#67: How to Scale Without Drama
While scaling a company, we as leaders often need to figure out how to become new versions of ourselves.
Bolder, brighter, more challenging our fears, less caring about what other people think, stronger.
We need to be able to identify our own weaknesses and to get out of our own way. Maybe repair a past relationship or improve our relationship with ourselves so we’re not holding ourselves back. Then developing new skill sets, both the hard skills and the soft skills of becoming a leader.
In my journey of leading multiple 6 and 7 figure businesses, I’ve found that at certain points in the company's growth, the company not only often outgrows the leader but the leader has to level up their skillset to keep up with the growth of the company. This presents the opportunity to learn new things and adopt new strategies.
And when this happens with a team, this often shows up with drama.
Want to scale without the drama? Be sure to tune into this episode.
Check out my new free training on www.yournextmillion.me, where several of my seven figure clients and colleagues share what they're doing in the next year to scale their businesses to the multi-million dollar mark and beyond.
Listen to the Show:
Laura (00:00):
When we're scaling and we hit different iterations of growth. We as leaders often need to figure out how to become new versions of ourselves; bolder, brighter challenge, our fears, caring a little bit less about what other people think. And overall, just becoming stronger. We need to be able to identify our own weaknesses or have coaches or consultants around us that can help us do that. Get out of our own way, repair a past relationship, often with ourselves, we get to show up and new ways, and there might be some things that are holding us back where we need to both develop new mindsets, as well as new skillsets, both the hard skills and the soft skills of becoming a leader.
(00:41):
This often can create drama within our organization. And today I want to talk about how we can scale in a way that keeps it pretty clean, where we can have those types of conversations, both with ourselves and the people around us that allows us to show up in the highest, best use of our leadership. And so those challenges are common they're often, and it typically is the primary reason why companies stay stuck, why they plateau, why they always feel like it's one step forward, two steps back. So in today's episode, I'm going to get into the specifics on how to scale your business in a way that is drama free.
(01:24):
So many entrepreneurs, dream of living a life of massive impact by creating a mega successful company, but only a tiny percentage of businesses actually scale to that point. And when they do it is so often lacking the very joy and freedom that got them into entrepreneurship in the first place. So on this podcast, we speak authentically on what it actually takes to scale your business in a way that creates freedom and joy that works for you, your team, and the incredible impact that you are meant to make in the world as a visionary entrepreneur. My name is Laura Meyer and I'm your host. I'm a serial entrepreneur wife, mom, to three. And I love talking all things business, especially digging into what it actually takes to scale joyfully to the multi-million dollar mark and beyond let's get started.
(02:13):
Over the years, as an entrepreneur and consulting exclusively with seven and eight figure women. What I've found is at certain points in the company's growth, the company naturally just outgrows the leader and the leader has to level up their skillset to keep up with the growth of the company, learn new things, adopt new strategies. And this can very much happen also within the team dynamics. And when this happens, the way it often shows up is with drama. We may need to learn how to run our finances differently than we have in the past, or implement systems, strategic planning, being able to make shifts in the way that we approach the business or get rid of things that we kind of secretly love and, and wished that we didn't necessarily have to. We often need to become more d ata-driven the way in which I like in it. When I'm consulting with my clients, that you often move from this season of hunting to the season of farming, where you go out, you try to figure out what the offer is, whether or not people will buy it, whether or not it has market validation.
(03:08):
And now you move into the season of farming where you need to kind of look under the hood of what's happening and figure out whether or not it can take it to the next level. And this is often where we have coaches and consultants that can help us elevate ourselves so that we can do that work. But oftentimes it shows up in drama. It can show up in a variety of different ways. It can be finger pointing, blaming, crying. Overwhelm is often how it shows up. And it starts out small, like little inflections, like little paper cuts, right? Of getting a little frustrated or getting upset at the customer or being upset at themselves or other people for getting things done in a certain way or not a certain way or poor attitudes at team meetings. But then what happens is that over time, it just increases.
(03:52):
If it's not dealt with, it becomes more and more apparent because the company continues to grow, right? Ideally, ideally you don't stop revenue to fix operational issues just because there are concerns. And many entrepreneurs will make this mistake. They'll shut off the faucet on the front end and their expenses increase. And then all of a sudden their profitability goes down. So in an ideal circumstance, the company continues to meet its revenue goals. It continues to also at the same time, just do more for the people in it, create more opportunity, create more upward mobility, generate new positions in the company that can be filled with additional hires, but the drama shows up. Ultimately when the company outgrows the pace of the people in it, this is when drama shows up. I'm going to say it again because it's so critical. Drama shows up when the company is outgrowing the people in it.
(04:46):
And what I find is that there's some pretty critical solutions to this that I think opens up the opportunity for people to level up so that they can keep up with the growth of the company. So the first is that ultimately drama comes from thoughts, the thoughts that this is happening to me or not, for me, the thoughts that other people have, some kind of answer that I don't have, or that there's this external circumstance, like an iOS update, for example, that's killing our ads and there's nothing we can do about it, right. Instead of saying to ourselves, well, somebody is figuring it out, right? Like somebody is running profitable ads right now. So what are they doing? And what can we learn about it? The thoughts that other people are out to get me or don't listen to me or don't follow instructions, or they get rid of my ideas or they don't get it.
(05:33):
That's where the drama starts. It starts about our thoughts about the work. And it's important to be able to have conversations because there's no upside to these thoughts. Right? But oftentimes it's where we can settle in and get a little comfortable. It's much more comfortable to settle into these limiting beliefs than to say, gosh, Hmm. How am I as a leader, as a manager showing up that's producing this result. And what are some of the other thoughts that I could have that produce a different result? The other thoughts might be what is the opportunity for me here to learn or to lead or to discover what's valuable in this situation that I want to take moving forward? What is it about this challenge that I could learn from benefit from, and ultimately grow as a person? Not only within my mindset, but skillset as well, because our thoughts translate into how we feel and ultimately become our actions and results.
(06:28):
So how can we take a step back and make that seemingly small tweak that creates it's this incredible ripple effect. A lot of times too drama comes from not knowing what you want, the outcome of an initiative to be like, everybody's busy, everybody's getting things done, right? But when you become specific with the outcome, it's very black and white, you either met the goal or you didn't, you either hit the number or you didn't. This takes a lot of emotion out of how you feel. Things went because we can talk about how we feel and what the other person feels and all of our feelings. And if you're a manager or leader, and you've ever had that conversation with somebody on your team, you know, two hours later, you've talked about all your feelings, but it can be really frustrating because there isn't a very productive solution.
(07:12):
So if the conversation around feelings comes up, the most important information to gather is to constructively identify what feeling drove that result and how to improve that feeling, which in turn will improve the results. So that's the first step. You have to know where the goalpost is and your team has to know how to win against that goalpost every single week. It is just part of the habits of your organization. So you can be numbers driven and it stops being so as objective as to how something went or didn't this culture of data and the culture of numbers becomes really helpful when you're scaling. It is very useful in avoiding any potential drama. So you hold somebody accountable to a number and they get frustrated or they get upset and they either honestly hit the number or they didn't. And this creates an incredible opening to having beautiful conversations about what the potential is to improve so that the goal can be achieved in the future.
(08:06):
And as a result, the individual can grow in their own leadership and their own management in their own career. Because ultimately we grow companies to not only create this incredible difference in the world, but of who we get to be and who we get to take with us along the way. The second way to avoid drama is to become dependent on a process. I always say, people are human. People are fallible. We make mistakes. We can miss things. We can forget things that's going to happen, but processes are processes, the process is either approved in good and in place or it's not. And I find that many leaders underestimate the amount of things that can be put into a process. So as you might know, I'm business partners with Kelly Roach, a really incredible influence and just leader in the online space. And she has another business with a woman named Ryan Dowdy.
(08:57):
And I'm always blown away by how they can pretty much take anybody with potential and develop them in what is typically a very complicated skill set, which is social selling. And they have this incredible process around something that most people would say is not trainable and not delegable. And I've watched them in a very eye-opening way from the outside, take somebody who is pretty junior and transform them into a killer social seller. So many people think that sale is just intuitive. You either get it or you don't, and there's some truth to that, right? But the fact is that when you develop somebody within a strong process, this gives so many people who might be otherwise underdeveloped or fairly green, so much potential to learn and grow around something. Again, that would seemingly be way too complicated to delegate. I find that most leaders underestimate what can actually be delegated through a process and even creative steps or creativity can be a process.
(09:58):
You can have a standard for what good looks like and what bad looks like and have it all documented. And the more that we can rely on a process, the less drama we have. It Becomes less about the person and whether or not the person quote unquote gets it, or doesn't get it and more around. Did they follow the process or did they not? The third is to always make any decisions about the business. What is best for the business I want to encourage you to make your business a living, breathing organism, a person, pretend that your business is a person. This takes our ego way out of it, because then it doesn't matter what I like or you like, or what I think, or you think, or what my feelings are or your feelings. What matters is, is this going to help this business, this living, breathing, growing organism that needs to be sustainable over time.
(10:50):
So it can take care of the people in it. It is going to help move this business forward and achieve our goals and be healthy and create a positive work environment. Is the business the priority, or is it the feelings or comfort of the individual? And the more that we can just take drama out of it. And the more that we can make it about the business, about where the business is going, and if it's aligned with where we want to be, then the less it becomes about any feeling or idea. And this can really reduce drama in a company. So asking the question, what is best for the business and know that whatever is best for the business will always be best for the founders, the CEO and the people in it, not what we wanted it to be or what we felt like it would be best, but what is best based on the numbers based on what we said we wanted to do this makes it so super clear.
(11:41):
So when things come up, being able to have those hard conversations with clarity around what you think an issue might be, and what you'd like to do is solve it. Isn't necessarily up for negotiation. Many leaders are very collaborative. I know I fall into this category. I'm extremely relationship oriented, which is why I actually own a business on building relationships, which is The Advance. I love people. I'm very collaborative. I love connecting and brainstorming and coming up with ideas and with people. And a lot of times, yeah, as leaders it's lonely, right? So we want to partner with our team members and collaborate with them. But sometimes what I have found is that this can get in the way of clarity. We can accidentally show up vague when we treat our team members as a place to brainstorm and collaborate. So it's really important that as a leader, you notice it when it comes up and that you be able to pull somebody aside and say, listen, I don't know if this is something you've realized, but this is a situation that I'm noticing.
(12:40):
And maybe we aren't being clear enough about what the outcome is here. And there's probably no upside to the way that we're working right now. So for example, we're just blaming the customer. There isn't a lot of upside to that while it can really feel good in the moment, it doesn't create an outcome that's best for the business. I know that your goal here is to XYZ, right? I know your goal is to, you know, create a six figure salary and have bonuses every quarter. And that isn't necessarily going to create this result. So we need to shift gears here and look at it from a different angle. The truth is drama's part of our lives. And to a certain degree, it's totally inevitable. It can come up at any time. It's hard, how our brains are wired. Our brains are to look for danger.
(13:25):
So we are constantly going against the current here and having an environment where people can be very honest about what they're experiencing without feeling judged, but by feeling supported, this is the key here. And the thing is, is that human beings, we love drama, right? That's why we love movies. Cause there's always drama. And sometimes we even create it when it doesn't exist by making things too important or stressful or urgent. And this happens because we are human. And a lot of times our egos can get in the way of what we actually really want, right? Like what we really want this incredible business that makes a huge impact on the world. But when we focus on the drama, it creates an outcome that is the opposite of what we actually want. It's not what we're seeking, just because our brains are designed to not always be able to focus on the right thing.
(14:14):
So we need to create consciousness around this and conversation. So I would recommend that you try to reduce any drama that you see in your organization, as much as you can, because as big picture visionaries, the more that we dream around huge goals and the more that our business grows, the more likely that drama's going to show up. And it's actually easier for it to become more escalated as the company gross. Cause there's just generally more moving parts, right? So if you could approach the business from a place that's not as dramatic, you'll actually be able to grow faster without overworking with stress and more joy. Looking at something as face value and not necessarily getting held up or making up stories about what it means or doesn't mean. Just because again, our brain likes that high intensity- it's designed to look for danger and sometimes it can make something out of a situation that isn't really there.
(15:08):
So this can also often happen. If you have too much of a cult of a personality within the leader, I know that I have been guilty of this. You become the hero and you come in and you swoop in, and this is admittedly something that I have struggled with in the past. I like to save the day I like to fix the issue. And then whenever there's drama, I come in and fix it. But what I've done it recently is that I've realized that it's actually much better to kind of be a boring hero, right. With just goals in place. And did we meet the goals or did we not? Do we follow the process or did we not because this prevents drama from ever happening in the first place and as I've become less vague and more clear as a leader, my companies have been able to scale with just so much joy without overwhelm and yeah, sometimes it's day to day is a little boring.
(16:01):
But what I've found is I sometimes appreciate that boredom because it gives me so much freedom in my life to enjoy the other aspects of who I am outside of entrepreneurship who want to start with the numbers and make them up about the facts. And it's so critical to have good, honest, open conversations that really help us look at the business from a perspective of being extremely data-driven. So here's the key when we can actually respond to what the business needs in a way that's not dramatic, you can use more energy in your organization to be fully productive. And this is what happens when companies grow and you just keep hiring and everybody's busy, right? Like they're busy but not productive. And I am such a fan of making sure that your team is operating fully productive so that they don't overwork and you can create tremendous results in 40 hours a week or less.
(16:54):
So you want them to work really hard in shorter hours so that your team members can stick around for a long time. You have low turnover and they can free themselves up for their best life outside of work. And that you can experience joy and your team can experience joy while producing these incredible results. So when we take a deep breath and we know that a lot of times being able to just follow these three principles around being, data-driven making evaluation about the process and making any decisions about the business for the best interest of the business, it gives us this incredible opportunity to, again, scale our companies in the most joyful way possible.
(17:38):
Hey there: before you head out, I want to let you know about a free new training I have right on a brand new website called yournextmillion.me. It's yournextmillion.me, where several of my seven figure clients and colleagues share what they're doing in the next year to scale their businesses, to the multi-million dollar mark and beyond. And I have to tell you, it is not what you think. So check it out at yournextmillion.me. And if you loved this show, will you subscribe to it and share it with a friend or just say something nice about it to someone, you know? I’d really appreciate it so much. Thanks so much for being here and I'll see you next time.
The Scale with Joy podcast dives into the mindset and strategies of scaling your company to the million dollar mark and beyond. Each week, we follow the journeys of innovators, disruptors, experts and leaders - sharing behind the scenes stories of their most challenging moments and greatest lessons learned-all while building their multi-million dollar empires.