How To Create A More Autonomous & Self-Sufficient Team

This is SSN Story Studio Network.

Lauren: This is The Biz Doctor Podcast, and I’m your host, Lauren Goldstein.

Hello and welcome back to the show. In today’s episode, I’m gonna talk about three simple things you can do as a business owner and leader of your team to create a more autonomous and self-sufficient team. This is honestly one of my favorite subjects to walk through with my clients because there is nothing that can get you closer to true entrepreneurial freedom than a high-performing team that can run without you.

So let’s dive in, shall we. First, I wanna talk about perhaps one of the hardest habits to break, but the most worth. Being reactive and also being always available. Let’s start with being reactive. You guys have heard me talk about this time and time again, and you know the drill. Something happens when the team comes running to you to see what they should do, so you drop everything and try to fix it on the spot.

Ugh, it’s the worst, right? You just got in the zone, you’re working on stuff, making progress, and then all of a sudden thing blows up in your business and then your day is off the rails. It’s the worst. So here’s a few ways to break this habit. First, stay it with me. That sounds like an interesting problem to solve.

I cannot address it right at this moment, but I do have time in about an hour or later. I know, I know. I just felt everyone panic who heard me say that. So let me give you a bit more context. There are rarely, and I mean rarely any cases in business where something is a stop, all the presses call 9 1 1 and the fire department, we’ve got an emergency.

I know that sounds strange in today’s, I want things yesterday, kind of society and mentality and quick fixes and instant gratification. But honestly, there are very few things that are a true emergency. My team knows that. My joke is, unless somebody is bleeding, there’s bone showing or someone’s dying.

It’s not actually an emergency. I, it’s really not. So take a moment, realize that it’s probably not an emergency and it doesn’t need to be done in this. The reason for that is really acting in crisis mode where emotions are heightened and critical thinking is lessened, is a recipe for, you guessed it, more mistakes down the road.

So not only is it super stressful, but it can create other mistakes and create that ripple effect. Just take a moment. So here’s an unlikely side effect to not being emergent or reactive with your. Your team actually slows down too, and I can safely say nine outta 10 times where I wasn’t available. They sent a slack 10 minutes later that said something like, nevermind.

We figured it out. It wasn’t that big of a deal as we thought. All good. Now, like honestly, think back to all the quote unquote emergencies that you’ve dealt with over the past. How many were actually emergencies and how many could have really easily been solved by somebody that wasn’t you. I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say probably a lot.

Which leads me to the second part of this. I know us business owners have big egos and like to be needed or even feel important, but guess what? Being available all the time or being the bottleneck of your business, you are actually creating a team that is hobbled and reliant on you, which means that you are inadvertently painting yourself into a vicious cycle of codependency that won’t enable you to step away from your business effectively to say, I don’t know, have a.

So take a breath, take a beat. It’ll decrease your stress load. It’ll help you run your day instead of the other way around. Plus, no one likes having to put out fires all day and getting nothing else done. There is nothing worse, honestly. Is there really anything worse than feeling like you just spent your entire day doing nothing but running around like a chicken with your head cut off, putting out fires, and now you’re exhausted and more behind?

I don’t think so to drive this point. It has been scientifically proven that humans cannot multitask, and for every distraction it takes about 25 minutes, 23 minutes, 15 seconds to be exact, to get refocused. According Gloria Mark, who studies digital distraction at the University of California Irving, distractions don’t just eat up time during the distraction.

They actually derail your mental progress. Forget this, up to a half hour afterwards. And that’s assuming that another distraction didn’t just pop up in that half hour that you’re trying to get refocused. In other words, that 30 seconds to check slack isn’t just 30 seconds down the drain. It’s 25 minutes and 30 seconds.

What makes it even worse is that not being interrupted is actually seeming like a pipe dream. The average person gets interrupted. Every eight minutes. Eight minutes people, and half of those are self interruptions. Hello. Notification ding. Okay, so now that I’ve gotten that outta the way, , we’ve got you off of Tiny Fire Triage.

Let’s talk about the second level of getting you out of your team’s way and empowering them. You’ve heard me talk about this on other episodes, but my favorite question to ask to empower your team and to also suss out if I have a player or a worker bee in front of me is this question, how would you suggest we do this?

Ugh. I love it. It’s so simple and so profound. Just picture this, your team has come to you with yet another problem. Instead of you taking off the other hat you were wearing and putting the problem solver on and trying to figure it out for them, you say, Hmm. Tell me, how would you suggest we solve this or do this or accomplish this and see what they say?

They might just surprise you. And the reason I love this question so much is it gives the ownership back to them. It puts them in the driver’s seat, which makes them more invested in the solution. And again, most importantly, it takes you out of the equation. Again, you’ve heard me talk about this before.

My single most important goal when working with my clients is getting them out from under their business and their teams. So when you take you out of the equation and actually let the team to start to think without your expertise, not only do you suddenly have more time in your day, you also, and more importantly, suddenly get to see them step into their superpowers.

And chances are they’re actually gonna find a solution that is better than what you could have. Now I will add a caveat here. I am not advocating for you to abandon the ship or go Mia. That is not what I’m saying. What I am saying is taking some time to really be discerning about what does and really doesn’t need your input.

When you build the right team for you and get the right butts and seats, then you will have no trouble trusting them to come to you when you are really needed and running it without you when you’re. and if you’re not sure if you have the right team for you or if you have the right butts in your seats, I have many episodes before this one that will help you figure that out.

And if  you really need help, please reach out. There is nothing that I love more than helping you design the right team around you. So now I’m gonna bring you home with the rule of. Now I feel like I need a slight disclaimer with this one cuz it might trigger some of you listening, but trust me, this one is solid gold, the role of three.

It states that you cannot ask me an impromptu question unless you’ve consulted three other places. Those places being our internal KB or knowledge base, one of your other teammates or. I know this might sound harsh, but what I’m actually doing is helping them sharpen their critical thinking skills and getting me out from underneath the business because it stops being a never ending merry go round of, Hey, can I ask you a quick question?

Hey, do you have five minutes or slack after slack? After slack? After slack. Now, I’m sure you’re saying she, she sounds like a treat. Poor employees never being able to ask questions. Not even close. My friends, we have weekly and sometimes daily huddles when we’re in crunch time where the whole team comes with questions, blocks, and support requests.

What I love about these meetings is, again, it is efficient. It takes out the reactionary norm that causes most businesses to run around like chickens with their heads cut off. It gets the team to be more proactive with what they need, where they’re stuck and increases communication and collabo. Oh, and it also gets rid of my biggest pet peeve in business silos created by competition.

That attitude is like cancer, and I cut it out as soon as I can find it. The best businesses do not have silos. They have collaboration, and the only competition they have is with yourself to do better today than you did yesterday. What I also love about the rule of three is it uncovers areas in a system or s o p that need to be created.

Because if it’s not in our internal kb, no one on the team knows and Google came up short. That means it’s a concentrated risk because the answer only lies in my brain, which again means that it’s harder for me to step outta the business when the team can’t read my mind. The same is true for you business owners who are listening.

So much of the institutional knowledge we have about our business, our customers, our SOPs, processes, et cetera. Are so valuable, but they’re only valuable when someone beside us knows it. Cuz here’s the truth, we all know our birthday. We do not know our death day and not to be morbid, but we don’t know if tomorrow we’re gonna wake up.

Sick. We’re gonna not wake up. We’re gonna be on vacation. Like there’s so many unknowns in life that if you have a lot of institutional knowledge that’s stuck in your head and not at the tips of your team’s fingers, then you’re in for a rude awakening. Because one day will come where you won’t be able to get to the office and things are gonna stop.

So my advice to you is be proactive. Get those things out of your mind. Put them in a place the team can. Readily reach them and just be open and aware. You know, when things pop up like this, you can say, okay, that’s an opportunity to get this outta my brain. Let’s make an s o p. Let’s make some sort of process.

Let’s put it somewhere. So to recap, the ways to have a more autonomous and self-sufficient team are breaking that reactive muscle and not being available 24 7 to your business year. , which reminds me if you want to know about the ultimate stress test for your business, go back and listen to season one episode 19 next.

So getting yourself outta the way with my favorite question is number two, how would you suggest we do this? And the number three, implementing the rule of three. I know all of this might seem very simple or  commonplace. It’s a little harder than it sounds, but trust me, when you put in the work and the consistency of these three things, you will be amazed how it changes your team, your business, your life.

Suddenly people are having more fun. You’re having more fun. I mean, there’s nothing I love more than when my team comes to me and. So we have a problem, and these are the three ways that I suggest we fix it. Which would you like or my even most, most favorite is? So this happened, we fixed it. Here’s how we make sure that it’s not gonna happen again, which I talked about in the previous episode of how to make the most of your employees mistakes.

So, Guys, I know this is a little bit of work upfront, but you will thank me when you have an autonomous, self-sufficient, high performing team because there is nothing better than true entrepreneurial freedom in the space in your day to work on the business instead of in the business. Or take a vacation, or take a break or take a nap.

Who cares? The point is empower your team with these three different ways and you will. All right guys. That’s it for this week’s episode. Whew, that was a juicy one. Thanks so much for listening in. If anything I shared sparked something in you, I’d love to hear from you. Let’s connect. Tag me or DM me on Instagram at it’s Lauren Goldstein or LinkedIn, wherever you hang out on the interwebs.

Also, don’t forget to subscribe, so you are the first to get notified when our next episode is live and ready for your ears. Thanks so much for. Until next time.

So which part of your business needs love and attention? You might be wondering that. Hmm? Here are your next steps.

Head to goldenkeypartnership.com. Or the show notes below to schedule your diagnostic Deep dive.

Thanks for listening to the Biz Doctor podcast. If you love the show, please share it with your colleagues or tag me on social media, especially LinkedIn, and subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts.

This is Story Studio Network.