How to Improve Your Startup Management

(This article was originally posted at the main Management 3.0 website by the Happy Melly Team)

All startups need to think about the team and management early on. They need to start early because they set the culture. As Twitter’s co-founder says in this HBR article: A culture is going to form whether you like it or not, and if you pay attention to it, you can craft something that makes the company stronger. By joining a Management 3.0 workshop, you work with your peers to learn how to increase employee motivation and how to help your team be happy at work.

As your small business begins to grow, you start making decisions about who you hire, how you hire, how you distribute payment, and how transparent you would like to be. You are taking time to study and learn new things but it’s somehow still the last priority, well behind when you are trying to get funding or to get customers.

The most common reasons for why startups fail is fighting among founders and lack of teamwork (even they might have elaborated a great product / market fit).

The thing most investors are looking for, is a strong team, that has a vision and can properly scale a company with good management skills. Having a successful product vision and market fit, is just one thing. Being able to execute is key. And this does not mean, you have to organize for boring business structures. Your team and also your investors are happy about a great product coming from a unique and outstanding company culture. Your startup can be smart right from the beginning. And below are a couple of hints to act smart (we have got much more to come. but for now just go ahead)

At a Management 3.0 workshop, your startup will learn

How to Delegate to Team Members

You can’t do it all yourself, but who can you trust to do it?

• what decisions you would like to centralize, what to make locally, what only founders should decide
• list what are the main decisions at your stage of managing the startup
• how do you make those decisions today and where do you want to be in the future
• learn how to play Delegation Poker and build and run a Delegation Board

How to be a Transparent Company

Use the delegation board as a way to spark discussion on how they decide who to hire and who to bring into the business for a partner. How will they decide who gets paid what? Will they publish this anywhere?

How to Create Your Vision

To understand your company’s vision, why you are here, and why as a team you are working together. Use these values as part of an overall exercise to create a Mission Statement for each of these essential areas:

• For your company
• For your hiring process
• For your customer service

Then, create a Work Expo or Innovation Expo to clarify this vision every day:

• What are we building here?
• Why?
• What does purpose mean for us?

Then, start a Happiness Door or another start of Work Expo with visual representations of the company’s values and history for all to see daily.

How to Motivate your Employees

Moving Motivators is a great way to identify the differences among team members. It can put on the table that one partner actually likes working in a structured environment, and another partner really loves freedom and remote working.

How to Foster Self-Organization and Authorization

Self-organization does not necessarily mean abandonment of all hierarchies (read about Buffer’s learnings here). Nor does it mean chaos. Learn how to create a team agreement to create a work environment that fits for your whole team. Also called Team Contract, Team Ground Rules, Norms, even Values, it is mutually agreed upon by the majority of team members, who all sign into the non-binding agreement covering:

• how the team will communicate – are expected to report how often
• where they will work, how to handle remote work (many startups can’t afford office space)
• tools they will use
• how the team focuses on:
  • their values
  • concerns, fears
  • consequences
  • roles
  • time – by when

How to Give Credit Where Credit is Due

A module on how to offer valuable Project Credits and how to write compelling (and accurate) Job Descriptions. Learn how to stay away from rigidity and have people contribute where they can and where they take interest, not just in the box where they were hired.

How to Scale Your Product

When a startup grows beyond one product, it’s interesting to experiment to discover new ideas. This Management 3.0 module helps you determine the right mix of experimentation for your team and business, how to go about failure, and how to celebrate learning.

How to Increase Recognition and Gratitude

One of the strongest values people hold dear is to feel valued and recognized. Learn about exercises like Kudo Cards that promote intrinsic motivation.