Leadership and your growing SME
Online |
Wed. 24th April 2024 |
9.30am - 11.00am 
Speaker led workshop online
Upcoming events
In the middle, between ‘start-up’ and ‘corporation’ there is another type of business – the second generation ‘scale-up’ organisations. In the UK, these ‘Small to Medium-sized Enterprises’ form more than 99% of all businesses and employ over 12 million people. Your SME will typically turn over anything from £2m to £50m and employ from 10 to 250 people.
How to steer it as it grows
An SME doesn’t need the full raft of corporate structures to work well, but as it scales up, needs to be guided in a different way from the informal ‘family’ structures and methods you could use when it was smaller. Do you ever find yourself thinking:
“Why does everything end up on my desk?”
“Nobody shows any initiative – it’s like managing a bunch of children.”
“Why can’t I get people to do what I want them to do?”
“I do everything I can to look after them, yet they still complain.”
These are all signs that your informal leadership style and structures are running out of road. ‘Scale-up’ organisations need to be structured more than start-ups, but this doesn’t mean ‘corporate’ systems. In fact, people moving to SMEs from corporates very often fail precisely because they try to over-engineer the organisation.
What will be covered?
- The three growth stages of organisations: where are you now?
- ‘Managing’ vs ‘operating’ at each stage – have you struck the right balance?
- Clarifying people’s roles – beyond the ‘job description’.
- Managing performance.
- Who is right for the organisation – and who isn’t.
- The main pitfalls and how to avoid them…
Takeaways
By the end of the programme, you will be able to:
- Map where your organisation is on its growth path.
- Identify what this means for you as its leader and manager.
- Clarify what your priorities need to be at this stage.
- See how to adapt your behaviour to the needs of your organisation.
- Introduce greater role clarity as the organisation grows.
- Avoid the usual pitfalls in managing performance.
Also available to every workshop participant who would like one:
- A copy of Kate’s book ‘A Buzz in the Building: How to build and lead a brilliant organisation’.
- A free 30-minute follow-up call.
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