Welcome Newsletter

As many people are doing these days, I left the corporate world and am starting up my own company. It has become increasingly clear to me that big companies, like several of those where I have worked in the past, are incapable of responding to the current market effectively. I believe this is happening because of a profound lack of appreciation for the people who are actually out doing the work that makes these companies money. I have come to the conclusion that an organization which does not allow for clear lines of communication and understanding between levels is doomed to unending turmoil and poor ROI in the current business and political environment. I want to support businesses who are doing it the right way, by leading with the consensus and buy-in of their teams. To that end I have started a management consulting company which will be geared toward supporting the growth and success of the people who are most important to me. Those people who are most important to me are those who wish to improve the lives of those around them, and their own, by offering a quality product or service that is in demand, not feeding off the largess of artificial government spending, and therefore slave to it.  

I have spent the last 20+ years helping people be more successful in their roles and to make the companies I worked for financially successful through improved employee performance. That came from team cohesion, good people management practices, effective hiring and training, and a clear-eyed understanding of when someone is not in the right role to further the goals of the company. I want to apply these years of experience and deep understanding of how to work with others in a positive and supportive environment, to helping small businesses grow. 

During my years in the restaurant industry, I learned how critical each member of a team is. It only takes a few shifts running without a host or a dishwasher or a grill cook, to realize that each person’s role has value and they need to understand that value. So do managers and leaders. I have carried that attitude forward into other professional environments and it has served me well. Opening three corporate restaurants also showed me the value of a systematic approach to a startup and to having a plan. I learned hard lessons about finding the right attitude, not just someone who checked the boxes. I learned to switch my communication and management style based on who I was talking to and making sure they were both a good fit and felt valued in their position. Sometimes this meant a long conversation in the parking lot with my closing dish guy, sometimes it meant letting a server cry on my shoulder about how tough things are in their life. The key was a system with guard rails that allowed people to grow in their roles with a path forward. My job was to show them that path, encourage them to follow it, get roadblocks out of their way and to see when they could not do what was asked… Not everyone is cut out for every job and sometimes the best thing for them is to move into a different role or to cheer them on while they look for a new one elsewhere. 

In the HVAC industry, I learned about growing a small business. I learned both technical skills and how to sell. I supported my boss, the owner, go through the struggles of growing from a new-construction based company running out of a basement to a one of the premier retail replacement and service business in the rapidly changing north Raleigh market at the time. I attended many training classes hosted by The Trane Company taught by industry leaders like Barry Burnet (RIP) and Joe Cunningham. I learned about “the wall” when a small business must make a call to hire more people and expand or stay where they are and enjoy their success while refining what they do. This is usually the hardest part of the journey for a small business. When a small successful entrepreneur realizes that they no longer have the time or the skills to move the company forward and they need more help it is a terrifying moment. It is when a business owner has to offload responsibility for some functions to someone else and trust they will do it as well or better. The loss of control and change in level of responsibility is daunting. It usually means not just an addition to payroll for a small company, more like another member of the family. There is now the responsibility and duty to support a person who has a family of their own to support as well. Small business owners get this and understand that by hiring someone, you take on the role of coach, boss, mentor and provider for this new employee. 

Particularly during my time in the Energy Efficiency industry, I learned a lot about the corporate world. I saw firsthand how Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 companies are disconnected from the people who work for them. There are entire business units that get left behind, forgotten or even trampled unknowingly. Every time a newly minted MBA is hired or Six Sigma belt is earned, people think they are ready to change the world for the better by upending everything. Sometimes they are right but it is usually only for a small part of the business and often backfires spectacularly. Many programs or business units get thrown into turmoil and end up being held back or even destroyed. I also learned about work life balance. With an unending number of tasks and issues to address, there must be boundaries between work and life. I work to support my wife and kids, my friends and my community. I do not work to be a replaceable cog in the wheel of some giant machine that will grind me down until I need to be replaced. I had to learn this because I spent several nights a week on the road for years, sleeping in hotels and often working late into the night. When I was home, it was time to focus on family. As a general rule I had to draw a line; No work emails after 5, no weekends. We all have times when this is not possible, especially as a small business owner, but if you don’t start with a baseline expectation along these lines, work will consume your life. It is important to schedule yourself time to focus on family and friends, not just on the business. The key is focus. When it is time to work, work hard. When it is time to play, play hard, especially with your kids. 

My life has been profoundly impacted by my journey in martial arts. I have learned humility, what I am good at and what I suck at, how to adapt and still win or learn something in the trying. In elite martial arts circles, there are a lot of egos. Though I have never achieved a level of proficiency in Karate, Tae Kwon Do, Hap Ki Do, or Jiu-jitsu that would qualify me as elite, I have trained with people who have. The most intense and skilled fighters I have ever met, across styles, are usually the humblest, the most respectful and the most dangerously serious. They do not brag, but do not shy away from accolades. They let others sing their praises, but accept them with an understanding that every accolade is something to live up to, not to brag about. I aspire to coach small businesses to do all those things.   

Getting an education at two major US universities has taught me that formal education is not as important as most people think. One of the most successful people I have ever had the privilege to know, never graduated from high school. What you learn is a product of what you pay attention to, not what your title is on a piece of paper. I also learned that the radical culture generated by college life is artificial and dysfunctional but that it is spreading into the business world. I saw this first hand during my courses at NC State and experienced it first hand at my last job, where initiatives were put in place to specifically demonize and push out highly skilled and effective people based on a misguided idea of diversity. The most important diversity comes from background and experience. No one should be evaluated on what they look like, only what value they can add to the team. This is where business and personal have to be decoupled. It is laudable to help others who are in a tough spot, that does not mean they need to be in the wrong role in your organization bringing down the whole team.  

Each of these experiences has prepared me to support organizations in widely varied industries. Each transition into a new industry reinforced the importance of consistent and principled management practices regardless of the industry. That consistency creates a space for employees and peers to grow and flourish in their roles and to support the rest of the team in their successes as well.

Now I want to help YOU. If you own a small business, I want to talk to you. I want to provide you with a sounding board and a partnership that will help get you over the staffing wall. I look forward to exploring ways to make your small business more successful by improving team cohesion, lowering turnover, improving morale and helping define strategic business goals that will move your small business from a viable idea into a self-sustaining, team driven enterprise that can grow and improve. I can help create the system and the strategy that can move your business from 3 employees to 30 or from 30 to 99. 

I look forward to supporting you any way I can. Drop me a note on LinkedIn, at my email address stratton@downeaststratmc.com or forward my intro blog to a friend. It provides tips and explores management principles.