How Do I Get My Team to Do What I Want?
When you start your business, you and your team are often in the same room and that leads to a shared mindset on the work and culture. As you start to grow, almost every leader is frustrated with keeping all of the team on the same page.
CC0 2.0 Courtesy
As the owner you have a vision, mission and purpose for your business (whether you have articulated it or not). And your team has come to you with all of their history and baggage. This affects how they interact with you and how they work.
Then there is the halo affect that comes with being a leader. Everything you say or do is amplified because YOU are the leader. It can be compared to the parent child dynamic. For more information on this, look up Transactional Analysis.
There are a lot of things you can control as a leader and a lot more that you can’t. But an understanding of the psychology, structure, and cadence of communication with your team can help.
Here are some things to consider as you bring your team into alignment.
- What are the values and behaviors that will be tolerated in your organization? This is your culture. And what you tolerate is what you will get. Is this written down and communicated on a regular basis?
- If you frequently have people that are not doing things the way you expect, ask yourself, “what am I not communicating or being clear about”?
- Creating systems, policies, and procedures will reinforce the culture, the expectations, and agreements you make with your team. Instead of laying out “expectations,” of your people, I would suggest creating “agreements” with them.
- In your hiring process ask yourself, how will you identify the characteristics and attitude you want in your team? The templates and assessments look for skills. Those are easy. Character and attitude, this is where you find the gems.
If you want to grow and scale your business, you will need people. And when you add people to the mix, you now need to practice leadership in addition to your craft that built your business. If you would like to learn how to grow, scale, and expand your business, check out the Video here.