Equipping Your Team to Innovate with Successful Business Systems

Growing your own business is an amazing experience, but it’s not an easy thing to do – and it’s not something you can do all by yourself. You need a superstar team behind you, one who is able to innovate and help you build strong systems.

When I started Upleveling Your Business 3 ½ years ago, I did a lot of the planning and executing myself – but I did have a small team of VAs working with me, and one of the things I delegated was the creation and documentation of our systems.

Today, I have a team of over 20 people, and I’m still intentional about allowing my team to innovate and build our systems. Today, I’d like to share how and why we do this!

Equipping My Team to Innovate

As a business owner, giving up control can be challenging, especially when your team is small or new. You’ve put a lot of time, energy, and effort into building your business, and you have a vision for it. As you grow, however, you’re going to need to delegate a lot of the “doing” to your team.

How will you manage this?

The key is clear communications and setting a structure your team can work with.

I expect my team to innovate, but I also provide them with a clear structure to work with. Each of my team members knows how and when to propose ideas, when to get approval, and who to collaborate with when the proposed change may involve multiple departments.

Did this take some thought and planning? Of course – but it prevents my team from running amok or implementing new systems without approval. This allows each person to innovate, but also keeps everyone on the same track!

But, the question may still remain: how do you hand over that responsibility to begin with? It can be a bit scary to allow other people to have a say in how your business runs.

That’s true, and it’s a mindset shift that may need to be worked through. What helps me is remembering that I handpicked every person on my team for a reason. Not only do they have skillsets that match their role, they also have strengths, experience, and perspectives that are different than mine. If I really want to grow a strong company, I need to be willing to listen to and consider each of those. I love hearing the ideas my team comes up with!

The key to this is to make sure your whole team knows that you mean it and that your calendar reflects the priority by having time when people can share their ideas and give feedback. 

Providing Training and Growth Opportunities

I am a lifelong learner, and the willingness to learn and grow is something that I value in each of my team members. As much as I love to learn, there simply aren’t enough hours in the day for me to dig deeply into every area of my business…but I can empower my team to grow in their zones of genius.

For example, while I enjoy marketing, I may not have the time to stay up to date on all the changing algorithms and best practices. However, I have people on my Marketing Team who research that for fun and can keep me up to date!

This holds true in every department. I have Admin Team members who enjoy learning about new ways to streamline processes and record keeping methods, and my Bookkeeper loves to stay up to date on new updates to our Financial Programs. (She’s also amazing at automating ways to keep other departments in the loop on payments and purchases so we can better serve our clients!)

At times this does come with an investment on my part, but to me, that investment is more than worth it. Often, I’m purchasing training that I would love to attend if I had the time, but I’m taking it a step further. By equipping my team with the training and opportunities that best suit their strengths and goals, I’m not only helping them to grow (which is something I love to do), I’m also equipping them to bring what they learn back to the rest of the team!

Building Systems Step by Step

As much as I wish growth would happen automatically, that’s just not reality. It takes intentional planning, action, and consistency.

The same is true with building your systems! This is not a “once and done” project – building your systems is something that will happen over time. Of course, there will be an initial “build,” but as your company grows your systems will evolve with it.

This is where your team can help. As they take over more of the “doing,” they should also take over more of the process of refining your systems. After all, they’re the ones who are best equipped to know what’s working and what’s not!

This should be done incrementally, though. Have each of your team members submit 1-3 new pieces of a system per week. This could be anything from Policies or a Procedures, to a checklist, a video, a workflow, or a diagram. Over time, your systems will become stronger and stronger!

If you would like help figuring out which systems to build and putting the right structures in place, please contact us – we have solutions for every size and stage of business. We’re here to make the process easier so you can focus on growing your business and living your life!