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.