When you decided to start your business, you knew exactly what you wanted to do and that you would do everything you could to be a success. Where there’s growth, there are growing pains. We discuss some of the pain you feel running a team and how you can relieve some of that pain today.
Starting your business was a dream come true. Everything you thought it would be. Growing your customer base, making people happy, providing a great service to your community, and a freedom you never felt before. Every day you wake up excited to be an entrepreneur. Until problems erupted in your team. Employees begin to slack off, show up late, or not show up at all. Problems arise and you begin to see it show up elsewhere in the business. You never saw this coming and your dream tends to feel like a nightmare. Where there’s growth, there are growing pains. We discuss some of the pain you feel running a team and how you can relieve some of that pain today. Let’s get started.
Small Business Owners are “Accidental HR Managers.”
When you decided to start your business, you knew exactly what you wanted to do and that you would do everything you could to be a success. You studied your market, gathered the data, invested the money, and most of all had some sleepless nights to reach your self-made deadlines. Never did you think having a team would be as hard as it is. Hiring your first employee felt great. Maybe it was a close friend, or someone you used to work with before going off on your entrepreneurial endeavor. You knew you just needed someone to help you run the business.
Now, with some time and hard work, you are finding out that running a team is much harder than they told you it would be. Dealing with so many personalities, answering questions all day, putting out fires you didn’t create. It quickly became overwhelming. You didn’t sign up to be a HR manager, you wanted to run your business and do what you love. Those team problems don't show up on your balance sheet… if you're using that. It takes more energy to be a leader and an owner. Energy doesn’t show up on paper or in reports. Working with your employees and learning how to run a team is your best course of action. As your business grows so will your team. And as your team grows, so will you. The best owners know either how to lead a team better or get help doing it.
The Five Patterned Failure Points
Unclear roles
The first pattern is having unclear roles for each position. If you hire an administrative assistant you have to outline the specific duties of your assistant. The same for hiring a car washer, cashier, or floor manager. However, once duties begin to creep outside of that set scope, roles can become cloudy and that will increase confusion between the team. Confusion equals things not getting done at all. That’s when real problems happen. No matter what role you hire for, it is important to update and realign everyone’s duties within the organization. The less the team is confused the more they can focus on their responsibilities.
Weak onboarding
Your problems can start as soon as a new hire steps through the door. When you lack a solid onboarding process, many things can get missed that are necessary not only for your company but the legal aspects as well. Employees classify incorrectly, a 1099 gets filled out instead of a W-2 Form. Okay… Maybe you have those processes in place. Do you have a handbook? Are the processes and technology ready for the new hire? What about all the computer access they will need moving forward? Without the full onboarding process up to date and accurate, you will miss important steps and that will show up later, often at the worst times. Improve your onboarding process to create the best experience for new hires. This increases their confidence in you, while increasing loyalty in them.
Unresolved conflict
It’s never fun when things get heated at work. When so many people work together, personalities will interact and problems will arise. It’s what happens. No matter what the situation is, one way to ruin the trust and productivity of the team is to let a conflict go without resolution. You stop a fight going on between two team members by simply separating them and telling them to get back to work. That doesn’t solve the problem, it stalls the problem. Everyone is still on edge and can stay on edge for days. Rumors start, team members pick sides, and nothing gets done. When problems happen you need to take everyone involved and resolve the problem then. It may not be a quick fix but it’s better than letting the emotions simmer just to boil over again.
Feedback only in times of crisis
Employees respond to feedback very well when it is given correctly. Business can get tricky and become stressful at times. Your employees may feel that stress also, especially with smaller teams. Employees can be having their own problems outside of work. This is all the more reason to recognize when people do great work. Most of us have the habit of only telling people how they are doing when they are only doing poorly. Making mistakes, falling below expectations, lack of responsibility is all team members hear. People perform better when they know that they are on the right path. As the owner, it is up to you to instill these practices into your workplace culture. Tell people when they are doing a good job more than when they do bad work. Your team will work better and enjoy their work more.
Lacking real connection
Teams aren’t family. However, they should work closely together like a family. When teams lack real connection they lack real team work. Although you don’t think about how your new hires will connect with your current team, you can always implement a system that does. A team is meant to work together. The best teams, no matter if it’s in business or sports, are the teams that have great chemistry. Chemistry looks like running a new program and someone already working on troubleshooting any bugs that show up. The same in basketball when a teammate calls for the alley oop and it's a powerful slam dunk. The connection is chemistry. When your team can harness a great, lasting connection, is when a lot of your people's problems diminish.
Waiting is more expensive than acting.
Urgency is a strong skill to have when running a business. When you have great ideas, you move to action quickly to see how well this idea will really work. So, it’s a bit confusing when owners lack urgency when it comes to their team. New furniture or tech is needed, but they hold off for three more months. Problems weren't resolved so those members are still feeling on edge. That one employee hasn’t been showing up on time and you have yet to talk to them because they do the best work. Problems needing fixing but you have yet to fix them. When things get bad, they can only get worse without your intervention. Old clothes don’t hem themselves, the same way a consistently late employee will not show up on time again out of the blue. Action begets action. When you know how to move when a problem shows up, you can move quicker. Sometimes it’s hard to know how to move but you can’t wait too long, or the problem will only get worse. Urgency helps you solve problems and prevent new ones going forward. New processes, different report structure, more information given up front and resources to find that information later. You don’t need to know everything in order to solve your employee problems. You do need to be efficient in solving those problems when they arise.
We understand how hard it can be running a business and running a team. Personality clashes, unconfident employees, and you never signed up to be an HR manager. This is why ABS has opened its doors to business owners in need of a real HR manager. Relieving you of the pressures of the employee life cycle. Helping you onboard with efficiency, handle problems with empathy, and improve your leadership skills to guide your team with accuracy. Being a boss is no easy feat by any means. ABS provides you the resources to run your business and team with more vigor and confidence. We help you carry the weight of running a team, so you can grow in running your business.
