When you grow your business, you enter a world of changes. And you can’t possibly accomplish it all without your team, partners or suppliers. You aim to become bigger, more efficient or more competitive. Whatever it is, you are getting to the next level of your business.
But as sometimes it happens, growth is not on everybody’s agenda. So inevitably, some will leave you. And that’s just how it is – don’t take it personally. As you prepare for growth, you have to carry out four significant changes in your business, and when you do that, it creates friction moments at which people leave:
Organisational structure
First, as you grow, let’s say, from 10 to 50 or even 350+, you must bring in place or further develop an organisational structure. You will create hierarchical levels and a more extensive management team because you need to delegate and retain control of your business at the same time.
Organisational structures enforce a new culture that is less Laissez-faire and more defined, where people will still work in teams but have clear roles and responsibilities and reporting lines. Some will stay at lower organisational levels, others will ascend, or new bosses will join. Reporting comes in place.
Such a change is bound to bring discomfort to some, depending on expectations. And a few will leave.
Metrics and indicators bring transparency. And that is a good thing as you need clarity on how the business is progressing and what actions need to be taken to move forward. Your operations become more complex as you grow with more products, services, customers and employees. Without periodically and realistically measuring, you will lose visibility. So, the reporting gathers importance.
But KPIs also remove grey areas by bringing accountability. They show the source of a good or bad performance, a crack in a process the root cause of the mistake. Not everyone is prepared to assume such responsibility at the early stages of growth, especially if your operations are still confusing, manual, and not defined.
The standard operating procedure means there is only one accepted way to do a task, process, or activity. Implementing SOP is the first step to standardisation, guaranteeing consistent quality output for customers. It is essential when a business grows and many teams work on the same processes.
However, SOPs also bring rigidity to the way of operating. That can be limiting for cross-team work. Also, exceptions that the standard working method cannot resolve have to be escalated and take some time to be addressed. Such delays provoke customer dissatisfaction and pressure on the employees. Moreover, working hours increase, and some can’t and don’t want to cope with the stress. They leave.
Growth, particularly scaling, inevitably calls for product segmentation and automation, mainly for lower margins and massively consumed products. Often this means leaving product enhancement and fancy features out. This limits the creative expression of some product developers and even programmers. As a result, some start looking for alternative employers on the market where they can get a broad spectrum of possibilities for a creative mind.
You change the status quo when you grow, and some people are bound to leave. Unfortunately, the mistake many make at this point is trying desperately to keep those who want to go.
But think about it,
Do you need uncommitted, resentful or absent-minded people on your team while trying to take your business to the next level?
No, you don’t.
On the contrary, you are better off without them because their agenda, expectations and working preferences differ from yours. And even if you paid them more to keep them on board, that is a temporary and expensive solution. In the end, they will leave.
So, let those who want togo, go. The faster, the better.
Promote internally those who deserve it and will help you get results. Fill in the blanks with new talent. But when you look to hire, not only look for knowledge, experience and skills but also evaluate the attitude towards change and the ability to roll up the sleeves and get hands-on – so needed in times of growth.
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