A Founder and CEO inadvertently sacks himself…

A good friend I have known for over 20 years founded a cool tech company on the mainland with two mates some years ago.

Three years in they were at around 20 team members and had raised funding from some excellent investors with a proven track-record of backing the right tech start-ups.

They needed some help to get the house in order and asked me to take a look.

When I asked, “show me your org chart and job descriptions” all I heard was crickets.

“Ahhh, well that is one of your issues with the chaos of your current growth - no one knows what they are responsible for (and not), and the quarterly projects or KPIs they own”, I said.

To this day, I am still amazed at how many small businesses I come across that don’t have these two simple tools in place, and I share with them this short video to humorously illustrate what is actually going on within their team.

I helped them get this important area of Kick-Ass Managerness sorted over two quarters, and left them to it.

Over a beer a year later when I was next in Sydney, I asked him how business was.

“Great! We’re now over 40 team members, and I sacked myself a few months ago.”

Always intrigued with growth stories, especially fast ones, I asked the obvious “what the fuck happened!?”

My friend, already one of the most laconic yet paradoxically driven founders I’ve known, said.

“You know those job descriptions you got us to put together, then refine every quarter so our responsibilities, projects and KPIs align with the business’ current quarterly focus?”

Me: “obvi”.

“Well, I updated mine as the CEO, sat back and thought - I don’t want to do 80% of those fucking things, and they don’t play to my strengths”.

So, he talked to his Board and suggested they needed a different CEO, from the founding one.

They went on to hire an awesome CEO with deep experience growing other tech businesses.

Their business now has over 100 team members and is doing extremely well.

My friend went on to own a corner of the business he had great skill and passion for.

Then, as the business continued its growth (they are now over 100 team members), he went down to 4 days a week, then 3 then out all together.

He’s still a decent shareholder in the business but is now off doing work he loves in another business, while this one continues to grow and increase in value.

We hear all the time how many shit business coaches are out there, so we like to do things differently when helping small business owners with 5 to 30 team members, make the changes in their business and team, so the owner can live the lifestyle they signed up for.

Our small business coaching services are jam packed in our ‘Business Transformation Program’.

Over 16 weeks, we have a 30 minute weekly one-on-one with the owner, to provide advice on the business’ current growth challenges, and answer any questions they have on the three courses our short daily email guides them through - one at a time to become a more effective leader, a kick-ass manager and more productive while less stressed.

Around half of our teachings and coaching is around people.

That’s because we believe people are the hardest thing in small business AND the greatest asset.

These two management tools, the org chart and job descriptions are key communication tools to help the team and business grow with ease.

In your annual strategic planning, you should review the org chart - not just for what is needed now - but also what it may look like in 3, 5 and 10 years.

This will allow you to start building a bench of A-Players to fill the future roles, to underpin the growth.

In our Program we show owners and managers how to create simple yet highly effective One Page Job Descriptions (JDs).

There are three sections to this:

That’s it, simple.

The KPIs and Projects for the quarter should only be a handful for each team member, and ones they own not shared with anyone else - “a responsibility shared is a responsibility halved”.

I see 3+ page long JDs all the time, and they are useless - information overload, and a lot of repetition, or material that should live in the Operations Manual, not on a One Page Job Description.

We coach and live by SFA - Simple. Focus. Action.

If you haven’t yet filled your business with a team of A-Players and think you can get better at leading and managing them, jump on our ‘Business Transformation Program’ waitlist. We share our experience growing many successful teams and businesses, give you a tonne of tools and templates, and point you to the best resources to reinforce our teachings on small business leadership and management. We only open the Program to a group of 8 business owners 3 times a year (March, June and September).

Cheers,

Troy | Founder | Grow A Small Business