I remember specifically when our employees, we had about 25 at this time, told us in no uncertain terms that we should just lead! My confusion was sincere. We had always been very collaborative, starting the company with only 2 employees, we prided ourselves on getting people’s input when a decision had to be made. We still had a ‘family type’ atmosphere and we weren’t very hierarchical — everyone seemed to pitch in and get the job, whatever it was, done.

That approach, we found out, was no longer working. And in fact, our lack of roles and responsibilities, our lack of organization, our lack of well-defined processes was driving our employee crazy. That altercation with those employees lasted for months as my business partner and I worked to restore their confidence in us as leaders and to try and put our arms around a company that was growing faster than we could keep up with it.

The biggest message that finally sunk in was this: our employees wanted to be told what they needed to do to succeed. They weren’t satisfied just ‘doing what needed to be done’ because now we were too big and everyone was tripping all over everyone else. Our lack of defining critical jobs and roles, a concept we thought people liked because it allowed a lot of flexibility, was creating all kinds of issues.

Again, in hindsight, I now understand that as we grew from Stage 2 (11 – 19 employees) to Stage 3 (20 – 34 employees) we went through what James Fischer’s research calls a Wind Tunnel. A Wind Tunnel is where the methodologies that got you where you are, are no longer working and you have to adapt new methodologies that will. That’s a hard lesson for a Stage 3 leader to understand.

We weathered our staff revolution and learned a lot of hard lessons from that experience. Stage 3 is perhaps one of the hardest transitions for a CEO to make as it requires them to ‘let it go in order to let it grow’. And that letting go part is tough.

Over the past 8 years, I’ve helped CEOs become more aware of the concept that as a company grows, it adds complexity. That complexity is created by people, not revenues or profits. I’ve talked to thousands of business owners about how their company moves through these different stages of growth based on the number of employees. The recognition that a Stage 6 company with 96 – 160 employees requires a leader to address different challenges, a different focus, different leadership styles and competencies, has been my focus as I traveled across North America educating business owners on this unique and effective model.

Recently, however, I became intrigued in identifying different management ideas that are more effective at one stage of growth than they are at another. I’m calling this concept: Management by the Numbers.

Here are some ideas for managers of companies with 20 – 34 employees that might be worth considering.

Stage 3: 20 – 34 employees

At this stage of growth, it’s critical that the leader start delegating responsibility and authority to key employees. The ability of the leader to keep their fingers in everything that’s going on, as they were able to do up to now, is over and the sooner they start the process of ‘letting go’ the more successful they will be. This is where many CEOs throw in the hat and decide to start over. They realize that the ‘managing’ of the business isn’t what they love. It was the ’starting’ of the idea that drove them to succeed. Now they either have to become great managers or hire someone who loves managing the people side of their business. Perhaps some of these ideas will help!

#1) Letting it all hang out: A CEO in Wisconsin wanted to find a way of helping her 22 employees feel more comfortable approaching one another when they were unhappy about something. So every other month she takes her 22 employees out for pizza. The first hour is open season for criticism about anything and anybody, including management. The second hour is devoted to positive comments and finding solutions to issues raised. These formal gripe sessions have lessened the tensions that are bound to happen in a small, and often chaotic environment and helped start peole feeling more comfortable with conflict.

#2) Fostering teamwork: As companies grow, it’s harder and harder to help everyone stay on top of what’s going on. Usually the pace of work isn’t conducive to fostering opportunities to learn what other team members are doing. A marketing and consulting business in California developed a system to combat these kind of inefficiencies. It’s build around what he refers to has ‘weekly to do lists’.

Every Monday morning, all 26 employees make lists of their tasks or projects. These lists are then shared with supervisors and read at a staff lunch. By operating this way, people have a more complete view of what’s happening throughout the company and not just at their desk. New ideas are generated that cross department lines and offers of help abound because people now understand the tasks involved in getting a profect done on time.

#3) Hiring good listeners: One way to assess candidates you are interviewing for a job, without just relying on a resume is to have them write up ‘minutes’ after a job interview. A CEO of a $5 million company in Cincinnati, has used this approach to hire all of her staff. Candidates that don’t come off well in face-to-face interviews will often show promotable attributes in their writing. Others may describe the job markedly different from what the CEO has to offer, indicating potential communication problems. If a candidate can dash off three pages explaining the job in 15 minutes, you know you have a producer.

The challenges of getting a company beyond Stage 3 rests with the CEOs ability to start delegating key tasks, roles and responsibilities. By understanding the Stages of Growth concepts, made popular by James Fischer’s book “Navigating the Growth Curve”, you will be better prepared to meet the growing needs of your company.

Watch for other blog posts on management ideas for the other 6 stages of growth.

*301 Great Management Ideas, Sara Noble

It appears that people are much happier using their biases or intuition than a structured decision making tool, that according to Jean Steinberg, PhD from the National Institute of Mental Health. She does go on to say, however, that the more structure and simplification provided in a complex decision the more accurate the decision.

In another study by Paul Nutt, Ohio University, 91% of business owners felt they made good decisions. In reality 60% of those were a bust. And even more disturbing, according to this research, 60% of decision makers never explored any alternative after they made up their minds.

What causes us as business owners to make poor decisions? See if any one of these Decision Making Traps sound familiar.

#1. Overconfidence in your judgment — you fail to collect critical data because you are so sure of your assumptions and opinions. When you allow assumptions to go untested, the chances of making a bad decision increase. Assumptions sound like this: This service will save us money. Use a clarifying statement with all assumptions — Please give me an example of how this service will save us money — and you will increase your ability to make good decisions.

#2. Shooting from the hip — guilty as charged. With this decision making trap you believe you can keep straight in your head all the information you've discovered and you wing it instead of following a systematic procedure when making a final choice. Write it down! Write down your reasons for thinking something is a good idea and continue to ask questions that force you to probe deeper — How will we measure or what makes me think or why am I considering this now.

#3. Not keeping track — when we make a bad decision, our preference is to simply forget it ever happened. Instead, if you make it a point to write down how you came to that decision and you spend a little time analyzing what went wrong, chances are pretty good you won't go there again. Ignoring the impact of those bad decisions won't help us learn key lessons.

#4. Plunging in — we jump in without really understanding what the real issue is. We start to gather information and because we are either in a hurry or there is a crisis brewing, we jump to conclusions without really understanding the root cause of an issue. Chances are we may make a decision that doesn't address the real problem.

#5. Group failure — assuming that with so many smart people involved, good choices will automatically follow. I've also seen this called 'group think' when just because the group aligns behind something their collective thinking must be right. Too often companies shun people who come across as playing devils advocate. They are perceived of as difficult or not a team player. Listening to dissenting voices may stop you from making some bad decisions.

Take the time in 2009 to think about how you make decisions and how you model that behavior for your team. Come up with a simple but consistent way to review how you are making decisions. Don't let these decision making traps cost you valuable time or money.

This was a question posed by Dave Ramsey from Fox Business Network on Good Morning America this morning, Jan. 8, 2009. He went on to say, "Or is he (Santa Claus) every business owner who lives on the fruited-plains of America who are responsible for producing the goods and services that drive our economy".

I've said this a dozen times — our economy will NOT be 'fixed' by government, education or religion — our economy's health has always relied on the force that good 'ol capitalism brings to bear on all aspects of that economy.

Business owners by their very nature are confident, self-assured, smart, they work hard, they listen to what their clients need, they design systems that improve their ability to be flexible and nimble.

When they relax their diligence, when they stray from the very values they started their company on, when they allow complacence to set in or when they take themselves too seriously, when greed becomes their motive for staying in business, they struggle and sometimes they go out of business. And you know what? They should! There is no free ride. Hard work is what made this country great and it's hard work that produces success. Not handouts. Not bailouts. Not government funded financial or banking systems.

People that run businesses are the backbone of this country. According to Inc. Magazine, emerging growth businesses, those businesses who start out small and grow rapidly, created almost as many jobs, 10.7 million, as the entire US economy, 11.1 million jobs, from 1995 to 1999. That's a huge statement on the innovation, the creativity, the sheer tenacity of bright-minded every day people deciding to follow their dreams and make their run at living the American dream.

Now, if you remember, starting around 1999 and continuing into 2002, the dotcom blow up took place, wiping out many businesses and wiping out many jobs. That impact reverberates today. The point is the economy did come back from that experience, businesses that didn't lay a solid foundation are gone and the ones that followed the time-honored rules of business are still around.

Lots of businesses are doing well today. I saw revenue growth in my own business of over 56% and clients that I'm working with are seeing tremendous growth and opportunity.

I've seen this in print many times and I'm happy to repeat it. Turn off your TVs, your radios and stop reading the gloom and doom editorials. Be smart. Be confident. Continue to be diligent with your spending and flexible with your clients. Business owners will provide the grist this economy needs to get back on its feet. That's my opinion, what's yours?

Their growth had been slow but steady up until March, 2007.

They had seemed to remain ‘under the radar’ of larger competitors and the CEO had kept her hands on the operations over the past 9 years, steering a course that brought good profits, creating a working environment that people seemed to enjoy as turnover was low, and maintaining solid sales through customer referrals.

Starting in October, 2007 her world started to shift. Two new clients had come on board and at first glance, she didn’t treat the addition of these two clients any differently than she had in the past. She did add more staff to handle the increased work load – a change that took them from a Stage 4 company, with 54 employees to a Stage 5 company practically overnight.

Subtle challenges had been nagging at the back of her mind for months which she tended to ignore because her ability to handle the company’s growth up to this time hadn’t created any real issues – at least none she didn’t feel they couldn’t deal with effectively.

She started to hire new people and buy new equipment and remodel their space. What she didn’t do was take a solid look at the processes and procedures that had been in place for the past several years. What she failed to recognize was that she was getting ready to experience a Wind Tunnel. She would quickly discover that the methodologies that she had used to navigate her company to this stage of growth were not going to help her in the next stage of growth.

Her staff had started complaining more often that it was harder to manage project work. Seems like people weren’t sure exactly what their roles were or who was responsible for what. Meetings were unorganized and inefficient and it seemed the same client and project, as well as administrative problems kept reoccurring. The integration of new employees into the culture was creating problems because the new employees were questioning how work was done, making the employees that had been there for a long time resentful and defensive.

Two of her managers were struggling – people that had been at the company a long time – seems they couldn’t find time to really manage their direct reports. They felt they weren’t spending enough time in the operations of their divisions, staying hands-on, making sure things ran smoothly. More and more they were in her office complaining about staff issues.

The first sign of trouble came with the recognition that her financial systems weren’t sophisticated enough to handle the reporting and tracking she would need to satisfy the requirements of the new customers. The new customers wanted to receive project updates on a regular basis, showing milestones met financially compared to project milestones in order to evaluate how efficiently the company was managing budgets and timelines.

The next sign of trouble came when projects started losing money. The amount of employees on board made it almost impossible to manage workflow as it had been done in the past. The company was struggling to keep up with the changes required to track the success of projects, allocate resources efficiently and deal with the conflict that was occurring throughout the organization because of unclear roles and responsibilities. Other more subtle issues were surfacing such as an effective hiring process and the ability to store and retrieve information effectively.

This company hit a Wind Tunnel as they moved from Stage 4 to Stage 5. If the CEO had been able to ‘predict’ when that Wind Tunnel was going to hit and even more importantly, know what it meant for the company as it grew, this CEO would have been able to adjust on the fly and accommodate the various changes that the addition of more people created. By recognizing that the company was on the verge of preparing to jump into a new stage of growth, that CEO could have been proactive and intentional as they grew.

By understanding they were moving into a Wind Tunnel, that CEO could have:

1. Began the process of identifying ALL the various processes and procedures the company had been using
2. Taken the time and energy to ARTICULATE what those processes and procedures were in order to capture the intelligence that existed in long time employees
3. Started the activity of EVALUATING all those processes and procedures by asking three critical questions:
   1. Do we still need all of these processes and procedures?
   2. Which ones no longer assist us in being successful?
   3. Which ones do we need and how to we improve upon them?

By taking these three simple steps because this CEO understood the concepts of the 7 Stages of Growth, she could have evolved into a Stage 5 company with little or no interruption in the efficiencies the company had relied upon for so many years.

It’s not as if, as the owner of your business, you don’t have enough to think about. Just keeping up with the overwhelming amounts of information that bombards our email accounts daily — some of it is welcome, some isn’t — or the continual flow of business articles in traditional and on line magazines — not to mention the ‘flavor the month’ business book that is touted to turn your ordinary business into a great business overnight.

As business owners we have plenty of choices when it comes to reading about how to increase our profitability or engage our employees or improve performance.

Over the last few years, I kept noticing one thing that seemed to separate high performing enterprises from those that are still aspiring to reach or maximize their goals. You may be thinking, ‘She’s talking about an innovative application of resources or an ability to executive a clearly defined plan or maybe a way to leverage a company’s unique competitive advantage.’

The one differentiating factor that seemed to separate high performing companies from the rest of the pack was so ordinary that it tends to slip by even the most astute business thinker.

The differentiating factor was the ability of a leader to SEE and THINK about their enterprises differently. They seemed able to probe into their companies with what I would call ’soft’ eyes that looked past the surface issues. The leadership of these firms were passionate, actually insistent, about things that others would deem unimportant or secondary to the work of the work, the business of business, or other classic drivers of performance.

This may sound odd, particularly for those of you who are concrete, nuts and bolts business operators who live and breathe in the everyday reality of ‘getting stuff done’.

The leaders of those high performing companies were more interested in seeing and understanding what was going on BEHIND the work, BEHIND the customer, BEHIND the workings of a team, BEHIND the numbers.

These leaders were looking ‘under the covers’ of their company for the truth.

They were in fact, looking for the truth about their businesses and weren’t interested in accepting the surface conclusions, the surface solutions, the surface assumptions that rolled their way.

They believed that what was required of them, in order to have a vivid appreciation of the things that sustained their business, was to look deeper into the truths behind their company’s growth.

I believe these 10 perspectives, or qualities are not standard faire when it comes to talking about growing a successful business. But CEOs who want to differentiate themselves and create companies that will outlive them, must open their minds to SEEING and THINKING about their companies differently.

1.  Demonstration of Intention — drives to identify and articulate company goals, and a company vision and is intent on understanding the potential reach of the enterprise

2.  Fostering of Community — proactively leads the pursuit of common goals, values and vision as a normal aspect of operations, not a once a year event

3. Discovery of Meaning — pursues new frontiers of how each individual in the organization derives meaning from their work

4. Communication of Clarity — pursues the clear and consistent communication of the company’s operations, expectations and strategic goals

5. Quantification of Performance — uncovers ways to measure and realize the surpassing of targeted goals and initiatives

6. Opportunity for Learning — pursues the knowledge necessary to bring the company into new and beneficial fields of opportunity

7. Steward of Freedom — through creating opportunity, drives for more personal and organizational freedom

8. Teacher of Accountability — insists that each individual own the responsibility of their actions and allows for the acceptance of mistakes when those mistakes foster learning

9. Manifestation of Values — promotes values and cultural norms that advance the spirit of the organization

10. Discipline of Creativity — advances and rewards the expansion of creative innovation for the betterment of the company

Keeping an open mind as to how these 10 Perspectives might actually propel a company to bring in more revenue and more profitability is a sign of a leader who believes in the fundamental value of always searching out the truth.