Managing Staff – Your business… will never be as important to them as it is to you.
As first published in The Q Review Summer 2021/22 Magazine. Follow the link to Subscribe and receive your FREE copy each quarter!
Continued from Part 1…
In addition to balancing the two competing emotions when it comes to your people, it is also vital to acknowledge and accept that few if any of your Team will be with you for the entire journey to your End Game.
People who are employees, and who are happy to remain an employee long term, are motivated by completely different things to those of us who are business owners.
Your business, your baby, your pride and joy, your life’s work, will never be as important to them as it is to you.
This also means that in all likelihood, eventually, a change will be needed.
When it is our business, we know what we are trying to achieve each day, plus we are having fun building this thing of ours and if we are doing it well, we are only having to do work that we want to do.
For your employees, no matter how great a work environment you can create, work will never be as motivating, or as much fun, plus they are always going to have to do things they don’t want to do.
It is also vital to acknowledge and accept that few if any of your Team will be with you for the entire journey to your End Game.
Therefore, at some point, they will realise that things about the job that used to motivate them, usually including the security it provided and the fear of the unknown outside of the work they know, are no longer sufficient to keep them happy.
Alternatively, even if they remain committed to you, it can become apparent that their skillset which suited the business at an earlier stage, no longer meets the requirements of the ever-evolving enterprise in which they have become ensconced.
Either way, it means they must leave, and that you and the business must move on quickly.
Preparing for the Inevitable
Firstly a warning…
Don’t take things so far that you appear to be getting ready for each individuals’ departure and that you are “avoiding commitment and keeping your options open” so to speak.
Make sure you invest in your staff, fully commit and give them every confidence and opportunity to produce their very best for you over the short, medium and long term.
But equally, don’t let your business become entirely reliant on any one person in any one particular role.
If for example you have a key Team Member who is a great salesperson, don’t just have them do all of your sales.
Sure in the short term it might provide a boost, but also make sure they are training others so that in the unfortunate event they are no longer around (for whatever reason that may be), your sales don’t dry up completely.
Similarly, always invest in, and document, the Systems and Processes of your business (another of the Ultimate Alternative Assets in the CapitalQ “End Game” Business Investment Formula) so that someone else can always step into a Team Member’s shoes should the need arise (be it temporarily or permanently).
Finally, be prepared mentally for life without each key person in your business.
While it might be nice to think of your relationship with them like a marriage, in that it is capable of lasting forever, it is anything but.
It will end, it is just a matter of time, so plan for how you will manage when it does.
We wish you all the best in managing your Team and hope you can foster close, enduring relationships that benefit both of you over a long period of time.