Why a Small Business CEO Needs a Special Approach to People Management

You Are the Business
The small business manager or owner is the business to employees. They interpret the behaviour and performance of the CEO as that of the business itself. For example, if the small business CEO is erratic, so is the business. If he or she is conservative, so is the business in the minds of employees. This puts great responsibility on the CEO to be consistent, reliable, balanced and enthusiastic most of the time. In a large business, the CEO can use other senior managers to compensate for personal or professional deficiencies.

You Control Their Livelihood
In a small business, the manager's power over continued employment is keenly felt. Employees know this. This particular power is much less acute for the CEO in a large business. In small business, staff will interpret the CEO's behaviour, at least in part, in terms of its impact on them personally.

Have A Performance Focus
As a small business manager be focused on performance rather than personality. It's natural that you'll relate better to some staff than to others. It's dangerous to allow this reality to be perceived as favouritism - accurately or not. If you have an engineering background, it's simply human to have a tendency to favour engineering. But it's poor management to be seen to be doing it. A clearly defined performance focus will go a long way to helping employees avoid such perceptions.

Emphasise "Working Together" Not "Getting On Well"
The textbooks call it "goal dependence" and "task interdependence". You may call it "teamwork". Whatever you call it, the capacity for people to work effectively together is important in businesses of all shapes and sizes. But it's absolutely essential in small business. I'm talking of people's ability to work together not their capacity to "get on well together". People who "get on well" may or may not achieve effective business results together. People who can work effectively together and achieve good results will find a way to "get on with each other".

Encourage Effective Teams
To help your people form an effective team isn't as difficult as it first appears. Firstly, you must have very clear business goals and communicate them clearly to employees. Incidentally, "to make a profit" is merely a statement of intent. It isn't a goal. Whatever you do, have a crystal clear business focus and convey it continuously to your people. Have unequivocal performance standards for each employee or team or people doing the same work. Build your reward and incentive programs around these standards.

Publicly Acknowledge Support Staff
Constantly remind all employees that support staff, such as "office" of "backroom" people are just as important to business success as specialists and high profile employees. Try to find a way to enable support staff to participate in rewards and incentive programs.

Conclusion
As a small business CEO, you must deal with situations that a large business CEO would rarely confront. Without the total support of your people, you task will be very difficult.

By Leon Noone

Why a Small Business CEO Needs a Special Approach to People Management