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Tag: Leadership Strategy

  • Entrepreneur | Elon Musk Got it All Wrong. Here’s Why Effective Leaders Need to Loosen the Reins

    Entrepreneur | Elon Musk Got it All Wrong. Here’s Why Effective Leaders Need to Loosen the Reins

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    In a flexible, hybrid and remote work environment, many leaders have failed to let go: The Elon Musks of the world are demanding their people come back to the office or else. These leaders worry that without the ability to look over everyone’s shoulders, their employees aren’t working, are quietly quitting or aren’t working on the right things.

    They may feel the need to babysit because they don’t trust their team. But threats and micromanaging don’t work. They haven’t empowered their teams or inspired them with a shared mission. Maybe it’s on them for not building that initial foundational trust.

    It may seem that some jobs “need a babysitting culture,” where people show up, punch a clock and spend the day waiting to leave. They’re just picking up a paycheck. But the reality is that the promise of weekly payments alone can never buy loyalty, nor can it build a team passionate about working together on a shared mission. To create an environment where people love to come to work, leaders need to empower their teams, give autonomy and build a workforce prepared to take on responsibility.

    Related: Empower the Employees Who Will Build an Amazing Culture

    Letting go is more productive

    Giving people the space and autonomy to succeed fuels their fire to achieve more. My first experience with this was with a boss named Ryan in my first post-college job. I still tell him that he was the best boss I ever had. From day one, Ryan would simply ask me to get something done. Then, when the deadline was approaching, he would ask if I had finished. He gave me complete freedom not to do the right thing. I probably could have done the job better, especially with more guidance, but I got it done, and it felt empowering. The experience grew my confidence.

    People want the freedom to be empowered and create success. That’s why people come to work at Quantum: They want that autonomy, and we give it to them. Our people are passionate about their work and have ideas to drive the company to success. I have made the mistake of being involved in the middle of a work task, and I’ve gotten lots of feedback on it. They would rather me just tell them what I want them to achieve and let go. When I empower my team members to rise to their best, they learn to trust me and work harder to achieve our goals in return.

    Related: Why You Need to Stop Micromanaging Your Team and Learn to Let Go

    Put guardrails in place

    Of course, I can’t just let go of every project and hope that everything will be fine: There must be some frameworks and guardrails in place to help, and sometimes we need to get a little closer to the fire. Balancing how and when to step in is critical, especially when things get tough. There have been moments where I have taken tighter reins — a 30-minute daily call to get feedback and adjust. But I asked everyone to let it happen because rarely will I be that leader who gets so deeply involved every time, and they know it. That’s not my management style, so when I have to step in, they know it’s a higher priority and a working discussion that fuels the need to get my hands dirty.

    Elon Musk, on the other hand, is surrounded by smart people passionate about their mission, but his management style is the epitome of a leader who can’t let go. It’s worked for him because he’s detail-oriented and gets minutely involved in everything to ensure success, but micromanagement doesn’t work for most people.

    Instead, we can provide rails or infrastructure to make sure everything is happening as it should. Ensure everyone understands the mission and is aligned around the core objectives before they take off running in the wrong direction. When we know everyone has their sights set on achieving the right outcomes, it’s easier for us as leaders to step back and give them the autonomy they need.

    Related: What Happens When You Empower Employees Instead of Micromanage Them?

    How to build a workforce in a more flexible world

    Especially with so many people working from home, it can be challenging for leaders to know that they’re building the kind of workforce responsible enough to take on autonomy. Creating a workforce that wants to wake up daily and work towards the company’s mission requires certain personal attributes. At Quantum, we look for three core values:

    1. Passion: It’s hard to motivate someone to be passionate, so find people who already love their work. Ask them: “Are you passionate about what you do? Would you push me out of the way and get this done?” I want people who wake up passionate about our company’s mission, and if they ever lose that feeling with our company, I would hope to help them re-ignite that passion or help them find their next job where they could find it again.
    2. Persistence: People can be passionate but not persistent enough to take something across the finish line. A friend of mine is passionate about art, an incredible artist who could be famous, but he struggles with rejection and the persistence needed to keep driving forward. Someone ready for autonomy must be willing to take on rejection, failures and “no’s” to get across the finish line. It’s a top attribute of an entrepreneur, and to have a team of 500 entrepreneurs that will fight through any obstacle is amazing to see in action.
    3. Integrity: If I can get people who are persistent and passionate but can’t act with transparency — being honest with themselves, their peers and our customers — it doesn’t matter how much we win, it won’t be enjoyable. I want to come to work because it’s fun, and when people aren’t telling the truth, I don’t enjoy it; the work becomes much less meaningful.

    Passion, persistence and integrity — I interview every prospective employee and have them tell me what those words mean to them. Their definition and embodiment of those words get them a job at our company, and it becomes an unspoken contract: If they lose any of those values, I would rather they leave and find a place to rediscover them all.

    Elon Musk has the right concept — only work here if you can love my vision — but his “my way or the highway” approach may not work for everyone. Instead, leaders should nurture the trust and autonomy needed to build a team that loves what they do.

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    Mario Ciabarra

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  • Why Your Job Title Doesn’t Matter

    Why Your Job Title Doesn’t Matter

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    In a corporate setting, a job title can be used as leverage, something for you to strive for. Titles to distinguish levels, such as Associate, Vice President and Managing Director, allow other employees to understand your position in the firm and the status that comes with it. Certain titles come with specific salary ranges and perks — which is one of the reasons to strive for them. Humans aim to be verified with some level of significance, and in a business setting, one of those levels of significance comes from the job title. However, when it comes to entrepreneurship, the way we think of titles is different.

    One of the concepts I covered in a previous article was the risk and rewards of priorities. I have seen inexperienced entrepreneurs over-prioritize their titles — picking a title should be at the bottom of the priority list. In the age of social media, there is a never-ending wave of titles people can pick from, like Boss, President, Principle, CEO, Founder, King and Owner — take your pick. All these are non-important to an entrepreneur and are ways to validate an ego without doing any work.

    A job title does not matter at the entrepreneurial level. Here’s why.

    1. Job titles can be lies

    Job titles in any business size can be misleading, but at the entrepreneurial level, they can be outright lies — especially if you’re the one who created it. You might call yourself a CEO, but what exactly are you chief of executing? You might be a President, but what exactly are you presiding over?

    Just because you decide on a fancy title does not mean you are good at your entrepreneurial role. Similarly, just because someone you’re networking with has a fancy title does not mean they have the skills and experience to back it up. Job titles don’t always accurately represent a person’s level of knowledge or expertise.

    All companies, big or small, want to be seen as professional and worth doing business with. One of the ways this is accomplished is by giving specific titles to employees. Who wouldn’t want to do business with a “vice president of a company?” But this “vice president” could be one of the less senior roles. This is true across most companies and is an old way of operating. On the other hand, someone with a simple title may be a valuable contributor to the team.

    Related: The Weirdest Job Titles Might Also Be the Most Unpopular (Infographic)

    2. Job titles are misleading

    Building off the previous point, job titles don’t necessarily reflect a person’s responsibilities — especially in the entrepreneurial world. When you work for a company, you realize quickly that sometimes your responsibilities tend to go above and beyond your job description. The smaller the company, the more roles you play.

    For example, your title might fall in with sales, but specific responsibilities would fall more into an operations or customer service category. Furthermore, two people with the same job title may have vastly different roles and responsibilities within a company. And this becomes even more true when comparing job titles across companies.

    Related: Why Job Titles Don’t Always Reflect the Value of Employees

    3. Job titles can be changed at any moment

    If a job title can change at any moment, it has zero value. Furthermore, as an entrepreneur, you will find that focusing too much on your title can create a culture problem as the company grows. If employees start to question and compete for title status at such an early stage, that removes the focus and teamwork from accomplishing the actual goal — growing the company. Titles can motivate employees when the company gets a specific size or has a particular structure – anything before that is just a hindrance.

    Related: You’re a Real CEO When Your Company Is Bigger Than Your Title

    As an entrepreneur, especially a bootstrapped entrepreneur, your job title is whatever needs to be done that day. If you need to make sales, you’re a salesman. If you need to pay bills, you’re an accountant. If you need to clean the office, you’re a janitor. Your job is to do whatever needs to be done.

    Now, as the company changes, that concept changes. As growth comes, there will be a need for more structure and delegation. Hopefully, there comes a point when you can delegate out low ROI responsibilities. Cleaning probably is not generating the company’s greatest ROI, so delegate it. Paying bills is not generating the best ROI for your skill set, so delegate it.

    When does a job title matter?

    A job title matters when you decide it matters. If you feel that you can absolutely not move forward with being an entrepreneur unless you have picked out the appropriate title — then you will have to pick out the appropriate title (disclaimer: if that is the case – you might want to question if entrepreneurship is right for you).

    Now, if you feel you need a title after your first hire, go for it. But chances are everyone internally understands their place in the business and their role. In my experience, depending on the business model, most employees instinctively understand their role and where they are in the structure until about 15 employees. At that point, titles might make sense.

    Related: What’s A Job Title Really Worth?

    Finally, if you feel you need an awesome title to fit in with all of the other awesome business people, remember this: A true business person, especially in the entrepreneurial world, does not care about your title. They care about what you do, your portfolio and what you can do to help each other grow.

    If you can pick out a title and move on to focus on key priorities, excellent. But if you find yourself getting held up on titles and other minutiae, remember: titles don’t matter; execution does. Do not validate your ego by picking out a title. Validate your ego by building a better business.

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    Anthony D. Anselmo

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  • Leaders: Stop Micromanaging and Do This Instead

    Leaders: Stop Micromanaging and Do This Instead

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    One of the most common complaints of entrepreneurs is, “I’m doing everything and can’t get it all done!” I’ve been there, and I know just how easy it is to take everything on yourself until you end up completely overwhelmed.

    But there’s no glory in being an entrepreneurial martyr, and certainly no business sense in it either. It’s time for entrepreneurs to stop thinking it’s their job to pile on the hats, despite the costs. Here’s what to do instead.

    Related: 8 Secrets to Success in Business

    Prioritize to protect your brand

    As a business owner, there are certain things you and you alone should own. Namely, the big-picture tasks of setting your company’s vision and protecting your brand. This has always been hugely important to me, to the extent that some might say I’m territorial about it. But you have to be.

    You created your brand, and you know it better than anyone else. You know what products or services will align with your mission and vision and what could threaten what you’re trying to build. As the business owner, you might choose to retain ownership over partnerships. This way, you ensure any partners you engage with have the same commitment to quality you do so that joining forces with them will strengthen your brand rather than weaken it.

    Related: 5 Ways Your Business Can Protect Its Online Brand

    Hire for your weaknesses

    To stop taking responsibility for every single part of your business, you need a team to support you. What is the best way to create one? Don’t hire to replace yourself; hire for your weaknesses. In other words, don’t hire people like you who share similar strengths. Hire folks with wildly different skill sets and even opposing perspectives, so you can have a robust team that fills all your gaps.

    If you’re unsure of your strengths and weaknesses, it’s worth taking the time to figure them out. First, consider what areas of the business only you can handle. Maybe it’s strategic planning, forming strong vendor relationships or managing production. Also, think about the parts of the business you enjoy. Your strengths won’t always magically line up with the fun parts of entrepreneurship, but there’s a good chance the areas where you naturally excel are also the areas you’re drawn toward.

    Next, consider where you’ve had hiccups in your business. Even if you’re a young company, the odds are that you’ve encountered friction at least a few times. Was it when you tried to handle customer service? Did you flub a technical matter? Being honest in conducting a self-assessment will help you determine the exact types of people you need most.

    Related: 4 Reasons Why You Should Always be Hiring for Your Business

    Trust your team

    This will help you create a more functional business and prioritize properly to protect your brand. Of course, there’s one major caveat: none of this will work if you insist on micromanaging. You have to have enough trust in your team to give them the autonomy to execute their roles.

    As a business owner, you shouldn’t be the one stepping in to comment about the color of a banner ad in a newsletter or weighing in on email copy (unless graphic design and marketing are your strengths). The little things should be left to the people you hired to own them. If you can’t trust them to make decisions, you need to hire new people or do the hard work required to relinquish control.

    Wearing all the hats as an entrepreneur is unsustainable and not in your business’s best interest. It results in burnout and pulls you away from the areas where you contribute the most. By prioritizing, hiring for your weaknesses and trusting your team, you’ll go much further and faster.

    Related: What Happens When You Empower Employees Instead of Micromanage Them?

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    Clate Mask

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  • How Leaders Can Embrace Change and Keep Thriving Through It

    How Leaders Can Embrace Change and Keep Thriving Through It

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    If you’re anything like me, when you reflect on the past year, you find yourself reeling from what feels like a punch to the gut. At the start of 2022, businesses were grasping for new hires amid a nationwide employee shortage and trying to decide upon a flexible work plan that was right for them. With 2023 now underway, many organizations are steadying their sails for what increasingly looks like an imminent downturn by tightening budgets and issuing hiring freezes.

    Navigating change will be the anchor for leadership in 2023. As a business leader, you already recognize that change happens constantly. Economies fluctuate between recessions and expansions, share prices increase and decrease, innovative technologies and industries disrupt businesses, and so on.

    The typical response to change can vary greatly depending on the person and the current environment. Some want to jump to immediate action, while others take a wait-and-see approach. It’s only natural that we as humans — and as leaders — get comfortable in our present state and find a rhythm for success, only to then get thrown off by change.

    But what if instead of simply reacting to disruptions, we turned them into opportunities for innovation and growth? Here are some key strategies I’ve found useful to successfully navigate change — and even embrace it — as 2023 kicks into high gear.

    Related: 7 Ways to Stay Resilient in Uncertain Times

    1. Reframe change as untapped potential

    Seasoned leaders know that handling change is always going to be part of the job. The key is for leaders to see that change can be a good thing, and to reframe change as an untapped opportunity for employees.

    A few years ago, we made the proactive decision to upend our business model and undertake a massive digital transformation. Things were not going poorly for us — we were doing better as an organization than we had in a long time. But our CEO at the time believed there was a better way to serve our customers: by transitioning to a digital-first subscription model. And if that proved to be true, it was going to be much better for our clients and our organization.

    I was tasked with testing the model with a subset of salespeople and clients, where results quickly proved the idea viable. But it was not an easy decision as a public company to transform our business. We needed to address everything — what we sold, the way we sold, the way we engaged clients, the financial model of the company, how we recognized revenue, how we accounted for our sales, how we went to market and more. In one way or another, every touchpoint of our business had to change.

    Throughout that process, we knew that if we couldn’t capture the hearts of our people, this change would fail and the benefits we envisioned wouldn’t be realized. As leaders, our job was to help everyone in the organization understand that, while we didn’t have answers to every question, ultimately this move was right for them and our customers.

    We often believe that leadership is about having the “big idea.” But the idea is only the starting line. Leaders need the willingness to confront reality, adjust, get input, adjust again and bring people along. That’s the real work of leadership.

    Related: How to Get Comfortable With Change and Build It Into the Foundation of Your Business

    2. Create a plan for better change management

    When it comes to change management, I have seen organizations of all sizes on every part of the spectrum. Some business leaders have done an incredible job of developing change management plans that are agile and of which their entire workforce is on board, while many others have not.

    Having a change management plan is both a failsafe for organizations and a safety net for employees. It’s a clear signal to employees that you as a leader know change is coming and can be trusted to lead the organization through what’s to come. Creating a great change management plan includes forecasting what changes you expect — and what you as an organization and your individual departments specifically will do to come out ahead.

    3. Communicate your plan and lead out by example

    Start by getting in touch with your own personal reactions to change. As you do so, your empathy with your team increases. Harness that empathy; it’s key to helping your team persist when the going gets tough.

    Empathy plays a major role in communicating effectively with your team. Successful leaders directly engage their people in change. A change management plan is nothing except words on paper if you as a leader don’t communicate it and get buy-in from your people.

    No matter the size of your organization, one of the best ways to communicate your change management plan is to get employee feedback early on in the process. Be a sounding board and listen as they voice their concerns over the anticipated change. It’s essential to meet people where they’re at to successfully gain their support for a change management plan. Try not to focus too much on the process — humans make up your teams, so be human in your approach.

    Related: Want to Make Your Workplace More Human? Here Are 4 Foolproof Ways.

    4. Encourage leadership at every level

    Once you’ve received buy-in and communicated with your employees, trust your leaders to take the helm and begin implementing the plan within their individual departments and teams. With each small win, your leaders will find the courage and motivation to continue moving forward with your change management plan. They will know they can turn to you as a resource for voicing concerns or providing direction, but they will also know that you trust them to make important decisions and carry the initiative forward.

    Over the past decade, we’ve worked with hundreds of organizations to equip them with the skills not only to develop change management plans, but also to create change-ready cultures where people move from fearing and disliking change to embracing and thriving through change.

    As we look to the months ahead, don’t be afraid of what’s to come. You’ve navigated uncharted territory before and you’ll do it again. Use these insights and work with your employees to create a change management plan that is right for your organization and you will steadily sail — even through the storms — and come out ahead on the other side.

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    Paul Walker

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  • 3 Easy New Year’s Resolutions Every Business Owner Should Make in 2023

    3 Easy New Year’s Resolutions Every Business Owner Should Make in 2023

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    New year’s resolutions are a bit of a joke these days. Let’s be honest. To the point that breaking them seems par for the course. Only 9-12% of the 41% of Americans who make resolutions in the first place follow through with them.

    As business owners, we face this every year too. We set goals for our team, or we have growth forecasts to hit. Right from the jump, we commit ourselves to deliver a long list of lofty promises.

    And do we come through?

    It would be very glib of me to accuse you of writing checks your…um…”bottom” can’t cash. But statistically, that’s precisely what you’re doing. In the warm, cozy confines of the Christmas holidays and new year celebrations, you concoct all of these wonderful new milestones for you and your business.

    Then reality hits. The day-to-day operational issues, supplier delays and client requests. They all conspire to slow your progress to a crawl. Before you know it, you’re preparing for Christmas again, having hardly achieved any of it!

    Related: 10 New Year’s Resolutions Entrepreneurs Should Make Every Year

    The problem is that you tried to change too much!

    We all look for magic bullet solutions, but your mind is just not set up to cope with massive and sudden changes. As much as 97% of your decision-making is done subconsciously. That means that no matter how strong your intellectual resolve is — unless you can internalize your intentions and communicate them favorably to your subconscious — you’re unlikely to see them to fruition.

    You might think that working on your subconscious is a personal indulgence you don’t have time for, but trust me: you have to. Like it or not, your business is an extension of you. It exists because you created it and gave it purpose.

    If you are locked in a personal battle between your consciously held desires and your subconscious emotional programming, your business will rapidly lose direction and focus.

    So with that said, here are three easy new years resolutions that every business owner should make in 2023.

    1. Make ‘check-ins’ a part of your everyday routine

    What do I mean by this?

    I’m talking about taking five or ten minutes twice daily to take yourself off to a quiet space and check in with yourself.

    We can often become derailed as we go through our day. We unknowingly carry the baggage of the various issues we encounter into our subsequent decisions on unrelated matters.

    By checking in regularly, you’ll be able to hear and let go of your frustrations. Your ‘stuck states’ will be freed, enabling you to address your needs with a level head. Thus improving your ability to lead and your team’s ability to deliver.

    Related: This is Why Entrepreneurs Seriously Need to Take a Break

    2. Take regular ‘VIP Days’

    I do this at least once or twice a month, but it’s crucial in getting that 97% of your brain onboard.

    A VIP day involves you indulging in your favorite things to do. This could be shopping, a spa treatment, going to your favorite restaurant for lunch…anything.

    A big part of why you face so much internal resistance to change is because you are hardwired (thanks to millions of years of inherited, genetic wisdom) to resist it. The change represents the unknown, and the unknown is unsafe!

    Bearing in mind that this simple reasoning pre-dates language, reasoning and certainly globalization. It simply doesn’t have the awareness that your conscious mind does. What taking a VIP day will do for you is show your subconscious that you are a person who has taken chances and they have given your more security. Not less.

    A significant point of resistance to growth for so many of us is that we simply do not see ourselves as successful. By enforcing the taking of regular VIP days, you’re actively stepping into becoming that new person holistically. And your subconscious will notice.

    Related: Would You Rather Change or Let Your Business Die?

    3. Set micro-goals for your business

    It’s easy to drag everyone into a meeting on their first day at work of the new year and proclaim that “this year we’re going to aim to double growth in sales!” before dusting your hands off and returning to your office.

    Setting top-level goals is your responsibility, sure. But you won’t get there in one leap!

    Going back to what I just said about your subconscious programming. Looking at a high-level goal like that, with no conceivable way to break it down, is simply going to result in overwhelm for you and your team. You need to think about the lower-level steps along the way to achieving that end result and then walk those through with your team.

    Related: Do You Have a Love/Hate Relationship With Goals?

    Of course: delegate operational responsibility for them, but recognize your responsibility to understand what they are in the first place! When everyone can see the path clearly, understand precisely how to execute their part in it and feel confident in their ability to do so: you’ll be unstoppable.

    Limiting these to three and keeping them simple is to avoid overcommitting yourself and risking a shutdown. The reason for giving your three personal resolutions (rather than ones for your business directly) is to better resource you in terms of your mental resilience so that you can handle whatever comes your way.

    Make no mistake: the challenges of 2022 are likely to continue well into 2023. The best way to hedge against them is by better equipping yourself with the internal resources to guide your team decisively.

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    Daniel Mangena

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  • 9 Lessons Entrepreneurship Will Teach You

    9 Lessons Entrepreneurship Will Teach You

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Once upon a time, my wife Jenna and I and our three kids under ten moved from San Francisco to Los Angeles, had another baby, and bought our first house together. This, we thought, is the perfect time to quit our jobs and start a business! [eyeroll]

    The idea of our company, Be Courageous, was born during the facilitation of a client session when the team was at odds with each other while exploring the future of their business. This quote from George Prince was on the wall: “Another word for creativity is courage.”

    I realized many of us stay trapped in old thinking and actions when we lack the conditions to be creative and courageous.

    A question emerged for me, “What would a world with an abundance of courage look like? How can I help create it?”

    With my experience in marketing, strategy and facilitation, and Jenna’s in psychology, human resources and operations, we founded our business consultancy, Be Courageous. Every year we’ve grown. Every year our impact has expanded. Every year we’ve learned.

    Here are some of our biggest learnings for those of you on your entrepreneurial journey.

    Related: The 7 Business Lessons You Should Learn by 30

    9 lessons from five years of learning

    As any reader here knows, starting and running a business is a piece of cake. Ha!

    For real, here is what we learned, having grown our U.S. business of two to a worldwide organization with dozens of clients and 35+ network partners while positively impacting nearly 1 million people in 82 countries.

    1. Agility

    One of our most in-demand programs with Fortune 500 companies this year has been our training on agile leadership. When you own your own business — the unexpected will happen. A successful entrepreneur adapts to new challenges and situations and creates lemonade from lemons.

    We have created programs we never thought we would in response to what the world has needed from us.

    Have a solid plan, but be flexible.

    Related: These Are the Core Elements Needed to Successfully Pivot Your Business

    2. Purpose

    We aim to activate courage in companies worldwide and align them with a planet-beneficial future. Yours might be to improve humanity’s mental health or lessen people’s stress by building an easier-to-use product. Whatever your purpose is, make sure you’re deeply passionate about it and that it fuels your actions.

    Use the strength of your purpose to courage through challenges.

    3. Superpowers (and kryptonite)

    We found more success when we identified and focused on our greatest strengths. We aligned our strengths with our values and the services we wanted to provide to our clients to solve a problem they faced.

    For example, my superpower is guiding businesses to realize their potential and future. My kryptonite is getting tripped up in the micro-details of spreadsheets. That’s where Jenna comes in. She leads operations with her superpower of keeping our company financially stable, growing and on the ground. I’m the visionary, and she makes it possible.

    Align your superpowers with your business goals and values. Find people who have superpowers you lack.

    Related: Find Your Flow Through Deep Work and Unlock Your Superpower

    4. Curiosity

    In an exponentially-changing world, having an open mind is the key to running a successful business. Be curious about skills you don’t have and new ways to solve problems. Challenges will arise, but if your curiosity remains peaked, you’ll always get to the solution positively. Ask, “What is the courage needed in this situation?”

    Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it feeds company growth. (We’re a dog company, anyway, no offense to cats.)

    5. Healthy company culture

    Create a team that feels safe, strong, empowered and able to share and receive ideas. When you foster personal connections with your team and your clients (yes, business is personal), you will thrive beyond competitors who are only in it for the buck.

    Develop a positive company culture to unlock the full potential of your team.

    Related: 4 Ways Leaders Can Create Award-Winning Corporate Culture

    6. Operational foundation

    While you don’t want to get bogged down in systems and processes, your business won’t thrive without a solid operational foundation. Get an understanding of legal, financial and team infrastructure.

    Stay pragmatic and, as we like to say, “aggressively conservative.” We make leaps, but only with a net.

    Develop systems to streamline your business, so you can focus on serving your customers.

    7. Integrity

    Many people make empty promises, which erodes trust over time. It’s far better to over-deliver on your word. Pay what you say you will, earlier than you say you will. We’ve established deep, trusting relationships with our clients. We foster community.

    We get callbacks five years after doing one program with a client because we don’t burn bridges; we build them.

    Show up with your heart, don’t be a jerk, and honor your word.

    Related: Understanding the Burden of Trust for Business Leaders

    8. Optimism

    Never doubt what you can achieve, yet don’t be disillusioned. Approach everyone you can as a holistic human being, putting aside bias. Presume positive intent and look for positive solutions. Expect people to be their best until proven otherwise. And even then, be graceful about terminating any relationships.

    Work and live from a place of abundance, not scarcity.

    9. Mindful hiring

    Be thoughtful about who you bring into your organization.

    We hire a type of person — not only for the exact level of expertise we need. We hire people in love with our vision. A person who can be adaptive and learn with us. Who is willing to put in the work for a shared purpose.

    Hire the right puzzle piece for your vision, not just how they look on paper.

    Related: Why Kindness Should Be Part of Your Hiring Process

    Bottom line

    Owning your own business isn’t for the faint of heart. It’s an ebb and flow of successes and learnings. But 20 years from now, if you look back, would you regret not doing something about your big and burning idea?

    Fear will never go away, but when the desire to fulfill your purpose outweighs the fear of risks involved, that’s when you know you’re made to be an entrepreneur.

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    Kyle Hermans

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  • What is Staff Augmentation? 3 Reasons It is Vital For Your Business

    What is Staff Augmentation? 3 Reasons It is Vital For Your Business

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Recruiting and retaining exceptional talent is challenging and takes a lot of time, especially when companies in the tech space demand experienced developers and engineers.

    Moreover, filling in the gaps due to a lack of resources or specialists can be challenging and time-consuming at the same time, especially for high-tech roles like iOS developers or machine learning engineers, for which the demands have been escalating since the great resignation.

    This is where the model of staff augmentation comes into play! In this article, we will discuss the concept of staff augmentation, its increasing demand and why enterprises need to focus on in-house team expansion for quick hiring.

    Related: 10 Strategies for Hiring and Retaining New Employees

    Staff augmentation

    Staff augmentation is a type of cooperation model where businesses, from startups to corporate enterprises, source talent via staffing agencies to work with them temporarily to fill the talent gaps promptly.

    Today, staff augmentation has turned mainstream, with nearly $500 billion annual spending on global IT staffing services alone.

    Businesses now prefer partnering with staff augmentation service providers to boost the competency of their internal teams and accelerate the development process rather than spending weeks prospecting ideal candidates, conducting interviews and shortlisting candidates to fill an immediate talent gap.

    Related: 6 Ways to Effectively Navigate Market Turbulence in the IT World

    Why is staff augmentation surging in popularity?

    The staff augmentation model has been successful over recent years due to the following three reasons:

    1. It is suited for a hybrid work environment

    People willing to switch to low-paying remote jobs rather than continuing on-prem work in their previous settings indicate that the future of work is remote. Remote work is the new normal, especially in the technology and digital transformation sectors.

    Staff augmentation services are suited to cater to the needs of a remote-first global economy that still needs to prepare to let go of all the advantages of on-prem work. With this setting, businesses can extend support to their internal teams by partnering with staff augmentation service providers to cater to bridge talent gaps and meet deadlines faster.

    2. It is low risk compared to other outsourcing models

    The staff augmentation model triumphs over all the outsourcing models regarding flexibility, affordability and quality. Compared to other outsourcing models, the risks involved with staff augmentation services are zero to none due to constant collaboration with the internal teams.

    The augmented team or resource operates either as mere extensions of the internal teams or under the supervision of the in-house managers. Uninterrupted collaboration and seamless integrations of both teams eliminate any possibility of errors.

    Thus, the risk involved in this model is considerably lower than the other project outsourcing models like offshoring or managed services.

    3. Staff augmentation is flexible to scale without compromising sustainability

    As the global recession started knocking on the doors, the results of aggressive hiring and fierce spending started becoming more evident. Consequently, most businesses either stopped or at least cut-down spending on scaling by considerable margins.

    This phenomenon has kept thousands of global entrepreneurs from putting all the stakes in and investing aggressively in scaling their businesses. However, things have started to take quite an exciting turn as IT staffing, and resource augmentation services became mainstream.

    With IT staff augmentation, businesses no longer remain prone to compromising sustainability, as they can end contracts with external teams if things start going south.

    This model enables entrepreneurs to fuel their desires to achieve exponential growth and scalability without worrying about laying off permanent employees or (in the worst case scenario) signing up for bankruptcy.

    Related: 6 Ways to Effectively Navigate Market Turbulence in the IT World

    Why you need to start implementing the staff augmentation model

    The following facts and figures are clear evidence that the staff augmentation model is here to stay:

    1. The great resignation and the wake-up call

    The quiet quitting culture has been disturbing the workflow of organizations since the epidemic. Even amidst the global recession session, where companies like Meta and Amazon are forced to lay off a considerable part of their workforce, the culture of quiet quitting has not stopped.

    People silently leave their well-paying jobs due to a lack of serenity, toxic work environments, pay disparity or other reasons. As an entrepreneur, you should be prepared to deal with such cases within your organization.

    Although you must prioritize fostering a culture of collaboration and encouragement, you should also be prepared to fill in talent gaps in case a team member resigns on short notice rather than compromising on the resource quality to fill the gaps.

    2. Going above and beyond to fill talent gaps

    The onshore, offshore and nearshore markets could provide more diversity in IT skills and expertise your company needs, depending on your location. With staff augmentation services, you can access a broader universal talent pool, including from regions acknowledged for having the finest IT talents, such as Europe and Asia.

    Building external teams to bridge the talent gap using staff augmentation services can also help you save the time and cost of setting up dedicated workspaces and recruiting highly-skilled teams.

    3. Increasing cyber attacks

    As businesses switch to fully remote and hybrid working models, they become prone to cyber-attacks and data breaches. According to Statista, the data breaches in the third quarter of 2022 were at the all-time highest, with businesses reporting approximately 15 million data breaches.

    Although businesses are now setting up dedicated networking teams to safeguard confidential information from hackers and intruders, not all of them can afford it. Thus, they eventually recruit network engineers via an augmented staffing model to stay protected from potential cyber threats and data breaches.

    Related: 4 Best Practices When Choosing a Staffing Agency

    Final thoughts

    Using staff augmentation to address the talent gaps instead of outsourcing or managed services models let business owners keep the charge of the project. As a business owner, you get to choose the talent you deem fit for the role and maintain authority over the project to get things done your way.

    With staffing services, you not only eliminate the recruitment time and cost but also access a global talent of highly-skilled developers and engineers to work alongside your in-house teams to optimize overall competencies and boost productivity.

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    Asim Rais Siddiqui

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  • Is Your Hybrid Model Working? Use These Success Metrics to Find Out.

    Is Your Hybrid Model Working? Use These Success Metrics to Find Out.

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    With 74% of U.S. companies transitioning to a permanent hybrid model, leaders are turning their attention to measuring the success of their hybrid work model. That’s because there’s a single traditional office-centric model of Monday to Friday, 9 to 5 in the office, but there are many ways to do hybrid work. Moreover, what works well for one company’s culture and working style may not work well elsewhere, even within the same industry. So how should a leader evaluate whether the model they adopted is optimal for their company’s needs — or whether those needs require refinement?

    The first step involves establishing clear success metrics. Unfortunately, relatively few companies measure important aspects of the hybrid work transition. For example, a new report from Omdia suggests that 54% of organizations find that productivity improved from adopting a more hybrid working style, but only 22% of organizations established metrics to quantify productivity improvements from hybrid work.

    Related: They Say Remote Work Is Bad For Employees, But Most Research Suggests Otherwise — A Behavioral Economist Explains.

    Hybrid work is a strategic decision

    From my experience helping 21 organizations transition to hybrid work, it’s important for the whole C-suite to be actively involved in formulating the metrics and for the board to approve them. Too often, busy executives feel the natural inclination to throw it in HR’s lap and have them figure it out.

    That’s a mistake. A transition to a permanent hybrid work model requires attention and care at the highest levels of an organization. Otherwise, the C-suite will not be coordinated and fail to get on the same page about what counts as “success” in hybrid work and find themselves in a mess six months after their hybrid work transition.

    It’s a best practice for the C-suite to determine the metrics at an offsite where they can distance themselves from the day-to-day bustle and make long-term strategic choices. Prior to the offsite, it’s valuable to get initial internal metrics, including getting a baseline of quantitative and objective measures. While there are plenty of external metrics on hybrid work, each company has a unique culture, systems and processes and talent.

    Which success metrics matter in the hybrid work transition?

    Based on the experience of my clients, companies focus on a variety of success metrics, each of which may be more or less important. Each of these metrics should be measured before establishing a permanent hybrid work policy, to get a baseline. Then, the metrics need to be evaluated every quarter, to evaluate the impact of refinements to the hybrid work policy.

    Retention offers a clear-to-measure hard success metric, one both quantitative and objective. A related metric, recruitment, is a softer metric: it’s harder to measure and more qualitative in nature. External benchmarks definitely indicate offering more remote work facilitates both retention and recruitment.

    Thus, if the C-suite chooses to adopt a more flexible policy, I recommend my clients put it on their website’s “Join Us” page, as did one of my clients, the University of Southern California’s Information Sciences Institute. HR will inevitably find they get an uptick in inquiries from job applicants referencing this policy, as well as, potential hires showing enthusiasm for it in interviews. That enthusiasm is something that can be measured.

    A key metric, performance, may be harder or easier to measure depending on the nature of the work. For instance, a study published in the National Bureau of Economic Review reported on a randomized control trial comparing the performance of software engineers assigned to a hybrid schedule vs. an office-centric schedule. Engineers who worked in a hybrid model wrote 8% more code over a six-month period. If there is no option to have such clear performance measurement, use regular weekly assessments of performance from supervisors.

    Collaboration and innovation are critical metrics for effective team performance, but measuring them isn’t easy. Evaluating them requires relying on more qualitative assessments from team leaders and team members. Moreover, by training teams in effective hybrid innovation and collaboration techniques, you can improve these metrics.

    Several hard-to-measure metrics are important for an organization’s culture and talent management: morale, engagement, well-being, happiness, burnout, intent to leave and quiet quitting. Getting at these metrics requires the use of more qualitative and subjective approaches, such as customized surveys specifically adapted to hybrid and remote work policies. As part of doing the survey, it’s helpful to ask respondents to opt into participating in focus groups around these issues. Then, in the focus groups, you can dig deeper into the survey questions and get at people’s underlying feelings and motivations.

    One way to measure the wellbeing and burnout of your employees involves a hard metric: employees taking sick days. By measuring how that changes over time — seasonally adjusted — you can evaluate the impact of your policies on employee mental and physical health.

    Related: You Should Let Your Team Decide Their Approach to Hybrid Work. A Behavioral Economist Explains Why and How You Should Do It.

    Diversity, equity and inclusion represent an often overlooked but critically important metric impacted by hybrid work. We know that underrepresented groups strongly prefer more remote work. Thus, my clients who chose to have a mostly office-centric schedule had to invest substantial resources into boosting their DEI to compensate for the inevitable loss of underrepresented talent.

    Measuring DEI is quite easy and objective: look at the retention of underrepresented rank-and-file staff and leaders as the hybrid work strategy gets implemented. Also, make sure that your surveys allow staff to self-identify relevant demographic categories so that you can measure DEI as it relates to engagement, morale, and so on.

    Last, but far from least, my clients also consider professional and leadership development and onboarding and integration of junior team members. A Conference Board survey finds 58% of employees would leave without adequate professional development, and that applies even more so to underrepresented groups. Leadership development is critical to the long-term continuity of any company. And onboarding and integration of junior staff is a fundamental need for success. Yet most companies struggle with figuring out how to do these well in a hybrid setting.

    Measuring professional development is best done through more subjective tools, such as surveys and focus groups. You can also assess how much staff improve in the areas where they received professional development and compare in-person vs. remote modalities of delivering learning. Evaluating leadership development is easier and more quantitative and objective. Assess how well your newly-promoted leaders succeed based on performance evaluations and 360-degree reviews. Onboarding and integrating new staff involves performance evaluations by supervisors and measurements of their productivity.

    Conclusion

    Once you have the baseline data from these diverse metrics, at the offsite the C-suite needs to determine which metrics matter most to your organization. Choose the top three to five metrics, and weigh their importance relative to each other. Using these metrics, the C-suite can then decide on a course of action on hybrid work that would best optimize for their desired outcomes. Next, determine a plan of action to implement this new policy, including using appropriate metrics to measure success. As you implement the policy, if you find the metrics aren’t as good as you’d like, revise the policy and see how that revision impacts your metrics. Likewise, consider running experiments to compare alternative versions of the hybrid policy. For instance, you can have one day a week in the office in one location and two days in another, and assess how that impacts your metrics. Reassess and revise your approach once a month for the first three months, and then once a quarter going forward. By adopting this approach, my clients found they can most effectively reach the metrics they set out for their permanent hybrid model.

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    Gleb Tsipursky

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  • 10 Cost-Saving Ideas For Businesses

    10 Cost-Saving Ideas For Businesses

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    None of us is immune to what’s currently happening in the economy, forcing many business owners and executives to consider ways to cut costs. I recently asked my leadership team to take a good, hard look at their expenses to determine what can and should be cut and gauge the effects those specific savings would have on the business.

    Finding ways to save money in your business is not always as obvious as you think and can come from a few places that are not typically looked at. Here I outline ten money-saving ideas all business owners should consider.

    Related: 7 Outdated Habits That Will Paralyze Your Business

    1. Root out process inefficiencies

    Take a look at how technology can play a role in improving efficiencies. How can you utilize technology to minimize time, effort and money spent where it doesn’t need to be? Whether it’s analytical data that helps you be quicker to market or process improvements that make your supply chain run more efficiently — plus having good processes around where you spend money.

    For larger projects, obtain three quotes from separate vendors before placing an order. Make sure you negotiate the best possible cost on a meaningful purchase. Be assured that what you are buying is right for your business.

    Related: How to Ditch the Inefficiencies That Are Eating Your Revenue

    2. Reduce office expenses

    I think that the mentality of being scrappy is essential. What I mean by scrappy is being pugnacious and determined not to be wasteful. Think local and establish relationships with local businesses. In our industry, for example, we buy, manufacture and print labels for our customers and brands. Fortunately, our label vendor is literally down the street, so we’re saving money on transit costs. Utilizing your local network ensures you’re getting the best price, not just in direct costs but also in time and effort.

    3. Make sure you have the right employees for the right roles

    This boils down to “right people, right seats.” When you look at the world today and how the labor pool has, for various reasons, contracted, having the right person in a role who’s passionately engaged is vital. They get it, they want it and they can do it. Over the long haul, that spells increased efficiency and savings. Running a business where you don’t have the right people in the right seats makes everything cumbersome and challenging.

    In most businesses, marketing tends to be something companies can overspend on. That’s why it’s essential to have the right marketing person in the right seat. This person has relationships and expertise and knows when a consultant can do something and when something should be handled in-house.

    Employee retention helps, too. Teams have chemistry, they understand how people operate and they play off each other’s strengths and weaknesses. When you’re constantly replacing people on the team, that’s all learning that must be done over again instead of doing the job.

    Related: 5 Effective Strategies for Employee Retention

    4. Expand on social media and community engagement

    I’ve seen brands effectively connect the organization to the consumer through social media. One thing to understand is that your content should be organic and user-generated, not scripted or overly polished. Recording content on your own versus paying an influencer or agency thousands of dollars has a cost-benefit. But there’s an even bigger reason why you want to choose this path.

    Today’s consumers see right through content that’s heavily produced and edited. Instead, they follow, work with, purchase from and remain loyal to easily relatable brands that don’t take themselves too seriously and have no problem being transparent about every aspect of their business.

    Sit with your marketing and finance teams to determine what percentage of the annual budget needs to be allocated toward purchasing equipment and boosting posts. Use data and analytics to determine what posts help you meet your goals (e.g., engagements, views, conversions, etc.) and place your bets accordingly.

    5. Refine, then automate

    When you’re talking about logistics and shipping and the operational piece of the business, the more automated you get your orders in and out the door, the more efficient you’ll be. This hopefully means you’ll have more bandwidth to spend time doing other things, right?

    I also believe in minimizing clicks and pain points within your sales process. Have information readily available, so employees don’t have to click five different screens to get to what they need to get through. You want to free up the time to sell and reduce the time spent on administrative tasks. For example, you could automate invoicing or utilize a service that consolidates your accounts payable, so you don’t have to pay somebody for that.

    Related: Want to Improve Workplace Efficiency? Improve Your Team Dynamics First.

    6. Slice operational costs

    If you can operate all aspects of your business under one roof, that’s ideal. For example, if you complete the shipping or manufacturing of your products in-house, you don’t want to be in three different buildings — you want to be in one building so you can organize things, get the best use of your staff, maximum use of the space and highest possible output.

    You don’t want to sit on tons of office space because that is bleeding money. Whatever you can do to get out of those situations as soon as possible, the better off you’ll be. Looking into co-working spaces might be worthwhile in certain cases, too.

    7. Look at insurance and cash flow

    You need to have somebody who has the experience, knows the right questions to ask, understands your business needs, and is bound to save you money regarding insurance. For employee health benefits, make sure people have a choice and have an option that makes sense for both the business and the employee. Over and above making sure you’re not under-insured or over-insured, it’s more important that you’re insured correctly.

    Avoid short-term loans, cash advances and borrowing on high interest. If you’re buying things on credit, pay it off. And don’t get smashed with interest. Make sure you’re only buying what you need. All of those things factor into good cash flow.

    One of the things my CEO mentor always used to say is that there always needs to be a certain number in the bank. So, if we even got close to that number, he would send out fire alarms. It was all hands on deck evaluating things, cutting things we didn’t need and making sure that the company’s cash position was one we felt comfortable with. This way, we could sleep at night and know we were in good shape. That’s just one of those old-school mentalities that have always stuck with me.

    8. Staff up or hire out?

    If you don’t have the expertise, you need to be ultra-selective in ensuring you’re not just being penny-wise and pound-foolish. I always say you don’t want to step over the dollar bills to pick up pennies. If you can save money on wages and other things, that’s great, but you must set KPIs.

    You have to understand (and communicate) what your expectations are from these independent contractors; otherwise, you’re just going to be spending good money without seeing any benefit from it. And that’s throwing money out the window. So, there’s a little bit of a catch-22 there. You’ll save money on the fringe but must have measurables to ensure they’re performing.

    Related: 8 People You Should Hire to Grow Your Startup Fast

    9. Reduce travel expenses

    If you don’t have to travel, don’t. But when you do need to travel, travel effectively. Make sure that there’s a good travel policy about meals, hotels, flights, etc. These expenses can go through the roof if you don’t have some control. Use Zoom, Teams and other messaging applications when possible, but also be cost-effective in managing travel.

    Related: 9 Business Expenses You Can Reduce or Eliminate to Save Thousands

    10. Specialize in what you’re good at

    So, you’re a sales and marketing operation, and you’re struggling. Then you, all of a sudden, decide you’re going to start doing packaging, but you have no clue how to do it. This is probably a recipe for failure because you’re not focusing on the areas you’re good at, and you’re taking time and effort away to try and learn something you don’t need to. But the nice thing about the way the world is that somebody out there can do it; you need to find the right partner.

    Being careful with money doesn’t mean being cheap — quite the opposite. It means honoring the value of the money entrusted to your company by customers for goods and services they care about.

    Related: How to Specialize Without Locking Your Startup Out of the Market

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    Vincent Tricarico

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  • How to Engage Employees Through Core Values

    How to Engage Employees Through Core Values

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Whether you run a start-up that focuses on a single market or own a large business that operates worldwide, defining the company’s mission and values is the fundamental thing needed to communicate its reason for existence, connect to customers and organize the group of people who will work toward a common business goal.

    This is what the “First Who, Then What” concept presented by Jim Collins in his book Good to Great refers to. It also encourages entrepreneurs at the helm of building successful organizations to “get right people on the bus” — in the key seats — and only then decide where to steer the bus. My company quickly became convinced of this idea’s veracity, and I am willing to share how we ensure no “random passengers” on board.

    Related: How Establishing Core Values Drives Success

    People come first

    When we saw our company growing 10x in the first three months after launch, we understood that this increase was most likely to continue along the same lines. And now, after ten months of operation, the monthly revenue exceeds $3 million from zero, which is an even greater performance, meaning that our assumptions were right. So we needed a more advanced approach to business to keep pace with it.

    After consulting with a few highly skilled entrepreneurs from various niches, we summarized our research and concluded that any great organization’s first and foremost criterion was quality recruitment.

    Сompany values that let the workforce know the essential parts of doing any given business are what underlies the hiring processes. They serve as a reliable guideline for an employer who seeks long-term and productive cooperation.

    While hard skills can be corrected or enhanced over time, a potential employee’s values are usually immutable. In case a candidate’s inner culture runs counter to your company’s principles, making a job offer:

    • poses a threat of wasting time and energy on training;
    • can cost you thousands of dollars — our HR department calculated that the losses are six monthly salaries of a bad hire plus indirect costs of the organization’s inefficiency;
    • will eventually require more efforts to revitalize the search for a better employee.

    Setting your company’s core values helps avoid these outcomes, systematize the qualities that you need your staff to have and better understand what workforce should be fired. If employees easily get discouraged by what they do after a month of operation, do not learn from their failures or do not want to grow, they are not with us for long. The passengers of our bus never give up and always strive for more.

    Related: Stand for Something: How to Establish Authentic Core Values

    Only true values have power

    When working on your company’s culture, consider the values that matter to you. Do not motivate your employees to lead a moderate and thrifty lifestyle if you purchase a luxury purse every time you walk past an expensive boutique. Otherwise, your employees will soon sense the difference, and communicating with the team will be much more challenging.

    If several entrepreneurs manage a business, all co-founders must agree on the company’s values to avoid future misunderstandings and conflicts. As three co-founders, we came to common opinions about our company. Among them, we believe that we need to be first in everything. Thus we are waiting for a job candidate who is not just a good employee, but a top performer. Also, we do not tolerate gossip and rumors, so we cannot go any further with those who demonstrate that they are prone to backstabbing.

    Related: 7 Traits You Must Find In A Co-Founder

    Implementing your values into business

    Based on our experience, the best solution is to integrate your values into all employee development activities, which requires excellent internal communication. We started by presenting the company’s mission and values to our C-level executives to assess whether they could settle down in the team. As soon as some positive progress was made, we designed our own culture fit scoring system, which implies:

    1. Holding an extra interview with a competent expert to determine whether the candidate’s values correlate with the company’s fundamental beliefs. In cases with C-level managers and team leads, often the co-founders themselves perform this role. Ideally, you should involve an impartial specialist who did not previously participate in the hiring process and will never even cross paths with a candidate at this job. Thus, you manage to avoid the bias as people unconsciously sympathize with those they already put time and energy into. This tactic is a good hedge against the risks – third-party opinions have already saved us from multiple bad hires.
    2. Including acquaintance of new employees with the core values into the list of the onboarding activities so that every specialist knows what qualities you appreciate along with hard skills;
    3. Launching individual training plans and performance reviews for employees who are generally good performers but lack a few essential qualities. For example, suppose people are afraid of making decisions. In that case, managers are gradually delegating relevant tasks to them. Then the discussion of the results takes place.

    As an ending note, I would like to share one good method my company uses as part of culture fit when selecting suitable candidates during interviews: appeal to your senses. This means that the first part of the conversation you spend being diligent and attentive to details, but then you distance yourself from what you hear, focus on your inner thoughts and try to feel the candidate in front of you. Sometimes employers become too keen on the process and ignore their doubts when having doubts should be a key signal for refusal.

    Creating the company’s culture is more important than coming up with strategies because strategies are executed by people who get genuinely inspired by your mission and values. Setting the right culture fit scoring system may significantly increase your recruitment’s effectiveness and ensure your business’s long-term success.

    Related: Having A Work-Life Balance is Nonsense. To Reach Your Goals, Follow Another Approach

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    Roman Kumar Vyas

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  • Find Success With This Unconventional Business Model

    Find Success With This Unconventional Business Model

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    People coming into the workforce today want to do things differently, and it’s critical that, as employers of multiple generations, we figure out how to support each one quickly. The newer generations want more autonomy, and the reality is that entrepreneurial people exist at every level of every sized company. Still, traditional bureaucracies hold them back until they rise to a position of influence.

    When structuring an organization — either incorporating another company or entering into a startup and setting out to structure from square one — you have more options than the traditional top-down structure. In our experience, there are better ways of organization that bring out each individual’s full potential and drive company growth. But fair warning: This model is more than just shuffling seats — it’s a total redesign of the bus.

    Related: How an Adhocracy Stimulates Entrepreneurial Growth

    Adhocracy as we see it

    As opposed to a traditional, bureaucratic business model, adhocracy is a flexible and adaptable organizational structure where groups form when necessary for a particular purpose. The ad hoc, problem-solving work groups of adhocracy, create a business environment more conducive to innovation.

    In our “adhocracy,” non-hierarchical business units run independently with their portfolio of clients, but at the end of the day, they are still part of our organization. Within each business unit, there are specific leadership roles: Our “executive squads” — an operational person, a finance person, a technical person and a business development person. No different than a C-suite, each one brings their expertise to be part of a collaborative leadership team to support a business unit. And we mean support — this is not an old-school top-down structure.

    Our business units, named after constellations, are all supported by a platform: “Hubble” — the ecosystem’s brain. If I wanted to bring a technical squad to a business unit’s team, we could use Hubble to identify the right people, their location, time zone and rates. We can also use it to seek out particular expertise for a new project or to move someone to a team that needs it.

    Related: 5 Tips to Consider When Designing (or Redesigning) Your Organizational Structure

    Encourage agency and entrepreneurship

    The adhocracy model emphasizes leadership — encouraging it from more people at different levels throughout the company. The ability to break things down and reassemble provides organizational fluidity. Teams can identify problems to solve and take action quickly, accomplishing more and bigger efficiency.

    Each business unit has the autonomy to design what they’re leading and how they want to run it. They control their growth to fit the project needs, which benefits the greater company growth. They see how their efforts can positively impact the company, which creates a greater sense of ownership, camaraderie and ultimately, less turnover. It also drives healthy competition: Who will grow bigger or better in pursuing our goals? When more people feel empowered to try and make a difference, more will rise to the occasion and try.

    Related: Establishing The Structure For Organizational Growth

    Take our advice

    This model allows everyone to step up, be leaders and drive their unit and company growth. People can broaden their experience within one company, making them more likely to stay than look for other opportunities elsewhere. The products we build for our clients make them better and make us better. We hold no one back.

    But this is not a model for an organization looking to stand still; you must have the following recipe to make it work.

    1) Have an appetite for radical change

    To foster the company-wide shift in mindset required to drive this model to success, it takes a strong group of believers at the C-suite level to go all in on a radical shift from a typical organizational structure. It can’t be achieved by teams alone. At our company, we shifted from an organization passing down directives to allowing individual business units to operate in service to their clients. We even encourage our clients to make this shift when restructuring because we see how it could benefit them, but they realize it requires radical change.

    2) Find the right people and rethink their roles.

    From within the organization, find back office people capable of this mindset shift and position them to enable these teams. Our executive squads make things happen at our company, so the rest of us support what they need. My role in HR shifted to being more proactive and engaging with these leadership teams as strategic growth partners. Be on the lookout for people with the natural ability to think like a leader, solve complex problems and seek out opportunities to learn.

    3) Stay flexible.

    Changes often happen: merging, joining, shifting, expanding portfolios and exploring new industries. Teams can grow to scale to the size they need to take on any project. We’ve had business units split. We have had business units join. We have had business units give birth to baby business units. We embrace the fluidity — if it makes sense for the executive squad, we’re all in favor.

    4) Beware the threat of silos

    These business units can grow large at a certain point, making it harder to prevent silos. A siloed company cuts off fluid cross-communication needed to support a healthy adhocracy model, so we must be careful about not letting them form. If you follow the Dunbar Theory, then 300 is a critical number. If you go bigger, getting more siloed becomes inevitable. Consider these numbers to set a cap on the size for individual groups but leave them the flexibility to form alliances and grow.

    At my company, we devour new books on great business theory, absorb it and run with what seems most likely to work for us. It keeps us evolving all the time. If a better, more proven way of structuring exists, we would look at it critically and see if it might be worthwhile. In most cases, change will happen regardless, so we may as well anticipate it. For now, this model puts us in the best position to do just that.

    Related: To Break Down Silos, Build in Cross-Communication

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    Victoria Maitland

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  • Solidarity Without Sameness: The Key To Working Together

    Solidarity Without Sameness: The Key To Working Together

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) policies are more than just feeling good about ourselves. Diversity drives innovation, and companies that innovate in today’s fast-paced environment are the ones that come out on top. Socially-responsible companies are attracting more demanding consumers. But the more diversity we bring to a team, the more potential for crossed interests and differing opinions about what social responsibility implies, which can quickly escalate into conflict.

    This is where building solidarity comes in.

    Solidarity is not thinking and behaving exactly the same. It’s rallying support as a team, welcoming and respecting open communication even when opinions are different, and agreeing to the course of action that best considers the company and its people. Fostering solidarity, not sameness, is the key to unlocking the benefits of a diverse team.

    Related: Solving Organizational Diversity Is Still an Issue: The Cost Is Steep, But the Rewards Are High

    Welcome the benefits of embracing diversity as a team

    Everyone has differences, and the more diverse backgrounds, upbringings and histories we bring onto a team, the more opportunities for differences to exist. But from boards and management teams to organizing a charity fundraiser event, embracing group diversity brings more perspectives, ideas and alternatives that spur innovation and improve productivity. Diverse teams focus more on facts and process them more carefully, resulting in smarter decisions.

    A 2015 McKinsey report found that embracing diversity also improves the bottom line. Companies in the top quartile of ethnic and racial diversity in management were 35% more likely to have higher financial returns over the industry average; companies in the top quartile for gender diversity were 15% more likely. Diverse teams that work well together outpace the competition.

    Companies seek to advance diversity at all levels. Still, for those diverse minds to work well together as a team, they need solidarity — “unity, association, reciprocation, a good community or social interest, gratuity, justice and respect for human dignity.” With a culture of solidarity, companies can more successfully implement DEI and ESG initiatives that reduce social and economic inequality within the organization, improving efficiency, productivity and the company’s reputation.

    Related: How Diversity Helped Bring My Company Together

    Align everyone around individual responsibilities

    Building and encouraging team solidarity requires an established set of values around personal responsibility to contribute to the effort. Sincere acknowledgment and mutual support build a culture of community, which can foster solidarity, but solidarity cannot be forced. It is a co-responsibility for the moral well-being of all others as equal partners on a common mission. Each person with their individual and collective interests needs to embrace solidarity around acknowledging and respecting our differences while arriving at decisions that best serve the collective “we.”

    People pick up on culture fast through the example of their leadership, so leaders should demonstrate acknowledgment and support of diversity to build that sense of solidarity in their teams. There are many worlds of thought with which I disagree, but I work hard to respect them and be understanding of the background from which they originate. So much of our foundational backgrounds embed themselves into who we are today. While I can’t even begin to fully understand every person’s background or how they got to where they are, I can at least respect the fact that it played a part in creating them, even when we disagree.

    We can also build a community culture by recognizing the dynamic interdependence between all team members, emphasizing the need for dialogue, compassion, and understanding across a team. Start by making sure everyone feels they belong.

    We just had our annual meeting, where everyone — those stationed outside Minneapolis and some even outside the country — comes home to the “mothership” to celebrate everything in Clearfield. We start by discussing the upcoming year, host lots of learning during the day and hold parties every evening. Especially in this new hybrid world, bringing everyone together is critical to maintaining their sense of solidarity.

    Related: How to Promote Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Your Workplace

    See everyone’s potential equally

    When I became a grandma, I developed a new perspective to understand inclusion in the face of diversity better: Look at people as babies. My six-month-old grandson is slightly over 19 pounds, while my 15-month-old is approaching 20 pounds. The older one is small for his age, while the younger one is big. To look at them, they seem totally different. And yet, I look at them as very much the same. They are both my grandsons, with the same potential for growth despite their differences. When we look at babies, whether grandchildren, children, or someone else’s children, we so quickly look at them and see their potential. Each one is equally capable of becoming the next future star performer. If we can see the potential in babies, why can’t we still see it when they grow up to become adults?

    As leaders, seeing equal potential in everyone allows us to respect what their differences can bring to the team — as team members, seeing our peers full of potential will enable them to achieve their best for the benefit of the rest of the company. Look at someone and think about whose baby they were. Imagine someone caring for them, praying for them and trying to open doors for them; someone who saw them brimming with potential. Encourage others to imagine the same and help instill diverse teams with a greater sense of oneness and unity.

    As former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon put it, “A world of peace and solidarity can only be accomplished by acknowledging and celebrating [sic] our diversity.” Diversity and inclusion are more than just inviting people in: We need everyone aligned around creating an environment where people feel comfortable being their authentic selves and bringing those diverse perspectives to the table. Leaders need to build it into their team culture, but it also comes down to individual employees to take on their responsibility. Once someone takes charge, solidarity can quickly start to spread.

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    Cheri Beranek

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  • The Benefits of Crypto Education for Your Business

    The Benefits of Crypto Education for Your Business

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    In 2022, the cryptocurrency market shuddered literally in all directions. Crypto‘s market cap fell below $1 trillion, and Bitcoin dropped 65% from an all-time high. But despite these circumstances, a new report from blockchain intelligence firm Chainlaysis has found that crypto adoption has slowed less than expected despite a bearish start of the year for the cryptocurrency market. In fact, it’s still above pre-bull market levels from 2019.

    Some countries dominating the adoption index have different socioeconomic situations, from lower middle income to above median income and high incomes. Some of the countries include Vietnam, the Philippines, Ukraine, India, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Thailand, The United States and The United Kingdom.

    Data suggest that people, startups and large companies have stuck with cryptocurrencies and blockchain despite the crypto winter. They continue to pour significant portions of capital into digital assets and their underlying technology. And no surprise: blockchain offers numerous advantages and benefits not only to individuals but also to entrepreneurs and businesses from different industries.

    The benefits that crypto and blockchain bring to the table can become an effective solution for some of the pain spots for today’s businesses and their customers, but this requires extensive crypto education.

    Related: How Crypto Education Can Boost the FinTech Industry

    What Is cryptocurrency?

    The most popular Google searches about cryptocurrencies are: “what is cryptocurrency,” “how to invest in crypto,” “how does crypto work,” etc. After almost 15 years since being created, there’s still a lack of educational content and resources for people and institutions to understand and adopt cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology.

    This lack of crypto education leads people to make uninformed decisions when investing in cryptocurrencies, usually ending in a somewhat worse performance than they initially thought. For example, a recent survey shows that almost 50% of Americans who have invested in crypto say it has “done worse than expected.” Despite this, over 60% of US parents believe children should learn about cryptocurrency in schools.

    Related: 5 Things to Know Before You Invest in Cryptocurrency

    Why crypto education is necessary for crypto adoption

    To reach mass-scale adoption, it’s necessary to spread financial literacy for crypto assets and blockchain education to understand how this technology and the overall crypto space work —and make education more accessible.

    A more educated user is less likely to fall for the usual traps in the crypto world, such as rug pulls or phishing scams. Businesses can benefit from exploring and adopting blockchain technology and avoid certain pain spots.

    For instance, the immutable nature of blockchain doesn’t allow chargeback; transactions are instant and irreversible. And chargeback is often used as a tool to commit friendly fraud, a significant pain for merchants due to false positives, operation costs, chargeback fees, and fines, which had caused small and mid-size businesses to spend over $35 billion in 2021.

    Should businesses be crypto-educated?

    Businesses can scale internationally via low-cost and fast international payments using cross-border blockchain-based solutions. Moreover, the Ethereum Merge signifies a significant step for the blockchain to become more scalable, cost-efficient, and energy-efficient for its users and enterprises seeking to build on its ecosystem.

    The Merge successfully transitioned Ethereum from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS). This means the network doesn’t need to rely on miners to create and validate transaction blocks but on a set of network nodes that stake ETH to validate and create those blocks, reducing energy consumption by 99%.

    Related: It’s Time To Get Interested In Ethereum Again

    How are institutions and universities spreading crypto education?

    Luckily enough, numerous initiatives are being taken by crypto institutions, universities and even countries across the globe, not only on a financial level but on a technical level as well. Popular examples of universities are the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). From an early age, crypto education should be accessible to everyone interested in this sector. It will guarantee future prosperity and accelerated adoption. Global universities can help society to get educated about crypto.

    Blockchain firms are also funding numerous universities to help accelerate research and growth. Other examples are the Algorand Foundation, which invested over $50 million in funding for a virtual research program.

    As mentioned earlier, the Philippines is one of the leading countries in the crypto adoption rate, and one of the main reasons is that nearly 80% of Filipinos are unbanked. Philippine universities will offer free courses on Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies after a senate hearing discusses financial inclusion and regulatory frameworks for the country.

    Several crypto institutions offer vast educational content on all things crypto. These and other companies also provide training courses and interactive videos where people can learn about crypto and earn rewards by completing quizzes.

    Lack of crypto education prevents mass adoption

    The lack of crypto education is what hinders crypto adoption after almost 15 years of being created. The good side of the story is that institutions are taking numerous initiatives, firms, universities, and countries worldwide. The next two or three years are primordial to massively spread crypto and blockchain education and resources so users, developers, startups, and businesses of all sizes can start investing in it too.

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    Fuad Fatullaev

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  • Today’s Multigenerational Workforce Needs This Kind of Leader

    Today’s Multigenerational Workforce Needs This Kind of Leader

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    The workplace continues to evolve into a more collaborative, ethical and trustworthy place for employees. Leaders must become equally diligent in earning respect from colleagues. Many workplace leaders feel that they intrinsically are owed respect from employees simply because of their position of authority. However, this thought process has led to serious problems within the workplace.

    The new generation of workers expects a culture where they are respected, nurtured and given an opportunity to grow. When this expectation is not met, turnover numbers skyrocket, and the company experiences a severe drop in productivity.

    Natural leaders want to be liked by their employees. Some leaders who take that approach face confusion and pushback about their process. Yet, these leaders enjoy a much higher retention rate than leaders who don’t share the same care and consideration for their employees. Leaders can easily earn their respect by caring for employees and their families. Consider a few ways you can earn the respect of your employees.

    Related: How to Lead a Multi-Generational Workforce in the New Normal

    Lead by example

    The best executives lead their employees by example. This includes how hard you work, the effort you put into your job how you contribute to the team overall. While you may need to step up and lead your team in a more direct way when the project calls for it, most of the time, you should lead from within the team, working alongside them.

    Additionally, giving the respect that your workers deserve is an excellent way to lead by example. Fairly treating your workers shows how much you value them. Listening to any issues or challenges they face and addressing them are also great ways to showcase your respect for them. When you treat your team well, they will, in turn, respect you.

    Make consistency a priority

    Respected leaders understand the importance of consistency. Don’t change your leadership style from day to day. Set up reasonable expectations for your employees. They should know how you handle issues and what to expect once one pops up. Build trust through consistency.

    Own up to your mistakes

    When you make a mistake, admit to it. The best leaders own their humanness and aren’t afraid to admit it to their employees. When you own up to your mistakes and do what you can to fix them, your employees will respect you for it.

    Related: 3 Ways Owning Your Mistakes Will Make You Powerful

    Seek opinions from employees & stick to your decisions

    The best leaders must find the balance between being pushovers whom their employees don’t respect and being respectful of their employees’ opinions. Your openness to your employee’s opinions shows that you’re willing to put the best ideas first, regardless of who came up with them. Be firm yet flexible, and your employees will respect you more.

    Honor your team

    Find out how your employees like to be recognized and then reward them. A reward is a powerful way to display your respect for your team, and finding out how they prefer to be rewarded deepens their respect for you.

    Listen to feedback

    Employees are naturally suspicious about offering feedback on your leadership style, which is why it’s up to you to seek and listen to feedback. Employee feedback should be scheduled, ask direct questions, and address concerns thoughtfully. This process builds respect between you and your team.

    Avoid micromanagement

    It’s important to delegate tasks and trust your employees to complete them. The key to gaining respect from your employees is to trust them. Of course, be sure to build confidence by letting your team know you’re available if they need support but avoid standing over their shoulder the entire time.

    Related: Micromanagement Is Murder: So Stop Killing Your Employees

    Build relationships

    Don’t just tell your employees that you’re there for them. Show them. When an issue arises, you should shoulder the blame for the problem instead of placing the blame on your employees. Simultaneously, if you receive praise for a project, share that with your team. A reciprocal back and forth helps you build relationships with your employees. You can strengthen this relationship by asking them about their interests, hobbies, and life outside of work. Expressing personal interests helps build trust to show they are valuable to you.

    Invest in benefits for your team

    Employers are uniquely positioned to make a difference in the lives of their employees by providing high-quality benefits. Do your research, look for the most in-demand benefits available for your team, and then invest in them.

    Encourage your employees

    Launching a new career or starting a new job can be stressful. Providing constructive feedback and encouragement to your team helps them gain confidence and ensures they know how to complete their job duties. Additionally, being transparent about what employees can expect at your company improves their experience with your company.

    Avoid creating teacher’s pets

    Playing favorites at the office is a dangerous game. Instead, show your employees the same level of support, including how you give out assignments and perks. Once employees see that you don’t play favorites and that your office is a level playing field, they’ll develop even more trust in you.

    Related: 6 Ways Entrepreneurs Can Be Better Teachers

    Minimize stress

    Reduce the stress your team members feel in a couple of ways. First, find ways to create a more peaceful work environment by extending deadlines or providing extra support for them when possible. Second, you can invest in mental health counseling to ensure your employees have the resources to reduce stress.

    Build leadership skills for a new generation

    You don’t have to agree with every opinion in this article, but you should consider how your leadership role fits within the expectations held by the new generation of workers. Simply working on your listening and communication skills will have a powerful effect on your team. Put your employees at the center of your business, and watch it thrive.

    Even minor adjustments will make your business a more attractive place to work, reducing turnover ratios in the process. Keep your business moving in the right direction by becoming the leader your employees deserve.

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    Larry Jones

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