There’s a scourge in the business world and it goes like this: We start a company and accept all of the risk involved because we believe in it. We build an organization that thrives. Then, at least two thirds of the time, the firm goes away when we retire or die.
So many of us never transition our companies to the next generation of leaders — just because we never get around to it. Maybe it doesn’t seem urgent. Perhaps we think we will live forever. For whatever reason, it doesn’t get done, with all of the fallout that brings to customers, employees and the community.
Here, we introduce a series of columns focused on ways to successfully transfer your company’s institutional knowledge and business savvy to the next generation. I know it’s doable because we did it at Counsilman-Hunsaker Aquatic Design. The most important part is to remain committed.
In the columns, I will discuss some critical core elements that my team and I found very helpful:
• Authentic conversations
• Identifying those with the will and ability to lead
• Transferring knowledge
• Being an innovator, not a guardian
• Trusting with confidence
We’ll cover each of these elements, one in each column. I hope it will be helpful as you plan for you and your organization.
Creating authentic conversations
Think of your company as a beach ball where everyone in the company sees a different side. It’s not important that everyone agree with how you see your organization. However, they should get a holistic understanding and perspective about the many different attributes of your company. That knowledge will help them make sound, informed decisions that positively impact the organization, and it will empower them to take a leadership role.
Such knowledge and understanding is relayed through authentic conversation among your team. How do we create this? I believe in a couple tools. First, I’d recommend creating a corporate dashboard. This visual representation of data, often in the form of a chart or graph, usually provides financial information about the company. Basic revenue and profit figures may serve as a start, but the right data combination is specific to a company’s needs and can’t be prescribed here.
However, we know that the data can’t just include historical performance. As they say in the investment industry, past performance is no guarantee of future performance. The dashboard must serve as a guide to where you are going as an organization. Choose key performance indicators relevant to your market. For some companies, housing starts or retail sales in the areas being served may help predict future demand and activity. With this information, your team can plan strategies for dealing with challenges and issues you expect to face. It’s very little about what you can do in the organization today and more about preparing it for tomorrow.
As you prepare your future leadership team, a corporate dashboard can give them the ability to make knowledgeable decisions impacting the company’s future, without all the complex accounting and financial tools. It often can take six months to a year of monthly discussion before this capability is developed in your team.
The second tool — an employee survey — will help you better understand and know your workforce. How engaged are your employees? According to a 2017 Gallup Organization survey, 85% of the global workforce is “not engaged” or “actively disengaged.” This is fixable, but it takes time and effort — and you can’t fix what you don’t know about. Wade in and find out how your people are doing.
As a rule, these surveys should be anonymous so people can respond without fear of retribution. Secondly, questions and answers should be actionable. Don’t ask about things you can’t fix: Next year, people will notice that the things they commented on last year were not addressed, and will less likely to respond to a new survey. The general results and comments should roll up to a supervisor or manager so that they can address the issues and comments. Let your people know that you plan to take action. Then do it.
To get started, consider this free survey tool by the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program.
A third tool is about learning what your customers think about your team’s performance — a customer survey. How do they see you? What can be improved upon? I’d suggest making the survey more open-ended and qualitative rather than quantitative. Instead of providing one to five multiple-choice answers, ask for elaboration. Examples: How are we doing? What do you think we could do better? Be prepared for the answers you get. Then, study and act on them the best you can.
I would suggest consulting an outside company that specializes in employee and customer surveys to help craft the instruments and interpret the results. With consistent, scheduled customer feedback, you don’t have to guess what customers are experiencing, but can understand and adapt to their expectations.
All this incoming information changes the conversation from “I think” to “I know,” which is a data-driven conversation where we all look at the beach ball from different angles but still can have an intelligent conversation about how to position the company to achieve its goals.
Millennials
Before I close, let me take a minute to talk about millennials. Right now, they make up about 38% of the workforce. In five years, that number will grow to 56%; in ten years, 88%. Millennials look for a collaborative work culture, with a boss who is a mentor and coach, and where they can have ownership of deliverables. In other words, they want to participate in every way, not just do as they are told. Is your organization ready for that? Is it a desirable place to work for your future leadership pool?
Scot Hunsaker is managing partner of Ardent Group, a St. Louis consulting firm that helps companies transition to new ownership. Before founding Ardent in 2013, he owned aquatics firm Counsilman-Hunsaker for 23 years. He was chairman of the National Swimming Pool Foundation from 2012 to 2015.
