Team – The GrowthGen Work-Life Framework

The sixth and final – but by no means least important - element of the GrowthGen work-life framework is the team.

Building a team within your business

Getting the right people in via the interview process is super crucial for your business.

Everything starts with honing in on people who will value your vision and be committed to it. As a business owner, CEO or Director, you want to build a team with enough shared vision that at times of need, they’ll stay back with you after hours to get the work done.

In this way, team ties right back into our first value of vision.

Make your team advocates for your vision

As we said previously, nobody understands your vision like you do. But you can still have advocates of your vision – and that’s what you want in your employees. They have to believe in your vision.

There may be times that they think it’s crazy or way too far-fetched. But it will only be times. If they can see progress and results coming from that vision, they will become advocates and believe in you.

Communication is essential

Communication is another key element in our framework. For your team, it has to be daily in some shape or form. You live your vision instinctively. For your team, you need to be constantly reminding them, ensuring they say it how it is and do it how it is.

Extending the team outside your own staff

In most industries, you have partners, sponsors and suppliers who are part of what you need to succeed. You need to bring these people and organisations into the team as well. Even your bank are important. If they buy into and believe your vision, financing will be much easier.

One thing we do with GrowthGen events, is to communicate the vision to suppliers, stakeholders, clients and speakers. As a result, they give us input on what they can do even better for the event, so we get a better delivered event.

Let’s take AV as an example. I might tell the AV guy, I’d love lights here, here and here. That’s sharing the vision. Then he says ‘I’ve got this machine which we can set up to do that’. I don’t need to be the expert, but I need him to understand the vision.

As General George Patton said, ‘Don't tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.’

Accept that you can’t be expert in everything

If you can’t trust an expert in some areas, you become the limit on your own business growth.

Often small business people are afraid to trust experts. They may fear that a staff member will leave and take the knowledge with them. It can be hard to trust a team. It’s a valid fear too. But if you’re going to grow, you have to trust. It’s another reason the interview process is critical to get the right person on board.

Hire based on attitude as well as skills

There is definitely a low supply and good staff in Australia at the moment. Unless you have a specific task you need expertise for, it can help to hire for attitude. The attitude of your core team is going to be a core part of implementing your vision. It has to align.

Also, skills are upgradeable. You can always teach your team skills, add to their skillset. Obviously, you need enough skills to see tasks finished, but after that it’s attitude. With the right attitude, you’ll grow skills, grow your brand, grow your business. Then you’ll start attracting highly skilled people with an amazing attitude.

What roles you need in your team

The core team for a small business usually starts with four roles. You the leader, plus marketing, sales and operations. Accounting, legal and HR issues can be outsourced until you’re bigger. You need the expertise, but you don’t need it full time.

Often the first thing to hand over is operations. As the business owner, your job is to manage and build the business. Yes, your hands-on skills are important, but you need to step beyond that. You need to give yourself time to work on the business.

Don’t start by handing over sales, either. Even if you don’t like selling, you have the vision and passion and leadership role to sell your products or services.

So the first aim is to get four people in those four roles and get them in sync. Then the next step is to jump in increments of 4.

What about solopreneurs?

Everybody has at least one team.

Even if you’re a solopreneur starting out, you have a team. You might not have any staff, but you have your spouse, your kids, your family and friends. Family members can sometimes be negative, but choose to spend time with the one who have the right intention for you and your business. Having those people around you will support you.

You may want to remain a solopreneur. There’s no problem with that, as long as it fits your lifestyle and where you want to be. But even then, you may want a team to support you, to help you get your life and business to the place you want them to be.

That’s one of the goals of GrowthGen. The GG boards can give you a team to support you and help you, without you having to grow your business. It’s about fulfilling your own vision and having the work-life balance you want.

That’s why we call it a work-life framework. The elements are the same, but they’re flexible enough to fit your work, your life and your vision.