A newly minted CEO friend of mine recently asked me how to run
\neffective meetings, organize staff communication, communicated
\neffectively to employees, etc.,etc. Much is written on this topic from
\nlarger, more established firms, but, startups pose some difficult and
\ndifferent challenges. Because startups are small and are growing
\nquickly (hopefully); the CEO is constantly reinventing the
\norganization. But, this doesn’t mean that the business needs to be
\nchaotic. Here are some tips that might be helpful: <\/p>\n
Operating meetings<\/strong> There are some things that could be tweaked based on the business. Another important tool that you will want to develop is an Format for staff meetings<\/strong> 1. Housekeeping (things that are tactical but require 2. General discussion (70% tactical for early stage, 90% strategic 3. Next steps<\/p>\n btw, you should send out an email no earlier than 24 hours before the meeting on a call for agenda items.<\/p>\n Communication<\/strong> Communication for > 100 employees<\/em> This was very helpful when needing to communicating at different A newly minted CEO friend of mine recently asked me how to run effective meetings, organize staff communication, communicated effectively to employees, etc.,etc. Much is written on this topic from larger, more established firms, but, startups pose some difficult and different challenges. Because startups are small and are growing quickly (hopefully); the CEO is constantly…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/startupwhisperer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1390"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/startupwhisperer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/startupwhisperer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/startupwhisperer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/startupwhisperer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1390"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/startupwhisperer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1390\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1978,"href":"https:\/\/startupwhisperer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1390\/revisions\/1978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/startupwhisperer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/startupwhisperer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/startupwhisperer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
In this section, I attached a grid that
\nI created for myself over the years. The startup executive will want
\nto keep an active set of regular checkpoints (I like to call them
\n"operating drumbeats") throughout the organization that ensure that the
\nbusiness is marching to his\/her key objectives. Regular checkpoints on
\nstrategic direction, weekly staff meetings, and 1:1s with your direct
\nreports are an ideal way to structure this. <\/a>Here is a sample guideline:Download sample_business_planning_process.pdf<\/a>\n<\/p>\n
\nEvaluate your own business and constantly scrutinize your method of
\ninformation flow. Always be willing to cut a meeting if it is
\nunnecessary. Your goal at a startup is to be a fast mover; that is
\nyour edge that your larger competitors do not have.<\/p>\n
\ninternal scorecard. The internal scorecard should basically bleed out
\nof your unified objectives, goals, strategies, and tactics. The
\nscorecard is basically a functional KPI (Key Performance Indicators)
\nlist. This way from the Board down to the average employee, everyone
\nis aligned. I typically share this scorecard with all of the
\nmanagers and then have a very general goal for all of the employees to
\nfocus on (revenue, profitably, market share). Example, would be "hit EBITDA positive by July," "exceed 2 billion impressions", etc. I am assuming that
\nthe entity has already gone thru a strategic planning process. If not,
\nthen that will be a posting for another day.<\/p>\n
I like to constantly ask my
\nteam(s) what are the key issues that we should cover for each staff meeting. Typically you will get a mix of both tactical or strategic
\nissues. Each startups tactics tend to run the show which is just fine.
\nIt is ‘fine’ because focusing on launching your first product is the
\ndifference between having a business (or not). Get a sense from the
\nteam on what key issues are out there. But, please do make it a point
\nto layer in more and more strategic discussion over time. My typical
\nstaff meetings start out with (btw, usually an hour and a half every
\nTues…I have always hated Monday staff meetings):<\/p>\n
\ncross-functional input)…things like office space planning, HR, morale
\nevent planning, etc. No more than 15 mins.<\/p>\n
\nfor later stage companies) <you can interject your own points as
\nwell as ask for them from your directs; I always had a review of the
\nscorecard and financials as part of this section." At least an hour.<\/p>\n\n
\ntake notes and send them out < 24 hours after the meeting; make sure
\nthat action items are tracked and reviewed in the meeting. At Mpire, I
\ntake the notes and everyone gets a copy of the notes within minutes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n
\n
\nMeeting style is ideally empowering with you make the decision on an
\nitem or making time decisions in the meeting. Remember, this meeting
\nis for you as a team to weekly track the business. It is not all about
\nyou. You are a team.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Another important tenet to running an
\neffective organization is communication. Communication is very key
\nespecially as you get bigger. I tone down the centralized
\ncommunication as organizations grow (toned down meaning instead of a
\nweekly CEO email, it turned into a monthly). Basically, the rule of
\nthumb for me was < 100 employees:<\/p>\n\n
\n
\non key things going on with the staff; stop in and talk to a star or
\nsomeone that is having issues. Eat lunch with your employees. You can
\nuse this for your directs, too.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n
\nbeers and give the employees time to listen to you but more importantly
\nlisten to them. This keeps everyone together and synched up on what is
\nhappening at the company.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n
\ndirection setting and people management. So, send less email and make
\nbigger decisions. At the same time hire the right people and give them
\nthe right care. You’ll know how much is enough.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
I would basically do everything above except move to monthly emails and more formal
townhalls
\n(with audio conferencing, webex, etc). It also depends on how
\ndistributed you get, too. In addition, I added a weekly 1:1 style
\nupdate from my key direct emails updates. So, you would get the
\nfollowing:<\/p>\n\n
\nlines but you can also have things like % spec complete,
\netc…basically your directs are reporting on the kpis that they own).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n
\nstrategies…everyone should only have no more than 5 within the entire
\norganization; everyone will have their own sub-strategies to achieve
\nthe global strategy).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n
\n
\nWatch these closely…they also end up being discussed in your staff
\nmeeting (aka stratcom).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\nlevels (especially Boards, investors, etc). In addition, your direct reports will be able to better understand what is happening in other areas of the business. I had some managers that used this format to structure their
\nown team staff meetings, too. It is glorious when your organziation is
\nfully aligned and constantly reviewing their job performance to the
\norganizationas key objectives. That is a beautiful place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"