Happy holidays Reddit.Last year I gave my honest thoughts for those who want to found their own business. Some home truths which are clearly not understood.This year, I wanted to share with you some lessons about leading a start-up thats grown up. A company which no longer needs you in order to survive. Sure, being there makes a different and founders are capable of navigating a business into brave new worlds but the business won't die if you get run over by a bus. I found it quite difficult to navigate this adjustment and I now understand why many people consider that founders don't always make great CEOs. Fortunately, our business has had record growth in 2021 which taught me that every incorrect step is navigatable as long as it is understood and acted on,There can only be one CEO, even if there are 2+ foundersPerhaps it was a little naive but my co-founder and I considred that we were tight enough to operate the business as a pair of Managing Directors. We believed that because we had managed to grow the business from nothing, we could continue to weave the same magic that we did in the good old days.This turned out not to be the case. We remain tight but as we both grew and matured, our views and opinions began to verge down different paths. These aren't major deviations but small decisions here and there. This small deviation in terms of opinion had a huge impact on the ability for our leadership team to make decisions. Small disagreements became major indecisions and we couldn't move as quickly as we used to.If you have a co-founder (or more) and there is more than one person who wants to take the CEO role, do not opt to share power. Co-CEOs doesn't work. Eventually, someone will have to cede their ego for the good of the business.Try to make the decision between the founders (difficult)Alternatively, ask your Board to help in the decision making processHurt feelings and a slight ego hit are minor compared to indecisionLeadership teams must align 100%You always here about the concept of 'alignment'. If the leadership team is aligned, then this alignment drifts down to through the wider organisation.I must confess I thought that if teams are 'almost aligned' thats a good start. Turns out it's not. Alignment requires compromise. In a high functioning leadership team, every member understands that the right decision will not always be made but a nearly right decision with 100% alignment is almost as good (usually it's better in practice)What do I mean by that?Let's say you know your largest customer intimately and you truly believe a good discount will lead to larger revenues. If the rest of your management team disagrees that's fine. Gather your evidence, and present it to the leadership team.If the evidence you present doesn't convince the team then you only have two optionsYou drop your idea and remember that alignment is more important than getting your way on decisions. You disagree and commitYou change your leadership team (if you have the remit to do so)The most dangerous (and the most common) outcome is the 'agree to disagree'. If you make the executive decision, you will dis-enfranchise your leadership team. If someone else makes the decision against your wishes (maybe you aren't the chief exec), it will eat you up.The aligned team will run in a direction and will change the direction as new evidence comes to light.You impact change by choosing the right people and removing the less right peopleThis is a good follow on from the above. If you see an inability to align on even small items. Especially after you provide time to debate and make a decision then you need to make a people change.It doesn't matter if the issues are small. If your team cannot disagree and commit to a large enough number of decisions, your company will notice and performance will suffer.This can be quite a sad fact to accept. It may be that you have a long term colleague on the team who has providd a tonne of value. Maybe another colleague who continues to provide a lot of value in their domain. This doesn't really matter. The leadership team are delegators and not doers. If a member of the team cannot 'get with the program' it is time for them to go.I use the term 'less right' as opposed to 'wrong' because these are the hardest decisions. Removing wrong people should be easy (in practice, some people sturggle) but removing 'less right people' is extremely difficult. After all, they are contributing aren't they?Less right is okay at the beginning. Even the leadership team are still doing certain things themslves. When your business is larger. Everyone (including you) is replaceable. Why settle for 7/10 when 9/10 would be so much more impactful. When startups are small, you can create magic with an excellent product or a well placed client deal. For larger companies, magic comes from the employment of magicians :) It comes from the right people on the bus. Not the nearly right people on the bus.It's not a democracyMaybe this is the woke culture impacting companies (who knows) but one common theme I note in misfiring teams both at leadership level and below is the concept that good business is like a democracy where everyone has a say.Do you want your company to be as effective as the American parliamentary system?A business is more like a benevolent dictatorship. People are in executive positions because they have executive decision making power. Their objctives should be clearly defined by those above them and around them. Good leaders will listen to their team and empower them to do their roles but it is the leaders job to make decisions. If you see a leader in your organisation delegating decisions to the whims of their team, it's time to make a change.Similarly if a member in the team is struggling to commit to the decisions made by their line manager; it's time for them to go (please do give them a chance before you pull the trigger!)Become a servant leader and empower your direct reportsIt ain't a democracy but you need people to run a business. As the business gets larger, you'll need more executives. Unfortunately cloning technology is stuck on sheep and so if you want to replicate the magic you dusted over your business, you need to empower 5-7 reports to sprinkle their own magic; under your supervision of course!Each report should have a weekly one on one with you. This is not a meeting for you, it's a meeting for them. Sometimes it will be to align on the week ahead, other times it will be just a check in to see how the week went or to talk about the basketball. Avoid putting meetings in onlynwhen you need something. This will train your reports to understand that a meeting with you will lead to a request to do more work. Meetings are for them. Not for you.Intimately understand the goals and life objectives of your reports. Do you know what your reports want to achieve in one year? Three years? How can you empower your team to do great things if you don't actually know what they want? You likely care about the company succeeding. Everyone in the company will care about that but you will care about it more. Your reports may be in the role to buy a house, send kids to private school, learn new skills. Who knows. Ask your reports what their goals are. Ask what you can do to ensure their goals are met. If you truly and actually care about your reports and they feel that from you, they will run at 150% and begin to replicate your magic.You are an entrepreneur, you thrive on chaos. Here is the truthbomb, most people HATE IT. Som people pretend they like it because it sounds 'cool' but in reality, they too hate it. This is why few people manage to get a start-up to scale. Don't make the mistake of thinking that your chaos is a mecca that everyone aspires to be around. Most people need frameworks; to understand the boundaries by which they operate. Autonomy is a fundamental part of job satisfaction but this doesn't mean you don't give instructions. Give someone a framework, an objective, the key results you expect and let them figure out how they get there. If you have created your one-on-ones, your team will come to you if they need further guidanceSet quarterly objectives for your team and review them quarterly. Feedback is great and the quarterly feedback approach provides an opportuniity to discuss their performance at a high level and not just from task to task. Remember, you have asked them about their personal goals. Now is the time to think about if those have been met (or look like they will be)Don't move around meetings with your reports. They are the most important people to you in the org. If a board membr wants to tak you for a coffee at the same time. The coffee gets cancelled. These are th prioritiesCommunicate, communicate, communicateAn early stage start-up usually has a clear vision. It is the founders vision and everyone sits 5 metres away from the founder (or speaks to them regularly). Your vision will diffuse easily when you are small. This advantage dissapates as you grow and alignment is of fundamental importancePatrick Lencioni (must read) says that you need to repeat a communication seven times before it is widely accepted.What is your company's vision? Has it changed since you founded the business. Conduct a why discovery (thanks Mr Sinek), figure out why your key colleagues joined your company. What makes them proud to spend their time with you? They will work at their best when they are proud of working in your organisationRepeat that vision again and again and again and again and again.Ensure you have an all-hands which takes place at least every two weeks. This meeting should be about aligning your company and your colleagues to run in one directionBe open. Dump your corner office.'Walk the floor' and ensure every member of your company has some physical touch-point with you. Imagine your first job. You sit down nervously and the CEO sits down next to you. Asks how are you finding it, whats good, what could be changed. It's powerful.Align communications. The same message through the org. The same style. The same powerpoints. It might sound dull but it's worth it. see hubwealthy.com/wealthy
0 comments:
Post a Comment