A couple of weeks ago I wrote about my daughter’s entrepreneurial instincts. Since the age of eight, she has demonstrated an uncanny sense of strategy and marketing. At 15, she is flexing her management muscles through quick decision-making on behalf of the greater good. 

 

In a recent school project, the class was instructed to develop a product and bring it to market. The class is taught by a wonderfully creative educator and covers culinary careers and nutrition. My daughter, always the planner, thought the nutrition part of the class might help her keep her 5’3” frame in tip-top shape for her major love, fast-pitch softball. 

 

The teacher broke the class into groups and the students began their planning. After a few minutes of chaos and fearing the worst in terms of her grade, my daughter took over leadership of her team. They came up with a product and began planning their “go-to-market” strategy. The team had to produce their product, sell it on the open market represented by the rest of the class and end up with profit at the end of the exercise. The higher the profit, the better the plan and its execution.

 

On the second day, one of the kids was goofing off and not pulling his fair share. Knowing that this increased her operating expenses, my daughter laid off the worker. Her logic, if the worker’s efforts didn’t contribute to the greater good as in a better plan or better execution, why incur the cost?  Another student in the group was suspended from school on the first day of planning. Upon his return to class he was fired. My daughter reasoned that the time necessary to get the worker up to speed reduced the overall productivity of the team and therefore, their profitability. The worker was not ill; the worker chose the behavior that resulted in the school suspension, so she saw no reason for leniency. 

 

This might sound harsh to some readers but is it? The mission was to produce a good product and sell it at a profit. She got rid of people who weren’t helping the team achieve that mission. Additionally, she sent a message to the rest of the group that commitment and productivity mattered.  How many people are on your payroll right now that aren’t contributing to the greater good? How does their poor productivity dilute the efforts of the rest of your staff? What keeps you from taking swift action to ensure the greater good?