What is an INTEGRATOR ?
This tactical role tends to compliment the Visionary (or President) by being a problem solving, logical and steady force that harmoniously integrates all of the moving parts of your business. While a visionary tends to look up-and-out, an integrator looks down-and-in. A good integrator is focused, solution oriented, open & honest, drives execution, and won’t let simple tasks turn into a career. This role is a perfect marriage of a consultant, project manager, trainer, coach, and doer.
While each business is different, some may not be ready for a full-time Integrator, that’s where a “Fractional” Integrator can bring high value to your team. This could be a part-time or contract role that stays laser focussed on helping you get to the next level. Before your Integrator gets to work you’ll establish mutual commitment to objective deliverables and accountabilities, just like most other roles.
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Here’s just a couple things that an Integrator brings to your team...​
Lead, manage, and hold the team accountable
The integrator is, amongst other things, a leader of people. It's absolutely necessary that this person is comfortable with conflict, neutral, and solutions oriented. When there's a fire (metaphorically speaking) this person runs straight at it. There's a coaching aspect of this, and there's also a refereeing aspect, a good integrator knows how to do both.
Remove obstacles & barriers
Every business has issues that act as obstacles or barriers in the way of their goals, and successful businesses achieve their goals because they can solve those very issues. The Integrator is more on logic, facts or data, and has to be the tie-breaker at times. But it's not that always simple. When it comes to solving issues, an Integrator has the experience in knowing when to push to get to the core of the issue and solve it for the long-term, greater-good.
Special projects
Every business has "special projects" in the midst of all the noise, in fact these tend to cause a lot of noise. They come in all shapes and sizes, and they don't get completed overnight even though you tend to lose a lot of sleep over them. These are the big, hairy, audacious projects that are hard to wrap your hands around, and you need somebody who can drive execution while keeping all the balls in the air - that person is your Integrator (aka "Noise Killer").
Accountable for the business plan, P&L results
Strategic planning is wonderful, but not if the business plan ends up in your bottom desk drawer. The integrator is the one that puts the structure into place for accountability, communication, delegation, and measurement to keep an absolute pulse of what's happening - keeping the team on-track. The integrator often translates, and filters, to/from the Visionary with a same page approach to maximize team health.
How do you know you’re ready for an Integrator?
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You’re a successful, growing team of 6-25 people with an average annual revenue of $1-10 Million.
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You’ve got the right products/services and you’re in the right markets, in other words you’ve usually got a good sales problem.
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You’ve tried hiring a “General Manager” or “COO” with some success, and you may be self-implementing some helpful tools such as EOS, but it still feels like something’s missing.
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While many parts of your business are going well, you may be feeling stuck in other areas, maybe you've got a few issues or projects that have been on your plate for a little too long.
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Finally, you’re ready to elevate yourself into a role where you love your job again and you can get back to doing what you’re good at.