Starting a new business isn’t always as easy as it sounds.
We all have different reasons for doing it. Often it’s because we love what we do, feel we have plenty to offer, but are tired of the constraints of being an employee.
As the head of the business you must provide the vision, the strategy and demonstrate strong leadership. The challenge is that often we are required to be a “jack of all trades”; one minute we might be completing a VAT return, writing a “tweet” or recruiting new staff. Recruiting and managing an effective team requires a whole new set of skills, so as your business grows it is important to take the team with you and align their efforts to the goals of the business, remembering to…
- Communicate with them.
- Praise good work and “going the extra yard”.
- Motivating them as individuals.
One way of applying the above is by organising regular 1:1s. A 30 minute monthly 1:1 meeting with each employee you directly manage can make a difference to your employee and the level of engagement and productivity they subsequently deliver.
What is a 1:1?
- time to talk about your employee, their performance and how they are doing.
- taking time out to celebrate the things that have gone well.
- an opportunity to discuss what could have been better/different
- a focus on achieving objectives
- an agreement of actions to support business achievement.
Managing performance doesn’t have to be negative, time consuming, costly or difficult, it’s when you don’t manage it that it becomes all of these things.
So do take time out to meet and engage with your staff and ensure they understand your expectations and you understand their own aspirations and ambitions. Communication is the key word here – how will they know what’s going well, what’s not going well, where you can help, what new opportunities are coming up and how you can more effectively work as a team to meet the goals of the business.
Don’t be scared to start something new.
“Leaders who don’t listen will eventually be surrounded by people who have nothing to say.” Andy Stanley.