Awesome - so glad I took the job with MTM-Inc. Best decision I have made in my entire career!
Pros
Opportunity to learn and grow personally and professionally. Seems to be a lot of movement due to the growth of the company and there are some exciting new areas of development on the table for future growth that I am looking forward to. I feel encouraged to bring ideas forward to help us improve processes and programs.
Cons
Just a growing pain in my opinion - but sometimes it feels like we are managing in an "Operation - hair on fire" manner rather than with a cool, calm and collected/practiced manner. I am so thankful to have a group of employees who go with the flow and are willing to step up to this challenge but it can't continue for much longer - it isn't healthy. However it is a challenge and we will do what we have to do to get the work done until we get the kinks worked out. After all we are but six months young...... Lack of consistent process across the company which might be due to growing pains and learning as we expand and grow which is all very exciting on the positive side. With that said it might not be so much the process as it is having the right people in the right position. What I see is a company that is growing fast and furious with some people thrown into positions they really probably shouldn't be in as they are not the right fit - maybe as a courtesy, long time employee, or the so called "perceived" connections. The lack of having an HR Generalist on site at each location is a hindrance in itself when it comes to consistency in HR policy, practices, training documentation completion and hiring practices. This is probably the biggest area of concern to me as a manager - and it is something I have never experienced before as a Manager at a company. I can live with it, but we can be so much better at what we do with the right people in place. As I mentioned above I feel encouraged to bring ideas forward, but I don't always feel that the ideas are received well or wanted or maybe more importantly that we know what to do with them or have time to incorporate some of the changes into our days activities. Again, a growing pain and one area that we can work through as we continue to grow and learn what works and doesn't work. I believe there are some at corporate who are having a hard time accepting change and find it difficult to step outside the box let alone think outside the box. This really isn't meant as a negative in the way negatives are received and typically viewed, but it is an area for our Executives to review and implement the training that is needed to recognize and embrace change and keep the silo'ing to a minimum, because change right now is the one constant that is going to remain for some time it looks like - and I am excited about that to say the least. With all that said, I am being a bit unfair in my assessment of corporate and I really don't want this to be perceived as a critical assessment to these fine people (there are truly some great people at corporate and we couldn't have achieved what we have achieved up to this point in this very short timeframe - without many of them). It is easy for the most part but it does come with it's own challenges for the leadership team in Madison to build a new center since just about everyone for the most part is new and open to learning and applying new concepts and changing process along the way. We are driven by the challenge before us. We aren't in the place where we have inherent bad practices or attitudes at this point - hopefully that won't change and where it does exist it will only improve with a focus on some of these areas - when all is said and done it is manageable in my honest opinion.