When You’re Not So Little Any More

The Past Won’t Take You Forward

Remember the Good Old Days?  It was just you and a few employees. We all shared in the excitement of our successes, the misery of our failures, and the anxiety of the unknown. But we were in it together. Everyone knew what the others cared about, what they were good at, and what they weren’t. And we all did whatever it took to succeed.

Communication just happened automatically. No need for organization structures and policies and complex systems. We hardly needed to write anything down.  When something needed communicated, we just talked.

And it worked! Look how successful we’ve become!

But Now…

It seems like some staff members just don’t get it. Unlike the original team, they lack the ability to intuitively understand what you expect of them. Of course, you rarely see some of them – after all, they don’t report directly to you like the original team did. Maybe that’s the problem:  Middle Management. Some of them don’t have the hiring and leadership skills you have. Or maybe it’s those newer employees. All they seem to care about is their own job.  They’re not excited about the success of the company like we all were in the Good Old Days.

And times are tougher now. Maybe all business are struggling like this.  The economy’s tough. Our industry has become more competitive. People are taking their business to online competitors around the globe.

There are a lot of possible explanations.  But you’re a successful company founder who knows your business inside and out. So surely you’re not the problem, right?

Here’s the Bad News

The bad news is that you’re the leader, so you don’t get to pass the buck so quickly. If your middle managers don’t have the skills and values you need, that is your responsibility. And if the staff doesn’t share the vision for the company success, that is your responsibility. And if external factors and competition are challenging, that is your job to lead through them. Did you take on that leadership mantle just for the good times?

But it’s Really the Good News

The good news is that if you are the problem, you have some control over it. OK, there is more bad news:  It means you have to change, and change isn’t easy. And you probably need some help or you would have already recognized and made the changes.

Letting go of mindsets and processes and structures – and sometimes even values – that have made you successful is difficult. But as the saying goes, “what got you here won’t get you there.” Your challenge in keeping your success on track is to figure out which things you need to tenaciously cling to and which things you need to let go of. And you won’t like some of those answers.

There can be more Good Old Days ahead. But anything worth having is worth fighting for. It’s just that you might not have realized the fight was going to be with yourself.