List: Top ten things that ‘A-Grade’ SMEs do

As the founder of Checkside, I was pleased to celebrate our 10 year anniversary this July.  During the last 10 years I have seen a lot of Small and Medium Size Enterprises (SMEs) start, grow and – in some cases, stop.  As management consultants we have been privileged to be able to look ‘under the bonnet’ of hundreds of companies across almost every industry sector.

You learn a lot through this process and I am often asked what the best SMEs do to manage their people and performance.  In Checkside language we refer to these companies as the ‘A-Graders’. They operate at a high level, attract ‘A-grade’ talent and get great outcomes for themselves and their customers.

Based on the last 10 years, here is my list of the top 10 things that ‘A-Grade’ businesses do:

1. Their teams are very clear on the values and behaviours that are acceptable and unacceptable to the group.

2. They play to win and set very high standards in everything they do, never compromising or accepting poor performance.

3. They understand the difference between leading people and managing stuff and know that they need to foster a culture of leadership at every level to get the right results.

4. They spend more time and money than their competitors on training and developing their people, at every level in the company.

5. They apply a continuous feedback and learning approach.  ‘A-graders’ have ditched the annual performance review and have instead moved on to a blend of formal and informal catch-ups that maintain a focus on engagement, productivity and re-setting objectives.

6. They measure everything that is important to the business (and nothing that isn’t).

7. They are at the forefront of new technologies to increase efficiency, productivity and profits.

8. They are both investor ready and employee ready.  They have a detailed ‘information memorandum’ for new talent, clear objectives, strong recruitment processes, effective onboarding plans and a ‘bench’ of talent ready to call upon.

9. They embrace succession planning and don’t fall victim to the ‘hero syndrome’.  Everything is about the team and martyr complexes are not welcome.

10. They capture war-stories and their company history to show their people why and how the company has evolved and thrived through good times and bad.