We know you’re busy. Your small and mighty team is working around, above and beyond the clock to disrupt your industry. If your startup success is met with explosive growth, you’ll be meeting a lot of new employees. That’s the dream, after all. But how can you keep tabs on your culture and connections when you’re in hyper-growth mode?
Plan ahead
Be prepared. If your team is growing at a breakneck pace, make sure this doesn’t disrupt your startup from the inside. Just as you plan your funding, business strategy and marketing, you need to plan for your people. Your people are the engine and the heart of your startup. If your team grows by 20%, 50% or 90% in a year, you need to be ready to keep everyone together working efficiently, collaboratively and with purpose.
You never know when your business will hit it big. Get specific and write down your internal communications plan. It will help you know who you are and where you’re going as you quickly scale up. Let’s look at more specifics.
Define your culture
Be intentional. Establish your culture early and revisit it often. Take time to understand your values and your goals then share it with your team, even if it’s just you and a partner to start. Collaborate on your vision and define it clearly. This will help unite your people. According to the Harvard Business Review, a teams’ skills and experience are essential to startup success, but low levels of passion and a lack of collective vision can slow you down, and even spell failure. Which leads us to our next point…
Communicate openly and often
Be proactive. Once you’ve defined your culture, communicate it. If you’re working in a hybrid environment, send weekly emails – on a schedule – to update everyone on the big and small wins you and your team have made. Especially in a hybrid environment, keeping the lines of communication open is so important. Transparency is equally important. The more your team understands about what you’re doing and why, the more invested they feel in the success of your shared vision. Focus on being an available and accessible leader. Welcome feedback and questions with surveys, virtual question sessions or in-person meetings.
You can use tools like Slack to drive togetherness and collaboration, streamline tasks, encourage timely communication and brainstorming, and help keep employees on track with their tasks. Try integrating the Polly platform into Slack, Teams or Zoom. Polly helps you send quick survey questions and get instant, anonymous feedback that will help your team feel heard.
Celebrate and engage your team
Be motivating. Show appreciation for your team and their accomplishments, then get out there and celebrate. Whether on- or off-site, in-person or virtual, big and splashy or casual and personal – there are so many ways to give back to your team and strengthen your culture.
The New York Times reported that many leaders in the tech startup community are sending out invites, packing suitcases again and making time for good-old fashion in-person retreats. These events are excellent for strategizing, building trust and friendships, and solidifying the sense of purpose needed to help a startup thrive. Invest time in engaging, celebrating and motivating your people. The returns are immeasurable.
If you need help planning your internal communications strategy and content, we can help. We’ll work on a plan so you can focus on achieving startup success.
