  Broad range of topics on both sides but essentially, if leaders don’t have the right environment to foster growth and development, they will perpetually have people problems.  It takes a transformation of culture to create an engaged workforce and leadership bench.

Size – Rapid growth enables, and sometimes forces, leaders to scale into a completely different organization.  When it’s no longer possible to operate as a small, nimble business, internal transformation is needed to create infrastructure, systems, process, and a layer of leadership able to continue to expand growth.

Marketplace – There are external factors…and then there’s industry disruption.  When external factors force an entire industry to rethink how it operates, serves a market, regulates…organizations and industries are ripe for transformation.  Leaders who are aware they can’t continue to do business the same way and see opportunity in the disruption become the industry leaders, extending their vision beyond their own organization.

Whether in need of a tweak or to transform, The Bailey Group partners with leadership challenged by uncertainty and guides them to clarity and focus to go further, faster.