How Strong is Your FIT?
This article originally appeared in Amalgamate: A Mix of Ideas for Your Business, Winter 2015
F.I.T. is my shorthand for your company’s ability to Focus; its ability to cater to Individuals; and its ability to leverage technology and training Tools to grow.
Take 2 minutes and score yourself on this assessment:
|
0 points |
1 point |
2 points |
Score |
|
|
Size of Leadership Team |
No formal team |
Four or more members |
Two to four members |
________ |
|
Specific goals and outcomes in place |
None in place |
Goals are in place |
Our team knows goals and measured on progress |
________ |
|
Management trained in character strengths |
None |
We test for strengths |
We’ve invested practices and management based on strengths |
________ |
|
Customer- Product Market Fit |
Not formalized |
We generate sales so there must be a fit |
From customer interviews we know product/market fit |
________ |
|
CRM, Analytics & Automation tools in place |
None in place |
We have CRM or Analytics |
We have CRM, Analytics, metrics, and automation to leverage individuals |
________ |
|
Score |
________ |
Here’s an example of how I use it.
A firm calls with this problem, “Our proposal acceptance rate has dropped, can you help with that?” Before I start, I run through the assessment. How many people are on your strategic leadership team, “All eight partners.” That’s a 1. I ask if all junior engineers can describe the firms goals and how they’re measured. Silence, that’s a 0. Do they use a character strengths assessment? No, 0 points. I ask them to describe why a customer chooses them, and I don’t hear customer quotes, so I’ll give them 1 point. Then I ask how they track early stage opportunities. If I don’t hear “CRM”, they get 0 points.
That adds up to 2 points total, and it tells me that their business development isn’t set up to take advantage of their team’s natural strengths. My guess, at this point, is the proposal is coming in too late in the decision making process and that explains the drop. They’ll revert back to the mean and win the next series of proposals, but if they want to do better than that, they should work on F.I.T.
That’s it. It’s a simple and quick way to:
• diagnose a shortfall in results (solve a problem)
• improving daily decisions (framing tool)
• align the team with goals (strategy in daily activity)
Here’s what the scoring means:
0-3 = Imprecise FIT. Your team is wearing a pair of shoes that are too small and not made for the outcomes you’re after. Learn about FIT and introduce changes.
4-6 = Moderate FIT. Your team has the tools it needs. Focus on pulling everything together. The runway is lit, bring the plane in for a landing.
7-10 = Correct FIT. Sharpen the saw by revisiting areas where you excel and improving areas where there is a gap. FIT will drift if left unattended. Keep the skills up.
Good stuff.