Fotolia_1815485_s Management attention in a business is like water to a garden: it is essential for healthy growth. [1] All areas of your business require regular attention if you are to sustain revenue growth and flourishing profit margins.

Owner/CEOs of companies in need of a transition too often focus on the functional areas they know best while neglecting other equally important areas. They fail to cross the chasm [2] from founding entrepreneurial specialist (often in sales or engineering) to the better-rounded general manager model essential for longer-term corporate prosperity.

Spending regular time in all areas of your business is an essential first step to crossing this chasm:

  • Walk around and talk to people – they often already know what you need to learn
  • Organize departmental reviews – do your own homework and then ask a lot of questions
  • Encourage input but clearly communicate decisions and their rationale

Owner/CEOs who have not yet made the transition to general managers consistently underestimate the need to spend time with subordinates and other key employees – coaching, mentoring, encouraging, cajoling, congratulating and chastising – they are the ones doing the real work.

[1] This is the seventh and final article in a series illustrating ways to multiply your equity.
[2] With apologies to Geoffrey Moore author of Crossing the Chasm; the chasm model, while helpful, only begins to describe the necessary managerial transformation.


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