It’s exciting when your business evolves and grows. But it can also come with a whole new set of challenges that suddenly make things hard where they once felt simple.

This is a common conundrum for the small business clients I coach.

The key ingredient that got your business to where it is, is you. So how do you step away and still ensure the same high level of quality service that your clients have come to expect? In order for your business to continue to deliver to your existing and new clients and accommodate this growth, you need to change the way things are done. And that requires changing how you operate.

“Doing” vs “running” your business

The moment you bring in staff, contractors or associates, you become a people manager. The role of management is entirely different to the role you will have played when you were running your business with just you. Instead of “doing” your business, you are now “running” your business.

Doing your business includes:

• Liaising with clients directly;
• Generating invoices and chasing the money;
• Delivering the work, undertaking the deliverables and outputs directly;
• Doing the business development and prospecting for new clients.

Running your business includes:

• Reviewing your employee’s or team’s activities and performance;
• Planning which activities need to be done, by when and by whom;
• Undertaking quality assurance of the work undertaken by others;
• Communicating which things are important and why they matter;
• Supporting your colleagues during periods of challenge and difficulty (professionally and personally) and periods of success.

Can you see the difference? The role of a people manager is entirely different. You might find that you don’t actually do any delivery at all. You might find that you don’t enjoy being a manager and you might find that you have to reflect on what that new understanding and new context means for you, and for your business.

One thing is clear; leading a business is a very different role and you must adapt the way you work to make it work.

There is no right way to achieve success when it comes to the management of people and it is not always easy. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t possible.

Management as a profession

A whole Human Resources industry exists born out of the challenges that every business will at some point encounter when it comes to managing people. And sectors like Learning & Development and Coaching & Mentoring have evolved to better equip people managers and business leaders with the tools and skills to undertake this very important function effectively.

It is said that if you work with others, then you are in the people business, whatever your sector or niche. Yet how much time do you invest in those relationships of the people you manage? How much time do you invest in enabling those you work with to be the best that they can be when working in your business and delivering your product or service, compared to how much time you invest in improving your product or service?

When you scale, you inevitably become reliant on the performance of others yet rarely do business leaders spend the time to nurture these relationships.

Happy staff = happy customers.

But there are things you can do.

Here are my five top tips for working successfully with employees or associates.

Quality of work

This is one of the most challenging aspects to master and also one of the most overlooked.

Set out clearly the standard you are looking for. Define what good or excellent is like and allow your employees to ask questions which helps them to better understand what this means. If you have examples you can share, all the better. Let your colleagues know what they are aiming for.

Set the context and why it matters

This point also applies to education, training, politics, law enforcement or any other environment where it is required that people follow instruction, yet it is rarely articulated and the benefits rarely yielded. When we take a moment to explain why something is important and what happens if something isn’t done, it is more likely that it will get done, and done in the way that was intended or required. Humans work by being motivated, and knowing why we are doing something is the most simple way that we all can be motivated. Explaining why works in every context.

Values

One of the most common ways that relationships breakdown in the workplace is because of a lack of shared and commonly understood values.

Why do values matter?

Values are the things that gel us together. They shape the culture which informs how things get done and how people feel. If things don’t get done in a certain way or people don’t feel good at work, then you likely have an issue with your values. Values are not just a set of fancy words like “Trust” or “Achievement”; they describe how we behave towards each other and what we can expect in terms of how we respect and relate to one another.

Not everyone has to agree with your values. If you value healthy conflict (which is a good thing if managed well) then someone who is conflict avoidant will likely conclude that yours is a culture that isn’t right for them. That is not a bad thing if you can enable that person to leave with grace and find an environment with values that better reflect their own. Values are not rules that warrant punishment if not followed, but they do signify what someone can expect and so living and operating by them becomes a given. And when someone doesn’t operate by them, then values enable a constructive conversation about what that means and what happens next.

Client management

Yes your clients want you. They always say that. The reality is clients want to feel loved and to feel special. So make them feel like that. It just doesn’t have to be you that does it. Managing clients is the quickest way back into doing your business and not running it. Responding to client emails will sink your time faster than a leaky bucket in a pond. Ensure your clients have a dedicated point of contact. Explain to them how you oversee all of their work, sell the unique qualities of your team. Make sure you continue to check in with them from time to time, but don’t interfere. And see my point about trust below.

Trust

When you give trust, you get trust. This might sound counter intuitive when you may have only just recruited a new member of staff and you don’t know the quality of their work very well. However, time and again, “lack of trust” is a key factor employees cite when they decide to leave an organisation. To cultivate a culture of trust, you have to give it first. Try giving an employee a new responsibility and tell them you trust them to do a good job, and then sit back and watch how they go about managing it and exceed your expectations in the process.

And if you want employees to go above and beyond for you, don’t pick just one or two of these items, apply all of them for maximum results.