Many business owners think they have everything under control
Theory and practice
In reality, they simply carry everything on their own shoulders, and this is where one of the biggest limits to SME growth arises: the inability to truly delegate. Because delegating does not mean “offloading tasks” but sharing objectives, responsibilities and information, so that people can take decisions on their own.
When a company genuinely involves its staff in the results to be achieved, the way of working changes completely, because people start keeping a closer eye on costs and revenues, questioning the causes of variances, proposing solutions and feeling an active part of the final result.
Business owners who truly value their people quickly discover one thing: motivated, well-informed employees make far more correct decisions than one might imagine.
But to make people accountable you have to give them access to information, so as to bring decisions as close as possible to day-to-day operations.
The salesperson must therefore know the margin generated by the customer, the cost of the stock needed to serve them, the current and potential production schedule, and the sales and marketing strategies.
The department head must know who the company's customers are, how profitable sales are, what damage any defects cause at the customer's end, and the production schedules of strategic customers.
And here a very interesting aspect emerges: when people are genuinely empowered, they spontaneously start to work together, because they no longer wait for constant orders and no longer offload problems onto other departments.
On the contrary, they begin to talk to one another to resolve critical issues and seize opportunities, even outside their own direct remit, and this is how process-focused teams are born: from order to delivery, from sale to collection, from purchasing to production.
And it is precisely at that moment that many companies realise they need to evolve towards a process-based organisation, leaving old hierarchical thinking behind.
Naturally, delegation also requires a consistent incentive scheme, because people must be rewarded for the results they achieve, not simply for being busy or being present.
When this happens, the mindset changes too, and staff start thinking like professionals rather than mere employees.
And this inevitably undermines the old models of corporate power and breaks the logic of obsessive control, because people realise that it is the customer who pays the salaries, and the sense of belonging to the team becomes stronger than loyalty to any individual boss.
So the real question is: is your business creating responsible team members… or people who are constantly waiting for instructions?