How big is your business?
Me, myself and I
1-2 Staff
At this stage, you are wearing many hats and balancing a lot of different priorities. You often need to triage and focus on what is most urgent and important. Although it may feel difficult to prioritize at this stage, it is incredibly valuable to put energy into creating a solid vision and strategic plan for the company you want to grow. With a clear vision and strategic goals in place, the decisions you need to make on a daily basis will become simpler, your progress will be easier to track, and how to market your unique offer will become clearer.
Small Team
2-10 Staff
At this stage, your team has begun to grow and with it, your productivity and potential. You’ve been able to take on more work, and your team members are starting to specialize. The dynamics of how your team works together is now on your radar, so this is a great time to think about your company culture, and to dedicate energy to building a sense of community within your team. It’s also a good time to let your employees help shape the future of the company. The earlier a business does these things, the faster a team will work through the stages of group development, and the fewer issues will arise later, saving you time, money and energy.
Growing
10-20 Staff
At this stage your team is growing and the dynamics of how they work together are shifting. You’ve now got a well-oiled machine of people in specialized roles, and may even have project teams who work fairly independently from others. This is a great time to revisit your strategic plan, do some maintenance on your company culture, and dedicate time to continue building skills for effective teamwork within your staff. The more frequently a business does these things, the easier it will be to achieve your goals, as your team will know what they are working toward, how they work best together, and how to efficiently deal with issues that may arise, allowing you to stay focused on growing the business.
Scaling
20-50 Staff
At this stage, your operations are starting to grow exponentially, and your management structure has more than likely had to expand. The addition of new levels of management and new roles in the company means your team’s dynamics are also shifting. Tensions often arise at this stage, especially between the ‘old’ guard of staff who have been around since the early days, and the ‘new’ team members who are now in senior management positions. These tensions, and the issues that are born out of them, can be diffused and addressed by taking time at this stage to focus on re-aligning your strategic plan, adapting your company values to your new structure, building a sense of community, and addressing operational and interpersonal issues before they threaten your productivity.
Maturing
50+ Staff
At this stage, your business model, team, and operations are maturing to a point where you are sometimes able to take a step back and trust that things will still run smoothly. Regardless, you will continue to have employees come and go, operational or interpersonal problems will still arise, and the company may keep on growing, so it’s important when you hit this stage to make time to do maintenance work on your strategy, culture and team. At the same time, you may be going through a process of pivoting or adapting your business model to new markets or opportunities. The process of change management is a large undertaking, and we can help with targeted workshops to assess the impact of the change and readiness of the company to take it on.