How do you position yourself to move away from the day-to-day details of your business? This may be one of the biggest single issues that face most business owners today. Today we are focused on building our leaders for the future. This particular stage is centered on developing your senior-most leader – your General Manager. You can add whatever title that makes sense for your industry, but essentially this individual is responsible for the overall performance of your business, from top to bottom.
Here are a couple of questions for you:
- How comfortable are you turning over your business to someone else to run?
- How confident are you that they will make decisions that you will agree with and that will be good for the long term success of your business?
- How knowledgeable is he or she about the needs and care-abouts of your most important clients?
This required a significant amount of thought and preparation. In fact, in some businesses,it may take months or even years to prepare someone for this assignment. Since this is not a quick-response decision, doesn’t it make sense to approach this challenge with a thoughtful plan? I would suggest it does.
So you might ask, where do I start? Let me give you a few thought starters. There are generic descriptions available online that will give you some ideas and suggestions. I’d suggest you start there and make changes based on the specific activities and areas of focus that you are personally involved in.
It is often far easier to make changes to an existing document than it is to create one from scratch. If you have one from a prior business or from a colleague, “steal” the framework and edit with your specific content.
In the end, this document should be very descriptive about the tasks, responsibilities, structure, and success measures for the general manager position. I would strongly recommend that you “step it up a notch” from where you are currently managing the business today.
Your Profit Tip of the Day
Stretch the General Manager assignment to take on more responsibility, be more disciplined and set higher standards than you do for yourself.
While many business owners are their own toughest critic, it never hurts to set the bar higher for a new general manager – particularly since you are going to be in the background ready to help them succeed – at least for a time.
Once you have the job description in hand, make a list of the critical skills that a general manager must have to be successful in your business. This may become a checklist for a prospective GM or it may become a critical part of a development plan for your new general manager candidate. With this key skills list, you can begin assessing your current team members for future potentials or use it as a standard for hiring a prospective general manager.
In many cases it takes months if not years to prepare someone for this critical position within your business. So even if you are not planning to step away from your business for some time, it is best to begin the preparation. Don’t be afraid to let your team members know your plans so they can prepare themselves for the eventual change in leadership.
Your role as the business owner is to eliminate the drama, make certain your team knows where you are going with the business, and demonstrate that you are moving into the future with a solid plan for success.
You will never make a more important hiring decision. The individual who will replace you in the business must be a great fit for the position – both today and in the future.
If you’re looking for more success and freedom from your business, join my FREE, private Facebook Group called The Peloton. It’s where business owners like you are learning, sharing and working together to get better every day! Here’s the link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/jointhepeloton/
Come on – join us! And remember, whatever you do, RIDE HARD!
