If you want to get awesome results, you’ve got to get real about what’s currently not-so-awesome. In the Desire Map process you begin by going through a gratitude exercise, followed by a dissatisfaction review. It’s the whole picture, with a ton of love and no-sugar coating.

In our business, we just started doing a What’s Hot/What’s Not check-in. Our Chief of Staff & People Potential, Steph Corker, officially kicked this off on our last big check-in. Hot and not-so-hot for #TeamDanielle:

HOT:

• Highly productive human beings. Individually, we get a lot done in a day.

• A team that always pulls it off! We hit our deadlines and we invite fresh strategies on the fly.

• We understand when to outsource (short term help and external teams) and when to hire in house (get on the bus and let’s go the distance!)

• Remote workforce allows for remarkable results. Virtual for the win, who needs an office lease? Not us.

• Setting ourselves up for tremendous growth – starting with people.

NOT SO HOT:

• Lack of clarity on everyone’s exact role. (Happens when you grow fast and go from one launch to the next quickly.)

• Unsure of how to best work together when not in rapid launch mode. (What? Normal? Nothing to launch this week? Um, I’m confused.)

• One person holding a lot of the operational pieces — if Angie got hit by a truck, we’d be seriously eff’d.

• ALL systems need to be upgraded — we’ve hacked our own e-comm system so often it’s gonna cave; we need clearer communication processes for working with each other and vendors; and we need an official on-boarding process/experience for new team people.

• Managing workforce / work flow without key leadership roles creates gaps. Duh, we gotta get clearer about domains of responsibility.

Hot and Not Hot. With easy language and real communication, what needs to get done is a lot more fun.