I recently read a LinkedIn article which explored a typical week in the life of a business owner – and their lack of any form of work-life balance. While I can empathise with the rollercoaster of worries around cash flow, workload, client satisfaction and employee retention, it’s not something I personally experience at Q2Q.
My previous blog reflected on the importance of trust within any professional relationship, a crucial element when you’re receiving third-party support for something you might not understand. But you can only instil confidence if you have all your ducks in a row – or at least, appear to.
This got me thinking about what we are doing differently at Q2Q, and what it is that enables me to have a great work-life balance.
I’m incredibly clear on my focus and ambition and arrive every Monday morning knowing in what direction I want the business to go – tying every task back to that overarching goal. I’m obsessive about process and information reporting because it means I always have the data needed to make decisions. I’m also very disciplined with my time and actively work on minimising distractions.
But none of these are particularly exceptional, I agree. The key ingredient in my own success, is that I trust my team implicitly – and, by the same token, they have faith in each other.
It hasn’t always been this way. When I joined Q2Q two and a half years ago, I couldn’t have said the same thing. Over time, we’ve made a lot of changes – mainly around how we work, communicate, and our values and mission.
We are, by our very nature, a technical business, but IT isn’t our number one focus – customer service is. Alongside that, we are committed to continuous improvement, maintaining a learning environment and harnessing our collective strengths – which aren’t always tech-related.
The team has transformed the way they work and how they interact with each other. In our monthly development meetings, I ensure everyone is up to date on my vision for the coming year – empowering them to make day-to-day decisions without me.
Not only does this mean I can leave my colleagues ‘to it’ – safe in the knowledge they will do a great job – but also that I don’t need to be involved in every little thing that happens within our HQ. While we’re a small team, we have worked consistently on identifying everyone’s individual strengths over the past 24 months.
As a result, I know exactly who can help with what. This gives me the space to focus on driving the company forward, and particularly for crafting more team development sessions – which continue to build trust between colleagues.
When I meet with potential new customers, I can confidently say that our service level is exceptional across the board. So, while I still shoulder the responsibility for the overall direction, I don’t need to get dragged into the detail of the day-to-day anymore.
Only recently, we met with a new client who is working towards semi-retirement, who hasn’t yet been able to relinquish responsibility to someone else. During the conversation, we explored what solutions Q2Q could offer, enabling him to access the data and information needed to make quicker decisions – from a distance.
As a successful manufacturing organisation, one of the major pain points was establishing clarity around a critical path, and having the confidence that production was tracking on time for their customers. Now, Q2Q is looking at writing a bespoke reporting system for the firm to do just that. This is a great example of where technology can support the quest towards creating trust!
If you really reflect on your business, are you putting things in place to build that trust between the leadership team and the rest of the staff? Does your workforce have trust in each other? Is there anything else you could do to improve that?
If you want to understand what your IT company should be providing in terms of a holistic approach – and are interested in working with a service provider that is equally focused on your success as well as its own – the kettle is always on at Q2Q HQ, so get in touch with us here.
