Matic Media founder and MD Richard McCombe gets personal to highlight issues that you may not think about as a boss - until you have to. Here he speaks in his own words.
In July 2022 I had a family crisis, which resulted in a three-month absence from work, and even now I am struggling to return on a full-time basis as each day throws up new obstacles. For the first time since starting Matic Media I simply forgot about anything to do with work and focussed on the matters at home. This brought several revelations and made me consider things I’d not have taken as seriously had the events at home not thrown my family’s world upside down. The reason I am sharing this is that it demonstrated several things I had probably taken for granted: the cost of not having a great team around you; the need to develop robust systems and processes for the business to run without the business owner; that if you look after your staff they look after you.
The team you build around you
When we start our businesses we usually don’t have two pennies to rub together and try to do everything ourselves. But as business develops, owners should realise they cannot not be the kingpin holding the wheels on, and we all should recognise we need to surround ourselves with the best staff. Of course this comes at a cost, and to be honest it took a long time for our business to be able to support this notion.
I was at the top of a cherry picker fitting a sign when it occurred to me that there were tasks I should not have been doing. Since then, and with some external paid advice, I decided to work my way out of as many roles as possible.
This of course is not easy when you are on a budget or a small growing business, and it take courage to recruit into roles you might not have a full-time demand for. However, I think this is like a pension investment. Without implementing this approach, and with the right team of people around me, I would not have been able to focus my energy on my family during a time of crisis.
After my part-time return to work, I received a call from a team member one evening. This person’s life had also been changed overnight. With myself coming off the back of my own family crisis my instant reaction was to remind this person that family comes first and he must deal with matters at home before worrying about work. However, what was most impressive was the way our team all reinforced this message without my prior knowledge or discussion. Shifts and patterns of work were moved around to accommodate the absence and support flexible working arrangements. To me, this was the testament of a winning and supportive team, and I felt really proud of that response.
Systems, systems, systems…
Our operating systems have taken our team years to develop. We continually review and improve our working practices to make small changes on a daily and weekly basis. We record these using photographs and videos and we encourage everyone, from apprentices to leaders, to review their processes to look for marginal improvements.
Many years ago, I had a business coach who would continually remind me that “the definition of a business is a profitable enterprise which operates without you”. How true, though to be honest, I’ve had trouble with that although I loved the idea of systems, processes and great people running the business. But thank heavens we put the effort in and had systems in place that meant that when I became unexpectedly absent the business continued to function successfully.
Look after your team and they’ll look after you
Going back to my cherry picker memory, I was not properly experienced or trained to carry out such tasks, and what would happen if I had an accident? My lightbulb moment made me recruit people better than me and then train them using external resources.
This is a great idea, and it is what I did… but not without challenges. In the past I have recruited badly, managed situations poorly, and could have been more compassionate. But as we age and become more experienced, we learn to appreciate what we have and be thankful for this. Anyway, I suppose I am trying to communicate that more than ever I am very grateful to the team around me. They have been exemplar in supporting me and each other when things have not gone to plan. Look after each other - we don’t know when we will need each other’s support.