Every entrepreneur reaches a point of business complexity where the scope and scale of the operation is beyond their capacity to fulfill on their own. This point in the lifecycle of a business presents great risks to the entrepreneur. It can be a time of great stress and compromised decision-making ability or, if caught and acted upon in good time, can create opportunities for personal and business growth.
Ideally, entrepreneurs never allow themselves to get to this point, yet in my experience as a business coach it seems almost inevitable. The entrepreneur, no matter what sector they are operating in, driven by passion and desire to achieve her goals, simply does not have the discipline, knowledge, capacity or the support she needs to balance action and reflection and develop the awareness she needs to make the choices that will help her stay on top of her game. It’s exactly at this moment that a coaching partnership becomes a godsend and lifesaver to both the entrepreneur and her business. Business clients we’ve worked with are forever grateful for the coaching intervention and support.
For the business to become sustainable, it is essential that every entrepreneur become aware of their unique strengths, passions, skills and style to attract the right people and build a synergistic team that will invest in creating balanced growth of the business.
Your team can only succeed as a team if you are clear about a number of things that create the framework within which they can operate and perform their designated roles to the best of their abilities. These are:
- A clear vision, values and mission for your business, shared and ideally posted some where your staff and your clients can see.
- Roles and relations with clearly articulated responsibilities, authority and accountabilities
- Standards of agreement, your expectations of each role and of the team as a whole reflected in clear performance review process and compensation schedule.
When these basics are in place and periodically reviewed together, while acknowledging and celebrating individual and team achievements, the entrepreneur has created the basis to grow a workplace culture that feels good to be in, both as staff and as client.
An attitude of appreciation, gratitude, collaboration and service is palpable and grows naturally from a clear and sound structure. This culture of success can quickly replace one of entitlement, mean spiritedness and stingy, self-centeredness that permeates workplaces where these leadership basics have not been met.
It’s when the business owner walks their talk and honours their core values, acknowledges staff contributions and achievements and follows through on commitments they make to themselves and to their team that there is growth in employee trust, morale and productivity and the attitude of entitlement, that emerges and is fed in a culture of isolation and alienation generated through poor or haphazard leadership is transcended and transformed. Contact the coach today and discover how investing in your business is an investment in yourself.
About Julia von Flotow
