the bossbabe podcast - 314. What I’ve Focused on THIS YEAR to Create A Team of “A” Players

Episode Date: August 15, 2023

You can have it all – a freedom-based business, all the flexibility you desire + be making a massive impact… the only “catch” is you CAN’T do it all alone. You’re going to need “A” players as we call them at bossbabe to help actualize your big vision + support you along the journey. As business owners, it’s up to us to not just create a compelling vision, but also to effectively communicate that vision to the team around us so they can show up to help us make it happen. In today’s episode, we’re diving into all things team + leadership – from qualities to look for when hiring to how to give feedback to create the best outcomes possible. Listen in for all the specific details on how Natalie leads + empowers the team of A players at bossbabe!  HIGHLIGHTS How to effectively communicate your vision + create alignment with the members on your team (so they feel inspired and bought in!) Who you NEED on your leadership team to execute on your vision How to give feedback (BOTH positive + negative) in a way that creates connection and builds trust in your team What many leaders miss when it comes to building a really strong + thriving company culture  Our internal process at bossbabe for checking in with team members to ensure everyone is aligned, clear + fully committed to the vision LINKS Join Growth Day - GrowthDay.com/bossbabe FOLLOW bossbabe: @bossbabe.inc Natalie Ellis: @iamnatalie

Welcome to the Boss Babe podcast. Today, I am really excited to talk about something I'm passionate about, which is creating an amazing company culture. Trust me, I have learned this the hard way. I've had a great culture and a not so great culture. So I get really passionate about talking about this because I know it can really make or break a business. This has been a huge focus at Boss Babe, especially in the last year. And I'm really proud because I think what we've created in our company is so special and our team is only compromised right now with people that have been with us for a really, really long time, which in today's economy truly says something. So today we're diving in to talk about culture, building your team of A players, setting a company vision that drives people to

show up as their best self, and how to build your leadership team. So this is a talk that I give at Growth Day. I speak there every month, by the way. If you're interested in joining, you can click the link in my bio. And with that, I hope you really enjoy this snippet. So let's go first into how effectively you share your vision as a leader. And I guess I'll start with a question. So have you ever experienced the feeling of just like a total lack of purpose? It doesn't feel great. And when you're in that place, it's really hard to get motivated. You know, you can feel very stagnant, feel a lot of, you know, a lack of clarity, a lack

of security. It's not quite how you want to describe your company culture, is it? So I want you to consider this. Your team cannot find their purpose within your organization if they do not know where the company is headed. The goals and aspirations that they're working towards, you know, what success looks like, where they play a part, where they directly impact results, they cannot find their purpose within your organization if they don't know where the company is headed. So the first thing that I really want to highlight is communicate your vision regularly. A kickoff and slide deck at the start of the year isn't enough. You know, I think we're all great at that. Okay, it's the beginning of the year. Let's talk about where

we're going. But what you really want to do is regularly bring your team back to your vision. Give them what I call the North Star. This is where we're headed. And bonus points, if you can make them feel so much a part of it, that when you're sharing your vision, they can also pop corn in with, yes, they're building on it. Yeah, I really see us going here and I see the things that will unfold. And you really want to be doing it in a way that, you know, they could go and communicate your vision just as well as you to someone that doesn't know you. So I want to encourage you to talk about it a lot more than you think you should. Even if you're like, you know what, I do feel like we're doing a good job of bringing people back to our North Star. How frequently are you mentioning that? And even in weekly meetings, when you talk about what this

activation is, or what this launch is, or what metrics we're tracking, bring it back to that North Star, bring it back to, and remember, this is why we are doing it. And the second thing on this that I want to share is make your team part of it. So it's really great if you can encourage dialogue and feedback from your team. So provide opportunities for them to ask questions, share their thoughts and offer input. When they feel like they helped to craft this, they're way more inclined to be personally invested and excited about building momentum. And they'll probably, you know, if you've got the right people on your team, probably bring ideas to you that can make this better. And so we'll talk about it a bit later

on, but to make the team feel a part of it, you want team to feel safe being part of it and having that dialogue and coming to you. And we're going to talk about that a little bit later because I think it's one of the most important things that you can cultivate. But in this vision section, the third thing that I want to share, which is really, really powerful is using stories and examples, make it personal, weave your story into the vision and examples. Make it personal. Weave your story into the vision and illustrate the vision in action. Highlight success stories, testimonials, instances where you feel like the team has exemplified the values and the behaviors that are aligned with this vision or where clients of yours have gotten the transformation that you

really want people to achieve through your vision. These kinds of stories make it feel so much more tangible, so much more relatable, and also a lot more digestible for your team to see grounded examples of it. For me, you know, my business vision changed a lot when I came back off my maternity leave. As I was working through figuring out what that North Star was and how I was going to share it with my team, one thing I continue to do is be very transparent about my journey and why I thought that changing up the vision based on some of the things I'd experienced would actually help support our ideal clients, our ideal avatars.

And so that's been really helpful in getting my team bought in because they can really see where this vision comes from. They can see why it's important to me and why it's making an impact for our clients. Okay. So that's the first thing that I really wanted to share with you is how effectively you share your vision with your team. And if you take anything away from that, I hope it is that you get to share your vision way more often than you currently are. The second thing that I want to touch on is the quality of your leadership team. Now, I recognize not everyone here might have a leadership team. However, as you start to make your first hires or early hires, you really want to be

thinking about all these things that I'm going to be sharing with you because those early people that you bring onto your team are the people that are helping to shape your culture. Because as we talked about, your team are an integral part of your culture. And if you hire three people, your first three people that don't align with the culture that you want to create and their values are completely different, this will have a big impact on the kind of culture that is created. Okay. So leadership, maybe to be honest, the one most critical impact and aspect of building a culture. Leadership team is the embodiment of your vision. You know, when you're at a point where you have a leadership team beneath you, they really are the embodiment of your vision. When you're at a point where you have a leadership team beneath you, they really are the embodiment of your vision. It is really their job to be

communicating that vision very clearly with your team and making sure that they are living the values that the culture is talking about. They are also your other team members' source of inspiration and they set the tone for what excellence looks like as well as sets the bar for what you're willing to accept as bad behavior right they lift the team up when times are tough but they also challenge the team to grow past their comfort zones and up their game that's been one of the most incredible gifts I've had from my leadership team, my COO in particular. She's great at bringing team's energy up when things might not be going super smoothly. She's great at pointing out when someone on the team is really exemplifying the

values that we have as a company, but she's also not afraid to challenge people when she feels like people are sitting in their comfort zones or not giving everything they could be giving. She's very good at being able to be empathetic in that situation, but also calling them forward. Let's take a quick pause to talk about my new favorite all-in-one platform, Kajabi. You know I've been singing their praises lately because they have helped our business run so much smoother and with way less complexity, which I love. Not to mention our team couldn't be happier because now everything is in one place so it makes collecting data, creating pages, collecting payment, all the things so much simpler. One of our mottos at Boss Babe is simplify to amplify and Kajabi has really

helped us do that this year. So of course I needed to share it here with you. It's the perfect time of year to do a bit of spring cleaning in your business, you know, get rid of the complexity and instead really focus on getting organized and making things as smooth as possible. I definitely recommend Kajabi to all of my clients and students. So if you're listening and haven't checked out Kajabi yet, now is the perfect time to do so because they are offering Boss Babe listeners a 30-day free trial. Go to kajabi.com slash Boss Babe to claim your 30-day free trial. That's kajabi.com slash Boss Babe. So let's talk about what makes a quality leader, a really high quality leader.

And these things you can implement yourself as a leader and or you can look for team members that also exemplify these qualities if you are hiring a leadership team. So whether or not you're in that place, this is still very relevant for you. Okay. Because remember leadership, it's all starts with us and the team we have around us and the culture we build around us is really going to be a reflection of our leadership style and how able we are to lead effectively. So the first thing that I think makes a high quality leader is that they aren't afraid to give real feedback.

It does not help the business or the team member to hear they're doing a good job if, when you're being honest, they could be doing a little bit better, right? Let me just say that again. It does not help the business or the team member to hear they're doing a good job when they could be doing better. Or to not point out the instances where they could have approached something different in a more effective way. If you're going to give them feedback, make sure it's genuine. Don't say you're doing a great job if you're then going to walk out and complain to your partner, oh, that team member just sucks, they're really not doing great right now. So run your feedback through the lens of asking, how will this improve their performance, their attitude, or their role trajectory?

And a great tip here is balance your constructive feedback with a positive feedback point. So tell them what they're doing well, but do explain where you need them to do better. I'm not necessarily saying you need to do a feedback sandwich here. It doesn't need to be a positive, you know, an improvement and then another positive. But it is great if you can keep it balanced. So you don't just want to open the conversation with, here's a list of 10 things I think you could be improving right now. Even if you know that those 10 things are going to improve their performance, their attitude, or their role trajectory, it would be great to be able to find some things that they are doing well. So you can point those things out and say, hey, we want to

keep those things, but this other list is some things that we want to work on. Another thing is taking the time to share positive feedback and gratitude. When you notice a leader does this, this is a really great sign of a high quality leader. You want your team members to feel like they're enough that day, like they've done enough in the day. And you want to shine a light on their contributions. So when you bring other leadership team members in who are going to be working on your company culture on your behalf and with you, you want them to really share pride in the growth of the people that they are managing and to be able to specify all the things that they do that you are grateful for, they are grateful for. The easiest trap to fall into,

especially as a founder, is only remembering to give feedback when it's negative or constructive. Because we as entrepreneurs can often see all the holes and gaps in the business and the team, we can see all of that. And when things are going really well, let me know if you relate. It's a lot harder sometimes still to call out all the good things versus spotting the things that actually could have been improved. So another sign of a high quality leader is they get to know people on a one-to-one basis. They get to know them as human beings and they show that they actually care about their life and whole person that they are. And they actually

remember those details, right? So call that person's dog by its name. Ask them about that movie they said they were going to go see at the weekend. Talk to them like you would any person that you value in your life. Because, you know, it's very easy when a friend comes around for coffee to be super present in their presence and ask them all about themselves and show real interest in them as full human beings. But if you're in a time crunch and you've got a 20 minute one-to-one on your calendar, it can be a lot more challenging to pause and open up, you know, human conversation than going into what needs to get done. And so not only do you want to be doing that, but you want to be looking for people that you're bringing onto your leadership team who are

able to do that and who really genuinely have an interest in the people that they're working with. You want this to be genuine. Another example of a really high quality leader is they stop to ask why when a team member makes a mistake. They stop to ask why when a team member makes a mistake. Mistakes happen. Mistakes happen all the time, no matter what size your business, no matter how successful your business.

And mistakes can be really frustrating. But when giving feedback, take it one step beyond explaining what you need to see different. Ask them, why did this happen? And just tell them and let them know that it's a safe space. You just want to understand what happened and hear that person out. And this can be really illuminating to the issues that you need to fix in the business. Because you might have this big idea of why this person made a mistake. Oh, they weren't focused enough. Oh, they weren't paying enough attention. You know, all of, you know, there'd be so many reasons. But actually, if you just took a moment to ask why this person may be feeling the way

they're feeling or why this person made the mistake that they made there might be an actually very reasonable reason that this happened okay and so take a minute to ask why and again look for leaders that take a minute to ask why so you'll see as I'm sharing this I'm not only sharing it from a lens of this is something you get to embody as a leader but when you're hiring your leadership team this is something you get to embody as a leader but when you're hiring your leadership team this is something you want to see in them. Another sign of a high quality leader is they ask their team how they're feeling. So again coming back to the point I made earlier that your team are human beings if you didn't already know they're not all AI and asking how people are and giving them a really safe open space to communicate will genuinely allow them to bring their authentic selves to work, right? If they feel like this is a

genuine safe space, they will bring their real genuine selves to work. And that authenticity really leads to a stronger, more meaningful culture and stronger, more meaningful relationships within that culture. Another sign of a high quality leader is they ask about the aspirations and the vision for their team members' careers. So not only does this make a team member feel valued, it can also give you a sense for how you can plug them into areas of the business that they, you know, have a real passion for, but might not necessarily be saying, hey, I'd be really interested in trying that. Or, hey, you know, I know I'm in copy, but I'm actually really good at designing. Can you put me in for some design work? Often people won't raise their hands like that. As much as we'd love them to, they often

won't. But when you have those, you know, real conversations about what's your aspiration and vision for your career, it can help them bring it forward and be able to share. It also, in a very honest way, might help you realize if that person's aspirations and visions are not in alignment with where the company is headed and help you help them into a role or a company more suited for them. And I've had examples of both. Actually, last year, someone on my team who was in more of an operations role, I had this conversation with. I was like, where do you see your career going? What are your aspirations? And she was like, OK, well, I'm a little bit nervous to admit this because I know I work in

an operations role, but I have a real aspiration to be a coach. And so I started asking her that. I was like, tell me more about this. Is this coaching in your own company? She's like, no, I want to be a coach in Boss Babe. I want to support more of our clients on a deeper level because right now I can see their problems, but I'm not necessarily working with them. And so I got to understand this a little bit better. And then what came from that conversation, she was like, actually, now that I've brought this up to you, there is something that I've been meaning to ask you. I want to take a coaching certification program. And I was wondering, would you be okay with me taking those calls during the working week? And I was wondering, would you be okay with me taking those calls during the working week?

And I was like, yeah, absolutely. Because hearing that's where her career aspiration was, and knowing that we do have those roles needed on our team, it was great to see that she was going to evolve into a new role in the company. And it's been amazing to watch her complete that certification and step more into that role. And we've started to do that on a gradual basis. It's been really great. I've also had situations where I've had someone in a role that I really would like them to be in long-term. And when we first had those interviewing conversations, that's what the conversation was. Yeah, I do want to be here on a long-term basis.

But having these aspiration and vision conversations with them, they told me at one point, I actually would love to be freelance eventually. I want to be building up my clients on the side. And at the time, this role was really important to us and we really needed that full attention. And we wanted to be investing as much as we could in that person's growth so that they could be the best in this role over the long haul. And so we had a conversation with them of hey you know it sounds like what we need and where you want to go is not fully aligned and we were able to then be her first freelance client and then eventually you know phased out and brought in someone who did want to be in there long term but it was a win for all because we still got to work with her. We got to phase out very gently and she was able to go freelance and take us on as a client.

So it was a win for all, but it was a way in which we could see that actually she might not be the best fit for us long term. And I wouldn't have known that had I not had that conversation with her. And then another thing that I want to share, a sign of a really high quality leader is they empower employees to think on their own, to innovate and to test the boundaries of failure. So effective leaders, I believe, empower and inspire their employees to contribute to their original thinking. So an environment that is largely fielding tasks and taking directives is pretty deadly to culture.

I'm going to say that again. An environment that is largely fielding tasks and taking directives is deadly to culture. Presumably and hopefully you hired smart people that have ideas, creativity, passions. Let them use them. Give them safe spaces to test, to fail. Empower them to bring their fullest potential to the table by empowering employees to take ownership and providing them with opportunities to contribute. Leaders can actually foster a culture of engagement, accountability, continuous improvement. And not to mention, it feels really good as a leader when you have people bringing ideas to the table, when you have people bringing passion to the conversation, when you have people bringing creativity to a problem. It's exciting because it doesn't all sit on you. And that's how you can continue

to delegate and elevate, delegate and elevate, which is our role as entrepreneurs is continually delegating to elevate so that we can grow this business. So I'm just going to recap what I've talked about in what I think makes a high quality leader. They aren't afraid to give real feedback. They take time to share positive feedback and gratitude. They get to know their team members on a one-to-one basis. They stop to ask why when a team member makes a mistake. They ask team members how they are feeling. They ask about their aspirations and visions for their careers. And they empower employees to think on their own, to innovate and test the boundaries of failure.

Those things are really important for you to embody as a leader, but also to look for when you bring leaders into your organization. Because you want to know that your team is in safe hands. You want to know that they are being taken care of by the leaders you're putting in place. And if these are the things that you look for, as you are making those hiring decisions, you can then feel comfortable that actually your team is in a good place, in good hands, and your culture is going to be in good hands.