We Are family…You Got all these Issues Like Me!

AENC recently hosted a Roundtable for Small Staff Associations and the one thing that really struck me was how we are more like a traditional family unit than we are a staff.

Think about this. If you have a staff of 7 or fewer people, and one person is in a bad mood, it impacts the rest of the staff tremendously. Much like at home – and if you are from the South you know this phrase – “If Mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.” When this occurs in a large staff, it tends to be more watered down. If one person has an issue, the others can return to their silos and go about their day. In a small staff, that similar situation can be toxic, especially if not resolved quickly.

It’s not all doom and gloom though. There are several things that are very positive about working in a small staff association. For example: it’s much easier to find an answer with a small staff. There aren’t as many layers, so staff tends to know a lot about what’s going on within the organization. In small staff, you often don’t hear the term – “operating in a silo”. We are the quintessential jack of all trades.

Now while knowing a lot about a lot can be a challenge, it also provides the small staff member with lots of variety. No two days are ever the same. Small staff positions offer a lot of flexibility and the chance to sharpen your skill set in a lot of different areas. You don’t hear the phrase – “that’s not my department” very often in a small staff.

With a small staff, you are really forced to be more innovative because you don’t necessarily have all the resources to get things done. So, you have to use that creative side of your brain to really think differently on how you’re going to accomplish things. We can’t often just throw resources at a problem – either time or money – and fix the problem. In addition, small staffs are more nimble than a larger staffs. We are able to easier assimilate staff around the mission and vision (fewer minds to change) and therefore can be more acceptable to change. I compare it to turning a ship. It’s much easer to turn a two-person Jon boat than it is a cruise ship that has over 5,000 on board.

The thing that’s both a plus and a negative is this issue of the family. Like a family unit, we tend to be very informal with each other, so, we get to know each other very well, professional and personally. You get to see all sides of the people you work with, good and bad. And, you are forced to communicate with each other. Its kind of hard to hide in a small staff. You can have a disagreement with a someone on a large staff, and could potentially not have to cross paths with that person for days. Just like being with your own family, its hard to get away. So, you, have to resolve issues. Again, if you don’t, they become toxic.During the Roundtable, we discussed several challenges and how to overcome one in particular.One of the challenges we identified was that its hard to have boundaries in a small staff. Because you do so much, it’s often difficult to get it all done, so you take work home. You can’t seem to hide in a small staff. Because of this, the rate of burnout is much higher. We often have boards who don’t truly understand what all the staff does, so you have the scarcity of time already as a factor and the board adds new initiatives that merely add another spinning plate.In addition, when you are so deep in the weeds, its hard to spend time at the 30,000 ft level. In other words, your so caught up in the details its hard, at times, to be a visionary.

The reason you can’t hide in a small staff is that there IS no one else who could do your job. We talk about cross-training staff, but in reality, if that person wasn’t there to do the job and the other staff is already busy doing what they are doing, how are they going to do more. They are already doing more. That problem is inherent in the situation where a staff person leaves or is on extended leave. We are constantly living without a net.

But what about vacations? In a small-staff, if you are out for a few days, oftentimes the work load isn’t picked-up by other staff and so it’s often hard to want to take time off because of all the prep required before vacation and all the follow-up when you return. Why do you think I check email on vacation? Who else will?

Hopefully the Small Staff Roundtable will be ongoing at AENC and we will be able to share ideas like – how do you handle the issue of being a jack of all trades and a master at none? Click here for the ideas generated from the recent Small Staff Roundtable.