It’s been a hot topic lately…new members of an entrepreneur’s leadership team that come from a corporate environment. Whether it’s a recent hire, or the result of an acquisition, many teams experience a disconnect that saps the momentum they wanted to create by joining forces.
Experienced corporate leaders bring strong skills to structure, process, data and people just when a rapidly growing business needs it. However, I’ve heard any number of highly successful industry execs who joined a small, growing company say “Whew! We prided ourselves on our hard work and speed where I came from, but this is like working in a whirlwind!”
Others have just quit in frustration over what they see as unchangeable chaos. For the owner who hired them, it’s a painful loss on many levels – money, time, team morale, how they see their dream. And the issues the hire was supposed to solve are still pounding on them every day. If you’re in a merger or acquisition, the complications compound.
What makes it work is for all the leaders to be on the same page about strategy and structure and culture. Simple enough, right? Not easy. You’ll see them talking past each other even as they earnestly try to figure out what the business needs, what each leader is expected to accomplish.
So how do you agree on clear expectations? Here are three simple, practical tools to use together as a Leadership Team. Feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions!
- Build an Accountability Chart (that’s an org chart on steroids). What structure do you need in 12 months? Clearly identify each function and 5 roles each function is accountable for.
- Agree on the answer to 8 key questions about who the company is, where it’s going and how it’s going to get there. (Why 8? Which 8? Go here.) We’ve tested this tool with nearly 5,000 companies. These are the questions to get alignment fast and effectively.
- Create a Scorecard of 5-15 numbers that predict company success and profit for next month, next quarter. Then give everyone at least one number that drives to that scorecard.
If you implement any one of these tools it will have a powerful impact, bringing together different perspectives, experiences, and corporate structures. But that is just scratching the surface! It is the power of integrating these three tools, and a handful more, that takes a good company to great. Learn more about how it all fits together with EOS® (the Entrepreneurial Operating System).
