Latest / You're Overqualified Podcast - Career and Leadership Strategies for Women / 103. How Founders Turn Chaos Into Systems Without Slowing Down

Transcript

103. How Founders Turn Chaos Into Systems Without Slowing Down · You're Overqualified Podcast - Career and Leadership Strategies for Women

• 0:08
  Hi, I'm Danny Tan and if you are here, you are in the right
• 0:11
  place. Welcome to the Pivot and
• 0:12
  Promotion podcast where we say forget the rules because they
• 0:15
  weren't written for us. I'm Danny Tan, I'm your host as
• 0:18
  well as career and leadership coach and a proud advocate for
• 0:21
  redefining what success and leadership looks like.
• 0:24
  And here's what I know. You can lead at any level, you
• 0:27
  can pivot at any age, and you can make moves that feel right
• 0:30
  for you. Whether you're climbing the
• 0:31
  perfect ladder, starting something completely new, or
• 0:34
  just figuring out your next step.
• 0:35
  I've got you covered with strategies, stories, and
• 0:37
  straight up inspiration. So let's make some moves.
• 0:44
  Hello. So for today's episode, we're
• 0:46
  going to talk about how to turn chaos into systems without
• 0:50
  slowing down. And what does that even mean?
• 0:52
  It just means that if you feel like things are a bit chaotic
• 0:55
  right now or just crazy in general in your business, how
• 0:59
  that actually is more so a way of saying, hey, opportunity for
• 1:03
  a system, opportunity for a process.
• 1:05
  And that does not mean it's gonna slow you down.
• 1:08
  I think a lot of founders believe if they are creating a
• 1:11
  system, they're creating a process.
• 1:12
  Oh my gosh, we don't have time for that.
• 1:14
  It's gonna slow us down. We have to grow, grow, grow,
• 1:16
  move, move, move. And really, that's not true.
• 1:18
  You can take your chaos and turn into a system and not slow down
• 1:21
  South. Let's break it down South.
• 1:24
  Here's the thing. Growth will feel really messy.
• 1:27
  It's going to still feel super, super messy and that's
• 1:29
  completely normal. So you are not doing anything
• 1:33
  wrong. Chaos, the messiness, it's a
• 1:35
  signal that you've hit the edge of growth.
• 1:37
  There's like a growth edge that is coming up for you within your
• 1:40
  business. And so that just means that it's
• 1:42
  time for a little bit something. So as the team or business
• 1:45
  grows, decisions will start to start to, you know, kind of pile
• 1:48
  up, your mental load will start to increase.
• 1:50
  That's these are like some signals that you will notice.
• 1:52
  You'll be like, Oh my gosh, the team is growing, the business is
• 1:55
  growing. There's too so many decisions.
• 1:57
  I don't have enough time for all of them.
• 1:59
  My brain is like overloaded with things that I have to do.
• 2:02
  And most founders will wait too long before they shift from
• 2:05
  being reactive to strategic. And so that is usually a signal
• 2:10
  of like, Hey, you are about to, you're hitting a growth edge
• 2:12
  here. It's time for you to like level
• 2:14
  up essentially, for a lack of a better term.
• 2:16
  And so these are the signals that you should start to notice.
• 2:19
  It's that, no, it's, it's going to be a little bit messy and
• 2:22
  that's telling you it's time to make some big decisions in order
• 2:25
  to be more strategic versus constantly being reactive of the
• 2:28
  day-to-day To Do List. And so I had a client who she
• 2:30
  was like, I just feel like I come in, she was coming in every
• 2:33
  single week and we were talking through like what her, her big
• 2:36
  thing she wanted to focus on for that week for the business.
• 2:39
  And she kept being like, I feel like I'm dropping all the balls,
• 2:41
  like I'm not getting everything done.
• 2:43
  I feel like there's always something like that I cannot
• 2:45
  complete. And that was because her
• 2:47
  business was scaling and she felt like she was constantly
• 2:50
  behind. But the thing was, was that we
• 2:53
  always had to bring it back to like, what are the biggest
• 2:56
  things that you're trying to focus on right now for yourself
• 2:58
  and for your business? And when you're looking at your
• 3:00
  massive list of things you have to do, what actually is going to
• 3:03
  help serve the purpose to move those things forward of your
• 3:05
  goals, right. And so versus feeling like every
• 3:08
  single thing has to get done, you know, what are the most
• 3:11
  important things that she specifically needed to focus on
• 3:13
  in order to move it forward? And then to create a decision
• 3:15
  filter to reduce the noise. Because if your team, if
• 3:19
  everyone on your team in your company is coming to you like
• 3:22
  make this decision, make this decision, help us with this,
• 3:24
  give us your POV on that. It is going to take a lot of
• 3:28
  mental load. It's also going to feel really
• 3:30
  chaotic. And you're also going to feel
• 3:31
  super behind on your specific To Do List.
• 3:34
  Now, yes, of course, if it's a company of yours is everybody's
• 3:38
  roles and responsibilities and tasks technically roll up into
• 3:41
  yes, But there are certain things that you need to focus on
• 3:44
  as the leader of an organization to move it forward.
• 3:47
  So we had to sit down and clarify what was her focus in
• 3:52
  this organization versus the different departments and teams
• 3:54
  in her organization and what did she need to focus to move those
• 3:57
  things forward. So when she was getting hit with
• 4:01
  everybody coming to her to make decisions, to ask for her input,
• 4:04
  she had a look at, OK, what are the things that I have to move
• 4:06
  forward this week and what are the things that they can go
• 4:09
  ahead and have some autonomy to move forward on their own.
• 4:13
  So she created a decision filter that if it was something that
• 4:16
  had to do with a decision in these certain areas that the
• 4:18
  team could drive it forward and recap her afterwards.
• 4:21
  If there were decisions that were going to be made on certain
• 4:24
  areas over here, then she would be the one who'd have final say.
• 4:27
  And so we essentially created like a decision tree and a
• 4:29
  filter for her to reduce the noise that she was getting from
• 4:33
  the meeting she was having, from the messages she was getting
• 4:36
  from her team to what she truly needed to focus on.
• 4:38
  So she went from being like completely overwhelmed of all
• 4:40
  this like chaos in in constant overstimulation to being able to
• 4:44
  lead and focus on what she need to do for herself and for the
• 4:48
  overall business. And so when she would come into
• 4:50
  their calls, it was much different.
• 4:51
  We could focus on strategy, we'd focus on what she want to do for
• 4:54
  the next quarter versus constantly trying to like fire
• 4:57
  drill all decisions. It created a need.
• 5:00
  This chaos created a need for a system in place with decision
• 5:03
  making. And so question for you is like,
• 5:05
  where are you blaming yourself for chaos in your life, in your
• 5:10
  business instead of seeing it as a signal that maybe it's time to
• 5:13
  create a system instead or maybe a way to lead a little bit
• 5:16
  differently Because we are really quick to say, I can't get
• 5:20
  everything done on my To Do List.
• 5:21
  I can't get everything delivered, what needs to be
• 5:23
  delivered. So that means something about
• 5:25
  me. But and really that usually
• 5:27
  means something else, whether that is a system that is missing
• 5:30
  support that is needed or a boundary that needs to be
• 5:32
  created. And so noticing that the
• 5:35
  messiness and the chaos does not mean something about you, but it
• 5:38
  meets me that is potentially missing that is a support.
• 5:42
  So think yourself what something you're potentially blaming
• 5:44
  yourself for that unreality just maybe needs a system or
• 5:47
  potentially a way for you to lead differently to support
• 5:50
  yourself as well as those around you.
• 5:52
  And so here's the next piece that comes in is that systems
• 5:55
  don't have to be rigid. They can be human.
• 5:58
  A lot of founders will say, well, I'm growing really fast,
• 6:01
  or the team is really small or we do not have enough time.
• 6:04
  So we can't create these systems.
• 6:06
  We don't have time for the systems.
• 6:07
  We have to be focusing on this, this and this.
• 6:09
  And so, OK, I hear you. And is that going to help you
• 6:13
  scale? A lot of folks are worried that
• 6:15
  having a system or a process is going to slow them down from
• 6:18
  what they were doing. But in reality, no, what's going
• 6:21
  to slow you down is keep doing it the Band-Aid way that you're
• 6:23
  doing it. And then while you're scaling,
• 6:25
  everything falls apart because it was held together with like
• 6:27
  band aids and bubble gum. And so if you want to scale, you
• 6:30
  have to identify when there is like some chaos or pain points
• 6:33
  or things continually keep buckling in the same place.
• 6:36
  It's that's the signal to create a system.
• 6:39
  And so knowing that a system does not have to be rigid, it
• 6:42
  does not have to feel corporate or inflexible.
• 6:45
  You can create some kind of structure that has flexibility
• 6:48
  still, but then support something that needs to happen.
• 6:50
  So for example, a lightweight system, if that makes it feel a
• 6:54
  little bit like more digestible, can create more space, not less,
• 6:57
  because it's getting the capacity to make things a little
• 7:00
  bit more organized versus them falling apart on the other end.
• 7:03
  The key is creating a system that aligns with your strings,
• 7:06
  with your team dynamics, and with your overall org and what
• 7:09
  it values. So here's an example that I
• 7:11
  have. I have a Co founder who was
• 7:12
  stuck really always doing everything herself because
• 7:16
  whenever she was delegating something I'd be like OK
• 7:18
  delegate to this team, delegate to this team member.
• 7:20
  She was like Nope, everything is just slowing down.
• 7:23
  It just slows down so much more. And I said OK well delegation
• 7:27
  yes let's talk about it and break it down.
• 7:29
  At first could potentially feel like it's slowing the process
• 7:32
  down because you may have to teach initially or coach or
• 7:35
  mentor initially. If it's something that someone
• 7:38
  hasn't done before, it may feel slower at the like start point,
• 7:42
  but eventually it will speed up up because then that person
• 7:45
  knows how to do things. But the biggest thing was that
• 7:48
  she needed to also understand like what was going on each
• 7:50
  week. So we actually had to create
• 7:52
  like a dashboard for her team where in the dashboard it showed
• 7:56
  what was going on, what had to be prioritized and worked on.
• 7:59
  So that way while she was delegating, it didn't feel like
• 8:01
  it was slower for her to delegate things to each person
• 8:04
  by having a one-on-one with them and teaching them and coaching
• 8:07
  them. She could actually just create a
• 8:08
  dashboard and put priorities of what need to be done.
• 8:11
  So in her weekly leadership meeting, they'd have the they
• 8:14
  pull it up and she'd say, okay, what are your things that you're
• 8:16
  focusing on? They would, they would speak to
• 8:18
  them and then they would update the dashboard.
• 8:19
  That way everyone knew what the clear priorities were of that
• 8:22
  person for that week. And then ultimately she was not
• 8:25
  sitting there meeting one-on-one with every single digital person
• 8:28
  talking about their what their tasks were.
• 8:30
  She was having essentially like a weekly one time meeting with
• 8:33
  her leadership team, doling out the priorities, having a
• 8:36
  conversation about it and everyone goes and they run and
• 8:37
  they do it. Everyone's clear on what their
• 8:39
  focus on their focus is as well. This freed up so much time for
• 8:42
  her because first is her having these constant one on ones with
• 8:45
  every single person on her team. She was having in a way quicker
• 8:49
  organized agenda set meeting. Now that did not burn her down.
• 8:52
  It did not become inflexible, it did not become super corporate.
• 8:55
  It was just a quick way for them to get everything started.
• 8:58
  So it freed up at least six hours for her of her not having
• 9:00
  to sit in these one-on-one in meetings to focus on these
• 9:03
  things. She had a quicker touch point
• 9:04
  with folks and if they needed to have a deeper meeting with her,
• 9:07
  they could do that on a different level.
• 9:09
  And not everyone had them every single week.
• 9:10
  Some people were fine. And so she was able to start
• 9:13
  focusing on bigger picture growth.
• 9:16
  And so my question for you is like, what system could you
• 9:19
  build that would save your future self time, energy or
• 9:22
  decision fatigue, right? So if there is something that I
• 9:25
  would recommend is looking at your week, looking at the
• 9:29
  meetings you had, the work that you did and out of that work and
• 9:32
  those meetings that you had, what kind of like what drained
• 9:34
  you or what do you feel like, you know, fell to the bottom of
• 9:37
  your To Do List or what keeps continuing to be incomplete.
• 9:41
  Those are the signals of things that potentially need a system.
• 9:44
  So the things that are draining you, the things that keep
• 9:47
  getting pushed to the side, the things that are never getting
• 9:49
  done, like those are signals of what support potentially is
• 9:52
  needed to move those things forward.
• 9:55
  So it's important to then think about this is not when we have
• 10:00
  all this chaos, when we have all this messiness.
• 10:03
  Clarity is truly a leadership skill.
• 10:07
  It is the skill that you need as a leader.
• 10:09
  It's not just about an outcome because you do not have to have
• 10:12
  all the answers to lead effectively.
• 10:14
  No one's telling you like, oh, you are the Co founder, the
• 10:18
  entrepreneur, the the CEO. You must know every single
• 10:21
  answer. That's not true.
• 10:22
  That's not true at all. It's not about that.
• 10:24
  It's about being able to have clarity by narrowing your focus,
• 10:27
  by setting priorities and setting expectations.
• 10:30
  So that is the part that's most important.
• 10:32
  Clarity comes from communication, comes from having
• 10:35
  a clarity on what to focus on, what the priorities and like how
• 10:38
  to set expectation that makes sense.
• 10:39
  Your team can't follow you if they don't know where they're
• 10:42
  going, and you have to show them where they're going.
• 10:45
  And so the best way to turn this chaos right into a system is to
• 10:50
  be able to learn how to develop the skill of clarity and to be
• 10:54
  able to set the priority, set expectations and to show people
• 10:58
  where they need to go, right. And so I had a, a founder who
• 11:03
  was really, really struggling with team dynamics and burnout.
• 11:06
  A lot of folks were constantly feeling burnt out.
• 11:08
  She was feeling burnt out. And it was, in all honesty,
• 11:10
  because they kept shifting so many different things they had
• 11:12
  to do. She would have like things that
• 11:14
  she would have on her list. Like I'm focusing on inventory,
• 11:16
  I'm focusing on marketing, you know, I'm focusing on hiring,
• 11:19
  I'm focusing on doing this. OK, No, no, no, no, we got it.
• 11:22
  We need to stop with the constant, constant shifting of
• 11:25
  all the different priorities. Like let's create a way for your
• 11:28
  brain to feel more supportive where we have dedicated days or
• 11:31
  at least dedicated blocks where you're focusing on different
• 11:33
  priorities. They're going to move you
• 11:34
  forward. It was the same thing with her
• 11:35
  team. Her team was like constantly
• 11:37
  pivoting and jumping because she was constantly pivoting and
• 11:39
  jumping. If you don't know where to go,
• 11:41
  they don't know where to go. And so the biggest thing was
• 11:43
  creating clarity for her of how she needed to move through her
• 11:47
  day-to-day, her week to week of what she was focusing on to
• 11:50
  avoid this burnout of the constant change of the topic she
• 11:54
  was focusing on to be less reactive and to be more grounded
• 11:58
  on what it is that she was working on.
• 11:59
  When she was able to do that and her calendar got more clear, her
• 12:02
  team also was able to feel more clear and relieved because now
• 12:06
  they knew her direction. She knew her direction.
• 12:08
  And that allowed for there to be less amount of coming into each
• 12:11
  week feeling like they were depleted energy already.
• 12:14
  So it's important to understand like how clarity of what it is
• 12:19
  you're going to be focusing on week to week expectations and
• 12:21
  priorities can help and affect you as well as your team.
• 12:24
  So I'm curious for you, you know, in general, if you're
• 12:28
  thinking to yourself, like where do you feel like clarity
• 12:30
  potentially is lacking, right? We were like, I don't know, I
• 12:33
  don't know what I'm really doing right now.
• 12:34
  I don't really know what I'm doing this week.
• 12:36
  And maybe that's something that you just need to kind of like
• 12:38
  focus in on and start to break up and create a plan and
• 12:42
  structure for. So if you were to think about
• 12:43
  like in my in my week to week, I'm kind of always feeling like
• 12:45
  I don't know what I'm doing with this thing or it just feels like
• 12:48
  really messy and chaotic. What could potentially use some
• 12:50
  some time for you to sit with and create some clarity?
• 12:53
  And so the biggest thing I want you to take home is that when it
• 12:57
  feels like there is chaos, when it feels like it is messy, when
• 12:59
  it feels like it is all burning down.
• 13:02
  And reality is usually telling you that it's time that you're
• 13:04
  going to go to the next phase of growth and capacity in your
• 13:08
  business. And so that typically means you
• 13:10
  have to start to identify the patterns of where things are
• 13:13
  kind of falling apart or slipping and need support.
• 13:16
  And that will tell you a system that potentially needs to be
• 13:18
  created, some structure around there so you're able to move to
• 13:21
  the next, the next level of growth essentially.
• 13:24
  And that is your responsibility as a Co founder, as an
• 13:27
  entrepreneur, as a CEO. That is your responsibility to
• 13:29
  start to notice those things. Of course, yes, with your team,
• 13:32
  but especially how those things impact and affect your team when
• 13:35
  there is not clarity around them.
• 13:36
  So hopefully you found this helpful when it comes to what
• 13:40
  does chaos really mean, what does messiness mean and how you
• 13:42
  can create some search to identify them to see what
• 13:45
  systems and support potentially maybe needed.
• 13:47
  So you could essentially grow, right?
• 13:49
  Continue to grow and you don't have to slow down to do it.
• 13:51
  And so if you found this helpful, amazing.
• 13:54
  You can come back next week and there'll be more episodes.
• 13:56
  If you're curious of what it's like to work together, you can
• 13:58
  go to my website at Danny Tan DANITA n.com and that talks
• 14:02
  about all about coaching and working together, or that's
• 14:05
  strategy session, private coaching or group coaching.
• 14:07
  That's where I'm at. All right, talk to you soon.
• 14:09
  Have a good one.