Engaging your team to systematise your business

Who is your business team is accountable for doing what? Do you have one person assigned to each task that keeps your business functioning and makes your customers happy?

If you don’t, then perhaps it’s you, the business owner, who ends up doing more than you should. We see this happen all the time, and it’s a key contributor to business owners not having time to work ON the business or not being able to take time off.

But before you throw your hands in the air in despair, we want to share a few steps that help set up your business processes and procedures so that each person on your team knows their job, does it right and lets you get on with your role (and your life!).

And you don’t have to create these business processes yourself. You’ll get a better response and take some of the load off if you engage your team to help set them up.

Who does what in a business?

First up is the Organisation Chart. Many businesses don’t have one, but it’s the easiest way to see – at a glance – who does what in your business and the lines of reporting. Each ‘box’ should include the person’s name and their role. Org charts help when it’s time to make major decisions, resolve minor internal conflicts, and recruit and grow the business.

Make sure your Org chart is designed for the ideal future of the business; with some names appearing in multiple boxes in the first instance and with lots of blank boxes for future growth! Get your team on board by placing and moving post-it notes up on a wall until you get one that the whole team is happy to go with, instead of getting one person to draw it up alone. Keep it up to date and display it prominently.

Accountability in a business

Next up in business procedures is Position Commitments, which should articulate, in a single line, why that job exists. What overall outcome does that role need to achieve? List key activities, processes and outcomes that the role is Accountable for. Again this is a business process that the team can brainstorm and have a hand in. After all, it’s their career you’re shaping! Remember that every business activity should be listed in someone’s Position Commitment because if no one is accountable for it, chances are it won’t get done.

Set each position’s KPI

To make it easy to track that these Position Commitments are being fulfilled (and you are not doing a whole list of activities you shouldn’t be doing), identify **Key Indicators **(KPIs) for each of them. KPIs are simply objective and measurable outcomes that indicate a role is on track, or pick up early where improvements need to be made. What are the four or five things you can objectively monitor to know that a role is being done properly? Each role in your Org Chart will need its own set of KPIs.

Once it’s clear who does what, the team can then document how it is to be done. Whether that’s by coming up with process maps (one of my favourites is done with post-it notes on butchers paper on the wall), listing the standards for a particular activity, creating a checklist or even by just videoing someone doing the activity well, there are lots of ways of codifying your processes and, usually, most of them are best done by your team.

In my experience, even defining the right culture for your business is best done by your team and is a fun activity that will just strengthen the team anyway.

By engaging your team in the process of systematising your business, you’ll save yourself a lot of time, you’ll likely get a more effective outcome and the team will have a real sense of ownership over that outcome. Really a win win win and a great step to having a business that works without you!