This blog post has been a long time in the making. Over my 18+ year career I have had the pleasure of working for some great small companies. Most of those small companies have always had something I call "Small Business Thinking" holding them back. Small Business Thinking can manifest in a number of ways from lack of company growth to high employee turn over. Any way you slice it Small Business Thinking isn't great and at the end of the day it starts with the people running and working for your company.
Overview & Background
As you continue reading I will break down the different types of people that can contribute to Small Business Thinking and how it could negatively impact your business. I'll also try to provide some helpful insight into how you can navigate away from Small Business Thinking and move to a more future forward growth driven mindset. A mindset that will help you build individuals within your organization.
A few details about me to help understand where I'm coming from. I started my working career with Marriott as a Guest Services Aid, where I was introduced to concepts like employee empowerment and servant leadership. After graduating college I started my professional career with a small web startup, I quickly realized the startup culture wasn't for me. I turned to smaller agencies (30 people or less) and over the next 15 years I worked for five different companies, the last being a seven year stint. It wasn't until I was approached three plus years ago by my current employer that I would have considered working for a large company (50K + people). The move to a larger company was enlightening and left me wondering why I hadn't done it sooner.
I was thankful for my manager at the time that pushed me out of my small business comfort zone and the individual that had recommended me for the position. Making that career move and busting out of my comfortable surroundings are part of what allows me to write this post today. That change has provided me with the experience and point of references I'm sharing here with you.
Founders, Principles & The C Suite
Let's start at the top of the Org Chart (more on Org Charts in a minute) with the person in charge, the head of the company sometimes the founder or owner. In most cases at a small company this person has invested their blood, sweat, and tears into building the company from the ground up. Therein lies the problem, this person is deeply involved in the day to day workings and can sometimes be a choke point for decision making. When the person or people at the top of your org chart are micro managers a company can't grow. It can also lead to more rapid turn over as employees become fed up with C Suite / Owner intervention.
So how do you overcome the top dogs desire to ensure everything is done to their standards and the company continues to deliver as they originally envisioned? Easy, you hire managers & directors that are competent and empower them to make decisions not only in the best interests of the company, but in the best interest of your employees. As the head of the company you need to limit your involvement in the day to day and the inner workings of your organization. You need to drive long term vision and develop innovative ideas your teams can execute on. Now to be clear, I'm not saying you should be an absent or non-visible leader. Be available to your employees for questions or ideas, but don't be a bottle neck or micro manager that stands in their way. Taking this approach will lead to growth and is the first step in breaking down Small Business Thinking.
Org Charts
Now for more on Org Charts! Do you have one? If not, stop reading right now and go create one for your organization. I can't stress how important this document is for an employee and organization alike. I can honestly say that most, if not all of the small companies I worked for did not have an org chart available to their employees. Currently, I can login to my employee portal and navigate to our Corporate Org Chart, where I could see my path to the CEO. This provides employees with piece of mind and an understanding of the structure of your organization. It can also help new employees to understand who they report to and where their team falls in the bigger picture. From an organization standpoint an Org Chart can help to provide a clear picture of who on the leadership team is responsible for what and sometimes can lead to efficiencies when reorganizing teams.
Change Starts at the Top
Remember as a Founder, Owner, Principle, CEO or all of the above change starts with you. Empower your employees to do their best work and do your best to stay out of their way. Start thinking big picture and where you want your company to be in 5 or 10 years. Work on the next big thing or that innovation no one has thought of yet. Your employees look to you to guide the vision of the company, not sit next to them and hold their hand. If you currently don't think like this, don't worry you can. However it's not going to happen overnight and you are only the first step.
The Leadership Team, Managers, & Directors
Currently and in the past I have been lucky to work for some amazing Managers & Directors. These people firmly believed in building the individual and in doing so the individual would help to build the business. However, on the other hand I have also worked with managers that feared for their jobs or worried about being shown up. This can be a side effect of Small Business Thinking and these fears can be detrimental to a business of any size. They can lead to good employees leaving or being forced out due to their managers insecurities.
As a leader or manager of mangers you can mitigate this by being available to all your reports and their reports. Keep in mind saying you have an open door policy doesn't always make people feel comfortable to use it. You have to be aware of what's going on within your organization or team and pull people in for 1 on 1's when you sense a problem. This could simply be a coffee chat with someone or saying "Hey, I'm here if you need to talk". Making that effort shows people you are more than just talk.
Long Time & Senior Employees
I'd like to pause here and talk about long standing employees. These people are great! They are loyal and they know your business inside and out. However, as they grow with your business and climb within your companies org chart, they can quickly become one of those insecure managers. I love the idea of hiring from within, but hiring from outside your company brings in outside experience and new perspectives. Think about your company, do they have a number of high level long time employees? If so, they only know what it's like to work for your organization. They might be fearful of new employees or reports showing them up. They may be overly protective of their position or working with a single (Small Business Thinking) point of view .
As a leader you need to be aware of these possibilities and provide resources and suggestions to help those people excel and grow. Encourage your Managers & Directors to hire people from outside your company with different strengths and points of view. Remind them that what makes them valuable is their years of experience within your company and domain expertise. Be sure to offer manager training and relevant conferences that can help them grow as managers. Lastly, don't be afraid to hire consultants or external firms to give an outside point of view.
Some Final Thoughts
In closing, I would like to leave you with a few ideas for next steps.
We talked about training above, I can honestly say one of the most impactful trainings I took part in was communications training. The whole company took part (yes from the CEO down to the office manager) and it showed us not only how to communicate with one another, but how best to communicate with one another. I found that my CEO liked quick and to the point conversations where he could quickly provide feedback or an answer. He didn't want a ton of extra detail, just the information needed to make the call. However, my boss preferred more detail and would need time to think it over before making the call. This training has stuck with me and has proven valuable when working with new teams or reports.
I said it before and I'll say it again. Build the individual and the individual will build your business. As managers and leaders we should be building employees up for their next job. You may be (Small Business) thinking, "Well what if they leave". The short answer is that's OK. Your employees shouldn't feel trapped and sometimes (especially in small companies) upward mobility is hard. It's the companies responsibility to cultivate an environment that helps to retain employees. However, sometime keeping every employee isn't possible. That doesn't mean they won't come back or refer business and employees your way in the future. This is especially true if they enjoyed their time and grew within your organization.
The last thing I'll leave you with is be sure to grow your skills and expand your managerial mindset. This could be done via trainings, conferences, conversations with peers, or by reading books and blogs. I recently finished reading The Art of Leadership by Michael Lopp. I can't recommend this book enough to anyone working to manage individuals. Michael breaks the book down into small stories which can be read independently or in a more traditional manor. This is great if it take you a long time to read a book, like me.
Hopefully you have found this post insightful and the suggestions have sparked some ideas. Growing as leaders is important and our journey to overcome Small Business Thinking and building individuals is never done. The connections you make today could be new leaders within your company tomorrow or clients in the future. Keep and open mind and continue to grow as you build individuals and your company.
