What is the Right Culture for YOU?

Culture is a word that is thrown around a lot. Many people use it to describe work environments, businesses and organizations. Most people probably have a vague idea of what it means, but not necessarily a concrete idea about how you impact culture. 

In the past I have written articles on culture, which you can find here and here. Both of these are good, if I do say so myself. Today’s article is on the same topic, but I want to shift the focus just a little. Today we will look into how to create the right culture for your business. 

Not all cultures are created equally. They are not one size fits all. When people talk about a company having a good culture or a bad culture, what are they really saying? Simplified, if a culture matches your values and beliefs, you probably describe it as a “good culture.” Conversely, if they don’t align, you likely consider it a “bad culture”. The tricky thing is, everyone’s beliefs and values are different. 

This begs the question – how do you create a culture to fit everyone. And the answer is – you don’t. You create a culture that is right for your company. Then the culture attracts the kind of people who have values and beliefs that align with you and your business. Before we jump into creating a culture that is right for your business, let’s touch on what happens when you don’t work at your culture. 

It Is What It Is

If you do not intentionally create a culture, it doesn’t mean that you don’t have one. Rather, one evolves – unchecked. In this case, the values that emerge often come from the squeakiest wheel or the biggest personality. And that’s not always good. In fact, this is often how toxic, misogynist, and racist cultures come about. 

Without the clarity of company values – which are actively discussed and referenced – one person can start a culture where telling off-color jokes is the norm. Or a culture where the default mode is to complain about everything. Or one where backstabbing and gossip take over. Almost certainly, none of these are the values you want your company to be known for. But if these traits are emerging, it’s a guarantee that people both inside and outside the business describe your culture negatively. 

How To Get the RIGHT Culture

There are a lot of well-known and broadly studied cultures out there: 

  • Zappos is known for being weird, happy, and fun
  • Southwest Airlines employees are silly and empowered
  • Twitter staff are hardworking, smart, and passionate 
  • Google attracts the best of the best with tons of perks and benefits

What all these companies have in common is that they have taken the time to figure out what they value and how they want to be perceived. Then they keep these values and their identity alive. 

What Do You Value? 

There are several ways to determine your values. Everything from multi-day, facilitated leadership retreats to sitting in a coffee shop with a notepad. It’s up to you to determine the right method for your business. 

I’ll share one activity that leaders often find helpful. Think of the employee in your company who represents the image you want people to have when they think of you. List out all of the characteristics that make that person a great employee. Write down everything you can think of. Then add anything else you wish that person possessed. As you review this list, you will start to formulate an idea about what you value. 

Empowered with this description, start to write words or phrases that you would like your company to be known for. Between 3 and 7 is a good list. Take time to connect a statement or story to each value. Your culture should be starting to emerge. Don’t feel like you need to do this all in one sitting. Record your ideas, then let them percolate for a while. Come back to them and see if they still resonate, or if you want to add to or change them. 

One Size Does Not Fit All

This was stated earlier, but it’s worth repeating. Zappos, Southwest, Twitter and Google all sound like fun, cool places to work. If fun and cool is important to your brand, great! Go in that direction. However, many brands need to be taken very seriously. For others safety might be the most important thing they are known for. And others need to have a reputation of efficiency. Those values might not be as sexy as “fun” and “cool,” but they are just right for certain brands. 

Never Stop Talking About Them

Once you have clear values that are just right for your business, they need to be ubiquitous. They should be used in recruiting and hiring. They should be present in decision making and staff meetings. Your values should be posted throughout your facility and included in many, if not all, communications. 

It’s the talking about them that makes them real. Unless you want your values to be a “flavor of the month” initiative, you need to bring them to life. As the leader, you will want to memorize your values, and have several stories and antidotes demonstrating them. Celebrate values in action. Reward the behaviors you want to see. Own your culture by knowing who you are as a company. Be true to your values. And tell everyone about them. This is what will shape your culture.

While this process is simple, it’s not easy. If you are interested in working on creating a culture you are proud of, email me at Kim@Athena-CoCo.com. Let’s connect!

Kim Stewart

Kim is a mom, lover of being active and the outdoors,
and helper of nonprofits and small businesses.
kim@athena-coco.com

Wanna Grow Your Business? Grow Your Staff

Staff Success

Unless your business is completely run by robots or other automatons, you likely rely heavily on staff. Employees are probably the ones creating your product, communicating with your customers, delivering your services, and managing your processes. Your staff are your direct connection between you and your customers. They are responsible for executing your vision for how your business serves your customers or your community. 

In many businesses staff salaries are by far the largest line item in the budget. Yet, oftentimes things like equipment, inventory, and facilities end up getting much more attention and financial resources than the staff. Think of the time, energy and money that goes into maintaining a company vehicle. This important resource likely receives regular oil changes, preventative maintenance, and routine TLC cleaning. Imagine if the same amount of planning, time, energy and financial investment went into our people! 

When a company hits a wall in terms of growth, or a nonprofit organization becomes stagnant in the impact they are providing, it almost always comes down to culture. A stagnant business can be traced back to a dysfunctional, negative, toxic culture. Changes to other facets of the business may deliver short-term improvements. However, in order to make real progress for lasting growth and impact, the culture must be fixed. 

Healthy cultures boil down to two things: 

    1. How a company treats their people 
    2. A commitment to clear and honest communication

A business that masters these two components is well on their way to success. Obviously, attention needs to be given to financial management, quality processes, strategic planning and more. But without a healthy culture, those other things will only take you so far. 

Benefits of Nurturing Your Staff

There are hundreds of benefits a company can reap from lifting-up, valuing and honoring their employees. This article will not list hundreds of benefits. Rather, it will focus on a few key benefits that will help your business grow or your agency impact to expand. 

  • Staff who feel valued become loyal team members. Nothing beats a loyal staff member! Loyal employees do more for the PR and brand of your company than any marketing campaign ever will. When someone loves their job, they tell everyone. They attract customers, potential employees, and prospective donors for nonprofit organizations. That kind of messaging is genuine and captivating. Thus appealing to people who otherwise may have never given your business a second thought. 
  • Another benefit of loyal team members is that they work harder, are solution oriented, and care about the quality of work they do for you. These folk have a vested interest in the success of the business. They embrace the direction you are taking your company or the impact your agency is striving for in your community. Loyal employees do their best and work with the company’s interest top of mind. 
  • Supporting your staff looks good on you. Companies that invest in their employees, foster their growth, and help them pursue their career goals are companies that people want to work for. Recruiting, hiring, and training staff can be extremely expensive. Imagine if prospective employees came to you because they want to be part of how you grow your staff! Additionally, the level to which you respect your staff comes right back around. Want to be respected at work, be the leader in demonstrating what that looks like. 
  • Valuing your staff creates a positive culture. As stated above, how a company treats their staff is foundational to creating a healthy culture. And nothing fosters growth and increased impact like a healthy and positive culture. If growth and increased impact isn’t motivational enough, great cultures are fun to be part of and to lead. Since most people spend at least half of their waking hours at work, a positive company culture will improve the collective and individual mental health of the entire staff team. 

As there are hundreds of benefits to nurturing your staff, there are just as many ways to lift-up your staff. The best way to do this is to use your unique personality and leadership skills to genuinely value your staff. Still not sure how to get started? Here are some tips to get the ball rolling. 

Getting Started

  1. Listen. Take the time to listen to your staff. Fully listen. Approach conversions with a listening mind-set. There is no greater gift you can give someone than to listen to them with an intent to understand. You can read more about this topic here and here and here. 
  2. Build real relationships. Just like “Employees don’t leave jobs, they leave bosses”, staff also stay with bosses they like, enjoy being around, and respect. Listening is a great way to start down this path. Couple it with asking really good questions and you’ve got this one made! 
  3. Give them what they need. There are the basics. Workstation. Computer. Stapler. These are the obvious things – you give them whatever equipment they need to do their job. Beyond that – training and a safe environment to learn is also expected. What about those employees who need a lot of positive reinforcement? Or the ones who need to chat with you for a few minutes each day? And what about those who need to check-in regularly to make sure they are on track? Do you give them what they need? Giving employees these things (essentially your time and acknowledgement) may be challenging when you’re busy. However, when you think about the value of a loyal employee, it seems less like an interruption to your day and more like a crucial part of leading people.  
  4. The Golden Rule. It turns out that your company’s human resources are made up of HUMANS! Who would have thought? And do you know what humans like to be treated like? You guessed it – humans. This one is very simple. When interacting with an employee, think about how you would like to be treated in that interaction. This usually includes values like respect, dignity, caring, trusting, and maybe fun. If team member interactions can be tied back to company values, it’s even better. 

Before closing this article, I want to be clear that I am not suggesting tolerating staff who are not a fit for your company, your culture, or the jobs you have available. I believe wholeheartedly in hiring slowly (to ensure a good fit) and firing quickly. Rip that band-aid off if that’s the right decision. Your job as the leader is to make sure you have provided everything staff need in order to be successful. If you are confident you have fulfilled your end of the bargain and it’s still not working out, decide and take action quickly. 

Need help elevating your organization’s culture? Email me at kim@athena-coco.com to schedule a free 30-minute consultation to discuss how I can help you create a culture that will grow your business and increase your impact! 

Kim is a mom, wife, lover of being active and the outdoors,
and helper of small businesses and nonprofits.
kim@athena-coco.com 

 

Developing Great Supervisors

Boss vs. Leader

Last week’s article was focused on the basic skills that quality supervisors need. I shared three foundational attributes that any supervisor needs in order to get started with the business of leading staff. Those were: 

  1. Provide training on the what, how, and why of their role
  2. Listening – really listening to staff
  3. Treat employees like human beings

None of those sound too radical, right? And they aren’t. These seem like common sense for anyone who supervises people. However, failing to equip staff with these basic tools can mean the difference between an enjoyable work environment and a toxic one. 

The thing is, while these are basic, common sense skills; there’s a lot going on that can make them difficult to deliver. New supervisors come into the game with a lot of preconceived notions. Their approach may be based on their previous experiences with leaders, or their ideas of what a boss is supposed to do. Often feel the need to “prove” themselves, and come on too strong. Some feel the need to “show them who’s boss”. Or maybe they subscribe to the sink-or-swim mentality. 

The root of challenges for new supervisors comes from one of two things. Either they lack the confidence to lead people as human beings. Or they don’t understand the company culture and how they are expected to interact with people. Fortunately, both of these are easy to rectify! By communicating your vision and culture, new supervisors will understand how to align their actions with the organizational expectations. And by training them on the skills listed above, new supervisors will be off to a solid start on becoming a team leader. 

Next Level Supervisors

So those are the basics every supervisor needs to be “good”. What about when you want to take your leaders to their next level and create truly great supervisors? I think this quote from Deryl McKissack really defines what it takes to be a great supervisor:

“Great leadership is humble.
Being humble does not mean you are weak.
It means you are so confident that you don’t mind hearing the truth about yourself,
so that you can change.”

Being a great supervisor is as much about being confident in yourself as it is about how you lead your staff. Great supervisors have the confidence to give their staff autonomy, to shine a spotlight on their staff, and to help their team members to advance. Additionally, they take the time to understand what each of their direct reports needs to feel supported and be successful. Let’s dig in. 

  • Give Staff Autonomy

No one likes to be micromanaged. Why? Because it makes them feel like they are not trusted. Part one of giving staff autonomy means building a trusting relationship with them. Supervisors need to genuinely trust their staff to do the job the way they have been trained to do it. This comes from investing time in getting to know them as a person (as stated above). The second piece of this involves just getting out of their way and letting them succeed. 

Giving autonomy does not mean leaving them on their own and never checking back. It means checking frequently when a staff member is learning something new, and giving them more space as they show their competency. Of course, a third piece of building trust as a supervisor is being available to support them if problems arise. 

  • Shine a Spotlight on Staff

This does not mean making a big deal out of everything an employee does. Or generically thanking everyone for all that they do. That will come across as fake, and frankly, insulting to the team members. Shining a spotlight is about giving credit where credit is due. Genuinely. Great supervisors notice contributions that help advance the organization and efforts that are above and beyond. This is especially true when the staff person makes the supervisor look good. It’s crucial to let others know who is helping the team advance. 

Sharing the spotlight (or not) has a lot to do with the supervisor’s level of confidence. The leader sometimes believes that when others look good, it must mean they look bad. When a new supervisor falls into this category, it’s key to work with them so they understand the culture and to foster their confidence in their skills. 

  • Help Team Members Advance

I have heard supervisors say that they don’t want to share how great an employee is because they don’t want to lose them. The truth is, with an attitude like that, they will lose them sooner or later anyway. If a supervisor isn’t actively helping their staff advance (if the staff has that goal), the organization will eventually lose out as the employee looks for a company that values them and wants to help them succeed. Not to mention the fact that it makes the supervisor look great when they are consistently producing high performing associates. 

  • DON’T Treat Everyone the Same

This one might seem counter-intuitive, or contradictory to what you’ve been taught. To be clear, I’m not suggesting supervisors should treat some staff well and others poorly, or play favorites. I’m saying that the leadership a supervisor gives a staff person should be based on the person’s needs. 

Some staff need a lot of praise. Others need to vent once in a while. Still others like to be pointed in the right direction and set free. Successful leaders pay attention to these needs of their team members and adjust their interactions accordingly. A supervisor with three direct reports may have three different structures for leading each of them. For example:

    • Staff 1 might need a lot of positive reinforcement in order to feel successful. With this person the supervisor may meet with them on a weekly basis so they can share what they are working on and give them the validation they need. 
    • Staff 2 on the other hand may be a self-starter with lots of drive. In this case the leader may have monthly meetings to make sure they are on track, then they might stop by the staff’s workstation on a more informal basis, to ensure they are moving in the right direction. 
    • Lastly, Staff 3 could be an introvert who just wants to do their job and doesn’t want a lot of attention focused on them. For this staff the best solution might be taking a short walk together every other week. This way the staff feels supported and has adequate time with the supervisor to check-in and ask questions. At the same time, this keeps it informal and from being all about the staff. 

This one ties closely to the point from last week’s article about treating staff as human beings. Unless a leader gets to know their staff and their needs, it’s going to be difficult to personalize the leadership each person needs. But by doing so, it will save time and support each individual in the manner that serves them best. 

To be clear, I’m not suggesting that everyone is cut out to be a supervisor. Some people never master the skills, or they find that they just don’t like it. And that’s fine. By working with them and providing them with the right skills, you will discover who is going to excel and who needs to find a different fit. It can be frustrating to invest time in someone only to find out they are not going to succeed as a supervisor. However, it’s so much better to work with them and help them find their natural fit, than to lose a potential leader because you didn’t give them the necessary tools to succeed.

Need help cultivating good supervisors in your business or organization? Email me at kim@athena-coco.com to schedule a free 30-minute consultation to discuss getting started. Calm the Chaos with quality supervisors, so you can find time to focus on what’s important to YOU! 

Kim is a mom, wife, lover of being active and the outdoors,
and helper of small businesses and nonprofits.
kim@athena-coco.com 

 

Improving Internal Communications

Employees are Drowning in Information but Thirsty for Clarity and Purpose

5 Strategies for Improving Internal Communications

When a business or nonprofit is having problems it usually boils down to one of two things: Culture or Communication. Often it’s both. Unless your business does not rely on people, these are two areas that should be given a high degree of intentional thought. Without attention, culture and communication evolve on their own. And it’s usually not very pretty. 

I previously shared about culture in this article and this article, so today I’m going to focus on Internal Communications. Here is a formal definition of what we’re talking about:

A group of processes or tools that are responsible for effective information flow
and collaboration among participants within an organization.

I like to think of Internal Communications in more basic terms: 

It’s how people know what’s going on and what to do. 

Very simply, if you are not being intentional about informing your team members about what is going on and what they should be doing to help reach company goals, it’s going make reaching your goals difficult. Most small businesses and nonprofit organizations do not have the financial resources to invest in a Communications staff person. Therefore, this article is going to go over 5 tactics for ensuring quality internal communications. Before we get to that let’s dig deeper into why it’s important. 

  • First and foremost, leaders need to communicate their vision or the organization’s mission. Every time they are in front of their team they should be articulating their vision. As Yogi Berra said: “If you don’t know where you’re going, you might not get there.” If you do not communicate the direction you are taking the company, there will be confusion – at best. At worst, your people may be actively driving your business in a different direction than you, simply because they don’t know where you’re going. I go into more detail on the importance of vision and vision sharing in this article.  
  • Staff training is a component of internal communications. This is important so that staff (or volunteers) know, not just what to do, but also how and why leadership wants the job done a certain way. Many companies succeed in training a staff person on what to do. Failing to explain how and why is similar to not sharing your vision. In those cases staff will come up with their own way of doing things.

My daughter just started her first “real” job. She’s helping set up for events and weddings. In training her, if they had just told her to set up chairs (what to do), she may have had them all facing the wrong direction. Or she may have put them way too close together. Or put them in socially distanced clusters. By clarifying the vision of how the event should look and the experience they want for the attendees, she was able to do her new job successfully.

  • Communication reinforces culture. Employees can smell a “flavor of the month” leadership initiative a mile away. If you want something to stick, you need to repeat it. Over and over and over again. This is how your values become a deep seeded, integral part of your company’s identity. They become your culture. 

If you are committed to vision (or mission); well trained staff; and creating a strong culture, read on for some simple techniques. 

If you read many of my articles, you will notice that several of the strategies I suggest starts with your mindset. This one is no different. As the leader you need to be committed – 100% – to creating a culture that is built on relationships, trust, and growth. If that’s not where you’re at, you are wasting your time reading my articles. 

Alright, it looks like you’re still reading, so let’s dig into some techniques you can implement, right away, to improve effective internal communications. Since I work mostly with small businesses and nonprofits, it’s important to me to share strategies that can be implemented without a great deal of expense or dedicated staff time. I understand very well that budgets are tight and everyone already has a very full plate. 

1. Staff Meeting structure
No one likes to meet, just to have a meeting. That’s a waste of time and only increases frustration for busy people. We will get to ensuring your meetings are purposeful in strategy #2. Before that, let’s look at the value of a staff meeting structure. If your meetings are regularly scheduled, have an intentional agenda, and start and end on time, these can be the single most effective communications tool in your toolbox.

A strong staff meeting structure gives staff the support of knowing when they will be informed about important company information. It allows leadership to hear from other team members. It provides a team building, problem solving, and education platform. If the words – staff meeting – elicit fear or dread in your company, they are not being used as effectively as they should be.

Every company will have a different structure for their meetings based on size, number of departments, geographic locations, and more. You need to decide what is right for your teams. At a minimum, I suggest the following:

    • Weekly 90-minute leadership team meetings
    • Weekly meetings for next level/department leaders
    • Monthly meetings for part-time or front-line staff
    • Quarterly all staff meetings
    • Regular one-on-one meetings between supervisors and their direct reports

Based on your needs you may add in additional layers or configurations. An annual meeting might be right for you and your business. If volunteers are part of your operations, they should be included in you meeting structure.

2. Plan for outcomes
Building on the staff meeting plan, it’s not enough to have a structure in place. It’s what you do with it that counts. I’m sure many businesses have regular staff meetings, but communication is still lacking. 

Here is where the mindset piece comes in. Meetings are dreaded when there is no agenda, no expected outcome and no plan. So much time is wasted because people are brought together for staff meetings where everyone just goes around and shares what they are working on. Sometimes this is valuable, usually it creates a slippery slope of disengaged employees. 

When planning your staff meeting structure, think about the purpose for meeting and bake that into the agenda. ALWAYS have an agenda. If building relationships between team members is important, include time for that. Is communicating project status important, put it on the agenda. Have problems to solve and issues to resolve, designate plenty of time for that. Again, every team is going to have different needs. Here are my suggestions for agenda items:

    • Transition (from pre-meeting work to meeting mode) – this could be a “good news” sharing, opening thought, or other openers
    • Announcements
    • Review “to do” list from previous week/project updates
    • Company updates – what are we hearing from customers or staff?
    • Issues – identify and solve problems
    • Create and review “to do” list for next week
    • Cascading messages – what needs to be shared with other teams or staff?

As I stated before, effective staff meetings are your most powerful communication tool in your toolbox. It just requires structure and planning. 

3. Staff training system
When training your staff, pretend that the new person is starting their first job ever. This is not because you’re assuming that they are stupid. It’s so that you make sure you consider all the things that will help them to be successful. When you have worked for a company for a while – all the things – become second nature. Those things might not seem like something you need to explain to people. That’s because you live it every day. 

Take the time to consider the what, how and why of each position. Include that in the training. Assuming you are not the person training every single team member, make sure you put the same thought into preparing those staff who will be training others. Ensure that they know and are committed to training the what, how and why as well. 

In addition to training new staff as they come on board, regular on-going training will help reinforce expectations and culture. Your Quarterly Staff Meetings can be very effective in delivering mini-trainings and keeping everyone’s skills and understanding sharp. 

4.  Consistency and reinforcement
Stating things over and over can be annoying. Some leaders feel like saying something once should be enough. However, we have all heard the marketing adage: It takes hearing a message seven times before consumers are aware of it. The same goes with internal communications. This is why leaders should share their vision/mission and values every single time they are in front of their team. Quarterly Staff Meetings are a great conduit for leadership messaging. 

In addition to verbal communications, consider reinforcing messages with visuals or social media. Posters, flyers or social groups can be used to amplify the importance of strategies, reinforce processes and systems, and to communicate initiatives or changes.  

5.  Ramp it up during change or crisis
Anyone who was part of any organization when the pandemic hit in spring of 2020 knows the importance of internal communication. Were staff kept informed of how the global changes were impacting the company? Was everyone clear on changes that were being made and why? Did all team members have the information and resources to feel competent and supported in their role? Crisis tends to shine a very bright light on the quality of internal communications. 

During a crisis, having a staff meeting structure in place isn’t enough. Consider adding weekly or even daily calls to bring everyone together. Even if there are no new updates, your people need to hear from you and connect with each other. Increase your one-to-one conversations with your direct reports (and expect it from everyone else). Even a 5-minute conversation will do wonders to help your staff to feel connected, included, and valued. Send out weekly communications with status updates and talking points. Your staff will be asked questions. Make sure they are well prepared to give good answers. 

“We don’t grow when things are easy, we grow when we face challenges.” ~ Joyce Meyer 

These same principles apply when you are driving a change process in your organization. If you’re implementing a change: plan it intentionally; repeat yourself on the what, how and why; and ramp up your communication throughout the process.  

Bonus!

I have two last “bonus” points that I want to make. First, while this article is largely about leaders communicating to the rest of the team, internal communications are about both speaking and listening. Opportunities to gather feedback both formally and informally is equally important to a healthy internal communications system. Truly listening, then processing the thoughts, ideas and concerns of your staff will create a culture where they want to do the same for you. 

Second “bonus” point: internal communications improves external communications. When your staff feel informed, valued and respected, the positive external communications they will spearhead are public-relations gold. Organic positive conversations about your business are priceless and cannot be manufactured or bought. Committing to a strong internal communications game will elevate your external communications without you having to lift a finger. Additionally, handling internal communications well during a crisis, will amplify trust both within your team and in the larger community. 

Need help creating an internal communications plan that is right for you and your team? Email me at kim@athena-coco.com to schedule a free 30-minute consultation to discuss getting started. Calm the Chaos and improve internal communications so you can find time to focus on what’s important to YOU! 

Kim is a mom, wife, lover of being active and the outdoors,
and helper of small businesses and nonprofits.
kim@athena-coco.com

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion: Three Simple Steps to Get Started

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion

There are many voices out there on this topic. Many are going to be more qualified than me to speak in-depth on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. In this article I will be sharing my perspective along with some thoughts on how to start these conversations in your workplace, or even in your family or friend group.

I had the honor of serving my community through the YMCA for several decades. The work I lead and was involved with was important and impactful. One initiative from the YMCA of the USA that I have been very impressed with, and have carried with me throughout the years, involves their work on Dimensions of Diversity. This work has resonated with me because it goes far beyond gender, skin color, and age. Those are big and often obvious categories, which over-generalize who people really are. Generalizations are necessary for studying trends, creating non-discrimination policy, and supporting marginalized groups; however they create problems when we use them to lump all people together. 

While working with a client recently, she shared her story of being a young black woman who excelled in the violin. For a long time she felt like an outcast. “Black people don’t play in the orchestra” was something she heard and felt on a regular basis. In discussing her experience she used this phrase:

Black is Not a Monolith 

Having only heard the word “Monolith” recently in relation to the one discovered in Utah last summer, I did a bit of research. Apparently it’s a phrase that’s been around for a while, and has resurfaced with the release of Lena Waithe’s Queen & Slim. While I have not seen this movie, it sounds like the phrase is used to express the fact that all black people are not necessarily from the ghetto. Essentially, black people come from all kinds of communities and backgrounds. When you think about it, that doesn’t seem like something that needs to be stated. However, it’s human nature to try to categorize and simplify things we don’t understand. 

 In talking further with this client, she shared with me that she was from a small town. She told me her town “only had four high schools.” This is when the complexities of diversity really struck me. My town had exactly one high school. In fact it had exactly one school of any kind, Kindergarten through 12th grade. In the years since I graduated they have added a preschool. Still one school. As a member of the tiny little Generation X, my graduating class had 26 people in it. 

This started me thinking about other personal experiences where the diversity in our backgrounds was very striking. When I worked in Chicago one of my staff, a woman in her 40s, had never had a drivers license. Or a car. She taught me how to use the bus and the L – explaining routes, lines and transfers – from memory. Growing up on a farm I wouldn’t have been able to participate in afterschool activities, have a social life, or a job without a license and a car. It was unimaginable to never have a car or a license. Growing up the way she did, she couldn’t believe I’d never used public transportation. 

These experiences and reflections keep bringing me back to the Y-USAs Dimensions of Diversity. Looking at one dimension of a person and defining them by it is part of our society’s problem with embracing diversity. It leads to limiting beliefs and stereotypes. All black people are fill in the blank. LGBTQ+ people never fill in the blank. People living in poverty are all fill in the blank. Women just aren’t meant to fill in the blank. None of us should be defined by one aspect of our identity. Least of all marginalized groups. 

Today, many companies and organizations are in the position of knowing they need to “do better” with diversity, equity, and inclusion; but they might not know where to start. This is understandable; it’s a huge, complex and often controversial topic. I’d like to offer you three simple steps to get you started. These can be implemented with no cost, no additional staff or resources, and very little change to your operations.

  • Mindset – leadership commitment

First and foremost, the leadership of the business or organization needs to be genuinely committed to shifting the culture. The top leader especially, but also the leadership team needs to believe in the importance of celebrating diversity, valuing equity, and driving inclusion.

In order to ensure that you are ready for this, it will likely require some challenging conversations as a team. The discussion must go beyond: “Is everyone good with this?” Each and every leader needs to be committed to driving change, supporting difficult conversations and situations, and being an agency-champion for this transformation. If every single person isn’t 100% on board, the leader has a decision to make. Does she/he postpone this initiative until the timing is better or do they make the changes needed to create the leadership team that will move the company needle on DEI. 

  • Commitment to understanding

As you begin your initiative around Diversity, Inclusion and Equity, one of the first tenements to establish is the commitment to understanding where people are coming from. Impressing upon staff the importance of listening and being open to understanding the journey their co-workers are traveling is key to building your foundation.

It doesn’t matter what other people think about Meghan Markles’ skin color. If she identifies as black, that’s a dimension of who she is. Self-identification is up to the individual and it doesn’t matter if other people agree with it or not. Supporting DEI means accepting others as they identify, and striving to understand.

The leadership sets this expectation and supports staff as they work to learn and grow. They also watch for those team members who are resistant to this change and take action with anyone who is not a match for the culture they are trying to create.

  • A little bit of time in each and every staff meeting

The first two steps are really about mindset, setting the tone, and creating a culture. This one provides action items you can take and use right away.

The most valuable communication tool that leaders possess is the staff meeting. If your staff meetings are not important, engaging, effective, and driving communication and culture, consider reading this. Incorporating mini-activities into your team meeting (and every other staff meeting in your company) can start the exploration of diversity, equity, and inclusion with the broad base of your business.

Hopefully your staff meeting includes some sort of a transition or opening. This aspect of your meeting is meant to help team members shift from whatever-they-were-doing-before-the-meeting to full-on-meeting-mode. Good things to include in this phase of the meeting are things like:

  • An opening thought
  • Check-in
  • Company headlines
  • Celebrations

In order to get everyone thinking about the diversity of their team, consider adding a “backstory question.” This tool can be fun, but at the same time it helps everyone to start to understand more about their teammates. If time is tight this activity can take as little as 2-minutes by doing it “whip style.” Or if you want, you can add a reflection component to dig deeper.

Here’s an example:

  1. Have everyone go around and share what their first job was and something they learned from that job that they still utilize today. If you have 10 people in the meeting, this will probably take 5-minutes at the most.
  2. Those wanting to dig deeper can pair people up (preferably connecting those with the most differing first jobs, like walking beans with interning at a magazine).
  3. Have one person spend 2-minutes asking the other person questions about their first job.
  4. After their time is up they switch roles.
  5. You can close with a group reflection on what they learned about other people that may have surprised them.
  6. Doing the full activity will take a maximum of 15-minutes.

Here’s a list of ideas of backstory questions you can use to get started:

  • What was your first job? What did you learn that you still use today?
  • How did you get to school when you were little? How was that the same or different from other kids at your school?
  • What’s the first team you remember being part of? How did that experience shape you?
  • How many kids were in your family? Where are you in the birth order? What does that say about you? 
  • What was your favorite subject in school? How have you carried that with you? 
  • Share about the kind of home you grew up in? 
  • How did you decide what you wanted to do for a living? 

As time goes on your questions can progress towards being more probing. Another idea is to have volunteers come up with questions for the next meeting or create a sub-group of volunteers to work on questions and activities.

As you and your team become more comfortable exploring diversity there are many more activities you can incorporate and initiatives you can drive. Sometimes getting started is the hardest part. Hopefully these simple steps can spark the beginning of your journey. 

Need help creating a plan that is right for you and your team? Want an outside resource to facilitate crucial conversations around DEI? Email me at kim@athena-coco.com to schedule a free 30-minute consultation to discuss ideas that will help you get started. Calm the Chaos and create a great culture so you can find time to focus on what’s important to YOU! 

 

Kim is a mom, wife, lover of being active and the outdoors,
and helper of small businesses and nonprofits.
kim@athena-coco.com

Structure – Getting it Right to Grow

James cash penney quote

The staff structure you create for your business can mean the difference between growth and stagnation. The unfortunate reality is that all too often a company’s organizational structure is never considered. Especially as small businesses start to grow, the staff structure evolves organically and often haphazardly; rather than being thoughtfully developed.

When a new business is born, there are usually just a few people involved, and they do everything. Susan might be best at finance, so she handles the books. Angie might have big ideas, so she is creating products or services. And Olivia may be very charismatic, so she takes the lead on sales. This is a great start!

As the company grows, they bring in team members to help with sales and production and service. When they are still small the company can get by without creating much formal structure. This is often preferred as they want to remain responsive and nimble and casual. As long as everyone is productive and working well together, this free-flowing construct can work for companies up to about 7 to 10 people.

Challenges arise when the company starts to grow bigger and the structure doesn’t get addressed. The bigger a company gets, the harder it is for the leader(s) to keep their finger on the pulse of what is going on. Team members have less accountability if there is no clear chain of command. Expectations may be misunderstood. Decision making becomes inconsistent and confusing. This is the point where companies that have solid growth potential, start to stagnate.

Components of a Strong Structure

You may be wondering what it means to create a strong structure. Here are the key components that can help you organize your team for greater growth:

  • Organizational Chart

  • Clear Accountabilities

  • Delegation & Mindful Expansion

  • Thoughtful Supervision

Organizational Chart

This is a simple concept. Everyone has seen an org chart and understands how they work. The tricky part lies in finding the right one for your business. Generally speaking, the work of a business can be divided into three categories:

  • Finance

  • Sales

  • Operations

When thinking about your organizational structure, think about groups of accountability. In a smaller business, one person may be responsible for everything related to finance. As the business grows they will likely need help managing things like payroll, accounting, budgeting, and more. It usually makes sense to add staff or contract services under the person who is responsible for finance. That forms a department.

Depending on the type of business, you may have multiple departments in each category. For example, if you deliver several different product lines, each one may be a different operational department. If you sell to both the general public, as well as to corporations, those may be two different departments under the sales category. A department may grow too big for one person to manage and rather than adding layers, it might be best to divide it into different departments.

In addition to having departments leading finance, sales, and operations, there needs to be one or two leaders above this level. This is usually the business owner or owners. They are responsible for setting the vision and culture, creating new ideas, key decision making, leading staff, and driving strategy (as well as a million other things). In his book “Traction”, Gino Wickman titles these roles as Visionary and Integrator. The Visionary sets the course for the company. The Integrator drives the work. Depending on the size of your business, one person may serve as both roles.

There is not a “right” org chart that will work for every company. You need to determine what your different departments look like. You need to figure out what gets lumped together and what needs to stand alone. The number of layers is dependent on the needs of your company and how you want it to function. The focus, purpose and vision of your business will determine how this looks and what’s “right” for you.

Clear Accountabilities 

Establishing your organizational chart is the foundational step needed for clear accountabilities. In addition to listing positions and names on your org chart, this step involves listing the things that each position is accountable for. Keep it fairly high level, not including every task that the position manages, just the items that the person in that seat is expected to take responsibility for and drive.

Each position should have 3 to 7 elements listed. Anyone who supervises staff should have LMA (Lead, Manage, hold Accountable) on their list of accountabilities. Other items to include could be managing of processes (like payroll), ownership of outcomes (such as sales numbers), and production expectations. Again, the work of the business will drive what goes onto these lists. Everything that the business needs in order to function, needs to be on someone’s accountability list.

Delegation & Mindful Expansion

You will notice that each of these structural components builds on the previous one. Establishing clear accountabilities helps determine where delegation is needed. When listing out the accountabilities for each position, watch for lists with more than 7 elements. This will often create a barricade as the person in that position has too much on their plate. This could be by choice (control issues, amirite?) or because the company isn’t to the point where they can add positions yet.

Choosing to hold onto everything is very common in small, growing businesses. The person or people who created the business often feel like they are the only ones who can do it right. Unfortunately, this practice is not sustainable. The person choosing to be responsible for everything is going to eventually burn out, while at the same time keeping the business from growing and thriving. When this is the case, a crucial conversation needs to be had, explaining the problems created by the behavior.

As a business is growing it is important to make staff additions conservatively and thoughtfully. The finances need to be able to sustain the addition and it needs to be made based on the most pressing demands. The org chart and accountabilities can clearly show where the pain points are. When your chart shows that a position has 8 or more accountabilities, you have the opportunity to think through your options. Is there someone to delegate some elements to? Does the company have the financial ability to add a position or split the position? If the resources are not immediately available, plan out what your next move will be based on where the work is concentrated.

This method for planning your staff growth helps ensure that the squeaky wheel isn’t getting all of the resources. It allows for decision making based on what will allow the entire team to be most productive. It also helps determine if there are internal roadblocks limiting your capacity.

Thoughtful Supervision

Finally. The last element in a strong organizational structure is supervision. And not just regular “I report to him, you report to me” supervision, but thoughtful and intentional supervision. This can be a tough one for small businesses. Especially when the business was founded by friends or family, and now all of a sudden we need to hold people accountable. Establishing clear supervision can be tricky and feel uncomfortable at first, but it is 100% worth the pain and effort.

I find that many people truly hate supervising people. They get frustrated by having to tell people things more than once. They expect people to have the same level of understanding or work ethic as they have. They dislike the confrontation of redirecting staff when they are off track. And all of that can be difficult and uncomfortable if you haven’t taken the steps of creating an organizational chart, clear accountabilities and delegating/mindfully expanding.

By establishing this clear structure, your supervisors have a much easier job. The organizational chart creates a clear chain of command. Every person in the business knows who they need to go to for support and direction. The expectations are clearly outlined in their accountabilities. Staffing decisions about how to delegate and expand are made easier because they are informed. Now all of this is not meant to imply that supervisors don’t need training and practice on how to effectively LMA, rather that this structure sets them up well for success.

Similarly to the number of accountabilities per position, it’s important to be intentional about the number of direct reports to a position. The general rule of thumb is that a supervisor leads up to seven staff or staff positions. That means that in a department with different people managing different functions, a leader should have no more than seven direct reports. However, in a department with several people doing the same thing, a supervisor can manage more people. For example, if a department has 15 cashiers, one supervisor can manage them effectively because they are all doing the same job. Ensuring a team leader has a manageable workload is paramount to setting them up for LMA success.

Need help establishing the right organizational structure for your business? Email me at kim@athena-coco.com to schedule a free 30-minute consultation to see how we get you moving on the path to growth!