Strategic Planning: Build Management Strength Today to Handle Growth Tomorrow

Like a lot of business leaders I know, I’m in the middle of strategic planning as we begin 2022. My vision is to build enterprise value into my company, and that includes building an organization that can handle the growth.

So, what’s most on my mind right now is how to develop management strength.

To get this process going, I’ve been asking – what does the org chart look like at this new level? What do we need to do to continue to deliver the best possible client service?

In my mind, we need to get the leaders in position. Then they can mold their teams, hiring and training as needed, and identify technologies that will layer in efficiencies.

Promoting From Within: Benefits Outweigh the Risks

The way to build management strength is to promote from within. Sometimes people think that this is too risky, but I think it’s the opposite. Let me explain.

When things are going great, it can seem like a risk to allow a person to move into a different role. Why take a chance that could cause a disturbance? Isn’t it better to stay with tried and true instead of going with untested?

Giving employees the opportunity to advance is a risk because you don’t know exactly how it will turn out. That mindset is too conservative if you want to grow. And actually, when we look at our track record, whenever we’ve promoted someone from within, they’re still here, and they’re doing well.

From talking to employees about their experience at VC3, we know that they thrive on challenge, and that’s precisely the kind of people that a managed IT services provider (MSP) needs. We need to feed that. We don’t want to lose people because we didn’t take a chance on them with a promotion.

Sharing the Vision

In the wake of the COVID pandemic, strategic planning feels like we’re on a plateau that we need to bust through. I can envision the next level, and I’m handing the binoculars around so that everyone else can get a glimpse of the summit and get excited about the ascent.

The best way that I know of to share my vision is to get everyone involved in planning. Inviting input is how we will get everyone looking in the same direction. It’s also how we will come up with the best ideas.

What’s really interesting is that asking – “How can we work together to achieve this goal?” instead of “How can we improve?” – has changed the conversations that we’re having within and between departments.

What emerges from these conversations will be the tactics that we’ll use to develop operational efficiencies in 2022 that will set us up for future growth.