If you know you have to step away from your business for a while, one of the things you might be worrying about is whether your people are really ‘up to it’.

Presumably you hired these people because you thought they were capable. And that fact that they are still employed means they have proved themselves to be capable. Not necessarily in ways you expected, but capable nonetheless.

So what exactly is it that you’re worried about?

Their motivation? They are almost certainly as anxious to keep your business going as you are. It’s their livelihood too.

Their commitment? Well, just as you haven’t sacked them, they haven’t left you. They must like it here. It’s possible that their commitment doesn’t show as much as you would like. Perhaps because you haven’t yet given then the opportunity?

Their knowledge? Understandably, they don’t have the knowledge you have. They aren’t you. They didn’t spend the blood, sweat and tears you did to set up the business and carefully hand-craft the customer experience you created.

But given motivation and commitment, this knowledge problem is simple to solve.

Tell them what you know.

Surface your business’s unique and powerful Promise of Value. Do it together as a team. You’ll discover that it’s more embedded than you thought. You’ll all discover that it’s bigger and richer than you thought. That will increase motivation and commitment for everyone.

Then write down how the business goes about Sharing that Promise so the right clients find you; and how it goes about Keeping that Promise so those clients stay with you and recommend their friends.

You know best how you really want your business to work, but that doesn’t mean you don’t involve your team. It just means you lead. For now.

Obviously the more time you have to do this before you have to step away the better, but we don’t always get the right amount of notice.

Luckily all the information you need is already there – in your head and in your team’s heads. The job is not so much to invent as to document in a way that is practical and useful. In a way that will strengthen motivation and reinforce commitment.

And even more luckily, there is a way to get started that requires minimal preparation, that keeps the Promise of Value implicit for now. That can be carried on while you’re away if necessary, so that everyone can feel comfortable when the time comes for you to go.

I’m about to write that up in my latest newsletter, so watch out for it.

Discipline makes Daring possible.