Would Your Business Pass The Microscope Test?

I don't care for too many television shows, but two I try not to miss (The Biggest Loser and Undercover Boss) have a common theme. Both feature participants who place themselves under a figurative microscope for all the world to see. From the comfort of my own couch I enjoy watching them squirm with no way out from under the microscope. But when I later reflect on it, and attempt to transfer the logic and meaning I also try to put myself in the same environment. Imagine you stood in front of the world with 100 ... 200 excess pounds with all the flab exposed for all to see. Imagine being a CEO, CFO or President of a company and having not only the inner workings of your company but your abilities and your employees' opinions of you exposed for all to see.

I was "sentenced" to work for a major household-word corporation for almost thirty years that feared ever being put under a microscope. And while senior management applied the "Do what I say, not what I do" principle to everything, one of the greatest things I ever learned there was to constantly analyze things from the microscope perspective. Examples:

"Raise your own pups." One of my mentors used to use that saying to communicate a simple truth. If your team believes in what you say, then anyone walking into your business should see you in every employee they come in contact with. The transference of your belief should show in everything they touch. Do others see you throughout the organization?

"What if you get hit by a bus?" was another one. The thought there was to cause you to think about the business from the perspective that if you got hit by a bus tonight and your replacement came in tomorrow - would they face a mess, or would they find themselves amazed by how you left things?

What would someone find if they slid your business, or you, under the microscope? Something to think about.

Continued success.