TUESDAY START-UPS
THE CHIEF GENERALIST ROLE
Hello Founders! It’s been a minute.
How is your business and how are you holding up amidst economic tides and other factors outside your control?
You are not alone. Keep persevering, engage professionals for advice, speak to your financial institution managers when required. Hopefully it gets better.
Today, the focus is on the role of important personnel on every organization’s list.
Now, the stage of growth or size of the business might be significant in crowning anyone with this position, but the saddle of a generalist is usually for someone in a start-up.
This person is usually the founder, but in some organization’s, the role is played by the Administrative Officer, some companies give it the Chief Operation Officer title, others it’s the Human Resource Department.
The Chief Generalist Responsibilities include these :
1.The Chief Generalist is responsible for keeping everyone responsible.
The generalist is the anchor that stabilizes the operations and ensures a smooth sail even when unforeseen circumstances are encountered. While the founder might not be the generalist, it is important every young business has a generalist. You can hire one or identify a person that has that characteristic in your team and empower them.
2. The Generalists are typically the ones that keep deadlines in mind, they are persistent and won’t back-off till a task is completed.
They are not afraid to own deliverables and they are very accountable for their actions. They are sometimes the vocal ones in your brainstorming session, helping the group to stay on course of the subject and guiding them away from distractions.
3. You need to identify a generalist because they are also the innovators, they introduce easier ways of getting things done.
They keep every department accountable because they keep a track of timelines and people responsible for what task. They will be the one to shout when some projects are extravagant because they have foresight and have a life tracker of the business capacity at each point in time.
4. They also have very cordial relationships with old customers and are the first to notice when a particular customer is not as frequent.
They know when your rent is due and when operating equipment is due for servicing. They know the most reliable vendor and the current price of services.
While it might seem impossible to pack all these skills and attributes in one person, you can set up a generalist system for your business.
Here are some useful tips.
1. You can set up reminders on your google calendar to keep track of important dates, events that are critical to your business.
2. Create a vendor schedule to keep a list of important service providers.
3. Introduce note taking, documented stand-up meetings to keep track of your tasks.
4. Learn to delegate and hire people that are self-starters and need little or no supervision
Look out for generalists in your team and support them.
You can develop robust standard operating procedures that cut across every area of your business to drive efficiency across all your value points. It’s not a one-off process. You keep evolving as you grow. You can do it!
Always rooting for you.
Keep Building!
