Dan is a business owner of a growing SME in the construction technology sector with revenue of just over £3m and currently 25 staff. He has experienced many highs and lows in building his business over the years but is proud of what he has achieved.
More recently Dan noticed how harder it was becoming to run and grow the business. The market had become much more competitive, and it was getting harder to retain and motivate good staff. He was frustrated that he was not getting regular and sufficient time to focus on the long-term strategic growth of his business.
He worked long hours; often alone, with limited support and expertise. Yet Dan felt like he was constantly fighting fires and doing the heavy lifting on critical issues.
At times he felt overwhelmed about how to take his business to the next level. Often, he woke up in the middle of the night worrying about short term cash flow or the long-term financial sustainability of the business.
Dan felt his team was not working as productively or effectively as they could and seemed to lack a clear sense of direction and focus. He was tired of dealing with petty people issues, performance issues and team politics despite all his communication.
“It was a hell of a lot easier when the business was smaller, and I could keep on top of everything myself without having to rely on working through a management team to get stuff done”.
He had read numerous management books, watched videos, and attended a couple of courses, yet despite all the useful ideas and advice, he had struggled to find the time to implement much of it.
He even held some off-site meetings with the team and although they spent a lot of discussion time going around in circles, they ended up with a plan that he felt everyone was committed to.
But then key people left at critical times, squabbles over who was doing what, struggling to keep up with the day job, customer complaints, unexpected legal issues, cash flow & profitability issues always seem to get in the way.
Dan was tired of all the unnecessary drama.
When I started working with Dan, we agreed to focus our work on three areas. The first area was around the business strategies & systems – sales, marketing, finance etc. – making improvements to these areas of the business. The second area was Dan’s personal development, helping him move from doer to leader and focusing on areas like leadership, delegation and communication. The third area was performance accountability. Ensuring he was being held accountable for delivering on the things he said he wanted to do with his business.
Looking back, Dan says there were four key organisational changes that had the greatest impact on his business.
First, we embedded a disciplined strategic planning process.
Like a lot of business owners, Dan was spending way too much time working in the business, dealing with the detail of keeping the business going, as opposed to working on the business: designing, planning and mapping out the future.
And, like a lot of owners when he tried to start working on the business, he usually started in the wrong place, simply reacting to the latest crisis – be it people, customers, growth or cash.
We implemented a cascaded strategy planning cycle which is a simple yet powerful tool to set up your business for the coming year(s). It creates the context for what you are doing this quarter, this month, this week, and today.
Secondly, we needed to create clarity and alignment with the team.
This started with a team day, engaging the management team in the draft strategic plan and getting their inputs to refining it.
Following the team day, we implemented a team meeting rhythm. A disciplined rhythm of recurring team meetings focused on goal setting, alignment, reporting, and accountability that occur on an annual, quarterly, monthly, weekly, and daily basis.
To give employees the clarity they need the top leaders must agree to some simple but critical and connected questions (purpose, vision, values, targets, goals & priorities etc.) that set out the business direction and thereby eliminate even small discrepancies in their thinking.
Thirdly, we focused on building a cohesive leadership team
Like many businesses, this business was run by a well-intentioned leadership team who had a good understanding of the details of their business. Though they talked about being strategic, they couldn’t articulate a clear simple strategy, and they didn’t have a consistent method for evaluating their decisions. The leadership team was constantly managing against a long list of broad-ranging goals, some of which weren’t connected and most of which related to only a few members of the team.
The first step was to make sure the right people were sitting on the leadership team and the number of members was not too cumbersome. The team committed to themselves and each other to do the ongoing work required to develop and maintain a cohesive and performing team.
Fourthly, Develop Dan and his managers as Coaches
Business today is demanding and rapidly changeable and that is mirrored in the role of the leader. While the manager’s job traditionally was to plan, organise and control, a coaching leader establishes a purpose teams can unite behind and develop a road map of how to achieve it.
They harness the talents of their team by taking the time to understand them, involve them and allow them opportunities for long term growth and advancement.
Removing barriers and driving effective collaboration between teams (or team members) will move the business towards its goals while delivering high-performance standards.
A coaching leader must be an accomplished team builder – inspiring, motivating and resolving conflict – to create committed and empowered teams. They must focus on long term results and guide others towards those desired commercial outcomes.
We’re now 19 months into working together and Dan says that he feels like he is back in control of his business and his life. Business revenue forecast is £4.1m in the coming year and profits are looking healthy despite some difficult trading conditions ahead. Staff turnover has dropped significantly, and morale increased. Dan feels as though he has a business that is resilient to handle anything that is thrown at them and is confident it is in great shape to deliver on its ongoing expansion plans.
