It’s Not Your Team, It’s You

Summary

• I once had a Director of Finance who kept saying her team wasn't smart enough and she needed more people.
• She struggled to get anything done and kept complaining about her team.
• I decided to bring in a CFO and replace the Director of Finance.
• The new CFO believed the team was simply not trained well and lacked clarity.
• With the new CFO's guidance, the same team went from delivering financials 30 days late to just 3 days after month-end within 8 months.
• The department's culture also improved, shifting from everyone deferring to one leader to having many leaders within the department.
• The main issue wasn't the team's intelligence but the previous leader's ability to teach and provide clear direction.
• Swapping a bad teacher for a good one unlocked the team's potential and significantly improved performance.

Video

How To Take Action

I would suggest implementing a few strategies to unlock your team's potential and improve your business’s performance.

First, evaluate the leadership within your team. Sometimes, the problem isn’t the team members’ abilities but the guidance they receive. Ensure your leaders are good teachers who can provide clear direction and proper training. This can be as simple as conducting regular feedback sessions or setting up short, focused training workshops.

A good way of improving team clarity is by setting clear, specific goals. When everyone knows what they need to achieve and by when, it significantly boosts productivity. You can use simple tools like task lists or project management software, many of which are free or low-cost.

Another important strategy is to cultivate a culture of leadership within your team. Encourage your team members to take initiative and make decisions. This can start with small, low-risk tasks and gradually increase in responsibility. It helps develop confidence and fosters innovation.

Lastly, make continuous learning a part of your culture. This doesn’t need to be expensive or time-consuming. You can share useful articles, podcasts, or short courses relevant to your field. Regularly scheduled, brief skill-sharing sessions can also be very effective.

By focusing on better leadership, clear goals, encouraging initiative, and continuous learning, you can significantly boost your team’s performance without needing to hire more people or spend a lot of money.

Full Transcript

she kept saying they weren't smart enough she need to hire more people and like she can't get anything done and so I actually ended up bringing in a CFO and having her swap out that Director of Finance and that CFO literally ran the same team because I was like listen are they the right people all I've heard is bad things for the last 6 months she's like listen they've just been trained wrong they're fine they haven't been told what to do well they don't have Clarity they haven't been trained but within a period of 8 months you we went from having financials delivered 30 days after we closed the book to having financials within 3 days of the month being closed and we went from having a culture where everyone just seemed like they deferred to their leader to having many leaders within the department in this instance my Director of Finance didn't believe people were dumb but she was not a good teacher and so simply swapping somebody who is a bad teacher out for somebody who's a good teacher I got to actually tap into the potential of the team that already existed