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Be Objective and Make the Time
Conclusion 195
You need two things to implement your organizational strategy: objectivity
and time. Objectivity means that you must remove yourself
emotionally from your current team in order to design the organizational
structure that you need. Carving out time is also critical, because
this kind of exercise is very important but rarely urgent.
Other tasks will always try to push this work aside. You must make
it a priority. The payoffs from it are potentially huge.
Because of both these factors, you should consider hiring a consultant
or some other trusted advisor who really understands this process
to help you through it. This person should provide you with a
strategic framework, help you to define the organizational structure,
offer guidance based on experience doing similar projects for other
companies, and provide ongoing advice and accountability. It’s worth
spending money with a good person to have this done well.
Completing this work allows you to provide your A-players with
the clarity and focus they need to step up and contribute more to
your business. By defining people’s roles and giving them focus,
your employees—particularly your A-players—quickly take more
ownership, responsibility, and initiative. Watching your key people
embrace your business is enough to make this whole exercise worth
the effort.
I recently spoke with a business owner about the strategic importance
of having an organizational chart for a business. He told me
that he agreed completely and then showed me the one he had developed
for his company. I took a look at it and asked him, ‘‘Why
isn’t there a financial role on this chart?’’ He looked at me and said,
‘‘That’s not necessary—I handle all the finances.’’
He had completely missed the point of revisiting your organizational
chart: to help you remove yourself from the business while
creating an overview of every role required for profitably acquiring,
serving, and keeping customers. You define the roles needed to
make your business run apart from the people you currently
employ—and that includes yourself. As Michael Gerber points out
in his legendary business book The E-Myth, a good organizational
chart is meant to focus you on hiring the right people to fill more