The key to communication when a start-up changes personnel

Throughout the development journey, there are many stages where a start-up needs to replace the old team with new personnel. How to effectively convey the message during this “sensitive” stage is a matter of concern.

Fred Wilson, co-founder of Union Square Ventures, once shared that, during the development process, a start-up may have to go through a team “renovation” about 3 times. This means that the team from the first days will be replaced by a new team, and these new teams can also be replaced by other teams, when the company enters new stages of development.

However, according to Ms. Hoang Thi Kim Dung, Director of Genesia Ventures Vietnam, in reality, many founders still let their leadership team stay with the company longer than they should, while their abilities are no longer suitable.

“Startups can grow exponentially, while human nature can only grow linearly over time. Therefore, the continued stay of old staff can become a bottleneck for the development of startups,” Ms. Dung explained.

When a start-up wants to recruit top talent to continue developing the company in the new phase, these talents will certainly not feel comfortable, because the mentality of talented people is to want to work in an environment with many people who are as talented as or better than them.

In this case, the founder will have two choices: either fire the old employee, or hire an A-level employee to be that person's boss. Both choices cause a lot of damage to the people involved, the culture, and the positive energy in the organization.

Therefore, Ms. Dung said, there is an effective way to communicate, reducing the "damage" in the process of "improving" the start-up team in the new phase. That is, the founder needs to proactively talk to his employees as soon as possible about their last day at the company. The right time is on the first working day of a new employee.

According to Ms. Dung, an effective way to communicate is to welcome new employees to the company, then frankly talk about that person's last day of work there. “As you know, our company is a start-up company, with an average annual growth rate of 5x. That means, if last year, the company served 10,000 customers, this year, we can serve 50,000 customers and next year will increase to 250,000 customers. Many people have had to leave because they no longer have the capacity to match the company's growth rate. However, we need to commit to each other that the company will create conditions for you to develop as quickly as possible, to stay with the company as long as possible, and you will also strive to develop your capacity to keep yourself relevant to the company. However, when the time comes that you can no longer develop, we promise each other to be open and accept another conversation about your last day at the company!”, Ms. Dung suggested a way to communicate.

Ms. Dung believes that this approach can be effectively implemented by the founder with any talent. From there, the founder helps the new employee understand the company's expectations for their continuous development, to match the rapid growth rate through each stage of the start-up. At the same time, the employee also mentally prepares for the day when he or she is no longer suitable for the company and accepts the decision to leave in the least painful way.

Source: https://baodautu.vn/chia-khoa-giao-tiep-khi-start-up-thay-doi-nhan-su-d215744.html