39. Make sure everyone has the map.

Imagine you and some friends are driving to the same destination in different cars. If your friends don’t have directions, then they would need to follow you. That can waste a lot of time. Each stoplight slows down the entire caravan. And both followers and leaders are always a little distracted for fear of getting lost or losing the others. If everyone has a map, on the other hand, it doesn’t matter whether or not you get separated. You’ll still all end up at the same destination. People are free to make minor course changes along the way—they will still end up in the right place.

Our firm’s map has five ultimate “destinations,” or “drivers,” as I call them: First and foremost is Client Satisfaction. Every Monday morning, no matter where the members of my core team might be—in the office or on the road—we have a regularly scheduled meeting to make sure we’re all headed in the right direction. Our consultants keep track of their performance in each of the five drivers and the company meets quarterly to review our progress. Because we talk about these goals so often, even when we’re not in the same room and decisions need to be made, our team has the map to guide them. For other companies, their map might be their mission statement or growing their core competencies.

Here are two examples to show how the map can work at a practical level. In the first, a senior consultant gets an SOS call from a client on Sunday afternoon. He sees it come in on his caller ID and knows the number. He can let it go into his voice mail or pick up. Our Client Satisfaction driver tells him “pick up,” and he does. In the second, an administrator in the office gets a request from a client for a lunch appointment with me that Friday, but I already have a lunch scheduled with a prospective client. Again, because of the Client Satisfaction driver, he knows that I will probably want to meet the established client and reschedule with the prospect. Instead of telling the client I’m booked, he checks in with me first to make me aware of the request.

At every level, having a map works to guide better business decisions.