Your Strategic Edge
by Miki Saxon
Do you run a small or medium business (SMB)? If so, do you have a senior staff?
“Senior staff” doesn’t necessarily mean a bunch of vice presidents (for convenience I’m using that title), but it does mean the top people in your company who manage different functions (with or without staff). They are the people you rely on
- as a sounding board;
- for both tactical and strategic intelligence;
- to tell it like it is—even when you don’t want to hear it
- to see and understand the big picture;
- to lead the effort in employee acquisition, motivation, and retention;
- to support and strengthen the culture she envisioned;
- to not sabotage another group or start a turf war, and
- to help stamp out politics whenever and wherever it rears its ugly head.
And more, but you get the idea.
How to build your senior staff
The first item on your agenda is to determine what parts of your business/company beyond the standard finance, development, marketing, sales should report directly to you for peak performance. You don’t want a function that is absolutely critical to your success reporting through or responsible to someone else (agendas do get in the way).
It may be customer service (or whatever it’s called); it could be IT; if you are large enough to have someone handling HR it should definitely report directly to you.
Support functions, such as HR, are often left to report to someone else, which can prevent you from knowing what is really going on.
Where does one find talented VPs? Now and then you’ll be lucky enough to actually hire someone complete with all the bells and whistles that you want, but it’s more likely that you will find someone with the right potential.
Be aware that the main thing that separates good senior staff apart from other managers is a strong strategic ability, which means they see the entire team and understand how their department or area fits into the whole.
I’ve known many C-level executives who never grasp this, as well as director level and lower managers who get it.
All your staff needs a real understanding of business, including financials, and it’s your responsibility to make sure that they get whatever training and information is needed to do their job as a member of your senior staff.
Further, if you want the most powerful senior staff possible cross train them in each other’s functions and challenges.
Think of the phenomenal value of a finance person who understands the intricacies of manufacturing as more than a set of numbers; a head of product development who understands financials, customer service and inventory turns; an HR head who understands what actually happens in the different departments, etc.
Think of the power inherent in a senior staff that understands what it takes to turn an idea into a product and a product into revenue.
Think of what a difference it will make to your ability to do your own job, not to mention the overall success of your company.
Flickr photo credit to: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/909053
