Don’t you hate it when your security officers, or employees at your security services company, tell you “That’s not my job…”? Typically it’s not a fireable offense, but it sure does feel like it. In fact, it feels more like they’ve taken your brand new baby, looked her in the face and told you how ugly she was, and topped it off with telling you that you dress funny. Am I right?
So why do we feel that way? Well for me it’s because as the owner of a company, I feel like I own every job. As owners and the people with our names on the door, we realize that every job is critical to the survival and success of the company. I recently read a book that was written by two Navy Seals that summarized everything that I believe about owning and managing a company, especially a security services company. The name of the book is Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy Seals Lead and Win by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin. I’ve read a lot of management books over the years, but I felt that this book really nailed the topic and I encourage everyone to pick up a copy. In the meantime, here is a quick synopsis of the main points of the book.
3 Tips to Achieving Extreme Ownership for Security Services Companies
- There are no bad teams there are just bad leaders: If something goes wrong within your organization, you can’t look at your team and believe that there is something wrong with them. If something went wrong, it is because of something that you as the leader failed to do. Some of you may not agree but read the book to truly understand that idea.
- Decentralized command is critical: This concept is all about delegating. You as an owner or manager CANNOT do everything. The load has to be shared with your employees. I know what many of you are thinking, but the book does a good job of explaining how to prepare your direct reports to help take on that responsibility.
- Make a decision: You will never have complete information about a majority of the situations that you find yourself in. So you have to assess, make a decision, and act decisively and aggressively.
Again, this is a great book and I definitely give it 5 stars.
So, as the owner of a security services company, do you take ownership of all of your employees’ failures? Is extreme ownership even possible within the security services industry? Please feel free to leave your comments below, I’d love to hear from you.
This is a must-have eBook for Security Services Companies…
By Courtney Sparkman
OfficerReports.com is a software company that provides security guard companies with an easy way to monitor their officers, better manage their operations, and win new business. Take a tour of our software to see how we combine Electronic Reporting, Real-Time GPS based Tour Tracking, and GPS based Clock In and Out into one easy to use platform.
