Transcript:
Amongst the various other problems that plague software companies a very important issue that needs to be handled carefully is role conflict between business partners of your software company. Let me explain what I mean.
hey there, I’m Tabish Biber, and I coach and mentor founders of software companies to build skill in their business fast. In this video, I’m going to discuss the implications of role conflict between business partners on the business and why it needs urgent attention.
Role conflict really happens when there is no clear separation of responsibility, authority and accountability. If two or more partners co-founded the company at the same time they are used to relying on each other to pick up challenges that the business faces.
Sometimes, one partner takes a sales call and more other times it’s another one that jumps at it. They work interchangeably very well and this overlap actually helps when the business is small in those times if any one of them needs time off from work.
It’s fine and they always have each other’s back. But eventually, as the company grows the team size grows and the complexities within the business, grow that’s when the partners could start to realize the need for a clear-cut role definitions.
Conflicts start to arise when differing personality styles and different value systems come together. While one of them could be task-oriented the other could be more people-oriented. One of them could be very direct while the other is the opposite. It’s also possible that the sense of urgency of tasks could be completely different for each of them from for exactly the same tasks.
There could be differing views on even the market opportunities all creating delays in decision-making or confusion on the direction of progress for the team. If you feel this is causing you stress in your business then do get down addressing it right away.
Don’t let this disease eat away at you. One very effective way to deal with this conflict is to look at your current organization structure and create specific roles for each partner. Split them out and each one of them can own an area completely end-to-end.
That gives more authority and responsibility to each one of them. If any one of them contributes lower than what they should be the results will make it evident and there will be no hiding. Clarity of role of business owners helps the team members also understand. Who they should approach for specific support and escalation.
It also helps customers know who they should reach out to when they need support in specific areas. Clarity of role brings out speed, efficiency and ownership, which all helps the business thrive multi-fold.
When I get started coaching a new client that has multiple business owners roan conflict is the first area I focus on for resolution. You should be too.
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scaling up, thank you for watching.
