The YEC Shares common management challenges and solutions you might be experiencing.By YEC
A huge part of entrepreneurship is problem-solving. So how can you best face management challenges head on?
Q: What’s one management challenge you’ve faced — and conquered — in the last year and what advice would you give someone in your shoes?
Don’t Give Up the Final Say
It’s great to be a manager when things are going well and you can pass along great updates and kudos. But when you have to make decisions about the direction of the company and your team doesn’t understand, it’s challenging. A great mentor taught me the idea of giving everyone “a voice, but not a vote” to let them know that their opinions shape my decisions, but I have to make the ultimate call. – Darrah Brustein, Network Under 40
Focus on Team Bonding
This year our team doubled and we brought on new virtual employees. I realized that it was incredibly hard to have a great team culture without some kind of process in place for bonding and building trust. I quickly figured out video calls are not enough. It is worth the extra effort to find out-of-office ways for the team to bond: corporate retreats, workshops to attend and activities. – Vanessa Van Edwards, Science of People
Keep the Business’s Evolution in Mind
Entrepreneurship is always a work in progress. As you shift your focus, your needs will also change regarding the people you hire and their functions within your business. If you face growing pains with an employee, ask them what they’d like to gain from their job. Allow them to decide how they want to continue working in your organization instead of forcing them into the roles you need filled. – Nicole Munoz, Start Ranking Now
Fight for Your Strengths
Knowing your strengths, and refusing to let anyone force you to operate outside of them has been a huge lesson for me. During a grueling year of scaling, I finally realized that rescuing your team by operating outside your strengths benefits no one. Getting a team that can see that is priceless. If you hire around your weaknesses, then don’t let under-performers pull you back into the weeds. – Jenny Kincaid, Mind Above Matter, LLC
Learn to Trust and When to Take Charge
When starting out, money was tight and clients were scarce so it was difficult to trust employees, and that caused employees to feel underutilized and underappreciated. I had to learn to give up some of that control so that I can do what I do best by allowing employees to do what they do best. It continues to be a daily challenge to keep the balance, but it is critical for company growth. –Megan Bedera, Amplify Relations
Expand Your Areas of Expertise
Managing tech talent can be challenging if your background is not technical and you are not involved in daily tasks associated with development or IT. In order for me to manage more effectively, I spent time learning and understanding more about the technical components of what we were doing so I could understand and help address issues they told me about or why there were lapses in productivity. – Cynthia Johnson, American Addiction Centers
Take a Real Maternity Leave
Taking a real, unplugged maternity leave as an entrepreneur can be terrifying, but that was my goal when I found out I was pregnant. It meant stepping back from speaking engagements and appearances that I would have liked to say yes to and hiring new team members to keep things running smoothly while I was gone. All the planning and preparation helped me grow, both as a business owner and a new mom.  – Nathalie Lussier, AmbitionAlly
Apologize Less
To be honest, I haven’t conquered it yet, but I tend to apologize for things that aren’t my fault or say sorry when it isn’t the appropriate answer. I’m working towards putting an end to apologizing as filler word text in my day-to-day life. My advice? Don’t apologize because there’s a lull in communication, say sorry when you really mean it. – Jayna Cooke, EVENTup
Bring Positivity Into the Office
Negative energy can arise at any time, which can bring an entire team down within a matter of hours. Negativity within the workplace can be draining to be around, which is why I turned to positive team building to help these issues. Making employees feel valued and keeping good spirits has tremendously helped us over the past month and we now hold weekly positivity pow-wows for uplifting energy. – Erin Meagher, Beneficial Blends, LLC dba Kelapo
Forget Perfection
As a CEO, you perform many tasks from hiring, sales, operations, project management and so on. We perform all these tasks ourselves because we know it will get done on time and the way we want it to be (perfect). However as your business grows, you will need to trust and delegate these tasks to your staff and accept that the outcome will not always be “perfect” but good enough to get the job done. – Shalyn Dever, Chatter Buzz
Create a Remote Workplace and Culture
With the proliferation of communication and project management tools, we wanted to create a remote workplace where all of our employees work from home, while staying motivated and focused on performing their tasks. It was difficult to transition, but has allowed us tremendous growth. To do this successfully, you need the right tools. Podio, Skype, Google Hangouts, and Join.me are essential. – Marcela De Vivo, Brilliance
Make Everyone Feel Like Part of the Team
After letting two staff members go, I initiated an “open floor” talk with my staff, allowing anyone to bring up any issues they believed our company was facing. It was one of my most vulnerable moments as a leader, but the session was a great success. It empowered everyone to feel involved in our future, and positively engaged my team. Don’t be afraid to be open and transparent with your staff. – Alyssa Furtado, RateHub
Don’t Misunderstand How to Lean In
As a female CEO, the concept of “leaning in” is something I ascribe to, but is also sometimes misinterpreted as a “hall pass to be super angry, righteous, and demanding.” In the past year, I’ve reinvented my understanding of what “authoritative” and “powerful” looks like. I’ve learned that calm attentive listening, wise deliberation, and then informed decisions are much more effective. –Cooper Harris, Klickly
The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC recently launched StartupCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.
