How to Encourage Team Member Initiative

Emily Thompson 0:00
Hello and welcome to being boss. This minisode is all about how to encourage team member initiative.

Kathleen Shannon 0:14
Today we are hearing from Rebecca about creating friendly, collaborative environment with her team members, both virtual and in person. But I'll let you guys hear from her first.

Rebecca Taif 0:27
Hi, there. I'm Rebecca Taif. I am founder and chief creative officer of Red Star creative. We are a full service creative agency in Baltimore, Maryland, mainly serving nonprofits. We're a little bit of a hybrid model in that we are virtual and in person. So people are working independently and home offices, as well as a combined team space, weekly team meetings in that space, weekly phone calls and client meetings. So those are the virtual in person components. And we're also a bit of a hybrid in that we are a combination of 1099 contractors which have their own set of rules, and YouTube team members. So it's a little different our environment. My question is within this environment with some of the levels of complexity, I'd really like to create a work environment to encourage people to really take that initiative, the leadership roles, making their own decisions on projects in a really friendly and collaborative work environment where people feel the autonomy, while still maintaining team expectations and deliverables. So I guess what I'm saying is, you know, how do you encourage people to really own the projects, have autonomy and make their own decisions, not worry about checking every little detail with management, but also still be accountable to work within a company framework, with deadlines and expectations, and timelines, and different things like that. So I would love your input. Thanks so much.

Kathleen Shannon 2:11
Rebecca, I love Love, love this question. And I think that the key to what you're saying here is framework, deadlines and timelines, I think that creating really firm boundaries that your team members can flourish within is really important. So the more you can outline your process and expectations, the more, I guess, secure your team members are going to feel in creating within those boundaries. One thing that I have found with my own team members, a breed creative, is really being the leader and showing them how I work. So not just telling them what they could do, but showing them exactly how I interact with clients, exactly how I delegate, and exactly how our process goes down, really gives them the initiative to make it their own. So and I also think that it's about not handing over all the keys at once, right? So whenever I first hired our virtual assistant, who is now our editorial director at being boss, and so much more than a virtual assistant, I was asking someone advice on how to manage a team member like a virtual assistant, how does it go down, and someone recommended to me don't hand over all the keys at once, like don't give them all of your passwords and, and access to everything that you've got going on. Give them one little bit at a time. And so I think that this is a great way to create team member initiative is to start small, and give them autonomy and small ways that they can build up confidence in themselves. So I think that's the big thing, too, is that sometimes team members don't have confidence because they don't know what their boundaries are. So again, I think that just having that framework of how you work deadlines in place expectations and boundaries is totally key to creating a encouraged environment. And it might seem even counterintuitive, like you're micromanaging or you're giving them too many boundaries. But I think it's the kindest thing you can do.

Emily Thompson 4:21
I agree with all of that. And what I want to speak to is creating a collaborative friendly environment to in that, like, you can give them the work to that they need to do but if you're not creating an environment that they want to be in, they're not going to be there. What I like to do and I think this is a pretty general like management tip in general, is just creating an environment where people feel free to sort of be themselves and where you are interested and you encourage them to be interested in each other. So whether it's, you know, learning a little bit more about them so you can ask them how their kids are doing whenever you see them next or if you Do you want to I don't know. I always like encouraging little like get togethers like we had our entire team at being boss Miami so that we could all hang out just as like friends and people and not as people working together. or whenever I had the physical studio in Florence, we made a point to play darts together on the regular. So I think like just having some like personal human time together is really key for breaking down some of the work boundaries on scheduled time that will enable people to more friendly and collaboratively interact during work time.

Kathleen Shannon 5:38
You know, we made magic in New Orleans and we soaked up some sunshine in Miami and now we are ready to cross the border and explore the six. That's right, Emily and I will be making our international debut in Toronto, Canada on October 1 2016 fresh books is bringing us to their headquarters for a live podcast recording, and some mini sessions around super important topics every creative entrepreneur needs to learn more about Be sure to join us there go to beingbossclub/Toronto for this totally free event. Thanks to fresh books cloud accounting. We hope to see you there.

Emily Thompson 6:17
Did you like this minisode Be sure to check us out on our website at being boss dot club. There you can find more from being boss including our full episodes minisodes and blog posts. And while you're there, be sure to sign up for our mailing list so that you can get access to behind the scenes and exclusive content from Kathleen and myself to help you be more boss in your work and life. Do the work be boss