Oftentimes, many small and even mid-sized businesses become so focused on growing the business itself that we never stop to consider the impact of a key personnel loss.
Personnel issues with key people can have a huge impact on your company’s success.
As your company grows, it’s important to think about things that could jeopardize your investment, and your company’s future.
Here are some things you should work on, even if things are going well:
1. Devise a system for working on the business.
Identify key areas of your business to focus on, that need to be worked on, and decide who will be working on them. Then, schedule up to an hour per week to get together with your team to solve each issue. You will be able to accomplish a lot by focusing on issues on a consistent basis.
2. Develop your leaders.
Make sure you are training, mentoring, and progressively delegating business results to your leaders in these key roles.
3. Work on the business.
Focus on understanding and improving your business processes. These systems will vary based on complexity and the type of industry you are in.
4. Identify key dependencies.
You are bound to have key people within your organization that are the only one who can perform their critical role. These are also people that are so successful within their role that no one else can perform to their level. These usually include top salespeople, talented engineers, and owners.
5. Create a risk-management plan.
Your risk-management plan might include cross-training and mentoring so your team can perform a variety of roles, as well as documenting and discussing contingency plans with your leadership team.
While most business leaders are aware that they should be crossing these tasks off of their to-do list, it can be easy to put off, especially when things are going smoothly. Taking a proactive approach to crisis management will serve as both a benefit to the future of your company, but also to your business success today.
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