It’s a familiar story in a growing business. Someone joins, they’re good, they get busy, and two years later they hand their notice in. When you ask why, the answer is rarely just money. It’s that they never quite knew what good looked like, who they could go to, or where they were heading.
In the early years that doesn’t matter much, because everyone works next to the owner and picks it up as they go. Somewhere past 15 or 20 staff, it stops working.
The three things good people need
1. A clear role: what they own, what they don’t, and what good looks like.
2. Regular one-to-ones that aren’t only about problems.
3. A sense of where they could go next in the business.
None of these needs an HR department. They need an hour of the MD’s thinking and some writing, and AI is very good at the writing.
Clear roles in an afternoon
“Here are my notes on the [role] job: what they do day to day, who they work with and what I expect. Turn this into a one-page role description with the five things that matter most, how we’ll know they’re doing it well, and which decisions they can make without asking.”
Do one for each role, starting with the people you’d least like to lose. Then sit down with each person and change it together. The conversation matters more than the document.
One-to-ones that actually happen
The best one-to-ones are short, regular and follow the same pattern. A simple template keeps them on track.
“Write a one-page template for a monthly 30-minute one-to-one in a small business: how things are going, progress on their five priorities, what’s getting in the way, what support they need, and one thing they’d like to learn.”
After each meeting, paste your notes into your AI assistant and ask it to list the actions and who owns them. Check the list, then share it. Keep personal or sensitive details out of AI tools, and check your business account’s data settings first.
Showing people where they could go
In a 20-person business there may not be a promotion every year. There can still be growth: owning a bigger customer, running a process, or training the next new starter. Write down two or three of those for each role. Give your AI assistant your role descriptions and ask what each person could take on next; it’s a useful starting point for the conversation.
What it costs to get this wrong
Every resignation means recruiting, training and months of someone getting up to speed, on top of what walked out of the door. Even without exact figures, keeping one good person a year is usually worth far more than the few hours this takes.
Clear roles and regular one-to-ones are one of the three things we fix in MD Advisory, alongside processes and the numbers. We’re not IT people. We’ve sat in the MD’s chair and built the systems behind it, and we’ll talk to you in plain business terms.
Growing pains like this are normal in a business that has grown quickly, and they’re fixable. Take the free Growing Pains Check to see where your business stands in three minutes, or book a free call about a Growing Pains Diagnostic: half a day with you and your business, then a written 90-day plan with the three changes that matter most.
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