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by Christopher Jenkins - Wednesday, 29th August 2007

Fine, but it’s easy to forget that many people actually like working for somebody else. It gives them confidence, working for a Big Cheese who seems to know what he’s doing.

The secret is to give your people a feeling of security. They need to know that someone has the map. Here are four guidelines.

1. Your budget will be the cornerstone of the plan. It must be robust, comprehensive and look further ahead than the next renewal date of your bank facility. It should map out in quantifiable form what the business will look like in, say, three years time (size, market positioning, sales mix, direction etc).

It will be a map that you can give to your managers so that they can drive the company forward. If it isn’t, then redo it. To construct it properly will take months, not days.

2. Before you spend thousands with a PR agency, think about what you want them to do. If you can’t describe your company in five seconds and, more descriptively in 40 seconds, talk to a marketing consultant. They will teach you how.

3. If you don’t know, then the people you employ won’t know either. First, position your company externally and then you will be able to make sense of the internals. If the exercise is valuable, it will probably mean rewriting parts of the plan and adjusting the financial numbers.

4. The people you employ are not like you. They can be surprisingly conservative; they want hierarchy, rules, staff handbooks, career paths. They need to know how they are going to progress to the top of your business and what the logic was behind the pay rise that you have just given them.

They don’t want groovy, laid-back management. They don’t want inconsistency, confusion and chaos.

So what’s the answer? Organisation charts, role descriptions, appraisal systems, rules on overtime payments – administered compassionately, logically, clearly, consistently and with humour from someone they respect and admire.

Do these three things and you will have mapped out most of the important elements of your corporate culture; but don’t be scared of writing it down in order to define it.

A strong corporate culture can be one of your most effective weapons in an unforgiving marketplace. It will allow you to recruit for the brand, to identify and weed out or re-educate employees who don’t live by it. It will also let you harness the aspirations of those who want to be involved in the management of the business.

Having a plan is one thing; ensuring that you communicate it effectively is essential. The plan has got to be in everyone’s head. For that to happen, you have to repeat it over and over again. Do this in newsletters, on your web site, at face-to-face meetings and down the pub.

On average, support staff change jobs every three years; fee-earning, client-facing staff once every four years. Some 25 per cent of your key staff will be new every year and won’t have heard the message.

The corporate plan, the mission statement, may well reside in the line managers that don’t leave you. But there will be few of these guardians of the philosophy. And don’t just make them learn it by rote. That may work in Japan, but not over here. Allow your people to contribute and add to the plan, under your guidance. Take free advice from all the people you employ. They probably know their part of the business better than you do.

Your people need the security that such a map provides but without losing the spirit of adventure and the feeling of dynamic growth. They may well buy into the company vision that you put across forcefully at interview, but not everyone will want to hold hands with you and leap over the top together. They will expect you to go first. And they will expect to be told why.

Tell your people what to do with authority. Then you will breed a culture of brave, thoughtful decision-making. Do nothing, in the belief that things will work out fine, and your staff will follow your example and do nothing themselves. Worse still, they may leave to work for another business with the leadership they are looking for.

Originaly published in May 2002.

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Tags: public relations, starting a business, business advice, marketing, start-ups, growing a business, corporate culture, entrepreneur,