As an entrepreneur, your job evolves along with your business. So when your company reaches a certain size, you’re no longer responsible for everything but have to hire people for certain roles.
Whilst growth is great for the business, moving away from day to day roles like sales and supply chain management to managing staff in those roles can be quite testing.
Ian Cowley, Managing Director of cartridgesave.co.uk, gives some tips on how to adapt to your new role.
1. Understand your new job role
Once your business is up and running, it’s no longer your job to do everything, but to implement your strategy whilst taking the reins.
You may feel like you’re slacking since you your role is no longer about ‘doing’ and you spend a lot of time behind a desk, but don’t. The company is not the same as is was at the beginning and neither is your role. So you’ve traded in all the ‘doing’ work for the decision-making. Making the right decisions for your business is no easy thing as you know yourself, and they can vary from taking five minutes to a couple months and aren’t limited to the office.
You need to learn to enjoy and take satisfaction from your new role. I sometimes miss the gratification of completing projects that would have been my responsibility a few years ago. Now, I’ve learned to take pleasure from seeing the ongoing growth of the company, knowing that it is due to effectively leading your staff.
2. Keep communication channels open
Everyone knows communication is essential. However, it does get more challenging when you’re removed from the day-to-day operations. You’ve got to make a routine and integrate it into your working week. For example, we hold meetings every week with managers where we discuss what priorities and challenges they are facing. It’s also a good idea to have appraisals regularly to substitute the informal ‘good job’ and ‘well done’, which you would have given daily when working side by side.
3. Don’t get bogged down with micromanaging
To make a proper assessment of how the business is doing, you have to look at how your managers are doing. Review their work and output weekly and make sure they are meeting expectations. You’ve got to trust them to manage their own teams and put your feedback into practice. Micromanaging problems will cause you to miss the big picture while you’re getting bogged down in the detail.
4. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Our management system was greatly improved once we added KPIs. We’ve made a suite for each department with each department head that clearly communicates expectations to staff. KPIs are also a great tool for diagnosis if your service levels are being affected. If the KPIs are being missed, finding out why will solve the problem. If they’re not being met at all, then you know to look into other factors such as team time.
5. Trust is important
Don’t try to make everyone into a copy of you. No one will do a task or process the exact same way as you, but that that doesn’t mean it’s wrong. It’s not good for morale to criticise someone’s work because they haven’t done it the same way as you would. You’ve got to let your ego go, because their approach might get the same result, which is good. It might even be better.
About the Author
Ian Cowley is the managing director of the UK’s largest dedicated printer cartridge company – www.cartridgesave.co.uk.