10 Growing Pains You Can Avoid in Your Business and Make Time for Making Money
Eric G. Flamholtz and Yvonne Randle wrote a book called “Growing Pains: Transitioning from an Entrepreneurship to a Professionally Managed Firm”. First published in 1986, it became an international bestseller used by business owners and managers all over the world. Quoting the cover, the book is “a classic resource for understanding how start-ups can make the transition to become large, professionally-managed organizations that maintain the special spark that launched them”. It’s about scaling business and avoiding 10 landmines that can blow you sky high on the way to success. Let’s talk about them a little bit and figure out how can you save time by disarming them.
Before we even start, let’s point out the obvious point that stands out from this list. For me the main conclusion is that management doesn’t always utilize an organization’s potential in order to make it better. Look at how many times the word “employees” is thrown around here. They don’t have time for this, they lack information on that. It’s because they don’t feel secure enough. What is the most common feeling for all of us as human beings? Fear. The most primal and the most powerful. It’s quite similar when it comes to being an employee.
Let’s see how organizations throw away their potential buy not optimizing processes and not securing ties with their most valuable asset — people. According to Flamholtz and Randle, 10 classic barriers for development are:
- Employees don’t have time to do tasks on time
Why? Because tasks are poorly distributed across sprints or any other unit of performance measurement. Because deadlines are not suited to the amount of work that needs to be done and the actual humans involved in meeting them are sometimes spread too thin.
2. Employees spend to much time on “putting out fires”
Inconsistencies among different channels of communication? Deadlines that don’t always work? Location for a conference that requires a personal visit and decision made on site? Unrealistic management expectations within a given budget? If a quarter of a time spent on putting out fires could be spent on doing an actual job…
3. Employees lack knowledge about the competency level and area of expertise of individuals around them
Onboarding is a good idea. At the very least, new employees will absorb a few names along the way. On average, he or she will pick up team locations in the building, maybe even some issues discussed between desks. That’s valuable knowledge to have.
Very often though, people are simply busy and, especially in larger companies, a guy working across the room will ask “Who are you?” when you ask for a favor. It’s not a conscience choice to ignore people, it’s just a company’s size , the amount of work and the reality of working in a multi-level, often multinational organization with lots of priorities.
There is a light at the end of the tunnel. Make an onboarding, show a newbie the team he or she will be working with and the “outer circle” — the number of people outside of the “core team”, than can be helpful and share tasks, but maybe not that often. Prepare documents with the organization’s structure; update and share them periodically with members of your team.
4. Employees lack knowledge about the direction the company is heading in
Oh boy, this is a big one. If I don’t know what direction has been chosen for the upcoming quarter and year, how can I perform well enough to incorporate key messaging, products and features in my daily work? The best way to highlight goals is to hold a periodic internal conference. Couple that with emails summarizing what has been said and be open to questions.
5. The company doesn’t have enough competent managers
That is a risky statement to make. It’s sometimes true, but inefficiencies often lie beyond the standard “it’s their fault’ line. Organizational structure is often too complicated for one person to take the blame for what is or isn’t happening.
The solution for that is fairly simple. Act like you’re a manager. Take the responsibility. Be creative. Always arrive on time, and this translates into both: arriving at work and keeping up with the trends. If everyone in the team feels like a part of the team, they will want the team succeed.
6. There is an overall feeling that “if I want something done, I have to do it myself”
As Jurgen Appelo writes for Forbes, “If you want something done, delegate it yourself”. Even if you’re not a manager, act like one. Take the responsibility for what is happening around you and work towards a common goal. Have the courage to delegate tasks, distribute them among your team. And say “no” when someone wants to put additional work on your shoulders. Especially, when it’s not your job to do it.
Find tools for better company performance, such as Landingi for a seamless landing page creation.
7. Most employees believe that internal meetings are a waste of time
Let’s not get crazy; not always, not everywhere and not run by anyone. Unfortunately, they sometimes are. That’s why organizations often view themselves as a machine in which every cog has to know everything there is to know that can impact anything. Unfortunately, some meetings are treated like know-it-all for everyone. The result — everyone in the team is given information not necessarily important for them and at the same time, they don’t even know the responsibilities of a new team member sitting across the room from them (see argument 3).
8. Plans are made, but they are not implemented and tasks are not getting done
This is one of the big ones. In a modern, extremely demanding and complex market (in almost every given industry, I’m afraid) change is the only constant thing. Plans have to be made and adjusted, sometimes on the go. Unforeseen circumstances, development difficulties, competition movement and few other factors can negatively impact even the best laid plans. Tasks can be build around those plans or be created separately. And even the last ones can be delayed or canceled, leaving employee with the feeling that some things are to shifty and unstable in the current company climate.
The solution for this problem is too complex to be laid out in this article. What we can say about a solution though, is the anticipation and awareness of possible roadblocks on the way. Knowing the danger is meeting the solution halfway.
9. Some employees are not confident about their place in the organization
This is a strong and very complex point. Uncertainty can come from nearly all previously mentioned issues, as well as personal validation. Is my work impacting the organization in a meaningful way? Is my voice clearly heard and appreciated? What will the 3rd quarter mean for me in the terms of professional goals?
The organization have to address these issues and tackle them early on. Investing in employees simply works. But it have to start with manager’s and organization’s time-management. As the Harvard Business Review study shows,
on average, managers have fewer than seven hours per week of uninterrupted time to do deep versus shallow work. They spend the rest of their time attending meetings, sending e-communications or working in time increments of less than 20 minutes, a practice that makes it difficult to accomplish a specific task and in the worst cases can lead to employee burnout.
10. Spike in sales doesn’t equal the spike in profits
Reasons are multiple, here are most common:
- At least part of sales are made on credit — customers pay later rather than up front or in let’s say, in a week-long window.
- Some purchases are made on credit, where suppliers pay later for goods.
- Cash is used to buy stock, which is sold (and bears fruits) later.
This is an organizational and financial problem and can be solved due to, for example, an external audit.
Final notes
According to Flamholtz and Randle, these are the most pressing issues, when scaling your business. As always, not all of them will makes sense in the context of a given company, but some of them will probably take impact on the organization’s overall performance. That would probably be the case for the meetings, which are notorious for being ineffective in a large number of offices.
When scaling a company you have to remember about ripple effects. As a marketer, you probably want to be effective while producing high-quality content, creating innovative campaigns and associating your brand with targeted demographics. What you have to remember is that marketing has a pretty unique sit at the company’s table. It’s responsible about communications strategy, image and performance (not mentioning sales). That’s why meetings have to be always on point (can’t afford to lose time) and a certain amount of knowledge have to be always present. When you’re criticizing the status quo, don’t criticize everything. Businesses are scaling because it’s a natural order of things. Giving your managers a break and a little time to make adjustments to the organization can be a good idea.
