Are you enthusiastic about the person you have in each box? If the leader isn’t getting the job done, then a change may need to be made. Maybe this leader is in the wrong seat or in too many seats. Maybe there are performance issues. Maybe a person is talented but doesn’t fit the culture (this often happens when a “big company” executive is brought into a

growing firm).

In truth, hiring was hard before we got the culture of the restaurant fully dialed in. When we had an opening, I’d find someone good to join the team—not necessarily impeccably trained, but energetic and enthusiastic about the mission. But even if that person was all charged up when they got hired, the residual negativity of some of their colleagues would eventually infect them. The fine-dining crew was still being snooty, and some of the remaining members of the old guard weren’t ever going to get on board. Three or four times, I hired someone I thought showed promise. But they’d last only a month before the flame of their enthusiasm dimmed and died, and then they’d quit. So the next time a position opened up, I didn’t race to fill it. Instead, I waited until another position came open, and then another, and then hired three great people, all at the same time. Instead of one new person cupping their hands, trying to protect the tiny flame of their enthusiasm, that little crew brought a bonfire no one could put out.

First, not all of your employees are superheroes. Most companies have a continuum on the payroll, from the exceptionally talented to the should-definitely-be-doing-something-else- with-their-lives. This isn't easy to acknowledge. Any number of things can get in the way of doing so, from the role you played in hiring someone to good, old-fashioned conflict aversion. Here's a safe assumption: unless you have the resources and capacity to systematically attract, reward, and unleash the very best in your industry, some of the people now reporting to you cannot be objectively characterized as outstanding. Second, you're probably making your employees' job harder. The hunt for new sources of revenue within organizations often leads to an increase in operational complexity. New products and services — or even new variations on old ones — lead to new processes, policies, and regulations; new organizational structures and technologies; new customers with new needs being channeled toward new touch points. In one quick-service restaurant we studied, the menu had grown from twenty-five items to more than a hundred in just a few years.

In our experience, a shared characteristic of successful, fast-growing companies is a relentless curiosity about what's not working. These companies aren't politically conflicted about how to acknowledge or discuss problems.They welcome them, openly, as opportunities. Again, Toyota was among the most visible organizations to celebrate this mentality, until it lost its way (hopefully, briefly) when it shifted its focus to growth rather than improvement. When new managers at Toyota got hired, their first assignment was to stand in a box outlined on the floor with red tape, facing the assembly line. The recruits weren't allowed to leave that box until they saw something that could be improved in the process. Keep in mind that this was the celebrated Toyota production system, perfected over more than a decade, and so some new hires spent their entire first week on the job just standing in that red box. Others spent less than an hour. Either way, it was seared into their souls that their responsibility as an employee was to make the place better.

First, not all of your employees are superheroes. Most companies have a continuum on the payroll, from the exceptionally talented to the should-definitely-be-doing-something-else- with-their-lives. This isn't easy to acknowledge. Any number of things can get in the way of doing so, from the role you played in hiring someone to good, old-fashioned conflict aversion. Here's a safe assumption: unless you have the resources and capacity to systematically attract, reward, and unleash the very best in your industry, some of the people now reporting to you cannot be objectively characterized as outstanding. Second, you're probably making your employees' job harder. The hunt for new sources of revenue within organizations often leads to an increase in operational complexity. New products and services — or even new variations on old ones — lead to new processes, policies, and regulations; new organizational structures and technologies; new customers with new needs being channeled toward new touch points. In one quick-service restaurant we studied, the menu had grown from twenty-five items to more than a hundred in just a few years.