Have you dealt with a situation where the company outgrows the employee? How do you demote someone and keep their support and engagement?

Director of Consulting Hank Harris explains in this latest edition of Consulting Conversations.

If you have a growing business, you should expect that's going to happen.

The classic example is somebody who starts a small business; they have a bookkeeper. Ten to 15 years later, they have a very successful large mid-sized business, and that party can no longer keep up. The business now needs a controller, or maybe somebody's even got CFO qualifications.

There are other functions. It's not just accounting, but there are plenty of other functions where that's going to happen. I just use that as an example.

Q: Can you demote somebody and bring somebody in over them and keep them happy and engaged?

I would say 90% of the time the answer is 'no.' It's challenging to do, and can it be done. But it's rare and hard to do.

We'd love to hear from any private business hunt owner in North Carolina that thinks we could be of some help to them in understanding how their business gets better or where it might go in the future.