Okay. So today we are starting a mini series on the self managed team. So many of you guys come to me with this big, bold dream of this team that. You feel like a proud parent of like you are able to set your vision and your leaders Take that and own it. They figure out this is my part in achieving this They lay out the plan and they go do the work.
You're not having to look over their shoulder They're not constantly coming to you with endless questions and needing you to solve problems No, in fact, when they have a problem, they're coming to you saying, Hey, here's what's going on. Here's a solution as to what we're going to do about it. Can you help me identify any gaps that I may, um, be missing or help me overcome this specific barrier?
Like they're coming to you for ideation and that allows you. As that senior leader to pull up and lead strategically, to do the parts of leadership, you love to set the vision and to stand at the helm, to make sure your team is going in the right direction, to keep them on course towards hitting those goals, to making that impact you want for them.
It allows you to actually develop and pour into your team so they're not staying stagnant, but continuing to grow and able to make an even bigger impact. It allows you to focus on transforming how your team operates to make things better, faster, easier. It allows you to influence up for them to share the impact they're making, to build that case for better resources, better tools, better systems, so they can make an even bigger impact.
But right now you are struggling because right now you are trying to lead with the same systems That worked when you were a manager of a single team or an individual contributor, and I get it because let's be honest, most of us received zero leadership training. We simply excelled as individual contributors.
Because we were able to set a goal for ourselves and get crap done. We did the work and that same system that allowed us to succeed as an individual contributor largely worked at the manager level. When we had one team or smaller teams that we could be in the leads, that we could be pushing things across the finish line, that we could be checking work before it went out.
That we could be the one solving all of the problems. But then we step up into senior leadership, and holy moly it hits us like a ton of bricks. No longer do these same systems that got us here Work, because now we are leading a team of teams. And when you're leading a team of teams, you have more work, more people, more demands, and all of that equals more freaking chaos.
And I bet you're feeling it right now. It is so overwhelming. The amount of demands constantly coming at you. It is so overwhelming feeling like you are constantly playing the role of mediator between your teams. Ensuring that they are moving in the right direction, not stepping all over each other, not constantly fighting over what's a priority and why we need to focus on this versus that.
It is so overwhelming feeling like you and your teams are constantly drowning in work. Constantly busy. But in reality, when you go back and you look at those goals that you set for your team, those priorities, you're barely making a dent. And so what do you do? You think you need to work harder. We need to do more, produce more, work longer hours.
Produce more deliverables, do more projects because we're not making a big enough impact. And if we're not making a big enough impact, they're going to start looking at me as to why. What are we doing? What are we wasting our time on? We feel like we need to add more structure to feeling control. Maybe we just need more, uh, workload management tools, more standard operating procedures, more sign offs, more accountability, more performance check ins.
Because right now things feel so out of control. You are just craving a sense of feeling structure again, a sense of having the problem back under control and in your grasp, or maybe you're trying to be in everything still, because that's the only way, you know, How to fix it. That's what's worked in the past.
So you're stretching yourself so thin, trying to do all the things. You know, you're spending all day fighting fires. You get into the office and the second you put your coffee down, there's somebody at your door with a question. There's a bucket load of emails waiting for you and you're jumping around from meeting to meeting to fire drill to fire.
The next thing you know, it's the end of the day and your to do list hasn't been touched. So what do you do? You bring it home with you and you do the work at night. But let me tell you, those quote unquote solutions are a fast track to burnout. Becoming your new normal. They're the reason why leadership feels so hard and so freaking draining every single day.
They're the reason why sometimes you question if you're even cut out to lead at this level. If the sacrifices are even worth the payoff because we're operating based off of old systems. We have not been taught how to operate at this level. How to put systems in place that manage the chaos, that allow our teams to get done things with ease so we can pull up and truly lead at this level.
To do the work that we are actually passionate about. To have time to do the strategy and think at that level. To have the mindset capacity and bandwidth to think at that level. To be able to develop and pour into our teams and transform how they work. very much. We, in order to do that, you have to create the space for it.
You have to create the capacity for it. And that comes by having this self managed team.
Because here's the thing, you don't need to do more. You need to do less and make it matter. A lot of us have never been taught how to actually set a strategy for our team. And so what do we do? We just try to do everything and hope that something actually makes a difference. And that is due to the lack of a skillset.
When you understand how to set a strategy for your team, a vision as to where you're going and the things that you need to prioritize to get there, and more importantly, everything else that you don't need to prioritize. It helps control the overwhelm because you know, in a sea of constant demands, what requires you and your team's time's attention.
So yes, you're doing less, but gosh, it's making bigger results. You don't need to be adding more controls to your team. You need to be simplifying how your team works. Because every time you add a new control, a new SOP, a new RACI, a new sign off, a new workload management system, you're just giving yourself more that you have to manage as the leader.
You're just putting more in place that requires your attention. Instead, we need to get in there and strip all of that out. Boil it down to the simplest, easiest, fastest way that your team can execute without all the noise. And you don't need to be in everything. You need to learn how to truly empower your team and get out of the freaking way.
You need to learn how to set up systems. That allow your team to have everything they need to execute without you and do it in a way that you feel confident in their ability to do so. So you're not constantly stressing if they're quote unquote doing it right. That is how you succeed at this level. That is how you move from in the weeds to being a strategic leader.
That is how you. Move from constantly being at the edge of burnout to leadership, being simple, to being able to lead a team with ease and still have time, energy, and mental capacity to live a full life at the end of the day. So that's what we're going to be diving into throughout this little mini series here, focusing specifically on empowering that self managed team.
And this is going to be the next immersion program that we are focusing on within the liberated leader. So in liberated leader, every two to three months we do an immersion program. So our last immersion program was around activating strategy. This one coming up is around the self managed team. And what an immersion program looks like is, um, every few or every week or so you get new lessons dropped where we cover.
The topic in depth, um, these are short, actionable lessons. So think 20 minutes or less and things you can listen to on the go. They are podcast style. That way you are fully informed as to what you need to do to go execute. This is not a bunch of theory. This is like, here's what you need to know. Here's the exact system that you are going to apply to make it happen.
Because here's the thing, a lot of us are out there collecting a whole bunch of knowledge through podcasts, books, um, conferences, but knowledge is great, but until you apply it, you're not going to have a change. So these immersion programs were specifically designed for implementation. And that is why you also have All the tools at your disposal to implement think tools, templates.
Um, right now my leaders are actually have a mural board. So it's a virtual whiteboard. I designed for them that they're actually taking and going to do activities with the team. Like I make it so simple for you to go execute. You get me through Q and A's, you get me auditing your work because I want you guys to actually see the change.
I am so over leadership courses with a whole ton of fluff and theory that I've just invested time that I do not have into another thing where I have a notebook full of notes. And nothing actually changed about my team's day to day. We don't do that here. This is 100 percent about you implementing, and we've made it radically simple for you to do so.
So self managed team is the next one we're diving into if that is something where you're like, yes, I need this I'm gonna drop the link to the liberated leader down below so you can jump inside and not miss out If you have a question, send me a DM. I would love to chat with you guys about it Okay, go take something that you learned from this episode and apply it
