Leadership Lessons From A Dump Truck!

Business Leaders Circle
22.12.23 06:54 PM Comment(s)

I was sitting in traffic this morning after dropping off my son at school. 


In Port Credit, the development of several hundred new homes has turned our normal seven minute drive into nearly 25 minutes. Sometimes more! As I watched the lanes of merging traffic with people anxious to get to their workdays and the line of dump trucks attempting to get into the site, it reminded me of the bottleneck that often occurs in small business.  


Several business owners that we currently work with are dealing with interrupted workflow in their organization - only they are the bottleneck. The leader of a business can be a barrier to getting work completed or products out the door. When they need to review everything themselves, capacity is limited by time. I have suffered from this myself! When that happens, productivity slows. Work grinds to a halt. Delays start affecting clients. The leader, the bottleneck, gets overburdened and stressed. The team gets frustrated.  
We need to first think and then act differently.


What if you decided “I am not going to do this anymore”?

What would it take to let go? 

When you consider letting go, what emotions arise? Fear, anxiety, excitement, or relief? 

What steps could you take today to ensure that you don’t have to be a barrier to work getting finished? 


Who could step in?

If you were suddenly incapacitated, someone would need to step into your role. 

Who would that be? 

Do you have someone? 

If no one comes to mind then you may need to look at your team and evaluate if you have the right people around you! 


What can you do to train your team?

Do you need to properly document a process? 

Could you explain what you are doing with a brief video for a team member to refer to? 

Perhaps you have someone job shadow you and learn the tasks that you could delegate! 


What kind of a leader do you need to be in order to release some responsibilities?

The leadership style it takes to start and grow a business is not the same as what it takes to creates ability, longevity, and steady growth as a business matures. 

How do you need to shift the way you engage with your team? 

What kind of leader do you need to be? 


Take a moment to evaluate your answers to some of these questions, and how you can learn from a dump truck! 

Business Leaders Circle