Paul is a talented gardener who has built up his own business using friends, students and casual labour to help out in the busy periods. But Paul himself is only a few years older than his staff – and now that the company is growing, he finds that they both seem to take him for granted and resent it when he asks them to step up.
Someone who has grown their company from scratch may not only be short of management experience, but may have developed a company culture of ‘all friends together’ – and that might not be the best model for future growth.
When helping Paul to move forward, I:
– talked to all his staff individually, acting as a supportive outsider, took note of their concerns and in doing so helped them to reconcile some of their issues around working with Paul.
– discovered there was huge loyalty to Paul, and an (unexpected) desire from staff that he be more demanding in his management style.
– gave this feedback to Paul and helped him be firmer in his approach.
– supported him to successfully appoint one of his staff to act as a manager when he was not on site.
– helped Paul focus on the fact that, having developed the gardening business, he was ready to expand into new areas
Once Paul was satisfied that the firm could run smoothly without his constant presence, he was able to start his new projects whilst his core business still thrived.
Want to explore how I could help? Please email me with a brief outline of your situation and I’ll get back to you. If I feel I could help, we can arrange for an initial coaching session to explore how we would work together. I’d be delighted to hear from you.