
Identify SOPs For Your Business
· Equipment Operations and Maintenance
· Administration / Accounting / Financial Analysis
· Agronomy / Field Records
· Livestock / Feeding/Health Procedures
Consequences of No SOPs
Generally, micromanagement is a style of managing every detail, trying to make every decision, taking a key role to complete each significant task and trying to dictate every small step for employees. These managers tend to have lack of faith and trust in their people, are repressive which leads to little growth, annoyed employees and very little personal development. Managers that cannot trust the judgment of their employees and are unwilling to allow the people to assume their responsibilities are cheating themselves of the talent they pay for...or they genuinely have hired the wrong people. Though micromanaging will work for a while, it hinders progress by discouraging new ideas and team growth.
Other times, managers aren’t consistent on how they want things done. This too creates confusion and mistrust and your business may end up losing good people because they are constantly being micromanaged.
By developing SOPs, your inner micro-manager or senior management is tasked with truly thinking about the best way to do certain tasks. In turn, it provides the documentation to communicate this preferred way of doing things to other team members. Again, this all helps make your business less dependent on specific people and more able to adapt and change…say like during a generational transfer of management.
Lastly, Standard Operating Procedures or Operations Manuals do not need to be some sophisticated, lengthy encyclopedia sized documents. Borrow some templates. Change them to match your business. Don’t reinvent the wheel. Make it easy on yourself. They should be simple and easy to follow. The most important thing to do though is to COMMUNICATE with your team on a regular basis.
Can you see the benefits? Does it take time? Yes.