I’ve known far too many business owners that want to put their hands into every facet of the operations; it makes sense that they’d want to have tight control over their creation but what really happens is a spiral into micromanagement which stifles the creativity of the workforce.
My advice to any business owner is to place their trust in their hiring decision and to focus on the macro management to get things done.
The right individuals (or teams), hired on based on their skills, are going to perform well when they are given control over their tasks. When you’re able to lead them via ideas and projects, versus nitpicking the everyday minutia of their performance, you will see the employees flourish and deliver great results.
Here are a few things to consider dedicating resources toward so that you may build these autonomous teams that can be dictated by macro management:
Provide an info database
Empower the employees through the use of informational databases so that it’s less likely they will need to constantly request permission or inquire about duties. Questions employees ask can be fed into a database which easily allows your business to provide the right answers without having to individually respond to each inquiry. Interestingly enough is that the questions also become sales, marketing, and customer service-related resources since much of the general questions asked by employees are those that are brought up by the average customer.
A neat way to automate and streamline the process is through bot services which can deliver responses from such a database and data set (https://kore.com/, for example, can provide that).
Tools for a content marketing ecosystem
There’s no debate that great content to fuel a company blog and social media feed creates value but often it’s easy to see that there are managerial decisions that produce such pieces which miss the mark. The best way to leverage a team toward content creation, in my mind, is to simply hand over the keys to the platform, along with the tools, and allow the employees to have fun. Who better to explain your products/services than the individuals that work with (and sell it) every day?
A great way to go about doing that is by giving employees video cameras and software so they may provide questions, feedback, tutorials, and whatever crosses their mind without going through a rigid content creation process. Then, after content is created, hand it over to another team that can condense the information and pivot that content into a sales funnel.
Lead the way for research & development
The R&D process can be tedious but it’s not something you want to go at alone (though I’m sure many of you will do so, regardless). Far too many business owners make decisions for the company through their gut reaction to the marketplace which leads the business toward certain demise. Yes, the business is in the hands of the owner but there are plenty more elements to the machine than the conductor – there needs to be a consideration from those that make it run (employees).
A great business leader is the type that will present a problem but allow the employees to fully tackle the solution without having to cut down ideas left and right. Trust should be given to teams to handle growth.
Takeaway
Place the right people into teams into the core areas of business, keep your hands out of the muck, stay focused on the big picture, and know when to let go. Team building is a difficult task, to say the least, but when it’s done right and given the right environment – it’s able to really deliver.
If there’s anything to take away from this it’s this: you hired professionals to do duties based on skills they possess… so let them do it! Trust you made the right judgement and let them do their duties with the best of their abilities without you constantly interfering. Do this and the business will be a success.
