As a founder or leader, you've worked hard to grow your business and build your team. You spent countless late nights (and early mornings) strategizing and brainstorming the next big thing to achieve your goals. Growth was hard, but you made it happen. Now that you have a team in place, it's time you gave yourself a break and afforded them the opportunity to exercise their expertise to positively impact the trajectory of your business. But what if they are reluctant to share their ideas?
In this weeks episode of Automate Your Agency, Alane reveals the system she and Micah used to open the flood gates of innovation within their teams. Tune-in to hear how they re-engineered their culture and made next level improvements that would have otherwise gone unrealized!
Every week at Automate Your Agency, we dive deep into expert insights, practical tips, and success stories aimed at streamlining operations and fostering growth. In this edition, we explore a groundbreaking strategy adopted by Alane and Micah to harness the untapped potential within their team. Here's how they empowered their team to drive innovations that saved money, boosted client satisfaction, and cultivated a culture of collaboration.
Leadership Doesn’t Always Have the Answers
Leadership typically feels responsible for every decision, often stifling the potential contributions from their teams. This notion is debunked by the experiences shared by Alane and Micah in the podcast:
"When you're a leader and you're not doing the work, you don't have the same insight," Micah pointed out. This realization led to a pivotal change where they moved from a top-down to a more inclusive decision-making approach.
By establishing a system where employees could suggest ideas to save or make money, and then letting the team vote on these suggestions, Alane and Micah unlocked a treasure trove of innovative solutions. This system empowered employees to contribute meaningfully to the company’s growth and operational streamlining.
Using Simple Tools for Big Impact
One of the standout aspects of Alane and Micah’s approach was the simplicity and efficiency of the system they put in place. They utilized Slack, a tool already embedded in their daily operations, to create a straightforward channel for idea submission and voting.
"We did use Slack for it. We had a save money, make money Slack channel that the team could be a part of," Alane explained. This approach allowed for a seamless flow of ideas and ensured that all voices could be heard.
A standout example of this system's success was a shift in service focus suggested by a mid-level manager. The manager proposed replacing a service that clients showed little interest in with an initiative to remove negative reviews for clients:
"And instead we go all in on trying to get negative reviews removed for them. The team loved it. And you know who loved it more was our clients," Alane recollected.
Effectively, this change not only streamlined operations but also enhanced client satisfaction, showcasing the real-world impacts of such a feedback system.
Big and Small Changes Both Matter
The spectrum of ideas ranged from operational improvements to minor yet significant cultural initiatives. For instance, a seemingly simple suggestion of creating a company directory had a profound impact on team cohesion:
"People wanted to feel closer to the other staff members. So, some things were just simple like that," Alane shared.
Initially, leadership viewed such ideas skeptically:
"I even remember naively going, this is so dumb, why are we even putting this in idea channel?" Micah admitted.
However, the enthusiasm of the team proved otherwise, leading to stronger inter-team relationships and cooperation.
On the operational side, the shift to emphasizing the value of removing negative client reviews over less impactful services highlighted the direct benefits of these initiatives. Over time, the process led to large-scale improvements:
"We went from getting like four or five a year to, I think, one year we got 300 removed," Alane proudly stated.
Alane and Micah’s approach fundamentally altered their company dynamics, showcasing the invaluable nature of employee-driven innovation. Here are the lasting impacts of their strategy:
In a rapidly evolving business landscape, the ability to leverage the collective intelligence of your team can be a game-changer. As Alane and Micah demonstrated, sometimes the best ideas come from within, and setting up the right structures to capture and implement these ideas can lead to exceptional results. Keep the channels of innovation open, empower your team, and watch your business thrive.
Alane Boyd is a serial entrepreneur, passionate leader and a high growth founder (2x SaaS Exit and published author 3x). She is an Enneagram 3 with a Driver leadership style. She a visionary that believes in impact-driven, result-oriented leadership. Her skillsets focus on operations, sales, marketing, and technical skills. Alane has been featured and spoken at major events, including SXSW, Entrepreneur, Huffpost, and Goldman Sachs.
Micah Johnson is a serial entrepreneur, advisor, and support-driven leader (3x successful exits). He has successfully scaled businesses (and failed a couple of others along the way, for good measure). Micah is skilled at translating business requirements into requirements a technical team will understand while being able to provide clarity on design and the user experience. He is a visionary who can identify gaps in systems and markets and an implementor who can build and execute a plan to fill those gaps. His skills include operations, systems, automation, design, software development, and UI/UX design. Micah has worked with large billion-dollar brands and manufacturers, and has been featured in newspapers, business journals, and trade publications throughout the US.
Empower your team with efficient project management, unlocking their potential to streamline workflows, enhance productivity, and achieve remarkable success in every endeavor.
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