Most business owners and leaders in business that I speak to would describe the last few years as a period of constant change, and no one expects that to settle any time soon. For start-ups and scaling businesses in particular, roles, priorities and ways of working can shift from one month to the next, which tests how well a team holds together. I spoke on this subject at pro-manchester’s From Surviving to Thriving panel in Bolton recently, and this piece shares the practical approaches I’ve seen that help teams stay focused and perform well when the ground keeps moving.

We’re living in a VUCA world
 Leaders often talk about uncertainty as a phase to wait out, and I understand why having spent over twenty years in operations at L’Oréal and THG where the plan could change from one week to the next – it’s tempting to think “if we can just get past XYZ…” . The more useful starting point though, is accepting that uncertainty is here to stay. It’s often described as a VUCA world, one that is volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous, and anyone running a growing business will recognise it. The question then becomes how you help your team do its best work inside it.

You can’t change the wind, but you can adjust your sails
 Teams spend a surprising amount of energy on things they have no power over, whether that’s a shift in the market or a decision made somewhere else in the business. I find it helps to keep bringing people back to their circle of control, so the conversation moves towards what we can influence this week. People also respond to change in different ways, so adapting how you communicate to each person’s style, which is where a tool like DiSC is so useful, makes it far more likely your message is understood.

Be clear on roles and responsibilities – even if they’re constantly changing
 Roles in a growing business will keep shifting; the key though is to maintain full openness and clarity on who is doing what at any one time. When I previously worked within a fast-growing online retailer, my team ran supply chain and operations, and when we moved a warehouse from the UK to USA at short notice, customs work fell to us by default. None of us had the expertise and I didn’t have the resources for it. What frustrated me most was that nobody had acknowledged it was now ours, so a lot of my energy went into feeling resentful. Once I had the conversation and it officially became part of my team’s remit, I felt better straight away, even though I still didn’t love it, because I knew where I stood and could plan for it. Clarity wins every time for both team motivation and efficiency too.

You can do anything, but you can’t do everything
 A growing business will always have more good ideas than capacity, so it helps to talk about priorities regularly and keep revisiting them as things move. A short weekly regroup works well for this. I like teams to talk through what went well and what didn’t, then what they learned from both, and to finish by each sharing something brilliant a colleague did that week, which builds trust and recognition at very little cost.

Find your 80/20
 Change is what makes a scaling business exciting and challenging, and I’d encourage leaders to embrace it as long as it rests on enough stability. I think of it as roughly 80% structure to 20% last minute. In a fast-growing business that balance can stretch a little, but if it flips to 20/80, things start to fall over.

One thing to try this week
 Check whether everyone in your team knows what you’re trying to achieve and how they’ll contribute to it, and before that, check whether you know it clearly yourself. If you do, share it in plain, simple language. If you don’t, you have a great opportunity to build it together with them.