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\n\t\tOpinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.\t<\/p>\n
At some point, every business owner has looked at a successful company and thought, \u201cI wish I had thought of that.\u201d Maybe it\u2019s Salesforce. Maybe it\u2019s Costco. Maybe it\u2019s Patagonia. Maybe it\u2019s a competitor that seems to have figured something out before everyone else.<\/p>\n
The problem isn\u2019t admiration. The problem is where most entrepreneurs focus their attention. We study founders. We listen to podcasts. We read leadership books. We analyze personalities, habits and morning routines. What we don\u2019t study nearly enough are the systems that made those companies successful in the first place. That\u2019s where the real opportunity is.<\/p>\n
Several years ago, one of our larger business partners launched a philanthropy initiative that caught my attention. Community involvement wasn\u2019t an occasional activity. It was built into the company\u2019s culture, and it was reinforced by a measurable process. My first reaction was the same one many small business owners have when they see something impressive: \u201cThat\u2019s great, but we\u2019re not them.\u201d They were a much larger organization, with resources, budgets and staff we didn\u2019t have. Replicating their program exactly wasn\u2019t realistic. But then I realized I was asking the wrong question. Instead of asking whether we could copy the program, I started asking why it worked.<\/p>\n
The answer was simple: It encouraged employees to engage with their communities and consistently rewarded that behavior. We didn\u2019t need the same structure to accomplish the same goal, so we created our own version. Today, we track volunteer hours and reward team members for community involvement. The program looks different because our business is different, but the principle is the same. It\u2019s also a smart investment. A 2024 Deloitte survey<\/a> of 1,000 U.S. office professionals found that 87% consider workplace volunteer opportunities a factor in deciding whether to stay with their current employer or pursue a new one.<\/p>\n That experience taught me something many entrepreneurs miss. The companies you admire aren\u2019t valuable because of what they do. They\u2019re valuable because of the systems that make their results repeatable.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve turned many founders into celebrities. We study Steve Jobs\u2019 black turtleneck. We analyze Elon Musk\u2019s work habits. We obsess over leadership styles and personality traits.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the things that actually drive performance get far less attention: communication systems, accountability<\/a> structures, documented processes and performance standards. None of those topics makes for an exciting keynote speech. Yet they\u2019re often the reason one company consistently outperforms another. The next time you admire a business, stop asking what makes the founder special. Ask what allows ordinary people inside that company to perform at a high level, again and again.<\/p>\n That\u2019s usually where the lesson lives.<\/p>\n One of the biggest differences between large organizations and small businesses is communication<\/a>. Large companies can\u2019t afford to keep information inside the owner\u2019s head. They answer to shareholders, boards, investors and thousands of employees. Priorities have to be communicated. Expectations have to be documented. Goals have to be clarified.<\/p>\n Small businesses often work differently. The owner knows where the company is headed and assumes everyone else does too. The result is predictable: Team members fill in the gaps with their own assumptions, work gets misaligned and leaders get frustrated that employees aren\u2019t executing a vision that was never clearly communicated.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a simple test. Ask your leadership team to write down the company\u2019s top three priorities for the next 12 months. The results may surprise you. In a 2015 study of more than 250 companies published in Harvard Business Review<\/a>, researchers found that only 55% of the middle managers they surveyed could name even one of their company\u2019s top five priorities. And those were larger organizations with formal communication processes in place.<\/p>\n If everyone on your team gives a different answer, you don\u2019t have a people problem. You have a communication problem. The companies we admire create clarity. Small businesses should do the same.<\/p>\n It\u2019s easy to admire leaders who make tough decisions, hold people accountable and maintain high expectations, and to assume their success comes down to personality. What often gets overlooked are the standards guiding those behaviors. The strongest organizations define what success looks like before performance becomes a problem. They set expectations, communicate priorities and coach people toward those standards. Most importantly, they address issues when those standards aren\u2019t being met.<\/p>\nMost entrepreneurs study the wrong things<\/h2>\n
Steal clear communication<\/h2>\n
Steal standards, not personalities<\/h2>\n