If you want to annoy your employees, keep doing their work for them. Think you never do that? When was the last time you “helped out” because you wanted to ensure work was done the right way? Still nothing? Last week, how many hours did you spend doing anything that you’ve hired somebody else to do versus functioning as a CEO? Ouch. We all do it, even though we know we shouldn’t.
Your Name in all the Boxes
The role of the CEO evolves as a company grows. Your ability as the Founder or CEO to step into that evolution that can make or break your company. When a company is small, your name might be in every box in the organizational chart. As you gain more work you discover that you need help and begin to hire. What happens next seems ok at the time but will lead to what I call “the chaos of growth.”
Great Employees Cross the Lines
You hire good people who come to work and do whatever needs to be done regardless of whether it fits their job description. This happens frequently in fast growing companies because people are committed to the company. Over time, this creates challenges because there aren’t clearly defined lines of responsibility. Some employees are overworked while others seem to “skate” with little to show for their time.
Lack of clear expectations and decision-making authority causes confusion. It can create situations where you, the CEO, dip down into the work itself to get something done quickly and the right way. This “if you want something done right you have to do it yourself” approach can work against you. It can slow the growth of your company because you are continually distracted from leader-level work. It can also tick off your employees who are trying to do their best for you. “But,” you say, “I want my team to know I will help them and do whatever it takes.” My reply is that, for every hour you are doing work that could be done by another person, you aren’t doing the work of CEO and you are overpaying yourself. Ouch again.
The Fatal Mistake that Creates Chaos
Let’s look at basic levels in an organizational structure. There are, at its simplest, three levels of employee—
- the individual contributor who does the work
- the first line manager who manages a group of individual contributors to achieve the goals of the company
- the senior leader (or in smaller businesses the CEO) who manages first line managers to execute strategy and achieve the company’s vision
The need for business skills and leadership capabilities increases at each level. Conversely, the importance of having the skill to do the job decreases in importance. Don’t misunderstand, managers and leaders can’t be clueless about the work of their departments—that never works. It’s helpful if they have come up through the ranks and know what it takes to succeed in a job. But their role changes as they get higher. It’s no longer their responsibility to do the work. Rather it’s their responsibility to make sure their team members know how to do their work according to the company’s values, value proposition, and standard processes. Managers need to draw out the best work by others to ensure the company’s goals are met. Senior leaders must ensure that managers have the business skills and leadership capabilities to do this.
This is where speed of growth creates the perfect storm for chaos. Because everyone is so busy, there’s little time to address development needs. We think people will just know how to do their job and when they don’t, the managers and leaders end up helping out. Frustration mounts on both sides as this happens. Problems occur when the lines of accountability begin to blur.
There’s a Better Way
In very small companies you, the CEO, may function at all three levels depending on your expertise. The first roles you should divest are those where you lack experience or expertise. The hardest to divest are those where you do. However, it’s critical that you let go and enable others to do great work for your company. If the work is straightforward, training can help. However, if you need the work done the way you would do it, apprenticeship is best.
Enable Yourself to be CEO Every Day
Here’s the Accountability Mapping process we use:
- Identify all the work to be done at every level including yours. Don’t think about the people in your company, nor your existing organizational chart.
- Group work into roles that make sense. Be objective at this stage. Don’t build roles around your current team or their current roles. Don’t let guilt get in your way. Clearly define:
- The purpose of each role
- The deliverables for which the role is accountable
- To whom and how often
- The metric that will measure success
- How this deliverable is tied to compensation
- Draw the organizational structure necessary to achieve the company’s goals. Don’t just rewrite your current structure, be creative, be thoughtful, and be strategic. If the company is still quite small, your name may still be in several boxes. Note the roles you will divest, in what order, and by what date.
- Match your existing employees to roles
- Identify who currently has the greatest capability to deliver the work. This can be incredibly hard for Founders who have long relationships with their teams. However, it’s important to make the hard, right decision for your company. You can honor your long-time employees in this process by putting them in roles where they can excel.
- Identify each person’s strengths and gaps for that role. What can they do well today? Where will they need help to successfully execute that role? Leverage strengths by connecting people in a mentoring relationship to close gaps.
- Determine the roles for which you need to hire new employee. Prioritize and sequence when those hires will be made. Determine who on the existing staff will cover that work until you hire.
- Meet 1:1 with each employee to review their role
- Discuss each accountability. Let them ask as many questions as they have
- Ask them to explain each deliverable in their words so you know you’re aligned on expectations
- Ask what s/he feels confident doing and where they would like some help
- Openly discuss your thoughts about their strengths and gaps
- Prioritize the top 2-3 gaps that, if filled, would have the greatest impact on the employee’s ability to do the job well
- Agree on a plan to get the employee the development they need
By going through this process you will free yourself to focus primarily on CEO-level work. It will increase accountability, create role clarity, and reenergize your team. Your team will thank you.