When you are away?

If you run an organisation - and run it well, how do you manage to keep it running well when you are not there.  This can certainly be a problem for small, startups and growing organisations that do not have an established management structure.

First of all, let's hope you have recruited well - employing trustworthy, conscientious staff.

Secondly, let's hope you have trained your staff well - in the basics and in the less common tasks that can emerge as difficulties.

Thirdly, let's hope that your staff show initiative and have problem-solving skills, so they can deal with the unexpected (back to a combination of recruitment and training - and an atmosphere in which they feel they have the freedom to exercise their discretion.

And finally, let's hope you have created an organisation  that has a culture based on shared, core values - which can be used to shape decisions and actions.

So as you can see, how the business runs in your absence depends entirely on you - and the way you have built the organisation, its structure and its culture.  if you are not sure all of these are in place, you'd better start thinking and acting now to ensure these basic building blocks of a high productivity organisation are in place.  If you don't get it done soon, it might be too late.