Build to Enough

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Keila Hill-Trawick: Hello. You're listening to Build to Enough, a podcast for entrepreneurs who want to scale at their own pace. I'm your host, Keyla Hill Traywick, and I'll be your chief storyteller and cheerleader in a world that glorifies endless expansion, we're tuning out the noise and discussing the beauty of enough. Each episode will dive into inspiring stories, practical insights, and strategies to cultivate sustainable success on your [00:00:30] own terms. So whether you're a solopreneur, small business owner, or aspiring entrepreneur, get ready for a refreshing take on the entrepreneurial journey. This is build to enough. Hello. Welcome back to Build to Enough. And today, if you've seen the title, you know that we are talking about losing a team member. Now, no matter how it happens, whether someone gets fired or they leave on their own, losing a team member sucks. And when you are a very small team, [00:01:00] it feels like losing a limb. Now, when you lose a team member, it can affect the business in so many ways. It can affect day to day operations, team morale, client relationships. You start getting scared about burning the team out and it could hurt you financially if capacity is affected as a result. Now, I've experienced this several times at Little Fish and like I said, it's never easy. But I have learned a couple of things. The first, [00:01:30] it's inevitable people are going to leave no matter how good they are, no matter how much you enjoy them or they enjoy you, people end up needing or wanting something different.

Keila Hill-Trawick: And even if you're the best boss with an ideal working situation, at some point your team might want something different. The second thing is someone has to do the work. You don't have the luxury of putting things aside until you have time. Like in the meantime, while someone is gone [00:02:00] and the team that you have is still left, you've still got to keep doing. And while that can be hard, it's absolutely true. Finally, you're never going to be fully prepared. I have found that no matter how many of the processes and workflows and information that you have in place, you can't be automatically ready for when someone who was on your team has decided not to be. But there are some things that you can put in place to lessen the blow. At the end of the day, how you rebound is what really [00:02:30] counts. So today, I want to share with you an approach that you can follow in order to do that successfully. Let's get started. So step one is really understanding the impact. There are going to be a ton of mixed reactions and emotions that you're going to experience as an owner. When this initially happens, there is shock. All of a sudden you're like, I had this thing in order and now you're gone. I built this whole situation around you. I thought I was out of the work in this way, and now I've got to do it.

Keila Hill-Trawick: What am I supposed to [00:03:00] do now? There's fear related. You're like, how do I get back into this seat once you've made a plan and it's not working out, it can be scary to figure out what your next step is going to be. Next is frustration. I know that I have felt this in multiple ways. This idea that I'm so irritated, overwhelmed, and frustrated about, this idea that I thought that I had built out a team that was going to be able to support me, and now I'm one man or one woman [00:03:30] down. You have to start analyzing the ripple effects within your team and the organization as a whole. So you got to start asking yourself questions when you're determining the impact. How is this going to affect the team, whether that's morale based or workload based? What is this going to do to our remaining team members now that one person is gone, what impact will this have on the business based on the current workload and what's coming up? You may have been making plans to onboard new clients, start new revenue streams, [00:04:00] or create new packages. Does this affect your ability to do that and how many clients you can take on in the meantime, while you figure out what your next step is going to be? And finally, how much time do I have to address it? Like I said, the work has to keep going, but hiring can feel like a full time job.

Keila Hill-Trawick: So this idea that you'll just be able to turn around and hire somebody immediately is unlikely. That being said, you need to figure out what the next step is going to be in a relatively short period while you're getting together a temporary fix [00:04:30] to figure out how you're going to move next. Some common fears and concerns that you'll have to address are one. Increased workload. In very small teams, it can be really easy for everybody to feel full, and so it's hard to just take a full time position or even a part time role and just spread that out across the team. You've got to start thinking about how much work can your team take? What are the most important priorities that you want to make sure happen, and what are the things that you might have to let go until you get another body in that seat? The next thing, like I mentioned earlier, is [00:05:00] decrease in morale. Now, this is especially important for small teams or teams where there are very close relationships. If you don't look at this, which a lot of companies overlook, it can be easy for this to create a domino effect. One person leaves, other people start thinking, yeah, I was kind of thinking something was up here too, and I want to leave now.

Keila Hill-Trawick: Here's the thing. There's not a way that you can avoid that. Overall, there's always going to be some morale loss when somebody that you've worked closely with no longer is [00:05:30] at the job. But what I will say is you need to think about that as part of your plan. You can't just go on business as usual as soon as someone leaves the team, because again, there's some ripple. Effects to everyone who still works with you. Finally, think about the potential disruptions to productivity. It's not easy to just continue seamlessly when somebody's gone. Remember, it's like losing a limb. You had this whole setup of this integrated process of how people were going to work together, and now there's a huge piece [00:06:00] missing from that. So you want to start thinking about what that could do to your workflows. Can you still do the steps in the order and the timeline that you had set up? And if not, how can you adjust that so that the team can react well enough to be able to support your clients without burning anyone out. So once you've understood the impact and you've got a general idea of the landscape that you're working with, the next step is going to be to truly assess the situation. So you want to start thinking about why the team member left and those implications to the extent [00:06:30] that you can, it's really important to gather as much information from the departing employee as you're able to.

Keila Hill-Trawick: This will help you understand some areas where you can improve the employee experience and the overall team experience of working together. So is there something about the company or the work that caused them to leave? So are there company policies? Did they feel like they were burned out from a heavy workload? Were there issues with another coworker? Everybody's not going to feel as forthright to be able to give you all of the answers of why [00:07:00] they're leaving, but the more information that you can gather, the better you are off in the future in helping not only new team members, but making sure that your current team is being supported in the best ways. You also want to think about is there something missing within the role? So are there resources that could be provided additional support, whether that's meetings or trainings or anything else that can make sure that team members feel empowered to be able to do their jobs well and not get so frustrated that they have to feel like they have to leave as a result. Next, [00:07:30] highlight the importance of communication and transparency. During this phase, you want to maintain trust and morale within the team. One of the things that I have always done when someone leaves is to talk to the team about where I think we went wrong, what I think we can adjust for, and have some one on ones to make sure that no one else is feeling that kind of strife.

Keila Hill-Trawick: I want to make sure that our team feels held, they feel cared for as human beings, and that we are not treating them like machines that just continue to move. So I have those conversations. [00:08:00] What are the things that they noticed or have noticed about their own jobs or the team member that left? Is there anything that they think that I could be doing differently, or that the team could be doing better to support everyone who works with us during those conversations? You also want to seek feedback from the team members to get a sense of their concerns and perspectives. You don't just want to talk about the person that's leaving or how they're struggling in the role. You also want to talk about what's going right. It can be really easy when [00:08:30] somebody leaves to feel like you need to overhaul the whole business in order to support, but you got to find that balance. What went wrong and what are we already doing? Well, that could potentially be enhanced, but we've got something to stand on. Also, you want to get a sense of how this is going to affect you financially. So can you still perform the service when somebody leaves? It can mean that that level of service or that arm of the service can't be performed at all, or at least in the same way.

Keila Hill-Trawick: Be realistic about that, because it's going [00:09:00] to affect the client experience and ultimately potentially affect how much they end up paying you to do your work. Next, are there other aspects that will be affected? So are there services that we were going to put out that we can't do anymore? Does it affect other departments or other team members? So is there work that could only happen because two people could work together? That one side of that is gone. It doesn't just affect their department. When you're a really small team, you're not working in silos. And so that person leaving could financially [00:09:30] affect other work that you're putting out within the business, and you want to be aware of what that impact could be. Also, can you afford to hire a temporary fix or ultimately outsource that all together? You may have had somebody working in-house for you as an employee, and their departure really let you know that you don't need a full time person on your team to do that. You either need somebody who is more project based, or a firm or agency that you can outsource it to altogether. It gives you some flexibility because you don't have to do another hiring spree, [00:10:00] and it gives you some room if anything is needed that is living on the team or a contractor of some sort, that this is all that they do.

Keila Hill-Trawick: It does give you some flexibility. There are some pros and cons, but it's something that you can consider, especially when you're already one person down. So now we've figured out the impact. We've started assessing what we're going to do next. Now we want to strategize. So one you want to explore some proactive measures so [00:10:30] that you can look at the impact of losing team members in the future. Again, you never know when it's going to happen. Sometimes you might have some hints, but overall. It's usually a surprise when somebody leaves. So how can you make sure that you have a plan of action to redistribute tasks, revise your goals, and leverage existing resources so that when that time comes, you don't feel like you're caught up in a tornado. It might require that you reprioritize or put things on hold. [00:11:00] So you need to have kind of a lean plan. This is what we do when we're fully staffed and when we don't have everybody in place. This is how we run. It may not look exactly like the goal version of your business, but it'll help you get to know what you need to do next and how to be able to be flexible. As your team changes, it's important that you're realistic about what you can take on during the transition period. You may not be able to onboard as many clients or start as many new projects, and you need to be aware of that from everything [00:11:30] from your application process to your onboarding process, potential clients need to know that they may have to wait a little longer because you're not in a position to be able to support them fully that way.

Keila Hill-Trawick: You also want to discuss the potential for turning the setback into an opportunity for growth and improvement. You get to reassess roles and responsibilities. Was that the right job? Is it the wrong person but the right seat or is it the right person but the wrong seat? Is this the team that you really want to lead? Does it meet all the needs when [00:12:00] someone leaves? This is really an opportunity for you to stop and look at who you have hired to make sure that it's a good fit all the way around, and that the needs of the business are ultimately being met. Finally, make sure that you are maintaining team morale and motivation during the transition period. Small teams get hit the hardest with this because you work really closely together. When there are 5 or 10 of you, you know that person intimately, at least as a coworker, in a way that you might not see when there's 100, 1000, 10,000 [00:12:30] of you. So as a business owner, you need to clearly define what roles and responsibilities will look like in the interim. Make sure that there's open communication where team members feel comfortable coming to you expressing their concerns, questions and suggestions regarding the transition.

Keila Hill-Trawick: Remember, the people that work with and for you are the closest to the work. They've got insights that you might not be able to see on your own, and you'll want to check in with them more frequently through one on ones or team meetings to make sure that you're getting the most information [00:13:00] to make strategic decisions about where the business goes next, make sure that you're promoting a work life balance. It can be easy for everybody to fall into the trap of assuming that you're just going to have to max out your workload, and we will talk about what it means to be full in a future episode. But it can be understandable that the team all of a sudden thinks, oh my gosh, all this work is going to fall on me, and it's your job as the business owner to make sure that everybody doesn't get a fast train to burn out because [00:13:30] of somebody departing the company. You've got to lead by example, too. It's hard because you're going through a lot of emotions, all the ones that we named off earlier, and it is hard on your nervous system when you realize you're going to have to step back into a role that you thought you had handed off. That kind of stress is a different kind of burden. Not to mention you still got to pay people.

Keila Hill-Trawick: You still got to do the work. You still have to bring on new clients so that you're financially viable. It's a lot, but you've got [00:14:00] to balance tempering your own feelings while also being honest and vulnerable with the team. They'll have more respect for you if you can connect emotionally. If you can be honest about what this feels like without giving the pouring rain version right, you want to be able to share what you're experiencing, your feelings about this transition period, and how you plan on working with it, but you don't want to scare them or make them uncomfortable about the change. All right, so what does this [00:14:30] mean when someone leaves? When you lose a team member, you have to start thinking about what the next steps are going to be in rebuilding a team. You want to make sure that you get help. Um, we have gotten HR help in the past year. Thank you. Paradigm, who has really given us the support to be able to hire so that I don't have to do it by myself. As a business owner, you also want to make sure that you're proactive about the new team members values and goals within the organization [00:15:00] so that even as part of their onboarding, everybody has an idea of what this is going to look like. So as long as you're fostering a positive team culture and team environment, that's going to carry forward not just to your current employees but your future ones.

Keila Hill-Trawick: It's hard whenever you lose somebody, whenever you are back to doing the work, whenever you thought that you had built something that is coming back down, it's a really difficult pill to swallow, but there are ways to get ahead of it before it happens because [00:15:30] again, it is inevitable it will happen and there are ways to rebound from it in ways that don't feel like you're drowning. So if you are recently dealing with a team change, take some time. Take some space. Take a deep breath. But then you got to get back to the work. And while the team is going to have to keep moving and you are going to have to keep moving, make sure you keep you and the people who work with you at the forefront as human beings at the end of all of this, that is what helps [00:16:00] you to keep the team that you already have to avoid this happening as much as possible. Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Build to Enough. If you enjoyed today's episode, don't forget to subscribe, rate and share the love with your fellow entrepreneur friends, and make sure to sign up for the Build to Enough newsletter. The link is in the show notes. Stay tuned for more episodes as we continue to redefine success one intentional step at a time.