How a Lack of Defined Roles is Hurting SMBS

 

Managers and employees can take for granted that every employee understands their role within a company, especially in a small business. Ask a leader or employee what their role is and you’ll often get a canned answer that mimics their formal job description.

Of course, when an employee is hired they receive a title and a job description, but when an SMB hits growth mode and an ‘all-hands-on-deck’ culture is needed, these roles and responsibilities can become blurred, leading to a breakdown in communication; competing and overlapping priorities; duplicative or unproductive work output; and a lack of understanding about how an individual’s role contributes to an SMB’s overall success and growth.

Small businesses have to be fluid and adapt quickly to stay innovative and competitive. They usually do this with limited resources and stretched budgets, so keeping all employees aligned and focused is crucial to progress.

When internal conflicts and struggles consume an SMB’s culture, it takes the focus away from the most important people: the customers.

What problems arise from a lack of clearly defined employee roles?

Duplicate efforts: While lack of accountability causes things to fall through the cracks, the opposite is also true. Without clearly defined roles, several staff members may end up working on the same project or task. Even if the task is completed, time and effort are wasted –  a costly outcome for a small business.

Conflict about leadership. When employees are at odds about what is required to achieve a goal, conflict can arise over who has ultimate decision-making authority over the goal’s direction and purpose. Without clear leadership communicating specific roles, employees can lose sight of how the goal fits into the company’s overall success.

Wasted resources. Small businesses cannot afford to lose time and money due to lack of employees’ understanding of their roles within the company. SMBs’ limited resources mean each employee’s contributions are key to their success. When employees lose direction, small businesses lose money.

Lack of employee engagement. Conflicts over roles can cause employees to lose motivation and ultimately feel unempowered. The inability to achieve goals and KPIs due to unclear direction or overlapping roles leads to a culture of stagnation, frustration, or even high employee turnover.

Small businesses must continuously evaluate and reshape their structure

Small business owners hire employees to perform vital roles within the company. They strive to recruit individuals who are talented, motivated, and invested in the company’s success.

Hiring great talent is an essential first step, and from the outset, most employees have a clear understanding of their role. However, as the company grows, their understanding of how they fit into an expanding organization may become less clear.

Rapidly growing companies need to continuously reshape their structure, clarify roles, and reinforce communication links throughout the company to maintain alignment.

New skills are required, new people are added, management scope expands, and cracks in the foundation can emerge if not actively managed.

As a company grows, leadership must ask themselves some critical questions:

• Does everyone know what their role is and how it ties into the overall objectives of the business?
• Does each team member get clarity from their manager on the role they play and what the expectations are?
• Do employees feel empowered and invested in the success of the company as they work toward clearly defined common goals?
• Are you in tune with the culture of the company and employee morale?

 

If leadership fails to keep their finger on the pulse of these critical questions as the company grows, they may be missing out on an opportunity to increase the effectiveness of the company.

Innovative Scaling Program Helps Business Owner Implement Strategy and Strengthen Team

Kim Anderson founded Texas-based Cardinal Strategies in 2004. The company began as a stormwater compliance consulting business and later evolved into a water solutions company which brings engineering, environmental, and construction expertise to solve complex problems.

Since launching its Engineering Services Division in 2014, Cardinal Strategies has hired more than 30 people. By March 2017, the company had expanded its existing Environmental Services Division through the acquisition of another company.

Cardinal Strategies completed a strategic growth plan with their leadership team that resulted in defined revenue goals for a 3-year period, but still needed guidance on how to execute the plan and how to maintain accountability as everyone got back to normal day-to-day tasks post-acquisition.

Additional challenges the company faced included:

• lacking clarity on how to implement new strategies
• taking on too many things at once
• lacking defined values and culture
• breakdown of communication among employees
• the need for leadership training.

 

As a capable leader who is in tune with the organization, Kim recognized how her business could benefit from the expertise of a program tailored to businesses in the growth stage.

Working with SUMMi7, she participated in a cohort alongside other business leaders, where she learned about the Business Scaling Method™ –  a comprehensive system designed to help companies like Cardinal Strategies understand and address the constraints that were holding them back.

The results for her business included increased sales, team development and enhanced organizational structure. The program also helped her identify roles and responsibilities clearly for her team, and determine which positions would be needed in order to reach new goals.

“Share your process. It is important for your team to understand the personal values and beliefs that shape how you lead. If there is transparency in your leadership, it will foster the same from your people. It will also help you have a better understanding of their thought process, how they work and how to help them be more effective and efficient.”

Immersive Leadership is Key to Helping Employees Understand Roles and Responsibilities

Every company needs a hierarchical structure to establish processes, define decision-making roles and organize work. This does not mean, however, that a company needs to have a hierarchical style of leadership which only creates a division between leadership and employees.

To effectively lead a team, it’s vital to outline and clarify the team’s main objective and the roles and tasks of each team member.

Ways to accomplish this include:

• Maintaining a shared team calendar as a streamlined way of keeping track of important meetings, deadlines, milestones and other important events.
• Investing in an effective project management platform with the ability to update all team members in real-time.
• Holding regular meetings with the team to promote communication, assign responsibilities, and facilitate discussion amongst all team members.
• Communicating clearly and regularly with team members both individually and as a team.
• Keeping the team apprised of the company’s goals and strategy initiatives and encouraging idea-generation for achieving them.
• Listening to team members. Don’t forget: communication is a two-way street.

 

The Bottom Line

Growth mode is an exciting time for any small business. It’s full of opportunity, stress, and potential. However, no company achieves true success without the motivation and focus of every employee. When we work with businesses and their leaders at SUMMi7, whether in a cohort environment for a small business or at enterprise level in a customized workshop, we express the importance of leading from the front lines and bringing your team with you every step of the way.

Leaders who immerse themselves in the organization, listen to employees, communicate strategy with honesty and transparency, continuously clarify roles and responsibilities that play to their employees’ strengths, and keep employees invested in the company’s strategy have the most success scaling their company effectively and efficiently.

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“I would recommend SUMMi7 to any company seeking strategic guidance for making short-term and long-term business decisions. Eric and his team have compiled the tools and experience necessary for supporting company leadership with developing communication skills, direction, organizational development, and alignment within an organization. SUMMi7 quickly developed deep knowledge for our business so that it felt like they have always been a part of our team.”

— James York, Head of Sales and Business Development, Molecular Testing Labs