My wife runs the day-to-day operations of our horse farm – Summerfield Farm (check it out at SummerfieldFarm.com).  She leads a staff of six and asked me a great question; “Is there always a weakest link when it comes to staff?”

The answer is an unequivocal YES.  Yes, there is always a weakest link in our chains.  I believe we are deceiving ourselves if we think this is not true.  We could be turning a blind eye to a situation we are aware of, or we are choosing to not look for the weak link.  Sometimes we choose to not look because we simply can’t handle the thought of addressing yet another staff issue – another termination, another mentoring or coaching session, another ‘calling it tight’ session.  These can be emotionally draining situations and sometimes we choose to let one slide for a while.

I believe it important to understand the different reasons that cause a weakest link.  The reasons are diverse and not all are bad.  Being unaware of the reasons are what can cause us pain.  Weakest links can occur because:

• We chose to hire poorly.  We were feeling the pain of not having the position staffed and we shortchanged ourselves to just get the slot filled.
• We chose wisely and the person performed exceptionally well until…  People have life events that we may or may not be aware of that deeply and sometimes permanently affect their ability to perform well.
• We made our chain stronger, we made it better.  We uncover lesser weaknesses by addressing the greater weaknesses.  A link that appeared strong when the chain had weaker weaknesses suddenly becomes the new biggest problem.
• We chose wisely, we made our chain stronger, but we now expect more lift out of our chain.  We expect our staff to care for 20 horses and clients instead of 10.  We grow our company from $5M in annual revenue to $10M, then $15M then $30M.  The expectations of a chain expected to lift a $30M organization are far different than the expectations of a chain to lift a $5M organization.

I have found that I can reduce the pain of weak links by taking the time to hire only strong links, swiftly addressing existing or emerging weak links and being proactively aware of my increasing expectations of my chains.