As you grow your business and step more into a CEO role it is important to keep every team member engaged in the work. They are doing the work you may have done yourself when you started out as a solopreneur.  Welcome to episode 21 of Power Up Your Team podcast. Today, I want to remind you of three unintentional habits that undermine employee engagement. The days go by fast and you are rushing from one important meeting to the next or you are hovering over reports and spreadsheets to keep up with critical work.  It’s easy to forget a couple of small things that make a huge difference in how your employees are engaged at work. 1.    Masterminding plans and keeping them to yourselfIn the early stages of owning your business you had to make all plans by yourself and there wasn’t anyone around to share them with. And keeping everything close to your vest is still ok if you have a few part-time resources who perform repetitive tasks for you.But the moment you are expecting your team members to make decisions you have to provide them with information and context.They need to understand the big picture as to where you are headed with the business.  Check out episode 3 “Don’t lose your team on the road to success” where I discuss how you can make sure your team is aligned to your strategic direction.Get into the habit of pondering your ideas with your employees and create transparency even as your plans take shape.2.   Forget to invite and act on employee ideasOnce team members understand the general direction you are taking with your business, you will be amazed. Because what happens is they actually come up with great ideas of how to get there!So, keep that in mind and ask for their ideas – formally and informally. Consider them seriously. Allow people to act on them and explain in case you chose not to implement a certain idea. See, if there is transparency in your vision and strategy you have the context in which you can explain why you follow or don’t follow an idea.I have worked with managers who rather didn’t ask for ideas because they were afraid of having to reject one. And I worked with manager who asked for ideas but didn’t do anything with them.  Both habits are a guaranteed recipe to kick employee engagement to the curb.   Get into the listening habit. Listen to your employees like you listen to your customers. 3.   Forget to give feedback and acknowledge great work People want to do good work – and that has to be the operating assumption for any leader. They want to know what they did well and where they can do better. Feedback doesn’t need to have the formality of a 1:1 meeting or a recognition event. Just a friendly “well done” as you walk by someone’s work place or start a meeting online will go a long way.  Of course, constructive feedback is important, too, and is better given in private. Get into the conscious habit of really seeing each and every one of your team members and the contribution they make.  I once had a leader who thought that the pay check is all that’s needed to acknowledge the employee and his or her work. But here we are talking about a contractual obligation between employer and employee. Recognition and feedback are human interactions. They create buy-in and trust. You as leader communicate to your team that their presence and their work matters.  You are giving them a sense of belonging.  Find the complete show notes online at PowerUpYourTeam.com/21.           

You have chartered your business through ever-changing territory and you always think ahead and know when to hit the brake and when to make a sharp turn.But you recognize that your team is getting tired and paralyzed in the face of constant change. What are some measures you can take to create emotional safety for your team? Welcome to episode 20 of Power Up your Team podcast. Change is inevitable in today’s world. However, it is difficult for most of us. Our instincts are trying to keep us safe and that often means we avoid the unknown. We experience change in our personal and professional lives. And it is often the compounding effect of change that wears people out. Additionally, we all react to and deal with change in our own unique ways. If not implemented thoughtfully, constant change can freeze your team. So what can you do to keep your team motivated and inspired in the face of frequent twists and turns in your business?Change – large or small - occurs everywhere: in strategy, people, process and tools. Some changes are driven by outside influences such as regulatory requirements and outside of your control. Others are required so you can achieve your business goals:You may decide to exit a market, stop offering a service a producing a product. That might have implications on people’s jobs, their roles and the relationships they have built inside and outside your organization.You decide to implement new technology that offers new processing capabilities. While some team members are excited, others may worry if they can learn quickly enough to adjust. You added a completely new department and hired a leader from the outside. You feel great about it as now you have more time to think strategically.  But some of your team members may be worried sick over having to report to someone new. A change you are excited about as business leader may cause woes and worries for team members. Here are four steps to consider when introducing change: Set context1.    Explain what is changing and how it aligns to the strategic direction of your business. Check out episode 3 “Don’t lose you team on the road to success” where I talk about how you can bring your team along so they understand where the business is headed. 2.    Explain WHY the change is occurring and how it helps to get closer to strategic goals.  People will quickly figure out if change is for better or just for sake of change. 3.    Explains when the change is happening and what it means for your team members. Different roles may be impacted in a different way. Be authentic4.    Be transparent and acknowledge that change is part of business. Share how you are dealing with change. Admit that it sometimes can be overwhelming and it’s ok to feel that way. Give space5.    Help people fully understand how the change is impacting them. 6.    Give them time to process. Create forums so people can ask questions and discuss amongst each other. 7.    Be approachable and take time to understand concerns. Read on at www.Powerupyourteam.com/20 to find out about step 4!   

Your business has been growing steadily and your organization has evolved organically. Now you realize that too many people are waiting for your direction.  But how do you create an organizational structure that can be augmented and works well as your business is growing?  Welcome to episode 19 of Power Up Your Team podcast where I share threes pillars of a functioning organizational design. The show notes can be found at PowerUpYourTeam.com/19. Depending on the situation, you may need to add new members to your leadership team or create additional departments with new responsibilities. To set up your team for success, it’s not enough to just write another job description or tell the new leader what to do. Here’s the truth: To build a successful organization you need to think about structure, process and people!Let’s look at each pillar separately:1.     Structure:  This is the typical organizational chart where we see boxes and lines that describe who reports to whom. It also includes the job descriptions that outline scope of role, expectations, and decision authority.Earlier in my career, I was in the quality manager role for a startup production facility that grew from inception to over 250 people in less than three years.  So, the work that was formerly done by one person – in this case the production manager – needed to be divided up as more and more different roles where created. In the early stages, every new person meant a different department like quality management, purchasing, production planning, shipping and so forth. Each new employee had a completely different role compared to everyone else. Soon, the production manager needed a to hire supervisors to oversee the growing amount of production associates. Documenting each person’s responsibilities and reporting relationships on paper is the easy stuff. What’s more important is to define how these different roles collaborate to get work done2.     Process and Collaboration  People’s roles cannot stand in isolation. People need to understand how they are expected to interact with each other. Providing documentation and training creates clarity on how the whole business system is supposed to function.When we established the role of production supervisor (in the earlier example) we needed to decide and communicate how that role relates to the production manager and the associates on the shop floor. For instance, when do personal or production issues need to be escalated? And to whom? Now put the quality department in the mix: Who can start up production after an issue was raised and addressed? Quality Manager or Production Supervisor? We had quite a few - let me say - collisions and each time we learned new things that needed to be clarified. I think that’s part of growing pains of every organization. Learning by doing. So each time you add a new role, keep a system mindset and a perspective of the organization as a whole to ensure the role fits in. It’s very tempting to say “we have good people” and they will figure it out. But soon there are just too many issues related to work flows, processes and decision authority that boog your whole system down. Read about the final and most important aspect of organizational design at www.powerupyourteam.com/19     

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 transactionSoftware 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 solutionCoaching business: compiling resources or preparing materials to use in a sessionThe 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 alongSpending 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/17Process 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 easyInstead 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 levela.     Example for a lending business:         Marketing – Sales – Underwriting – Documentation - Servicing – Collections – Closureb.    Example for a consulting firm:         Marketing – Sales – Scoping – Execution – ClosureThere 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 servicesIf 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 structureIn 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 roleIntroduce 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 betweensame 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 Considerations1. Design Your Customer Interface with Strategic IntendHave 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 EverybodyIn 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 Team1.     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 other2.     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, independentlyable 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 TeamThere 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 EnvironmentThere 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, VETOVoice: 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