197: From Overlap to Ownership: Aligning Your Team for Success

Hi there. Welcome back to the Professional Creative. Have you ever tried Glow in the Dark painting? I have. Recently I attended one of my favorite events, which is Impact Mastermind with Stu McLaren. And he always bakes in this ridiculous activity at the beginning. And so we kicked off this Mastermind with the perfect high energy activity. A bunch of creatives gathered in a room with buckets of neon paint and full permission to have fun. Now, I am a responsible person. I'm an organized person. Let's keep things clean and under control while having fun kind of person. So naturally, I set a goal for myself. Don't get paint on my clothes. Specifically, don't get paint on my shoes. So I suited up and I covered everything and I carefully navigated my way through this painting session with precision. And when I finished painting, I stepped back to admire my ridiculous butterfly success. My friends, not a speck of paint in my hair. My brand new Adidas still pristine. My black T shirt and jeans untouched. And then one of my dear friends, Nicholas Wilton, gave me a giant hug and I was glowing. I had paint everywhere. In my hair, on my shirt, not on my shoes. Though suddenly, my carefully laid out plan no longer mattered. Because while I had been crystal clear on my goal, I. I had forgotten to communicate it to anyone else. And this, my friend, is where I gave neon paint the upper hand. As a business owner, you probably communicate with your team often. But do you ever feel like your team is rowing in all different directions? Today, I want to talk about communication and working together towards a shared vision. The idea for this conversation first struck me while I was covered in orange and pink paint. Yes, it did. In this episode, I'm going to share with you how to align your team so that everyone is working towards the same goal with clarity and purpose. So if you're a small business owner, this one is for you.

I'm Bonnie Christine. And this is where all things creativity, design, business and marketing unite. I'm a mama living in a tiny town tucked right inside the Smoky Mountains, running a a multi seven figure business, doing the most creative and impactful work of my life.

When I first set out to become

an entrepreneur, I was struggling to make ends meet and wrestling with how to accomplish my biggest dream of becoming a fabric designer. Fast forward to today. I'm not only licensing my artwork all over the world, but also teaching others how to design their creative life and experience experience the same success. I'm here to help you spend your life doing something that lights you up. I'll help you build a creative business that Also creates an impact, changes people's lives, gives you all of the freedom you want, and is wildly profitable. Welcome to the Professional Creative Podcast.

When you first launch a business, it's pretty natural for your team to take an all for one and one for all approach. Everyone kind of jumps in and everyone is wearing multiple hats and problem solving and working together to keep things moving. And that's wonderful. And also, as your business grows, the way that your team operates needs to change as well. Without these super defined responsibilities, things begin to get blurry. They can feel chaotic, priorities overlap, communication can get messy, and people can kind of start stepping on each other's toes instead of working together without even realizing it. When challenges arise, and they always do, no one knows who to turn to for answers. And so individual team members kind of create their own makeshift systems and ways to organize and manage their projects. And that's all natural. It's expected to happen, but it's what we're going to talk about today. Because without clear roles and responsibilities, your team can almost function like bumper cars. And so each driver spends a lot of effort trying to get from point A to point B, but it has little to show for it, and frustration can lead to burnout. And everyone longs for the guidance of stoplights and traffic lanes. At the end of this episode, I have a special freebie for you that is going to help you avoid this. It's a template to help you map out your team's roles and you're not going to want to miss it. First, let's take a moment to imagine the alternative to this. So your team operates efficiently and in sync. They're all rowing in the same direction. Each member knows their role and understands how their contributions drive the business forward. So they have a lot of ownership. Projects are completed on time because everyone takes ownership and follows through to the end. And everyone puts in that little extra effort motivated by a shared commitment to their teammates. Your meetings feel fun and productive. Problems get resolved quickly and big goals are checked off the list on schedule and with excellence. Your team genuinely enjoys the process too, which is probably the best part. This is possible, and I'm here to show you how to make it. At the start of last year, our team faced a bunch of challenges. We had role conflict, we had confusion about priorities and responsibilities. We had a lack of alignment. We were all kind of rowing in different directions and it was starting to show in our progress. So my executive team and I sat down to help get our team back on track, and we focused on clarifying who Owned what? And aligning those priorities. So our challenges resulted in better communication, fewer bottlenecks, and a stronger, more connected team. Motivation and progress. Super. Took off after this and I was reminded just how much joy a team can experience when there's a clear roadmap and ownership of each individual role. And I want your team to experience this too. So here I'm outlining four steps for success. The first one is creating an accountability chart. It's the first step to fostering team ownership. It's magic. So grab a pen and the biggest piece of paper you can find or a whiteboard or whatever you you use. Maybe use like Miro app and begin mapping out the roles and responsibilities for every team member. You can make a list of everyone on your team and name their current roles and then write out what each team member is responsible for. Now, if you don't have a team, you can also do this with an imaginary team. Maybe you have a bunch of different roles, maybe your name is in each of the seats. But pulling it out to an ideal team will allow you to understand all of the different roles that you are currently filling. Take time with this process. It is detailed work, but it's super worth it. Once you create your accountability chart, you're going to have a clear picture of how your entire team operates under that vision. So take a step back and ask yourself, how does the structure align with our vision? Are there any projects that don't fit with our vision? Is there any overlap? Are there too many people working on the same task? These questions are going to help you pinpoint where ownership can be streamlined and responsibilities refined. The next step is to look at each project and fine tune who does what so everyone is set to do their projects and succeed. You can use something called gwc. Once you've created your accountability chart, you can use a concept called gwc. This stands for Gets it, Wants it, has the capacity. This framework helps ensure that each team member really excels in their role. It's kind of a way of making sure that they're in their zone of genius. So, for the members of your team, ask yourself these questions. Get it? Do they fully understand their role and how it connects to the big picture? Want it? Do they genuinely enjoy their work and feel passionate about it? Capacity? Do they have the emotional, intellectual and physical ability and time to perform the job well? So you can walk through each member of your accountability chart and ask these questions. If a team member is not the right fit for the job, you can simply shift their role to something that better aligns with those strengths so so you can adjust until everyone is ready for success and can fully feel this GWC in their responsibilities. Once your team members own their tasks, it's important to help them stay aligned with the vision and how can you do this well, Rocks is one of our favorite tools from our team's operating system eos and you can learn more about this in the last episode. These rocks are 90 day priorities that align with our one year goals and so ROCKS help answer the big question what is most important right now? So by breaking our goals into smaller focused steps we can avoid overwhelm and stay on track. ROCs make it much easier to assess and hold each other accountable for work that needs to be completed. As you and your team create rocs make sure that they're specific, measurable, attainable and realistic and can be completed within the next 90 days. That is the Smart Framework

if you are a busy entrepreneur like me, you'd rather spend your time on the work you love and growing your business than on a mountain of paperwork. Now, when my team started growing, I knew that I needed something to make complicated business tasks like payroll simple and personal. That's when I found Gusto. Gusto has been a game changer for my business. It's like having a fairy godmother for all the less glamorous parts of running a business. With Gusto, I can handle payroll and minutes and manage benefits and time off requests as well, all from one beautiful, intuitive platform. We've been using Gusto for over five years and I cannot recommend it enough. It's important to me that my team feels cared for and valued and Gusto helps me do that. Their platform is so easy to use and my team loves how easy it is to hop on the app anytime, see the status of their pay, their time off, and even their 401k contribution. So whether you're a fellow artist, a small shop owner, or anyone who values creativity and team spirit, Gusto is there to help you simplify the complicated parts of your business and so that you can focus on what you do best. When you're creating a business that you love, every bit of help counts. If you're ready to transform the way that you handle payroll, benefits and HR, visit bonniecristine.com Gusto that's bonniecristine.com gusto and join over 300,000 business owners, including me, who found their perfect partner in Gusto.

Now you have a clear picture for your entire team and confidence that everyone is in the proper role. So what's Next Communication Implementing a cadence of meetings is so important to keep your team on track. Along with naming our rocks and our weekly Level 10 or L10 meetings, we hold quarterly conversations to discuss our team rocks. These conversations are an opportunity to clarify expectations, hear each other's thoughts and perspectives, and if necessary, make kind of course corrections. These meetings last about 60 minutes every 90 days, which allows us to refocus and reset before setting the next set of company rocks. Now, in your quarterly meetings, you can evaluate what's working and what's not working. This is a chance for your team members to feel seen and valued and supported. It's also a time for them to share successes and what changes could help them excel even more. The beauty is that you've already laid down the groundwork. You've evaluated the team as a whole and you've given achievable projects to each member. And you've built a process to keep the projects aligned with the overall vision. Now it's all about fun, fine tuning, guiding each individual, refining each project, and building unstoppable momentum. So maybe you're still hesitating, or maybe you're wondering, you know, isn't it fine if everyone just pitches in? And I get it, because flexibility on a team is super valuable. But flexibility at full speed leads to chaos and it's not sustainable. It takes clear direction to make meaningful progress. I learned this lesson firsthand so many times. I had a big dream of becoming a fabric designer, but I didn't have a clear path forward. I was excited, but I didn't know where to begin and what happened next. I spent months spinning my wheels, unsure of what to focus on. I jump from one task to the next and rely on my motivation to fuel me. And it was hard until I took the time to define my dream. Then I started making progress, breaking it down into measurable steps. I began researching the industry, learning new skills, and building a portfolio. Having clarity turned my dream into something I could pursue. It made my progress tangible. Your team needs clarity to move forward with their projects, so take time to define your vision and communicate it with your team. Map out each person's goals and establish those clear measures to help them stay on track. Set up regular meetings to make communication easy. Doing this gives your team members the foundation that they need in order to move forward on those projects with confidence. Otherwise, they'll be spinning wheels like I was excited, but directionless alignment really begins with clarity Day Defining everyone's roles by making an accountability chart and look to see if everyone is working on the right projects, you can set quarterly goals and create consistent check ins to keep your team moving in the same direction. Leading a team to success, it takes a lot of effort and it's not easy. So let me take a moment to encourage you. You're doing amazing. You're taking the time to learn. You're considering the possibilities. You're stretching your process and you're growing and I'm so proud of you for this. I'm still learning. Every day I discover new ways to inspire my team and lead more clearly and efficiently. And I'm sharing these processes with you because I want you to have them at your fingertips so that you can flourish and find delight in your goals. Every step you take towards doing your dream or your business is a huge and impactful part of your story. Keep going if you're ready to start aligning, I created a free accountability chart template to help you map out your team's roles today. And again, something that's super powerful is Even if you are a solopreneur, mapping out the ideal accountability chart can also give you a lot of vision. Like I said, maybe your name is in every box for all the roles, but you'll see where you can begin to think, think bigger and appreciate how much you do for your own business. Thank you for being here, for carving out the time to learn and grow with me. I'm so grateful for you. Create the beauty that you want to see come alive and remember there's room for you.