Opening the Gate to Your Team’s Potential

To serve clients well, you want the best people on your team. The reality is many small businesses don’t have the ability to hire A+ team members. This might be due to budget constraints, an available talent pool, or a culture that hinders the ambition and autonomy of A+ team members.

Who’s Responsible for Your Team’s Development?

You likely have team members who need coaching, direction, and guidance. Depending on the drive and strengths of the individual, they may need more or less.

Do you see talent development as their sole responsibility or an investment in your business? This challenge presents an opportunity if you desire to see them grow. In any growth opportunity, there is a mix of desire and skill. Where do you see yourself?

• Low desire, low skill – lack the desire and ability to develop your team
• Low desire, high skill – lack the desire, but have the skill to develop your team
• High desire, high skill – have the desire and skill to develop your team
• High desire, low skill – have the desire, but lack the skill to develop your team

Low Desire

When desire is low, talent development isn’t a priority. Low desire can be driven by indifference, fear, being burnt in the past, etc.

If you’re indifferent, reflect on how that impacts your business’s ability to grow and serve clients.

• Has your team’s skills and performance improved while working with you? How is that measured?
• Are they prepared to take on more responsibility as your business grows? Or will you need to go through the hiring process again?
• Does your team want to develop their skills? Or are they doing the minimum necessary? Why is that?

If you’re afraid to invest in their development, start by listing your fears. Here are two fears, I hear often.

• Employee will leave after investing in them. Everyone leaves; it’s only a matter of when. Would you rather have a complacent employee or a developing employee, especially when servicing your clients? There’s a saying “Don’t cut off your nose, just to spite your face.”
• Employee will create a competing business. When people are confident in their own vision they don’t copy others. How do you contribute towards their strong sense of self? You can’t serve everyone. It’s better to have someone you trust who is complimentary than a competitor.

Then address each fear. Create a plan to address risks and create opportunities to benefit the relationship. If you need help, we can work through this exercise together. In business, it’s better to have more allies, than competitors.

Employees from large organizations (Google, McKinsey, Ritz Carlton) are coveted because of the reputation associated with these organizations. They are known for a thorough hiring process, rigorous work, and high-performance standards. Does your firm hold and deliver similar value to the industry? Will their experience at your firm be seen as an asset? Or will the new employer find a gap between presentation and performance?

The strength of an industry is based on collective trust. If clients have a bad experience with a business, they’ll be more cautious with the next one. This ripples across the industry. As a result, it is more challenging to build rapport and trust with potential clients. You’ll spend more time negotiating and explaining your value. You don’t have to look far to see industries where trust has eroded.

High Desire

When desire is high, talent development is a priority. You understand the strength of the business lies in the strength of your team.

• You seek out ways to grow your leadership skills.
• You make time to develop relationships and coach your team.
• You create opportunities for your team to stretch their capabilities.
• You define milestones and measure progress.
• You recognize their efforts and reward growth.
• You include them in industry events and workshops.
• You share resources with them to encourage their development.

Relationships play a critical role in your ability to influence your team for good. When your team knows you care about them as a person, they show up differently.

High Skill

When skill is high, it’s more than likely you’ve experienced great leadership. You’re familiar with the practices needed to develop talent. You’ve seen what it’s done for you and desire to replicate it for your team.

• You take an active role in coaching up through recognition and constructive feedback.
• You hold them accountable to business standards.
• You meet with them annually to discuss and set goals.
• You meet regularly to discuss performance and progress towards goals.

Early in my career, I had the good fortune to work for a principled company that valued its employees. The first week of employment, as an associate, I received a John Maxwell leadership book. This might seem insignificant, but it plants a seed of greatness in each new team member. (I still have the book twenty years later.) Then during my tenure, they invested in training associates and managers on-site and flying us to their HQ. This early exposure to great leadership and culture left a lasting mark.

Low Skill

When skill is low, there’s a chance you haven’t experienced talent development. However, you desire to do things differently with your team. The good news is you don’t need to be an expert to develop your team. You do need to play an active role.

An active role requires building a healthy relationship with each team member, first. You learn their strengths, goals, needs, and opportunities. A relationship can’t be outsourced. Your team can tell when you care about them because it shows in your actions.

A healthy relationship with your team includes boundaries. You want the best for them while prioritizing the needs of the business. The business holds everyone together. If its success is jeopardized, then everyone loses.

If boundaries are blurred and being liked is preferred to doing what’s right, then it creates problems. It starts to affect the morale and performance of the team. And in the worst-case scenarios, they become legal issues. If you need to be liked and validated by your team, you won’t be effective as a leader and business owner.

How do I improve my skills to lead?

• Read leadership books. Listen to podcasts.
• Seek out leaders you admire and learn from them. What are they doing that works? Do their actions match their words? What do former team members have to say about them? Are they further along in their career?
  • NOTE: The size of a team doesn’t determine the success of the business or leader. This may seem contrary when size is a common status for “success”. It’s quality over quantity.
• Get feedback from your team 1:1. Find out what is and isn’t working. Find out what they did and didn’t enjoy with past managers.
• Hire a leadership coach to guide you in creating a plan, identifying and resolving issues, and supporting your growth with different perspectives and encouragement.

I spoke with a hiring manager, today, who asked if an applicant welcomed weekly 1:1s. They wanted to know how to work with the individual. I told the hiring manager the applicant welcomes weekly 1:1’s and if they didn’t have one they would be proactive in reaching out. These are signs of an A+ team member and proactive leader!!

Investing in Your Team

Each team member has potential and value. It is the leader’s responsibility to encourage it and draw it out. Unfortunately, too many team members have their ambition and ideas shut out because of insecure managers who feel threated by talent. My hope is you choose to open the gate to grow together and let your differences inspire each other to do better.

How do I develop my team?

• Make talent development a priority. This works when you schedule dedicated time for it. Our calendars and checkbooks are the leading indicators of what we value.
  • NOTE: This means scheduling it in advance and committing to it. If you’re repeatedly rescheduling it, then your behavior shows they aren’t a priority. I encourage you to see it as an opportunity to connect instead of an obligation. This makes it more enjoyable and productive for everyone.
• Make it a daily practice to coach your team through encouragement and constructive feedback. Look for things they’re doing right. When there is a mistake, let them fix it.
  • NOTE: Project meetings have a different purpose than a 1:1 meeting. Similarly, grocery shopping together has a different purpose than a date with your loved one. One is functional and the other is relational.
• Create a plan for you and your team. Identify the skills for each team member to develop. Some skills may be position-specific. Some skills may be company-wide. I recommend all skills support the annual business goals and align with the company’s foundation (vision, mission, and values). Then determine what success looks like and how you will measure progress. If you need help creating a plan to track progress and success, let’s chat.

Leadership is a privilege and responsibility granted to you by those you serve. The best reward is seeing them grow and succeed with you and in their next chapter.

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