On being across your entire business

This article is more reflective in nature, rather than a tactically led piece.  

If you’re building a business with a growing team, you might have different departments (like we do at Nitschke). We have established a leadership team which each department head is part of. This has served us really well over the years, and continues to. 

These structures and systems (like our infamous Issues List) are essential to keeping us aligned and accountable. 

Internal shifts happen and are to be expected, such as a key team member moving on. This can create a misalignment and throw the energy off-balance. This is normal and should be planned for. 

In these moments, it’s important to revisit our organisational chart to make sure we’ve got the right people in the right seats (roles). It’s necessary to return to this during periods of change and incrementally every year. 

When the internal structure and scaffolding is right, we can withstand changes. I highly recommend reading EOS and getting your ‘scaffolding’ in place. Start with the meeting agenda, issues list, and organisational chart. 

Grab my Issue’s List System if you want to implement the exact system we use. 

So, what was revealed to me when we revisited this after some personnel changes was that I didn’t have a clear understanding of how a different department in our business worked. 

Not in the way a business owner should. 

I was responsible for my division+ leadership, and we have other heads of department responsible for their areas. It makes perfect sense, but I realised in order to truly lead across all areas of the business, I needed to know each one intimately. 

This includes: 

• The systems and processes 
• The clients and their needs 
• Deep field knowledge 
• Onboarding and offboarding 
• Nuances with the market, clients, partners etc. 

A lot of leadership is having the courage to be completely honest with yourself and others. It’s confronting when you realise you’ve run a business for years without complete clarity. It’s likely opportunities were left on the table, unknowingly. 

This is why you must create space as a business owner, in order to see these issues, creatively work through them, and restructure accordingly. You can’t do this when you’re inundated with tasks and pulled away from true leadership. 

There’s no point of arrival with business. That’s what makes it so fun. That’s why we do it. 

I’m rooting for you. 

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