No offense to your office manager

I know it sounds harsh but I’m not impressed when someone tells me they have an office manager.

I’ve walked into businesses with an office manager and

• They were losing hundreds of thousands of dollars because invoicing wasn’t being done properly.

• Team morale was down because no one was clear on their role.

• Everyone in the office was stressed and reactive.

• The owner was still scrambling.

Here’s why that happens...

The title office manager usually goes to a really great admin who deserves recognition.

They’re dependable.
They care about the business.
They keep things moving.

But that doesn’t always translate to someone who has experience stepping back and looking at the whole operation.

Leaning out workflows.
Documenting processes.
Setting up intentional systems.
Managing the team in a way that holds people accountable and empowers them to do their work.

Those are completely different skills.

So what happens is a great admin gets promoted into a role that expects them to run the back office of the business… without ever being given the tools to do it.

I’m not saying fire your office manager.

Most of the time they are exactly the right person.

But if they’re going to carry that title, they need the resources to be successful in that role.

Clear systems.
Clear processes.
Clear expectations.

When those things are in place, the entire office runs differently.

And the owner finally gets out of the middle of everything.