How Startup Management Is Evolving and Tips to Adapt to It
Embracing change is the only way not to let technology outrun your business.
55% of startups have already adopted a digital business strategy. Such transitions consist of a lot of factors. Your team must be our team members who could be experiencing a change, or they must be adapting to new management software. If you’re hesitant to adopt change or wait too long, you’ll become outdated, and eventually, your business will suffer.
When a business undergoes any change, which it inevitably does, managers must understand their role in managing it effectively. While the chances of accurately driving a shift a cent per cent are quite impossible, there are specific tips you can use to handle change management more effectively.
Before we directly move into how to adapt to the change, let’s first understand how startup management is changing.
Ways startup management is evolving
Startup management has evolved in several sectors, including employee management, finance management and using technological advancements to enhance the overall management structure of an organization. Below are a few ways companies achieve so:
Core emphasis on the stakeholder value
Startup management is gradually moving away from focusing solely on maximizing shareholder value. Instead, they emphasize creating value for all stakeholders, including employees, customers, suppliers and other communities.
Calculate expenses through a per diem rate calculator
Work travel is often a big part of businesses, especially when the team members are expected to travel to meet clients. In such cases, an online per diem rate calculator is handy as it works out exactly how much you should spend when travelling for work.
Increased use of technology
Technological advancements play a vital role in startup management, with businesses adopting advanced analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence to enhance decision-making and improve efficiency.
Focus on social responsibility (CSR)
Businesses today identify the need for sustainability and social responsibility and are adopting several environment-friendly practices and implementing social initiatives.
Agility and flexibility
Startup management is becoming more agile and flexible in this rapidly changing environment. Businesses adopt new organizational structures and processes, allowing them to adapt to changing conditions quickly.
Now that we know how startup management is evolving let’s look at a few tips to adapt to it.
4 tips to adapt to startup management evolution
1. Define a strategy
It’s an established fact that uncertainty is a fact of business of any nature. The economy sector, demand for your product, etc., can change anytime. So the only thing in your control is to enact adaptive changes as fast as possible, which requires solid planning. The managers need to define a strategy to proceed with the change seamlessly.
Keep the following pointers in mind to walk through the concerned members through any with ease:
Take help of technology as and when required
Plan for how you will train your employees to use tech in their day-to-day lives
Involve team members who will be affected by the change
Make necessary modifications to the strategy after taking inputs from other team members
A solid strategy gives a business the focal point they need. Without a strategy, businesses will easily lose direction, resulting in demotivation towards change.
This is why the most important thing is to define a strategy of change: indeed, without a strategy, a large company often changes its axis, which causes managers to lose energy. Also, strategies depend on the type of change. Always have a plan of action in case of any unexpected or challenging development. You should be able to get the job done regardless of the external conditions.
2. Encourage teams to expand their comfort zone
Embracing or adjusting to any change requires going out of your comfort zone.
When managers encourage team members to leave their comfort zone, they develop new skills and become involved in more decision-making. This gives them the habit of working in a constantly evolving environment and, thus, helps them better address the process of driving change.
The primary goal when adjusting to changes within the business is to have positive developments and prevent adverse outcomes. Bad management and unprepared leadership is one of the primary reasons for a team to fail. So it’s important for you to track your changes and their outcomes to make sure that your actions have the intended effect. Ensure that the staff members know their roles and responsibilities and promote an ethos of accountability.
For instance, if it’s a tech integration, ask employees who are not tech-savvy to perform basic functionalities on the integration/software. Observe their reaction, talk to them about how they felt and keep moving ahead.
If your change doesn't have the desired effects, consider revising your strategy regularly until you find the match that works for your business to succeed. Remember, it's about devising a strategy that works for everyone. While you should push members to stretch their comfort zones, don't forget to be there when they find it challenging.
3. Communicate with team members
Communication is key. Period.
Whether you want to survive in the startup space or adjust to a change, you must communicate your expectations and plans around the changes. You also need to make time for communication by listening to the employees about the change. After all, everyone experiences a change in their way.
You can do so in the following ways:
Encourage people to talk about their concerns.
Encourage employees to ask questions.
Address the questions and concerns honestly and explain the entire decision-making process.
Be willing to share your feelings about the change and acknowledge that you are as anxious as the employees.
Be willing to support each other as you move through the change.
Also, take training your employees into account. So opt for in-house training or enlist a PEO or other such third party to help you in this area. All employees need training when major changes take place. This ensures they can adapt to changes as quickly as possible and work efficiently with minimal obstacles and margin of error.
59% of employees state that they had no official workplace training, and most of the skills were self-taught. The stat speaks volumes on the need for workplace training, especially when it's facing a transition.
4. Integrate gradually
It’s better to introduce a change gradually than at a time. While this also depends on the number of members affected by the change, teams, departments, etc., it’s vital to proceed step by step so that employees get ample time to adjust to it.
For instance, one way is to test an effective strategy in one department before moving on to transform more elements of the business. Begin integrating management, organization, information systems, and business process transformations. You may need to integrate a new process into an already existing one. Take this into account when integrating an advancement.
Moving gradually towards integration benefits your business in the following ways:
Gives sufficient time to everyone moving through it
Helps you identify any roadblocks during the integration phase itself
Enables you to know whether you need to move forward with the remaining steps
Enables you to gain real-time insights into how are the concerned members reacting to the implementation
Moreover, you can take inputs from the members at each integration stage. This data will help you know how it benefits your business and what changes can be made for better implementation. So dig deep into the advancement or integration you aim to bring, see if you can break it down, and implement it phase by phase.
Don’t forget to involve the members in each phase. Strong employee engagement will give stronger results!
It’s time for your business to strategize and adopt a change
No matter how hard you try to manage any organizational change, it’s after all a skill that demands years of hands-on experience. However, there are certain steps you can take to prepare your team for the job as mentioned in this article. Following these steps will help you and your team ease into the process of change with minimal challenges.
Also, along with embracing opportunities to flex your change management muscles, it’s vital to pursue professional development opportunities too. Conduct online courses, training sessions, etc. at regular intervals to hone your skills and be a better manager. After all, you’re the entity your members look up to!
