Are You Prepared For Scaling?
5 Things You Need To Do To Prepare Your Team For Growth In 2023
If you were to double your business tomorrow, would your systems be able to handle it? Scaling your business without proper systems in place is a huge risk.
Your team will be scrambling to keep up, which will increase frustration and lower morale. Worse, your customers will suffer and take notice, worse, some may even leave.
Before you start on this journey of growth, there are 5 things you need to do to prepare your business and your team.
1) Share your Purpose
You need to get the team on board. They need to understand why you’re going to scale, their role in the upgrade, and the benefits that it will bring them.
This is called being transparent and it is one of the most critical, and overlooked elements to the scaling process.
This is because transparency builds trust, and makes employees feel that they’re working for a company with higher ethical standards and they are valued and acknowledged for their personal contribution.
According to a 2014 American Psychological Association Survey, 25% of employees do not trust their employer. Half of them believe their employer is not upfront with them and open to the overall vision of the company.
When asked, most employees felt their employers were not straight forward with the company vision and not providing the right information to be truly successful in their jobs. This results in a huge drop off in the level of commitment and potential that employees apply toward the job.
When transparency is added to the corporate culture, employees will be more engaged and committed to the vision of the company longer term - and that is precious. The reason is they fully understand the mission and feel vested to share ideas, display their creativity, and bring about innovation to achieve the desired objective.
So how does a company bring about the full value of transparency to the workplace?
The answer is communication. By communication I mean, direct and clear communication which comes from a place of honesty and integrity - the core of your value system. Strong communication is multi-directional and transparent leadership starts with the CEO or President.
2) Map your Processes
Looking forward you’re going to want to optimize all of your processes but in order to do that, you first need to map out how you’re currently doing things; noting where improvements can be made.
This process won’t be fast nor easy, but it’s worth the time and focus to get a clear picture of where you are currently, how things are functioning in detail, and what needs to change for optimum efficiency. It might seem obvious but many businesses don’t give themselves enough time to ensure everyone is crystal clear with how things work across management.
Remember to keep checking-in on your processes throughout the scaling journey. Ensure that ‘the map’ includes checking in on your staff; making certain that they are feeling supported and equipped to handle the growth.
At some point, the map will look different from the one you created in the growth/scaling period; prioritise sustainability and longevity.
3) Document your Requirements
Documenting these requirements will help you choose the right technology, and will also help you test that the solution does what you want it to do.
Document, document, document - staff may come and go, and they take that knowledge with them! Have a central location to collate and store data that will inform future decision making and adjustments
4) Choose the Right Solution
Sometimes you can buy the right system and sometimes you need to build it. This can be the most important decision that you make as it can be what differentiates you from your competitors.
Of course making this decision is specific to the shape and brand of your company. Your vision. But keep observing ‘the masters’, stay up-to-date with reading, get a sense of cultural and contextual trends, research the international markets, move in new places and circles like attending a conference, note your most ‘across’ it and innovative comrade, and always keep an ear out - you never know who will be the right person, with the right solution. It may be a staff member who isn’t even in management who has a finger on the pulse.
5) And Finally – Get your Team on Board
Introducing change across all aspects of your business will cause disruption. By taking your team on the journey with you, you’ll get buy-in and support as you introduce new changes to the business.
Again, we are back to communication! Communication needs to be a two-way street both coming from top-down and down-up. Employees are most engaged and committed to the process when senior leadership continually updates and communicates company vision, strategy, value, and the truth about their current situation.