YOU CAN’T ALWAYS DANCE WITH THE ONE THAT BRUNG YA (1)

One of the most difficult aspects of small business growth is the day you realize you’ve outgrown a long-term employee. Maybe he has not kept up his skill sets. Perhaps the rate of change has left him bewildered, causing him to long for the good ole days, “when this place used to run right.” I have one consulting client, who has asked to remain anonymous, who has a real problem between the old guard and the newbies. This year, that company will hire more new people than they had total employees three years ago. Some of the old guard embrace this rapid rate of growth and change, while othersblock change at every turn. You can never anticipate who will grow with you and who will fight change. All you can do is continually monitor the situation for potential trouble.

GE popularized the approach of continually evaluating all employees, ranking them, and then getting rid of the bottom performers in each business unit. Some have called the strategy cruel and inflexible, while others have hailed it as the greatest idea in the history of human resources and adopted the process wholesale. I would suggest that a middle ground is probably appropriate for most private business owners. If the entire sales department is giving 110 percent and everyone is pulling his or her weight, it is ridiculous to apply some ranking that forces someone in that group to be penalized. If the whole shipping department missed their goals by 50 percent and everyone there is equally at fault, there’s no point in rewarding the best of the bad. It is probably time to bring in a whole new team.

The honest truth is that some people don’t want to be challenged.They don’t want to be part of a company that demands peak performance and is constantly changing. They would rather work in a predictable job for a predictable company and collect a predictable paycheck. Some companies may need people like that, but you don’t. If you really want to grow and grow successfully, you can’t keep people who want to stand still or who are pining for “the good ole days.” They simply don’t belong in a growth organization.

If your revenues are half a million dollars a year and you grow by 20 percent, you’ve added $100,000 in revenue. In my former companies, that would mean one or possibly two new hires. But what about when you’re at $10 million in revenue and you experience 20 percent growth, which means adding $2 million in revenue? This probably means 20 new employees and probably a new senior manager or two to boot. It’s asad but true fact that the employee who can withstand 20 percent growth in your early stages is not necessarily equipped to handle 20 percent or more growth on down the line.

Taken From:The 7 Irrefutable rules of Small Businnes Growth