Building A Better Mousetrap

One lesson I learned at a job during a break in my entrepreneurial journey was to study financial systems of a business.

Translation: understanding the way a company makes money.

Every profitable business follows a financial system.

When you figure out how a company makes money, you can use that as a working model.

Building a better mousetrap is evaluating that system and one-upping it.

Now you may be asking, “what does this have to do with being a leader?”

Everything. Because leaders think big picture, study systems and figure out how the parts work together within an organization.

Even if financial systems don’t interest you, the point here is to care about the “whole” (beyond just your role).

The consequence of thinking small or just focusing on the scope of your role is: complacency.

It’s human nature to seek comfort and at times we need rest to recharge, but I challenge you to push yourself outside of your limits towards growth.

If we go back to the financial systems example, it’s about seeing the big picture and understanding your role in the scheme of things.

As a CliftonStrengths enthusiast, I am obsessed with efficiency (maximizer is in my Top 5).

Sales and marketing isn’t a strength of mine, but administratively I love to observe organizational process and structure in order to improve it.

That’s how I build a better mousetrap.

Here’s the application as a manager of a team:

• Do you truly understand the individual strengths and weaknesses of your teammates?

• Is each person placed in the correct role to optimally utilize their talents?

• Are you delegating tasks based on what you don’t want to do or is it to develop others?

The overall message here is: always strive to be better.

That may sound exhausting, but it’s our responsibility to be driven, not expect others to motivate/challenge us.

• In speaking, it’s about challenging the audience to re-think a new way of doing things.

• In training, it’s about modeling new behaviors, then asking participants to apply what they’ve learned.

• In coaching, it’s about holding people accountable for new habits and managing change.

Using the mousetrap analogy, strive to evaluate your process in order to become better as a leader.

Another way to label this is strategic.

Executives are expected to think strategically in order for the organization to thrive.

If you’ve never heard of the term “managing up,” it’s the idea of managing your boss.

Currently you don’t have the authority to manage your supervisor, but have you ever thought what they have to deal with on a daily basis?

Most of the time, the executive level is focused on growth.

That means they are constantly evaluating processes, testing new strategies and looking for new opportunities to try.

That type of mentality is what you need to adapt as a leader.

In closing, building a better mousetrap is systems thinking.

If that’s something you haven’t considered doing, this your reminder that it’s time.

Contact me if you need help getting started.

God Bless,

Scott

If you found this helpful and you’re looking to improve your soft skills as a leader, here are ways to work with me directly:

• 🗣 Hire me to speak at your company or next event (watch my speaking reel here)

• 🎤 Invite me to lead an interactive training workshop, remotely or in-person (depending on location)

• 🤝 Start 1:1 coaching with me as a new manager, current leader or executive (I once managed 30 people 1:1 weekly❗️)

Also, you can help me out by forwarding this to friends whom would benefit from it! Thank you!