“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old but on building the new.” – Socrates

Every week, month, quarter, and year constitutes a new starting point in your business.

Every promotion as a corporate employee is a new beginning to your thinking as to how to be successful in your new role.

Last week I spent 2 days at a strategic offsite for a technology company. It grew its revenues 300% last year and doubled its operations and staff.

Many in the executive team of these tech startups are still in their 20’s and early 30’s. They’ve never led a team, have limited management experience and never gone through the ‘GE school of management’.

It was, therefore, no surprise that many were unsure about what their ‘job description’ had become after that much growth. This confusion had in fact created organizational dysfunction as many people were doing work they shouldn’t have been doing, causing miscommunication across units, and a state of being overworked and stressed out.

As so many startups and small businesses double in size year-over-year, it’s becoming more and more critical to invest in training and coaching.

There are 5 questions I used to reorient the team to understand their new roles:

1. What must I start doing?
2. What must I stop doing?
3. What must I do more of?
4. What must I do less of?
5. What must I delegate?

You have to burn your old bridges and build new ones. You have to let go of the actions that worked in the past and focus on what will make you successful in the future.

Do this exercise alone and then go through your new role with your team. What you decide to stop doing, someone else needs to start doing, and so forth.

As your business grows and evolves, so must your role.

Of course, if you and any new employees are all aware of what they’re supposed to be doing from the very start, it’ll save you from having to sort through all of this later on.

That’s why the strategies and organisation of your hiring process can be critical.