Title - Identify and protect your Queen Bee role Tags - businesssystems
The Queen Bee lays the eggs. She is crucial to the survival of the hive. Every other bee makes the Queen Bee its number one priority. They only turn to other responsibilities - like collecting pollen - when the Queen is fed and comfortable.
In a business, it’s crticial to identify and protect your Queen Bee role. This is the role that performs the one critical task of the organisation - the task that, left undone, would kill the organisation.
For example, in a PR firm, it might be communicating effectively with clients. In an ad agency, it might be doing direct marketing better than any other agency.
The Queen Bee role could be fulfilled by anybody - or a team of people - the owner, the creative director, or a team of designer’s, copywriter’s and developer’s that deliver kick-ass marketing campaigns for clients.
When you identify the Queen Bee role, make it so that the first priority for everyone else is to make sure the Queen Bee is fully empowered to do their role. Then they can turn to their primary tasks.
A good analogy is a restaurant. The crticial task is to deliver hot, tasty food, on time. So the Queen Bee role is fulfilled by a team of chefs. Even if there are dishes stacked up on tables, everyone else should make it their priority to get hot, tasty food out first and foremost, and only then turn clear the tables.
At the same time, this concept says that you shouldn’t take the people who are fulfilling the Queen Bee role away from the critical task. For example, don’t pull the chef from the kitchen to clear tables unless the restaurant is closed and they no longer need to serve food.
Even though all roles in the organisation are (or should) be important, if the Queen Bee role is abandoned - or performed sub-optimally - everything else falls apart.
[#michalowicz2018clockwork]: Mike Michalowicz (2018): Clockwork: Design Your Business to Run Itself, Portfolio.