This episode is for solopreneurs who want to optimize their workload so they can take on new clients. Welcome to episode 18. The show notes can be found online at www.powerupyourteam.com/18. 

You are successful and now there is too much stuff to handle everything soup to nuts. Your attention is scattered across many tasks and it seems you can’t focus on what really matters. 

Your business is not big enough to build a leadership team or recruit high-caliber full time staff for functions such as operations or account services. There is not quite enough work just yet.

But you need to find a way to free up your own capacity for revenue generating efforts and the question is: How can you prioritize what you spend your time on? At the end of the day, everything is important and needs to get done to keep the ball rolling.

So which task are best to peel off so you can focus more on growing your business?

Here’s a new perspective I invite you to try on. Look at all your activites through the lens of your customer. 

Gain clarity on what it is that the customer really paying you for!

In this context I like to suggest three categories: 

Value added work are the activities that the client has hired you for. Examples:

• Law firm: defending someone in court, sitting with a couple to create their estate plan or finalizing a real estate transaction
• Software Implementation Firm:  on-site engagements to understand a company’s processes and customize the software to their needs. 
• Coaching business like mine: time spend with individuals to help them gain new perspectives and insights that lead them to try on different approaches and achieve their goals.

 In the service industry, value added the time we spend with our customers where we either co-develop solutions or present recommendations they are paying us for 

Value enabling work are critical steps to tackle so we are prepared to impress our client.  They typically happen before or after we meet with them and are very important.

• Law Firm:  research required to offer a legal opinion, completing legal filings on behalf of the client. 
• Consulting Firm: researching a company or consolidating stakeholder input to be able to customize the software solution
• Coaching business: compiling resources or preparing materials to use in a session

The customer expects a level of knowledge and proficiency that allows us to complete these tasks at a high level of quality and efficiency. 

And the third category is non-value-added work that should not exist at all. It’s mistakes, rework or inefficiencies that occur for many reasons. The client would not be willing to pay for it. Who would?

Here are a few examples:

• Scheduling and rescheduling meetings with multiple parties 
• Following up on information that you should have had all along
• Spending massive amounts of time on doing your own accounting. 
• Dedicating a lot of time training yourself on social media marketing 

 Keep in mind you are looking at work through the customer’s eyes. For instance, spending hours and hours trying to become a pro at social media marketing might be highly valued added for your personal development. But it is not of value to the client who is coming to you for legal, consulting or coaching services. 

 So, what to do with these insights?

Read on at www.PowerUpYourTeam.com/18

You have brought your business idea from concept to reality, build a robust service and a strong client pipeline. You are past being a one person show and have a small team of collaborators either as full-time employees or free lancers. 

You enjoy working with your team. You can create, ideate and bring new ideas to market quickly. Your revenue is climbing constantly and you can see the fruits of your labor. That’s what entrepreneurship is all about. Collaboration is fun!

 But suddenly you realize that your team has gotten too big to work without any structure in form of processes, procedures or job aids. 

And just a thought of sitting down and drawing a process map tanks your mood.  

Welcome to episode 17 of Power Up Your Team podcast where we talk about how you can implement processes without losing your entrepreneurial stride. The show notes can be found online at PowerUpYourTeam.com/17

Process and structure can come with a bad taste that of bureaucracy. Just the thought of it takes the swing out of your stride. Maybe that’s precisely what you escaped when you left your corporate career. 

As entrepreneur you want to create, ideate and be with customers . The last thing you ever want to do is to write procedures or create process maps that describe the standard and repeatable tasks within your organization. 

 Here’s the point: Just because it’s your business, doesn’t mean you have to figure that out by yourself. You just have to stay present in the work. So, what does that mean?

Set context to make process documentation easy

Instead of documenting processes and procedures yourself, focus on setting the context so that others can do that for you. 

1.     Identify the 5 – 7 key customer facing process steps at a very high level

a.     Example for a lending business:

         Marketing – Sales – Underwriting – Documentation - Servicing – Collections – Closure

b.    Example for a consulting firm:

         Marketing – Sales – Scoping – Execution – Closure

There is no right or wrong. It’s all about the high-level work context you are setting for yourself and your team. Think about an airplane that’s flying at different altitudes. This is the 30,000 feet view. A work instruction would be the 1000-feet level. Alternatively, take the analogy of a map and think about a country map versus a local street map. 

2.     Identify the key critical internal process steps 

Typical internal processes include HR, Finance and Accounting work. They often run independently of you customer facing activities. 

Prioritize which processes need documentation 

Typically, in a growing business not all processes need to be documented at the same time. Processes where collaboration and coordination are required need attention first. Despite all good efforts, this is where things can fall through the cracks.

Sometimes there are important intersections between internal and customer facing processes. For instance, when customer payments come due after completing certain client engagement milestones.  They are important to document as well. 

 Read the complete transcript at www.PowerUpYourTeam.com/17

This episode of Power Up Your Team podcast is for women business owners who want to broaden the great reputation associated with their name to their whole organization.

 In the early stages, you are often the face of your organization. You are the only interface to your customers. Especially in consulting or project-based businesses you are managing all accounts yourself and delivering the work. 

 Over time, you have created trusted client relationships, repeat business and a strong pipeline of work.  You are very busy and ready to let your team take over important customer facing work. 

But you realize that your customers translate the promise of high touch, high class service to receiving personal VIP delivery from you. And only you!

It’s easy to get into this situation as business owner or founder: To get your business off the ground you had to roll up your sleeves and deliver all services yourself.

You know how critical it is to free yourself up from being involved in every detail so you can guide your business at a strategic level. It’s important that your reputation is not just tied to your own name but to that of every member of your organization. 

So how can you create this new reality?  How can you ensure your clients don’t feel let down when other members of your team step into account service or project leadership roles? You might be worried that you lose a valuable client. 

Here are 5 tips how you can pivot your engagement strategy with your key accounts.  

1.    Engage team members for training and development

 There is a good chance your clients will not only understand but appreciate that. That’s because they know how important development is for their own employees or even their kids. It also strengthens your reputation as a leader – not just as a doer. 

Once your customer has agreed, you delegate aspects of the work.  That includes follow-up calls, obtaining information, giving a presentation or other tasks. 

You are servicing the account as a team. On first sight that sounds like extra work. But soon, you have someone who has built a relationship and can manage the account independently.

2.    Build a team of experts 

Another way to make the customer feel valued is to build specialties on your team and introduce them as experts on one aspect of service delivery. 

Think about all facets of your services and leverage opportunities to elevate the individual talents on your team. 

3.    Raise prices for your VIP services

If people are really vested in their VIP status, they will gladly pay the higher price.  Then you have more revenue to be proud of but you are still burning the midnight oil to get all the work done. 

4.    Create relief through work structure

In this scenario, you remain front and center to the customer.  You level up by structuring the work and identifying non-customer facing steps such as research, information gathering or proposal making that your team can handle. You supervise the work so you can represent the collective work to the customer.

5.    Be upfront and re-define your role

Introduce a team approach where your team delivers the services to your customer and you take on the role as a mentor and coach. You stay engaged and get feedback from the customers on how you team is doing. You are present in a different way. 

 If this episode resonates and you realize that this issue is holding you back from the results you want, let’s book a strategy session.  

Read on at www.PowerUpYourTeam.com

So, where do you like to shop for your next outfit? Do you enjoy getting a super deal at Nordstrom Rack? Or, do you like shopping in an exclusive high-end boutique?  

Where do you like to have dinner? Do you prefer the quick meal at McDonalds where you get a burger for $1.99 in a brown paper bag? Or, do you prefer a $30 made-to-order burger in a fancy five-star restaurant?

While we have our own subjective expectations of price to value, we are generally willing to pay more for superior service or high customization.

But what would happen, if the fancy restaurant served us the one-size-fits all burger in a brown paper bag? Or, if we needed to dig through a pile of sale items in a fancy boutique just to find our dress size?

We probably would not be happy because the price to value ratio has gotten out of whack.

Welcome to episode 15 of Power Up Your Team podcast where I share three considerations so you can build a business model that dazzles your clients. 

Where does your business model sit on the trajectory between

• same service at low cost, or 
• high customization at premium price?  

There is no right or wrong as long as price-to-value is fair in the eyes of the customer. As you are scaling your business, build your operating model with that intention in mind.

Three Considerations

1. Design Your Customer Interface with Strategic Intend

Have you designed your business for 

• low cost/high efficiency, or 
• high touch/customer intimacy?

Consulting services or project-based businesses fall typically into the 2nd category, because the organization tailors each deal to the needs of a specific customer. In this model, account executives develop intimate knowledge about the client over the course of the relationship. In a small organization, you as owner might end up in this role for all major accounts.

Then there are organizations that cater to a vast number of customers with the exact same service. Examples are printing, social media, recruiting, online trading, or marketing services.

We can find both models in one and the same industry. In the travel industry, for instance, there are boutique travel agencies that book your trip soup-to-nuts. On the other end of the spectrum is Expedia, for instance, where you do everything yourself.

Both models need great service to ensure customers feel they get their money’s worth. The difference lies in how that is achieved.

2. Avoid the Murky Middle of Wanting to be Everything to Everybody

In this spot, you are not making any customer happy and don’t make much profit. Customers may perceive your offering as too expensive if they seek boutique services, or, not convenient enough if they pay for efficiency.

An Example from my Experience Leading a Portfolio Management Company :

Find out more at www.powerupyourteam.com/15

So over the past couple of years, you have built a nice team to support your business. You have found the right experts who complement your skills and take on tasks that weren’t quite up your alley. 

Generally, you are happy with the people you hired. They are reliable, execute their assignments on time, improve their own work and so much more. 

But on some days, you are wondering why they can’t be working effectively together as one team. You are acting like a traffic cop when more than one group is involved:

• routing a lot of information,
• handling inquiries and sign-offs, 
• solving problems and getting work unstuck. 

You have a lot of superstars with high individual performance but your team as a whole is not yet coming together. 

Welcome to episode 14 of Power Up Your Team podcast where I share three attributes of a resilient team and give you key insights how you can develop one. 

3 Attributes of a Resilient Team

1.     Can effectively collaborate and has …

• an understanding of the work and mutual dependencies between tasks and jobs. They know where to go for information and understand each other’s roles in the process. 
• the skills and capabilities to support each other

2.     Trust each other so that …

• They share a true appreciation and care for their team members.
• Everyone feels safe to share new ideas, call out things that didn’t work.
• As a group, they are willing to take risks and try new ways of working to achieve better results. 

3.     Able to improvise and solve problems because they are 

• resourceful and can deal with unforeseen circumstances, independently
• able to rebound from setbacks quickly and move forward

 As a result of that resilient teams are successful!

 Wouldn’t it be great to have a team like that?

 Here’s the truth:

It’s not just about hiring the right people. It is all about creating the right environment. 

You as CEO set the stage that allows your team to become resilient and deliver high performance on a regular basis.

Prerequisites to Develop a Resilient Team

There are a couple of prerequisites you have to put in place.  Go to www.powerupyourteam.com/14 to find out what they are!

I am sure you have read some or the countless books and articles on leadership. Many CEOs who are leading successful companies have been interviewed, analyzed and observed 

 We learn about how they ideate genius new products nobody ever thought about or inspire their teams to reach for the stars and make the impossible possible. They shape the culture of their organization and enable results without being involved in every detail. 

But you are wondering how you can step more into this space after you have been hands for so long. In episode 8 of Power Up Your Team podcast, we covered that stepping into the CEO role is a process by which you change the way you interact with your team.  

In this episode, I am sharing a key insight about the concept of fairness that I had when I crossed the bridge from managing to leading. 

I started my career as an individual contributor. I led project teams before I was given a small staff to supervise. With a degree in engineering, I dabbled in quality management, application engineering and process improvement. 

All these disciplines are rooted in science and logic. As manager, I was focused on creating structure, guidelines and procedures. I felt so at home in that space.  And that type of work in indispensable for the functioning of an organization. 

• How well would computers come off the production line if there weren’t any procedures for how to build them? 
• How well would software – even open-source code – function if there weren’t any protocols and standards? 
• How engaging would a football game be if there weren’t any rules for how to play the game?

Every business needs to ensure people can collaborate well and deliver excellent products and services.  Check out episode 7 where I discuss governance as a vital ingredient to ensure your team can deliver.  

Does Fairness Mean Every Team Member is Treated in the Exact Same Way?

In my early years as Manager, I was guided by the believe that fairness meant the same for everyone. Same rules, same goals, same amount of attention, same training and so forth. 

As I progressed into leading larger teams and businesses, I had one key insight. Team members have different needs based on their personality, work style and career aspirations. 

Therefore, the perception of fairness is very subjective.

Let me give you some examples:

1st example:

I was bent out of shape if some employees didn’t want a weekly check-in meeting. They said every other week was enough. How could that be fair? I need to give the same amount of attention to everyone. That’s the manager’s perspective. 

As leader, I became more flexible and collaborated with the team members to design a meeting cadence that fits their needs in frequency, duration and content. 

2nd example:

As manager, I worried that sending just one team member to a training program would automatically be perceived as unfair by everyone else. That wasn’t the case. In fact, some people were relieved that didn’t have to go. 

 As leader, I made sure that team members had individualized development plans that were co-created with the employee based on their current capabilities and their career aspirations. 

Here’s the Aha: 

Fairness is created by giving everyone a chance to succeed. 

Three Steps to Create a fair Work Environment

There are three steps you can take to foster the perception of fairness in your organization. Find out what they are at www.PowerUpYourTeam.com/13

To step more fully into the CEO role, you have to relinquish some of your decision-making power sooner or later. 

 But you are still responsible for all decisions that are made in your organization.   

That can be pretty unsettling.

Welcome to Episode 12 of Power Up Your Team podcast where I’ll share an idea how you can design good decision-making processes that empower your team and give you peace of mind. 

It’s always good to invite different perspectives before making a business decision. You have done that all along. With your involvement there was never any doubt who had the last word.

And of course, you want to stay involved and make the most critical decisions yourself such as a major capital investment or a new product launch.

I am talking about the many day-to-day decisions that can easily become noise and distraction when you are trying to focus on strategic matters. 

·       Coding or setup on a new piece of technology

·       Triaging a customer issue 

·       Improving work processes and practices

·       Planning and prioritizing work

 But how can you create peace of mind that your team is making good decisions in a timely manner? 

In the past, you may have:

·       Delegated all decisions to the same person who is now as overwhelmed as you were. 

·       Asked a couple of team members to make decisions and you are wondering if the person with the loudest voice wrestled everyone else to the ground. 

·       Experienced those times when your team is swirling around and can’t seem to make a decision at all.

Well-designed decision-making processes capitalize on the different experiences, functional expertise and perspectives of your team and allow the work to move forward in a timely manner. 

Here is a simple context you may consider: 

            VOICE, VOTE, VETO

Voice: Belongs to the many people who have input to a decision.

Vote: Resides with the few people who make a decision by finding consensus.

Veto: Is reserved for the person with the ultimate decision-authority. 

This person with veto rights can stop the work, ask for additional information or request a new direction. Ultimately, the Veto authority lies with the CEO of the company. 

Here’s the point: 

The smarter your decision-making processes, the less frequently you have to step in and exercise your veto right. 

For example, you have a situation where your operations and customer service teams are raising red flags left and right because the sales team accepted a deal that they are not equipped to execute. The sales department has Voice, Vote and Veto rights.

Here are three options to reduce the likelihood of that situation to occur:

1.     You pull in the reigns and review every deal yourself. You exercise your Veto right on 100 % of all deals coming in. That means you are back in the weeds. 

2.     You require the sales team to solicit input from operations and customer service giving them Voice in the process. The sales team still has Vote and Veto and sole discretion over which deals to   accept. You find out after the fact, if there are issues. 

3.     You design a process where all three teams have Voice. Operations and Sales together can vote on accepting a deal. You keep Veto rights. This means that you have to get involved on exception.

Read on at www.Powerupyourteam.com/12

It’s easy to wind up in a complex organization when business is growing fast. You are hiring more people and have started to define specific roles and departments to keep things organized.  

But how do you keep the entrepreneurial spirit and agility of your team?

This is episode 11 of Power Up Your Team podcast. Today I want to give you three tips to keep your organization simple and flat. 

1. Build Transparency into The Work 

Help your team understand the business beyond their immediate tasks. Educate them on the key steps between identifying your next client and delivering your service. 

Each team member needs to have clarity on how their specific work fits into the bigger picture and requires more communication about what’s happening outside their immediate role. 

That positions them to navigate the organization themselves instead of escalating every question or issue up to their manager.

People can operate in a flat structure when they understand the big picture which includes: 

·       Clear articulation of where you want to be in 1 – 5 years 

·       Approach you are taking to get there 

·       Measurements indicating you are heading in the right direction

Check out episode 5 where I talk about vision statements and the measurements that help make them real.

2. Create Autonomy So Your Team Can Make Decisions 

Instead of making all decisions yourself, let people lead a decision-making process that you defined.  

Start with simple day to day decisions such as waiving late fees, changing team members on a project or creating and delivering a sales proposal. 

Explain all considerations that go into making decisions and delegate them step by step so you can help people stretch into new responsibilities. Check out episode 8 where I discuss that moving into the CEO role is a process and not an event. 

Invest in professional development and training for your staff. To do their job well, they need to have 

·       good understanding of the business 

·       tools and resources to perform their work

·       access to information so they can make good decisions.

 Ensure team members can cover for each other so that there is no single point of failure.

3. Develop Real-Time Feedback Mechanisms 

 You have been measuring business metrics such as revenue or profit margin all along.  They are telling you what has happened in the past.  You are looking in the rear-view mirror. 

It’s time to assess quality and timelines of work as it happens.

And here is an important mindset shift for you to take on: 

You are developing these metrics so your team can be successful. 

They need to have a collective understanding how services for your clients are coming together. Examples: Lead time for a quote or time to respond to a customer request.

Set the expectation that metrics are reviewed frequently and give your team permission to make changes to improve the work. 

Read on at www.Powerupyourteam.com/11

You have grown your business to a point where you can’t directly supervise all your staff. It’s time to hand off not just tasks but a whole area of responsibility so you can further grow your business.

Maybe you …

• enjoy doing sales and want to hire someone who runs end-to-end operations
• need someone to take over the customer service or marketing department
• want to hire a CFO who can oversee all business finance and accounting matters

To hand off a big piece of your responsibility, it is critical to find the right match.  

How Do You Assess Candidates for a Critical Leadership Position? 

It makes sense to look for people who have the right abilities based on what they have learned and done in the past. 

An operations or customer service leader ideally has several years’ experience leading people in similar operations. For finance related jobs, there might be mandatory qualifications such as a CPA or a FINRA license.

But basing you hiring decision merely on work experience, industry knowledge and existing skills can lead to a lot of trouble down the road.

There are two additional aspects to consider when evaluating candidates:

1.     Personality and Fit 

A person’s work ethic, leadership style and communication habits will determine the level of change your team will experience. Make sure you have clarity and are intentional with your questions when interviewing candidates. 

Maybe at this point, it’s important that she has the same perspective on leadership and a similar engagement style with your team so you can maintain a level of continuity. You are looking for someone who has the exact same “wavelength”. 

At another time, you want someone who is different from you. Maybe you are too formal and want to loosen things up. Or, you are seeking someone who stands for more structure. 

Know yourself and have clarity before you start the selection process. 

During the interview ask the candidate how she handled specific situations, such as: 

• engaging with a direct report who has made a mistake
• developing team capabilities so they could handle different work
• dealing with office banter that got in the way of productivity 
• celebrating with her team 

Ask the candidate to provide a specific example to illustrate the point.  

2.     Right Motivation

Your business is too important to be a 2nd choice or even a gap filler for someone until something better comes along. Figure out WHY a candidate wants to join your company. 

Is his heart in the right place? Does he want to make a difference now and in the long run? Can you detect true passion for the type of service you are selling? Does he have tenacity or is he looking to coast along? 

To evaluate motivation, ask the candidate to tell you about a time when he 

• had to deal with setbacks
• realized old solutions didn’t work
• quickly had to learn new skills 
• handled a crisis 

 Inquire about his least and most favorite jobs and what specific interest he has in working in your business

Obviously, there are no universal wright or wrong answers. That can only be decided in the context of your business and what you need right now.

Here’s the important thing to keep in mind:

Skills can be developed - personal fit and motivation cannot.

Let me tell you – I made several not so good hiring decisions throughout my career. 

 Find out which lessons I learned at PowerUpYourTeam.com/10

Welcome to episode 9 of PowerUpYourTeam podcast where we talk about celebrating wins AND setbacks. 

You are focused on your business and barely have a moment to catch a breath once a big business milestone is accomplished. You are immediately setting your eyes on the next one. 

That’s what I used to do. I was laser focused on execution and results. I was blessed to have leadership teams who always reminded me of a critical responsibility: CELEBRATE 

You may ask “Why would I celebrate a setback?” 

The truth is … There are golden nuggets in everything that happens in your business – good or bad.

More importantly, you can leverage any setbacks strategically to drive the long-term success of your business. 

Here are 4 reasons why celebrating wins and misses with your team are so important: 

1.     Creates Excitement

People spend a significant amount of their time working in your business and you expect them to contribute to your success. Make their experience enjoyable by acknowledging their efforts.  

Get your team together to celebrate a big contract you just won.

Reflect with you team on what made this deal come together. Maybe it’s the great collaboration between sales and operations, or, a key insight into the competitive landscape from your business partner. 

And, pull your team together to celebrate that new account you didn’t win but everyone worked so hard on.   

Reflect on what caused the loss. What can you learn from it? Maybe your pricing was too high or you were lacking a key capability that you realize you need to implement.

Both, results from your success and learnings from your setback are worth celebrating.

In times, where many people are working remotely, you can celebrate in a virtual meeting and raffle off a family dinner for a couple of employees in their home town. Your employees will get the message of appreciation.

2.     Provide Psychological Safety 

You signal that it’s ok to make a mistake and that it’s not ok to sweep problems under the rug. You create an environment where your team is encouraged and not afraid of raising issues. They are motivated to contribute their experience and creativity to change things for the better.  

A couple of weeks after I had stepped into a new leadership role, I found hundreds and hundreds of returned mail envelopes in our file cabinets. I had found one reason why our customers weren’t paying invoices on time.

“Wow”, I thought, “If that’s the culture I inherited, what other problems might be hiding out there?” 

We fixed that particular issue and put a formal continuous improvement program in place.  We celebrated issues raised, new ideas and improvements made with equal enthusiasm. Over time, we re-engineered our processes, improved team moral and customer satisfaction.

What forums and mechanisms do you have in place so that your team members can share and act on their ideas.

3.     Allows Your Team to Learn and Grow 

Involve everyone in reflecting why things did or didn’t work out as planned. 

Maybe you lost a deal because your team missed the proposal deadline. Out of that experience may come ideas for a standard template and components so that next time around the proposal can be put together much faster.

Reframing setbacks as learning opportunities will eventually create organizational knowledge and experience that can develop into a strategic advantage in the market place.

Albert Einstein ones said: “Failure is success in progress”

Read on at PowerUpYourTeam.com/9 and find out the 4th reason whey celebrating wins AND setbacks is so important.