Non-Negotiables

Great companies operate with a small set of business standards.

These are the lines you won’t cross – the few things that aren’t negotiable.

I say few because when you have too many, your team is bound to fail at meeting them all. It also makes it nearly impossible to find and hire people with the capacity to deliver everything you expect.

Non-negotiables show up in each key component of your business:

• Your vision – particularly in the core values you set and your purpose, cause or passion. How can you build a great company with people who do not share your values and passion? You can’t, so these have to be non-negotiable.
• Your people – every seat must be filled with someone who gets it, wants it and has the capacity to meet the expectations for the seat.
• Your scorecard – as defined in critical numbers that must be achieved to experience success.
• Your issues – every issue must be captured on the appropriate issues list and resolved.
• Your processes – as defined in essential procedural steps. What few actions must be included in every sales call, or taken to assure production quality? Essential procedures must be non-negotiable.
• Your rocks and meetings – if you want to be great, you must set S.M.A.R.T. rocks every 90 days and complete at least 80% of them. In the same way that a regular pulse is essential to your personal health, a regular Meeting Pulse™ is vital to your company’s health. Skipping meetings and failing to follow a defined agenda produces an outbreak of company ailments, so a consistent Meeting Pulse must be non-negotiable.

If you want to be great, define your non-negotiables or business standards.