Many different shortcomings can hold back the growth of a company. Some are obvious, such as poor cash flow management or flawed strategic plans. Others aren’t so easy to see.
Take, for example, disjointed or under-supported managers. If you don’t dedicate the time and resources to strengthening the bonds of your management team and providing the support they need, your company may struggle with slower growth as a consequence.
A good place to start is by making sure you’re following a collaborative approach to running the business. Develop strategic goals with your management team’s input and buy-in so everyone pulls in the same direction. From there, actively work to keep managers engaged in meeting department-specific objectives related to strategic goals.
Collaboration has other benefits, too. More individuals participating in decision-making can mean more creative and well-thought-out solutions. A collaborative approach also distributes the burden of strategic planning so it doesn’t fall on only your shoulders. Sharing responsibility for key decisions — particularly as a business grows — is vital to facilitating progress and seizing opportunities.
You may want to perform a formal assessment if you’re unsure where your management team stands. This entails undertaking a thorough and confidential review of every manager to identify cultural, technical, or interpersonal issues that may detract from team performance.
To help ensure objectivity, many businesses engage outside consultants specializing in executive or leadership development to perform such assessments. The assessments generally consist of live or virtual interviews, sometimes in group settings, and written or online evaluations. The goal is to gain insights into:
Assessment providers typically issue results in written reports and debriefing sessions. Most will help you create an action plan to use the information gathered.
You may want to hold annual retreats to take management team building to the next level. Doing so can be particularly important following one of the assessments mentioned above.
Management retreats typically follow a more intense format than company-wide team-building events. Ways to structure each retreat are limited only by budget, creativity, and perhaps team members’ physical limitations. The goal is to break down functional silos and communication barriers and build up a greater sense of trust and unity.
However, to fully realize the potential value of a retreat, you must follow up. That means harnessing the experiences and breakthroughs that occur during the event and using them to create an action plan for improving management performance back at the office. (If you’ve also conducted a management team assessment, you can combine the two action plans.)
It’s all too easy for managers to get caught up in their respective departments’ day-to-day trials and travails. That’s how growth inhibitors such as knowledge silos and leadership conflicts happen. Give your management team the encouragement and support it deserves. Our firm can help you identify and analyze all the costs of performance development at every level of your business.
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