You’re the leader of an established, successful business. You’ve spent years building it from the ground up, assembling a team, and putting an executive structure in place.
But there’s a catch – you’re indispensable. Without your constant involvement in the day-to-day operations, it feels like the business will fall apart. You are the business.
Sound familiar?
This scenario is a reality for many business leaders. You’d love to get to a point where the business thrives and grows independently of you, as this will allow you to focus on the bigger picture instead of being stuck in the weeds. But you’re just not quite getting there.
In this post, we look at what the underlying problem might be by identifying if:
- Someone is accountable for each business function (they can’t all be “owned” by you).
- The team’s roles and responsibilities are crystal clear.
- You have the right people in the right seats.
- You’ve clearly defined your company’s systems and processes.
Let’s dive in.
1. Who is accountable for each key business function?
Every business has certain key functions. While some are relatively standard across industries, others may be unique to your business.
Understanding the structure of your company and making someone accountable for each function is essential, as this will help you to identify and address potential challenges.
A good starting point is to draw up a Functional Accountability Chart.
Identify essential functions and determine who is accountable
Start by compiling a list of these essential functions that drive your business. Examples of common ones include sales, marketing, HR and, of course, the Head of the Company (you).
Next, for each function, determine who is accountable. Then, ask yourself these critical questions:
1. Is more than one person accountable for a function?
Answering this question is essential, as having multiple employees accountable for a single function can lead to confusion and a lack of ownership. When lines become blurred, and accountability is spread among team members, frustrations mount – and balls get dropped. Ultimately, the function will underperform. If more than one person is accountable, no one truly is.
Also, remember that if both you, the head of the business, and someone else are accountable for the same function, you might be overly involved in that role. As a result, the other person may step back and let “the boss” take the lead.
The solution is simple: each business function should have one – and only one – accountable person. If several team members are responsible for one function, it’s essential to question why this is the case. (More about this later.)
2. Is someone occupying multiple seats?
When one team member is accountable for several functions, it should raise a flag.
In smaller businesses, it’s normal for the leader to wear various hats. However, if you find yourself in this situation and there are other capable individuals responsible for executing most of the work, it may be time to reevaluate your involvement. At this point, defining more precise roles and responsibilities and developing robust systems and processes can be incredibly beneficial.
When you have an executive team in place, and you notice one team member’s name linked to various functions, it’s once again time to ask a few questions:
- Are they overstretched? Remember that the business function might suffer if the executive is stretched too thin across various roles.
- Are they a good fit for the role? The person may not be 100% suited to the position, which could affect the success of the function.
- Do they possess the necessary skills, knowledge, and experience to excel in each function they oversee? If they don’t, the function may suffer, or you’ll eventually lose this team member.
Where an executive team is already in place and you, as the business leader, continue to retain accountability for several functions, hit the pause button. Take time to reflect on why you might be reluctant to relinquish control and allow your executive team to assume full ownership of their roles.
3. Are there any empty seats?
Key business functions need clear accountability to avoid oversights and energy-draining crises down the line. When there’s no designated owner, the leadership team may collectively assume accountability, which often results in no one taking responsibility.
This situation doesn’t necessarily mean you should rush to hire someone for every function. Still, it does mean someone must step up to the plate, ensuring oversight and performance monitoring. If this seat is empty for too long, the function (and the business as a whole) will inevitably underperform.
4. Would you enthusiastically rehire the current function heads?
Imagine you didn’t have an executive team. Would you eagerly rehire all of the people currently occupying these positions?
If your answer is uncertain or leans towards a “no”, it’s essential to pinpoint why you’re feeling this way. Is your hesitation linked to unsatisfactory performance, poor culture fit, or the fact that they’re juggling too many roles simultaneously? Are some of them simply in the wrong seats?
Whatever the cause, you might have to make changes to ensure your business can scale without your constant day-to-day involvement.
Two great resources:
- The Functional Accountability Chart, a tool from Verne Harnish’s book Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It… and Why the Rest Don’t (Rockefeller Habits 2.0), can assist you with this process. It’s a read I’d definitely recommend.
- To streamline your efforts, you can also download a free Functional Accountability Chart worksheet from the Scaling Up website.
2. Are the roles and responsibilities clear?
While the above exercise focused on the heads of each function, it didn’t delve into the specifics of what’s expected of them or address the expectations across the rest of the organisation.
Next, it’s time to establish clear roles and responsibilities for every team member.
Team members should know what's expected of them
Ask yourself the following:
- Do all team members, including function heads, understand their roles and responsibilities?
- Are these responsibilities documented?
- Is it clear what they’re accountable for, which tasks they’re responsible for executing, and how you’ll measure their performance through key performance indicators (KPIs)?
- When was the last time these role descriptions were updated?
- Are regular performance reviews conducted to assess employees against their KPIs?
Many of the businesses I coach lack this foundational structure. Some business leaders see this as an academic exercise, assuming everyone inherently knows what they should do. Others relegate this task to those involved in the hiring process, believing it’s only relevant when bringing in new team members.
The truth is that having documented roles and responsibilities – coupled with routine performance reviews – can transform your business. It also plays a pivotal role in enabling you to step away without fearing a breakdown in operations.
Unlock the power of job scorecards
Topgrading, Brad Smart’s leading hiring and interviewing methodology, emphasises the significance of the job scorecard.
Unlike a conventional job description, a scorecard comprehensively summarises each role. It outlines the role’s purpose, the key accountabilities (critical areas for which the employee is held accountable), the KPIs, and the required competencies. It’s helpful in hiring and a powerful tool for existing employees.
Job scorecards:
- Ensure everything gets done. In every role, some tasks are more appealing than others. Employees might occasionally neglect what they don’t like and focus on what they like. But when expectations are clear, and individuals know you’ll evaluate them accordingly, there’s little risk of work falling through the cracks (unless they’re juggling too much).
Additionally, by going through the functional accountability process and defining clear roles and responsibilities for everyone in the business, you can ensure someone takes ownership of every task that needs to be done to grow the business. - Drive ownership. There’s something empowering about knowing you’re accountable for specific areas and that the ultimate responsibility rests with you. I’ve witnessed significant performance leaps after leaders clearly set out roles and responsibilities. People (the right ones) tend to step up, taking pride in their roles.
- Improve productivity. Scorecards help foster a more focused, driven team, as team members aren’t held back by ambiguity or confusion.
Going beyond scorecards: The vital role of performance reviews
You’ve created scorecards and communicated them with your employees. Job done, right? Not quite.
I’ve often observed businesses going to all the effort of developing scorecards but neglecting regular performance check-ins. Scheduling these meetups is critical in building a successful company.
The good news is that the job scorecard streamlines the performance review process, making it more effective and objective. The accountabilities and KPIs in the scorecards guide these conversations, and as expectations are clear, there’s no room for surprises. Employees know what you expect and how you’ll assess their performance.
With this clarity, the review conversation can focus on enhancing your high achievers’ performance and supporting other team members’ development.
3. Do you have the right people on the team?
In his book Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap, and Others Don’t, Jim Collins highlights an important principle the best business leaders follow: the top guys ensure the right people are on the bus (the wrong ones, however, don’t get a seat).
This principle underscores the idea that even the most brilliant vision can fall flat without the right team members. These business leaders will tell you that they surrounded themselves with the right people even before they knew exactly where to take the business. Once these individuals were in place, it became much easier to grow and scale.
Get more A-Players on your team
The Topgrading methodology also introduces the concept of A-Players – individuals in the top 10% of talent available for a job at a given salary level. They’re the people who’ll be the top performers in your organisation and the folks you’d enthusiastically rehire. They also firmly align with your company’s values and purpose, making them an excellent cultural fit.
A-Players have always been A-Players, no matter where they’ve played before. Throughout their careers, they’ve achieved consistent success despite the circumstances they found themselves in. B- and C-Players, in turn, will only be successful when circumstances work in their favour.
Assess your team with the ABC matrix
It’s time to take a long, hard look at the people you’ve employed. With the help of Topgrading’s ABC Matrix, start to identify and categorise employees based on their performance and potential.
Use the matrix below and first identify the A-Players in your business. Remember: A-Players are those top performers who live and breathe the values and purpose of your organisation.
Next, identify the C-Players. Everyone else will most likely fall into the B-Player category.
Unlock your B-Players’ potential
B-Players are typically aligned with the values and purpose of the organisation but are underperforming. Ask yourself why this is the case. Are their roles, responsibilities, and KPIs crystal clear? Perhaps they’re the right people but in the wrong seats. Would they perform better in different roles or teams?
Through guidance and development (thankfully, improving performance is the simpler of the two challenges to address), your B-Players can hopefully graduate to being A-Players.
C-Players: Navigate a delicate situation
Changing a team player’s alignment with the company’s culture, core values, and purpose is much more challenging – and typically where you’ll find your C-Players. Unfortunately, it’s a challenge you can’t ignore. These employees can become toxic to your organisation, and their negativity can spread to the rest of the team.
Don’t give up on them immediately, though: C-Players can also become A-Players. Check for a culture clash in their teams and ask yourself whether they’d excel elsewhere in the business. If, after a process of trying to rectify the misalignment, it doesn’t bring about a change, it’s non-negotiable – they need to go. After all, they deserve an opportunity to find their fit elsewhere.
A-Players vs. C-Players: A management approach
One of the biggest benefits of having A-Players on your team is that you don’t have to manage them; they manage themselves. As a leader, your role is mainly to guide them and eliminate any obstacles that hinder even better performance.
C-Players, on the other hand, demand constant management and attention. In First, Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently, Coffman and Buckingham discuss the fact that the best managers invest most of their time in their A-Players. Conversely, they invest very little time trying to change their C-Players.
These managers hire the right people for each role. When employees aren’t able or willing to perform to the expected standards, they compassionately manage the C-Players off their teams.
4. Do you have clearly documented systems and processes in place?
I love the phrase, “Work on your business; not just in it”, used in The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It.
This book explores the importance of creating a business that doesn’t depend on you and delivers results without your involvement in every aspect. The author, Michael E. Gerber, advises leaders to clearly define their organisation’s systems and processes to achieve a position where they’re free to focus on the bigger picture.
What exactly are 'systems and processes'?
Systems are already in play everywhere in your organisation, whether you know it or not. In fact, every business is a system of systems – and every aspect of your organisation is part of a system or sub-system.
Some examples of the systems that exist in most businesses include:
- Lead generation
- Payroll
- Accounting
- Sales
- Collections
- Purchasing
Each of these will have sub-systems. Your aim should be to create accompanying process documents detailing how these systems operate.
Side note: The words “systems” and “processes” are often used interchangeably, but there are subtle differences:
- Processes are ordered activities that transform inputs into more valuable outputs.
- Systems encompass groups of interacting, interrelated, or interdependent business processes, forming a unified whole.
Why systems matter
They can help you avoid using generalised solutions (which might not be the best course of action), seat-of-the-pants operations, and allowing employees to act at their discretion (risky).
Systems will also prevent you from leaving everything to chance and compel you to articulate detailed processes, performance standards, and accountability charts.
Systems create consistency in the outputs of your business and build continuity beyond the individual people operating the system. With your business systems, you’re saying to your employees: “This is how we do things around here”.
Good to know: After reading this post, you may be worried that all these systems and processes will complicate your business, create bureaucracy, stifle innovation and thinking, and turn your team members into robots. Rest assured – systems will never replace people. Instead, they’ll help your employees be much more productive and efficient.
What should you systemise?
A good rule of thumb is to systemise your company’s routine processes and humanise the exceptions.
Every organisation has routine tasks or processes that occur every day. How these occur should be defined by systems and processes, as it will ensure team members complete tasks the same way every time. Conversely, some areas aren’t routine or predictable – a skilled or experienced person on the team must get involved when a decision needs to be made. These areas shouldn’t be systemised.
To figure out where to start, prioritise creating systems for the areas that significantly impact your business, customers, or employees. When the business stands on its own – and it operates predictably, consistently, reliably, and independently from personalities and preferences, no matter who sits where in the organisation chart – it’s fully systemised.
5 steps to creating successful systems
A structured five-step approach can guide you in identifying, developing, and documenting your systems effectively.
The steps are:
- Identify: Create an inventory of systems within your business to determine where to start and what requires systemisation.
- Document “as-is”: Document the current processes as they’re executed today. This often-overlooked step lays the foundation for more robust solutions.
- Analyse and evaluate: This is where the “as-is” way of doing things gets pulled apart, preferably in a workshop environment with those closely involved. Take the time to analyse and evaluate the current systems and their processes to identify the inefficiencies, redundancies, and more.
- Develop “to-be”: You can now create your company’s future processes and systems from the previous steps.
- Implement and manage: The last step is to designate a system “owner” responsible for ensuring each system endures and consistently produces desired results. Regular follow-ups and improvements are vital for maintaining the systems’ effectiveness.
As this process is relatively complex, it’s worth bringing in a coach or consultant.
The GROWth Formula
As you continue your leadership journey, you’ll lay the foundation for a scalable business, assemble a strong team, and pave the way to organisational success. Eventually, you’ll get to a point where your business is able to thrive without your day-to-day involvement. When this moment arrives, you’ll be able to unlock your company’s true potential.
As a business coach at GROW Business Coaching, I leverage The GROWth Formula – a model that sets out what you need to master to build a truly successful, profitable, and enjoyable business. It comprises four integral components:
- You, the leader
- Setting direction
- Winning team
- Operational excellence
This post covered some aspects of creating a winning team and achieving operational excellence by setting systems and processes in place to keep things running smoothly, regardless of who’s at the helm. There’s much more to come in future posts.
If you’re ready to scale your business and start stepping away from being operationally involved, let’s chat. I’ve helped many other leaders like you overcome their business challenges, unlock their team members’ potential, and gain independence.
About Me
I’m Graham Cherrington, a business coach at GROW Business Coaching in Cape Town, with diverse and well-rounded experience in a variety of fields, having worked for both large corporates and start-ups.
GROW’s purpose is to unlock the potential of the leaders and their teams that we coach so that they can go on to build profitable, impactful, and enduring businesses. We use the methodology encapsulated in the business GROWth Formula and our years of experience in building and scaling companies across South Africa to deliver measurable results for the businesses we coach.