Creating Role Clarity In Your Team

The most sustainable way to grow your business is to have a team of people you trust to get the work done.

And the biggest bottleneck here is usually YOU.

For your business to grow, you need to replace things you’re currently doing that you don’t enjoy with activities that you’re uniquely gifted to do.

It’s not just about managing your time and tasks better, it’s managing your energy better.

Your ability to effectively redirect your energy is the key to scaling your business.

To do this, you need a rockstar team.

A team you can trust to get the work done.

But here’s the thing…

Most entrepreneurs suck at hiring and building teams because they get caught up in limiting beliefs about people and ineffective relational patterns.

In this letter, I want to talk about THE most important strategy for building a rockstar team: Role Clarity.

When you clearly define everyone’s roles, their responsibilities, the expected results and how success is measured…

You’ll start to unlock momentum, team efficiency, and ultimately, more profit.

Contrary to what most people think…

It doesn’t start with others, it starts with YOU.

Dan Martell said in his book Buy Back Your Time, “you don’t hire to add capacity, you hire to buy back your time and energy.”

The point of hiring and building teams is to create operational leverage so you can redirect your time and energy to what will grow the business.

Your goal is to shift your role from implementation to being the decision-maker and shot-caller. Then furthermore, to being a director of vision and strategy. And finally, a steward of leadership that builds more leadership.

So your work is to build a team that allows YOU to ascend roles where your work energizes you and grows the business.

And if you’re hiring effectively, you’re bringing on people who:

• Are going to enjoy doing the work you don’t

• Are going to do it better and faster than you

• Are going to be happier growing with you

It becomes a win-win.

So in the end, it is about people, but it starts with you.

Let’s dive in.

Whether you already have a team or are in the early stages of building one…

This letter will show you how to create Role Clarity.

Fundamentals of Building Teams

Before we dive into the step-by-step of creating Role Clarity, let’s talk about some fundamental principles of building and growing a team:

WHO not HOW

This is a concept first taught by Dan Sullivan in his book, Who Not How.

The idea is to be thinking WHO when it comes to solving problems and growing your business.

Entrepreneurs are natural problem solvers so our initial instinct when seeing a problem is to think: “HOW do I solve this problem?”

Dan shares that the more effective way of growing a business is to think: “WHO can help me solve this problem faster, better, and more predictably?”

• Who I can delegate the tasks that are draining my energy to?

• Who can I hire to replace me in this area of the business?

• Who can I go to who can help me solve this problem faster?

Thinking WHO is leverage thinking.

Leverage is how you scale a business sustainably.

Levels of Delegation

Role clarity comes down to getting clear on what you’re delegating to each person.

There are 2 levels of delegation you’re going to need to master:

• Delegating Implementation

• Delegating Decision-Making

Delegating Implementation is finding WHO can take the work off your hands and replicate the results (or do it better than you).

Delegating Decision-Making is finding WHO can replace or duplicate your thinking, decisions, and strategic responsibilities.

Delegating tasks and results replace you in the implementation role, allowing you to ascend to the Decision-Making role.

Delegating decisions replaces you in the Decision-Making role, allowing you to ascend to the Strategy and Leadership roles.

Right People, Right Seats

Role Clarity is not just getting clear on the roles but it’s also making sure you have the right people in the right seats.

Having the wrong people on your team can cost you your business.

Having the right people in the wrong seats can also cost you time and energy.

When it comes to rating your team members or hiring new people, you want to look for 3 things:

• Attitude

• Mindset

• Competency

Attitude is the most important.

If they don’t meet the standards and values of your team, they’re the wrong people.

• Are they values-fit?

• Are they positive?

• Are they coachable?

• Are they open-minded and communicate openly?

• Do you enjoy working with them?

Mindset is the second thing to look at.

Do they have the level of thinking you need for this role?

If you’re looking for a WHO to delegate implementation to, then you’re looking for a doer. Someone who’s results-oriented and has the tenacity to get things done right.

If you’re looking for a WHO to delegate decision-making to, then you’re looking for a thinker.

Someone who can think like you and proactively problem-solve like you.

Putting someone with a doer mindset into a role you’re wanting to delegate decisions to will be setting them up to fail.

They can be the best implementer ever but they will still fail at the role because they don’t have the mindset required to succeed.

Competency is the last thing to look at.

Do they have the skills and experience you’re looking for?

Have they done what you’re hiring them to do before?

You want to look for these 3 things in order because Attitude and Mindset cost more to train than Competency and skills.

A low-competency person will cost you money. You’ll need to invest to train them or it’ll cost you to hire someone with more skills and experience later on.

An unfit mindset person will cost you time. You’ll need to invest your time to train them how to think better.

An unfit attitude and values person will cost you energy. You and your team’s energy.

You’ll waste your time and energy dealing with this person, only to realize at the end that you’ll need to let them go.

Having the right people is half the battle, the half is putting them in the right seats or roles that match their talents and mindset.

3 Levels of a Team

Speaking of seats, there are 3 levels or tiers of seats in a productive team.

The 3 Levels of a Team are:

• Level 1 - Implementors

• Level 2 - Managers

• Level 3 - Decision Makers

If you’re early on your journey of building a team, you’re likely building your Level 1 Team of Implementors.

You’re hiring and delegating tasks to people.

Then you’ll move on to building your Level 2 Team of Managers and Directors who manage the process and people of Level 1.

When building your Level 3 Team, you’re delegating decision-making and strategic responsibilities, essentially duplicating yourself.

Your Level 3 Team is typically your C-Suite team.

If a fully functional and productive company, you will see all 3 Levels in each Department of the business: marketing, sales, client delivery, operations, and finance.

A common mistake business owners make is putting people in the wrong levels.

Someone who is a great manager of people and processes doesn’t always mean they’re a great decision-maker.

I’ve seen this in many of my client’s teams where they put someone in the C-Suite role just because this person has seniority or a history working with them.

If you have a Level 3 person who you have to constantly show how to think or make decisions, they’re not fit for a Level 3 seat.

Creating Role Clarity

Ok, so we covered some of the fundamentals of building teams.

Let’s now chat about the step-by-step process for creating Role Clarity on your team.

These are the steps to creating role clarity:

1. Start with Areas of Responsibilities

2. Create an Accountability Chart

3. Create Role Scorecards

4. Put the Right People into Right Seats

5. Realign your Team

Let’s break down each one.

Step 1: Start with Areas of Responsibilities

List out all the functions and processes in each department, required to keep the business operating and growing.

A good place to start is doing an Energy Audit to see where all your time and energy is going.

Then getting everyone on your team to contribute their key responsibilities.

Next to each process or function of the business, list who is currently responsible for this process.

There should only be ONE person listed next to each process or function.

However, there will likely be overlaps in responsibilities, multiple owners for some areas, or a lack of clarity on who is actually responsible for what.

That’s ok at this stage, just make note of it.

Now with everything on the table, we can begin to clean up and reorganize this into a functional team structure with clear roles and responsibilities.

Step 2: Create an Accountability Chart

Next, create an accountability chart of the team.

Bucket together the functions and processes into roles. Organize the roles into the 3 Levels of a Team:

• Level 1 - Implementors

• Level 2 - Managers

• Level 3 - Decision Makers

It is important to build the Accountability Chart based on what the team needs to look like for the business to effectively operate and grow.

Design the roles needed, then build the chart around that.

Don’t build your chart based on the people currently on your team.

What are the right WHOs that I need on my team for the business to grow?

Many people make the mistake of matching roles with their current people. You want to match the people to the right roles.

And if someone on your team doesn’t match a right role needed, then you don’t need this person right now.

A part of growth is learning to make the hard, but right, cuts.

Once you’ve designed the ideal Accountability Chart, what roles are needed, and who manages each role…

Let’s move on to clearly defining each role.

Step 3: Create Role Scorecards

Now you’re going to create Role Scorecards for each role.

A Role Scorecard defines the 3Rs of each role:

• Role - what is the title and purpose of the role?

• Responsibilities - what are processes, functions and actions this role is responsible for?

• Results - what are specific outcomes this role is responsible for?

A clearly defined role scorecard:

• Sets a clear expectation of performance and success for people taking the role

• Creates a foundation for a Job Description if you need to hire for the role

It’s important to be clear on the expected outcomes and results for each role.

Trust is broken when people don’t meet your expectations because you didn’t clearly communicate them.

Define clearly your expectations, find the right WHO’s, and let go of control to allow them to rise to the role.

You’ll need to invest some work and energy in creating role scorecards for every role.

You could delegate this task to managers to create the roles scorecards for the roles they’re responsible for leading.

But it is well worth putting in the work to gain absolute clarity on each role.

Step 4: Put the Right People into the Right Seats

Now you can start assigning people to the right roles.

You’ll want to do an evaluation of everyone to make sure they have the:

• Attitude

• Mindset

• and Competency

For the role they’re taking.

One thing to note is that human beings are dynamic and ever-evolving.

Just because someone was the right fit for a role doesn’t mean they will continue to be.

It’s important to really check in and analyze each person on your team, making sure that they are the right fit for the role AND are excited to grow in this role.

What makes you a great leader and business owner is having the ability to uncover someone’s zone of genius and find a role that will allow them to bring forth their best work.

The hardest part of this stage of the process is discerning who’s not a fit for their role, or any current roles, and letting them go.

A common mistake I see entrepreneurs make is holding on to someone who’s not fit for any role, simply because they enjoyed working with them or because they feel guilty letting this person go.

This mistake will cost you your business AND is a disservice to this person.

Everyone has a zone of genius and deserves to be in a role and company that allows them to grow and do their best work.

Holding on to someone when you don’t currently have a seat for them to flourish is a disservice to them.

Step 5: Realign your Team

Once you’re clear on your WHOs, now is the time to start aligning your team to the new team structure and roles.

This looks like having 1:1 meetings with everyone to realign them to their role and the expectations of their role.

If you have a bigger team, you can assign your team leaders to do the 1:1’s with their team members.

Then you just need to focus on aligning your Level 3 team.

Once everyone is clear on their roles and responsibilities, you’ll see a huge shift in momentum happen.

Momentum happens when people are clear on the vision and goals and have the autonomy to show up fully in the zone of genius.

Start with the Visionary & Operator

Before implementing this Role Clarity process with your team, I suggest you start where it matters the most.

With the Visionary (you) and your Operator.

Both of you are the central piece holding the team together.

Creating absolute clarity on your roles and responsibilities will make rolling out this process with the team easier.

You also model leadership by example.

Start by sending this letter to your Operator and have them spearhead this process.

Conclusion

There it is, the step-by-step process for creating Role Clarity in your team:

1. Start with Areas of Responsibilities

2. Create an Accountability Chart

3. Create Role Scorecards

4. Put the Right People into Right Seats

5. Realign your Team

Creating Role Clarity in your team will unlock momentum, team efficiency and more profits.

Need Help With This?

This process of creating Role Clarity is a huge undertaking.

I’ve seen some companies take up to a whole quarter to effectively implement on their own.

If you need help with this, I’ve opened up 3 spots (at the time of this letter) for my Role Clarity package.

My team can help you create the game plan and implement the full Role Clarity process within 4 weeks. Even faster if you have a smaller team.

Want my help with this, book a free strategy consult here.

Thanks for reading, I hope you found it helpful!

If you enjoyed this letter and think it will benefit others, consider sharing it (feel free to share a screenshot on social media and tag me)

Your Pal,

Colin

P.S. Whenever you’re ready…

1. I created some tools and resources here to help you take your business to the next level

2. Want to dive deeper on how to become a time freedom Founder? I’m launching the 20 Hour Founders Course soon, get on the waitlist.

3. Follow me on LinkedIn and Instagram for more tips on business and mindset growth