Business Owners, Managers and Leaders
Nicole King
Leadership Across the Stages of Growth

The Stages of Growth clarifies the optimal number of managers and leaders for a business. This blog post shows what that ideal number looks like across the seven Stages of Growth. This framework serves as the ideal for businesses to follow, with the management and leadership teams growing in proportion to the needs of the organization. In reality, however, many leaders miss these transitions.

Leadership Across the Stages of Growth
Business Owners, Managers and Leaders
Nicole King
Position Role Sheets

The Position Role Sheet is a management tool that organizes the work through Positions, Roles, and Types of Work. It is a fundamental way to accomplish the goal of first organizing the work before organizing the people doing the work. As a building block for departments of all sizes, Position Role Sheets break down the roles and responsibilities of each position within a department.

Position Role Sheets
Business Owners, Managers and Leaders
Nicole King
Enterprise Thinking: The antidote to department ...

This natural tendency to focus on the immediate needs of one’s department can work against the success of the enterprise. Due to daily challenges, needs, and opportunities, departments can become self-focused and lose sight of the big picture. The outcomes of this silo mentality are a lack of cooperation and hoarding of information. What works for one department might make things difficult for another. Departments begin to compete for resources without understanding or even caring about the needs of the enterprise.

Enterprise Thinking: The antidote to department silos
Business Owners
Nicole King
The Significance of Process and the 85/15 Rule

Dr. W. Edward Deming is recognized as the father of the modern Quality Movement that ignited new ideas and focused energy on process improvement. He contributed to Japan’s economic recovery after World War II, largely through his influence over manufacturing processes.

Dr. Deming was a champion of systems and processes. At one point, he made this poignant statement: “If you cannot define what you are doing as a process, you do not understand what you are doing.”

The Significance of Process and the 85/15 Rule
Business Owners
Nicole King
Why your business needs Key Performance ...

A Key Performance Indicator, or KPI, as it is commonly referred to, is a measurement that helps gauge the success of a business, department, or team. By tracking the outcomes that are being achieved, a company gets insight into what is and what is not working.  

Why your business needs Key Performance Indicators

stage 2

Builder-Protector Ratio in a Stage 2 Company

Builder-Protector Ratio in a Stage 2 Company

In Stage 2, the ideal Builder-Protector Ratio is 3:1, which means there is three times the amount of confidence as there is caution in the organization. The other way to understand the 3:1 Builder-Protector Ratio is that 75% of the team are Builders, while 25% are Protectors.  An organization with a 3:1 Builder-Protector Ratio exhibits a very high level of confidence. 

The challenge of hiring quality people - Stage 2

The challenge of hiring quality people - Stage 2

A Stage 2 business has between 11-19 employees. One of the top five challenges businesses of this size face is hiring quality people. A Stage 2 business is beginning to move away from hiring generalists to hiring more specialized talent. This marks a significant shift in procedures which can be difficult to get right—especially if the company is growing rapidly.