June 14, 2010

Carissa Reiniger

Since our 5 year anniversary I have been thinking a lot about what the next 5 years need to look like and what I want for myself and the company.  I continue to sit on this very uncomfortable fence that borders big fast growth and the realities around being able to deliver on that big and fast growth.   As I have tried to replace myself on the operations/client service side of the business over the past 6 months I seem to continually end up in more trouble than I was in before I put that person in place.  My challenges have been classic- I get pulled in too many directions so I feel like I don’t do anything well.  Then, I hand over a piece of my role to someone else hoping they can run with it but we aren’t big enough for them to really do that without feeling the need to talk to me or get my approvals before taking action.  Because of how stretched I have made myself, the second I have someone to hand something over to, I let go of the baton so fast that you would think it was burning my hand.  But I look back and realize that I haven’t been teaching the person who takes the baton from me how to be successful in their role.  And so we have had a cycle of people coming in, trying to take on a role and then not getting what they need from me,  not being successful, getting frustrated, leaving, leaving their area in worse shape than they found it in, me stepping in to “save” it, finding someone else to come in, throwing them the baton, them suffering because they are taking on something that needs lots of work and me so swamped from playing this game in all divisions of the company that I am not able to offer support.  This pattern, I realize now, is somewhat true of the last 5 years of Silver Lining’s history.  We bring people in, because I am way over capacity, we throw them in, I don’t give them the support they need to be successful, they leave things worse than they came in, I get more stretched trying to fix things and the cycle continues over and over again.  It is exhausting! And not healthy for the business.

This cycle is also a drain on cash flow which all of us entrepreneurs know is killer.  In the last 5 years I have generated over 97% of our total revenue because I keep “fixing” things when others are not hitting their goals.  We have never built in enough of a buffer to allow for our team to grow into their roles, to have time to orient and train before they need to start producing.  And in battling cash flow, when anyone on the team is not producing, it causes a strain on finances.  It is a brutal cycle.

In looking back at all of this I am coming to some conclusions.

1. You need to give people a chance to succeed or fail.   I look back and I realize that I have never truly let someone fail at Silver Lining.  I have left them spinning their wheels, thinking that I was giving them “space to grow”.  Really, people need way more attention and support up front and then an easing of management and oversight as time goes on- once they understand their role and how to do it well.
2. You need to be financially set up to lose before you can give someone the opportunity to win or lose.  Because we have been managing the realities of a young company’s cash flow there has been next to no wiggle room for me to truly step back and let someone in our company make financial decisions, run with their divisions, miss goals and learn from those misses.  So, I have stepped in every time we were at risk of anything financial going wrong so that I could preserve our cash or make more when necessary. I have really realized the importance of someone walking into a place with a budget and a timeline for them to get their hands dirty and have time and resources to accomplish their goals.
3. You need to be very clear about what your limits are.  I have come to realize that everyone- me and my team- needs to understand what their limits and expectations are.  In order for everyone to have a chance at success, we all need to be clear about what success looks like- and also how far away from success we can afford to be.  So, I have been working harder at setting clear goals with my team so that we are all on the same page about what we plan to accomplish month by month.  And what I am now working on is helping them understand how far we can survive before lack of results will turn into a lack of a job so that we know that we can screw up and learn- but that a small business has realities about how long it can last without people producing results.  This is not just important for my team.  I have realized it is important to me.   I need to actually budget for how much money I can comfortably risk on a new person, new project, new division, new idea etc.  When we hit the end of the budget, if the person or project is not showing signs of return expected by that time, it is time for me to make strategic decisions- based on real numbers.

So, with all of this as part of our story so far, I am going for it again.  We are about to contract someone to come into Silver Lining as the company’s General Manager and task them with finance, human resources and management of the SLAP™ delivery side of the business- helping build Silver Lining Online and our franchises. It is a bit scary to attempt this again.  I always thought that growing the business was going to be the hardest part of this journey, but I am learning that trying to pass the baton on in a way that allows for the next person to cross the finish line is way harder than me just carrying a bunch of batons across the finish line and doing the run alone.

I know I only have two hands though and carrying all of these batons is going to become impossible and I have already experienced what it feels like to start to drop them.  Let’s hope for a successful hand off this time!