Tuesday, August 20, 2024

NEW INC. MAGAZINE COLUMN FROM HOWARD TULLMAN

 

 

We're All Overstressed, Which is Why It's Even More Important to Take Care of Your Team.

They need to get focused and excited about building the business. Here are four concerns you need to address to get everyone back on the same page.

 

Expert Opinion By Howard Tullman, General managing partner, G2T3V and Chicago High Tech Investors @howardtullman1

Aug 20, 2024

 

It feels like we've been in a long, dark, passage for quite a while now, but that there may be some light at the end of the tunnel. Perhaps it's the shared pride and joy of the Olympics, with its endless acts of sportsmanship, kindness and courage. Or maybe the unexpected and exciting emergence of Kamala Harris looking brightly and happily ahead instead of the MAGA mob bitching incessantly about the fictional glories of an imagined past.

Or maybe the possibility that the demented Donald and his raging band of enablers and sycophants are circling the drain while the mainstream media finally awakens to his lies and failings, as well as his flailing around like the flaccid tyrant that he's trying to be. Or it might just be that we're all so sick and tired of the endless anger, false accusations, and misinformation; and tired of constantly beating up on each other.  Don't we all want to take a break, reconnect with friends and family, and get back to growing our businesses?

Unfortunately, making amends is really difficult, especially in light of  the ugliness and irreparable damage that Trump and his criminal cronies have done to our country. Firing up the troops when everyone's just barely emerging from a prolonged funk may be a challenge, but now's the right time to try to do it.

Even leaving aside the awful politics, the last few months have been a joyless, unsettling and debilitating time for most of us.  The stock market has continued to soar, yet all the chatter seems to have been about everything that was wrong, how much things cost, and how bleak the future is going to be. Way too much time was being spent at the office carping and complaining, squabbling and whining, rather than thinking about winning-- and that's no way to build a new business.

The MAGAt messaging is consistently downbeat and depressing - the whole world is going to hell in a handbasket - and only the distraught and diminished Orange Monster can allegedly save us from destruction. The Democrats, meanwhile -- at least the ones who weren't kidding themselves -- knew they were stuck in a deepening trough with a tired old man who excited exactly no one. Call it the Biden blahs, which is unfortunate considering that his good policies -- reducing drug costs, shoring up infrastructure, rebuilding the economy, and fighting inflation -- were utterly under-appreciated by most of the country. There's been so much noise and clutter, angst and anger, that even the best companies couldn't get their messages out to the market or get their own people excited once again. Hell, they couldn't even get them back to the office.

And inside many struggling early-stage firms, things such as reviews, raises, promotions and projects were all on pause. Watching and waiting, hoping and holding off, trying to keep teams together all the while without much to show or promise them in terms of the future. Putting comp plans on cruise control and pretending that a bunch of time wasn't passing while people's expenses and obligations continued to grow was a common approach that everyone knew was both a culture killer and a ticking time bomb. Springsteen says these kinds of promises are "as empty as the howlin' wind" unless they're filled with faith, love and something tangible.

So, the prime directive - the main job for every entrepreneur now - is to hunker down and take care of your team and then you can count on them to take care of business. Remember that these are the ones who stuck around, stayed the course, and frankly helped make it possible for you to stay in business. Now is past the time to make it up to them. If your board and  your investors don't understand the necessity and the priority of these actions and concerns, then you've got the wrong players at the table. Plans, projections, promises, profits and eventual payouts all depend on the commitment, dedication and performance of your people. If it's not a two-way street in every respect, it's nothing.

There are four main concerns that your messages, and your actions, should address.

First, is retention. It's been a brutal few years now and it's only normal for the most talented team members to be looking at how other people are progressing, what their practical prospects are within your firm, and what other opportunities may be out there. In many cases, plans and provisions for options, bonuses, and other incentives may have expired, be miles out of the money, or no longer represent realistic objectives. Your restart plans should include revising all the current comp programs as well as adding whatever new plans make sense.

Second, is reassurance. A few years ago, there was a huge performative conversation about corporate transparency, in which owners, leaders and managers professed a new willingness to share all the financial information about their businesses with all stakeholders, including employees. These days, for a variety of reasons, we're back to the opaque postures and frankly most employees would tell you that they have virtually no idea of what kind of post-pandemic financial condition their company is in. Needless to say, key player retention is much harder to accomplish if they're worried about whether the business will even be around. This isn't an easy task to accomplish, but you do need to be sure that the whole team feels included in the financial information loop to some extent.

Third is recognition which is vastly underappreciated by most entrepreneurs, and which is probably more impactful (if done effectively and sincerely) than simply monetary rewards. By and large, for a variety of psychological and emotional reasons, entrepreneurs are lousy at saying "thank you" even if they appreciate the efforts of others. But silent gratitude isn't of very much use to anyone. Taking the time and making the effort to call out the special performers at every level of the organization whose contributions, extra work, enthusiasm and contagious energy helped lift everyone during the tough times is essential, and there's no better time than the present to do it.    

Finally, is resilience. Getting back in the game with both feet and hitting the ground running. This is where the best players lead by example as much as by anything they might say. It's great to be back in business, but it's more important to be focused on being even better going forward. It's not likely to be lost on anyone who's paying attention that many plans, dreams, and goals simply didn't happen (or haven't happened yet) and that patience these days is as critical as passion.

But the bottom line for any new business is always the same. You're not done or out of the game when you fail, only when you quit trying.