Strong leaders know when to seek outside help | Quint Studer

Who is your biggest competitor? This is a question I ask when a business comes to me seeking assistance in improving their performance. The most common answer I hear is a little counter-intuitive. Often the main competitor is not another company, but a mindset: people thinking they can do it on their own.  

How many times does a plumber, electrician, carpenter or roofer get called in to fix something because someone thought they could do it on their own — but ended up making the problem worse? I often share stories of some of my own “cost-saving” ideas that ended up costing a lot of money!

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For 15 years as founder of Studer Group, I met with executives of hospitals, medical groups and so forth who wanted to be better at providing a good patient experience, employee engagement, physician engagement, accountability, etc. They realized that the lack of performance in the areas in question was costing the organization in lawsuits, overtime, reputation and loss of talent, including physicians. When we covered what we learned and gave recommendations, which often included getting outside help, at least one person in the meeting would say (or at least imply with their questions and comments), “We can do this on our own.” Many times, the president then would interject, “If we can do this ourselves, then why have we not been doing it?”