Everything looks rosy in the beginning: a convincing idea, founding the company with a handsome, everyone clocks in and pushes overtime, then getting started — and suddenly the steam is out. Now it's time to counteract. Founders and managers are particularly challenged.
When the idea and strategy fit into the current market, things quickly go up for many startups in the initial phase. Everything flows, because the team usually consists only of the founders and a handful of enthusiasts — often from the circle of friends and acquaintances. People know each other, maintain short communication channels and celebrate every milestone achieved.
But once the shop is buzzing, the founding team quickly becomes too small. New personnel, some from outside the industry, some without professional experience, must be incorporated and familiarized with the company culture.
If the training is incorrect, projects can slide. Work is done twice and three times, for example because the briefing for the task is not complete, the embedding of the task in a project is not correctly communicated, professional and thematic knowledge is taken for granted, or team members do not dare to persistently ask questions.
The result: frustration among new people, who quickly feel incompetent and inferior and block themselves. Project managers are frustrated because important jobs take too long or are stopped altogether and the company's growth stalls. The founders are frustrated because they do not understand that the newer employees have a different range of experience than they do themselves.
Successful onboarding is rarely enough. Because it is particularly difficult when there is a problem with the implementation of specific project tasks and the transfer of responsibility. This is because many people do not dare to reveal gaps in knowledge and information and therefore spend a lot of time on tasks without achieving effective results. In addition, now that there are more people in the company than you can reach by simply calling, the way in which you want to work together, i.e. the corporate culture, must be defined clearly and comprehensibly for everyone.
In workshops and trainings, ways can be tried out to optimize work results. This includes, for example, the topic of “questions”: What know-how and talents do individuals bring to the table? Where is there a need for training, which knowledge gaps can be closed and how? How can we encourage the team and individual employees to get involved, ask questions without fear and make bold suggestions for improvement? Which processes can be optimized with which digital tools? And also: How do managers get a better feeling and a sharper perception of the various sensitivities and can provide mental support in order to achieve better results?
Since we're straight to the questions: What's burning under your nails when you're interested in reading this far? What kind of advice would you like to support your company's growth room? As a specialist in proactive business transformation, I know proven ways and means to reconcile people and results. So feel free to get in touch.
