Dan Martell - How to Lead Your Startup Team Through Change

00:00:00.000 Hi, I'm Dan Martell, serial entrepreneur, investor and

00:00:02.540 creator of SaaS Academy and in this video I'm going to teach

00:00:05.480 you how to lead change amongst your team aka making tough

00:00:11.540 decisions, I mean we're talking pivots or price changes or

00:00:16.480 firing a ton of customers.

00:00:18.680 These are big changes.

00:00:20.060 Now be sure to stay at the end where I also share with you a

00:00:22.360 weekly sync format.

00:00:24.020 It's how I manage my teams today and have been for over a

00:00:27.560 a decade to get the most out of their productivity.

00:00:31.400 Specifically, once you've made your decision to change,

00:00:33.900 you're going to want to use this.

00:00:35.100 I'll teach you how to get that at the end.

00:00:49.980 So one of the big things that's going to come up when you

00:00:52.160 build your company as you're innovating, as you're pushing,

00:00:54.480 as you're growing to build this into a big,

00:00:57.480 meaningful entity is you're gonna have to disrupt yourself.

00:01:00.820 You're gonna have to change things.

00:01:02.060 You're gonna have to reevaluate the way you've done things

00:01:05.260 in the past to see if it's gonna serve you going forward.

00:01:07.500 And I gotta tell you, there are dozens of examples

00:01:10.100 in my own career building companies where this has come up.

00:01:13.900 Recently, just one of my coaching clients,

00:01:15.840 they were trying to go through a price change.

00:01:17.640 If you've ever thought about doubling, tripling,

00:01:21.040 quadrupling your prices and worrying that you're gonna

00:01:24.080 lose your customers, these are the kind of challenges that come

00:01:27.460 up that we need to kind of guide our teams through.

00:01:30.120 I know for me, I was building my company Clarity.

00:01:31.960 It was a marketplace for entrepreneurs to get advice

00:01:34.220 over the phone and before as a marketplace,

00:01:37.200 it was a utility, it was like a destination.

00:01:39.620 It was a software that people could use to kind of make

00:01:41.800 themselves available for creating a call list and that decision

00:01:45.440 to essentially shut down that part of the business and pivot

00:01:48.240 the whole thing into a marketplace was a tough one

00:01:50.340 because essentially, we had to get rid of 70%

00:01:54.080 of the seekers or people that thought they were experts 0.99

00:01:57.980 and make them seekers and we sent the email,

00:02:01.580 we timed it, we did all the things,

00:02:02.920 but it was still a big kick in the stomach

00:02:06.160 when it came to making the change.

00:02:07.660 It was a big, scary decision.

00:02:10.100 It turned out to be the best one.

00:02:11.420 We 4X our growth in the next three months

00:02:13.900 because of the clarity of focus on the product.

00:02:16.060 I even have one of my friends right now

00:02:17.900 struggling with essentially having to get rid

00:02:20.460 of 80% of their SKUs.

00:02:22.540 They sell a bunch of stuff that isn't profitable

00:02:25.540 but because they're worried about losing their customers,

00:02:27.740 they haven't made this decision.

00:02:29.080 It's been years and it continues to add complexity

00:02:31.980 into their operations and challenges.

00:02:34.480 These are the kind of challenges or frustrations

00:02:36.960 I'm gonna teach you how to overcome.

00:02:38.480 The change that needs to happen in your business.

00:02:41.020 It really comes down, for me, to these five key areas.

00:02:44.920 Number one, define the outcome.

00:02:47.020 Stephen Covey said it best, he says,

00:02:48.460 we need to begin with the end in mind.

00:02:50.280 For us to make big change in our business,

00:02:52.600 for us to disrupt ourself, when you look at companies

00:02:55.120 like Netflix and Apple, et cetera,

00:02:57.160 they're always asking themselves,

00:02:58.700 where is the market going and what are we doing today

00:03:01.160 that's just not gonna be relevant into the future?

00:03:03.300 Do we wanna wait for the market to push us to change

00:03:06.300 or are we gonna have enough courage today

00:03:08.180 to change it ourselves?

00:03:09.800 So knowing where we're going and getting your whole team

00:03:13.180 clear on that outcome, okay,

00:03:15.440 even if you're not excited about but the rest of the team

00:03:18.280 has hinted towards it, this is the decision we gotta make.

00:03:20.780 I think this will really be the most beneficial path.

00:03:23.180 Once you've gotten clear on the outcome,

00:03:25.980 you gotta define it, you gotta keep it as the true north star.

00:03:29.780 This is where people screw it up.

00:03:31.260 They start down the path but they forget why they're going

00:03:33.500 down there and then something might come up and you might

00:03:35.760 learn something new and then it gets,

00:03:37.160 the whole thing gets diverted.

00:03:38.600 You need to define the outcome.

00:03:40.340 As a business, where are you going?

00:03:41.660 Why is it important so that that being the outcome,

00:03:44.500 every decision is going to align with it.

00:03:46.040 So that's number one.

00:03:47.300 Number two is to sit down and discuss the challenges.

00:03:50.880 Your team has so much insights into their area of the business

00:03:55.240 that they could bring some knowledge and expertise around

00:03:58.880 what are the challenges going to be as you make this transition,

00:04:01.620 as you make this big change in your business.

00:04:04.780 And having them engage with that is how you're going to be able

00:04:07.460 to really fast track that or reduce the amount of missteps

00:04:11.460 you're going to have along that path.

00:04:12.860 So getting a clear list of challenges,

00:04:14.860 once you want to know where you're going,

00:04:16.440 clear list of things that you're going to have to overcome,

00:04:19.600 driven from the team, this is critical,

00:04:22.000 that it comes from the team,

00:04:23.600 is how you're going to build that action step

00:04:25.980 to move forward.

00:04:27.040 Number three, review the resources.

00:04:29.340 Once you know where you're going

00:04:30.680 and what things you need to overcome to get you there,

00:04:33.080 then you've got to ask yourselves,

00:04:34.180 what resources are we going to need

00:04:35.780 to make this change successful?

00:04:37.820 What capital are we going to need to reinvest?

00:04:40.160 Are we going to need some new software?

00:04:41.280 We're gonna need some new teammates.

00:04:43.880 Are people gonna need to be retrained?

00:04:46.180 There's so many things that I feel like founders or CEOs,

00:04:49.020 we just make decisions and we move on

00:04:50.660 and we don't ever ask ourselves,

00:04:52.660 to make this change, what are the resources

00:04:54.820 we're gonna require so that we don't find out

00:04:58.360 that we're understaffed, our teams maxed out,

00:05:01.740 or our customers are experiences suffering

00:05:04.800 because we didn't consider all the different challenges

00:05:09.040 that were gonna come up.

00:05:09.880 So understanding the resources, the funding, the capital.

00:05:12.720 The last thing you want to do is go down a path

00:05:14.380 and find out your cash flow is constrained

00:05:16.680 because you didn't realize how much money it was going to take

00:05:18.960 to invest in some new area of the business.

00:05:21.400 But understanding that, that's number three.

00:05:23.160 Review the challenges and the resources

00:05:25.760 required to get you there.

00:05:27.040 Number four, make it their mission.

00:05:30.140 So you have a team.

00:05:31.300 You're the founder, you're the CEO.

00:05:32.800 You're moving forward, you've set the outcome,

00:05:36.000 you've made the list, you look at the resources.

00:05:38.440 But now it's about making it the team's job

00:05:42.140 or sense of mission for them to carry it forward.

00:05:45.520 If you're the person always having to push and push and push,

00:05:49.280 it's just gonna be a never ending battle.

00:05:52.120 If you can make it the call to arms for your team

00:05:56.460 and said this is the vision we're going,

00:05:58.220 this is what needs to happen, if we do these things,

00:06:00.720 these great things will be unlocked for us

00:06:03.060 as an organization, as a team, right?

00:06:05.140 And you map their work to those outcomes,

00:06:07.800 That's how you can make it their mission.

00:06:10.740 That is the most critical part.

00:06:12.400 If you can't get buy-in from your team,

00:06:14.380 then you gotta take a step back and find out what's missing

00:06:17.200 because without their buy-in, you're gonna move forward

00:06:20.040 and you're gonna have people that sometimes,

00:06:22.440 not that they mean to, not that they're bad people,

00:06:24.120 but sabotage the progress.

00:06:26.360 They drag their feet.

00:06:27.680 They're not committed to it.

00:06:29.060 They're in meetings and they're bringing up

00:06:31.560 all these objections that you thought you've already

00:06:33.420 resolved in the past and they're still bringing them up.

00:06:35.120 So you gotta make sure that when the decision is made

00:06:37.360 and everything is clear and the resources are allocated

00:06:39.260 that you make it their mission to move forward

00:06:41.400 and get this change done.

00:06:42.740 Number five, commit to the change.

00:06:45.240 Once the decision's made, it's all about committing.

00:06:48.240 I think too many people are interested in change.

00:06:50.540 I think they're interested in outcomes,

00:06:52.240 but they're not freaking committed.

00:06:53.980 I'm talking about making a cadence on a weekly basis, okay?

00:06:58.020 And that's why the weekly sync is such a powerful training.

00:07:00.380 It's maybe it's a daily huddle.

00:07:02.120 Maybe it's a buy daily sit down with key folks in your team.

00:07:06.860 Maybe it's product or sales or marketing or whatever areas of

00:07:09.600 your business are gonna be most impacted by this change.

00:07:12.500 Making sure that as you start that process the frequency of

00:07:16.000 conversation is heightened so that you have that feedback loop

00:07:20.540 early so that you can resolve things to build that momentum

00:07:23.100 to make sure that people understand this is not an area

00:07:26.140 of interest for us.

00:07:27.280 We are committed to going through this change and we're

00:07:29.960 gonna make this, again, it could be cutting skews,

00:07:32.780 letting divisions of the business go.

00:07:34.980 it could be price changes, it could be raising capital,

00:07:38.520 it could be redesigning and pivoting the whole business.

00:07:41.160 But once it's a decision, you need to drive it forward

00:07:44.860 with a level of commitment that is maniacal so your team knows

00:07:48.660 that this is not something we're gonna pull back for.

00:07:50.620 We're going way, we're burning the bridges,

00:07:53.160 we're taking the beach ahead and we're gonna make this happen.

00:07:56.260 And that's the level of commitment that's required

00:07:57.860 to really drive change in your company.

00:08:00.400 So to really lead change in your organization

00:08:02.640 around these big decisions, you gotta focus on

00:08:04.740 these five key phases.

00:08:06.340 Number one, you have to define the outcome.

00:08:08.240 Begin with the end in mind.

00:08:09.520 Number two, discuss the challenges as a group openly.

00:08:13.380 What could go wrong?

00:08:14.620 Number three, review resources.

00:08:17.120 What capital, what team, what technology do we need to make

00:08:21.080 sure that we make this transition?

00:08:22.500 Four, make it their mission.

00:08:24.620 Make it so that the team adopts this call to arms,

00:08:28.840 this charge, this focus.

00:08:30.540 It's them that wants the change.

00:08:32.200 And number five, you need to commit to the change through

00:08:34.900 the frequency of conversation with different team members.

00:08:37.840 Higher frequency in the beginning to really build the momentum.

00:08:42.520 So as I mentioned at the beginning of this video,

00:08:43.820 I want to share an incredible resource to really help you not

00:08:46.740 only get your team performing but if you're making a change to

00:08:49.980 make sure you're measuring the right outcomes and that is

00:08:52.560 called the Weekly Sync.

00:08:53.580 You can click the link below to download your copy of the format

00:08:58.560 that I use every week.

00:08:59.800 we use this structure to go through as a team to make sure

00:09:02.740 everybody's on the same page,

00:09:04.140 everybody's driving forward the key metrics.

00:09:06.340 Be sure to check out the scorecard section

00:09:08.200 and the ROC review to really help you get clear

00:09:11.920 on what every person in the business is driving for.

00:09:15.180 And I also like the customer headlines.

00:09:16.720 That's just one of my favorite parts

00:09:17.980 where we actually open up the meeting

00:09:19.760 so people can kind of provide some customer wins

00:09:24.120 so that everybody else in the company are made aware.

00:09:26.600 So you can click the link below, download your copy.

00:09:28.760 If you like this video, smash that like button.

00:09:31.660 Be sure to subscribe to my channel.

00:09:32.960 If there's anybody that you care about that you think this

00:09:35.000 video could serve, feel free to share it with them.

00:09:37.300 And as per usual, I want to challenge you to live a bigger

00:09:39.400 life and a bigger business and I'll see you next Monday.

00:09:44.000 Ready?

00:09:45.000 Three, two, one.

Dan Martell - December 31, 2018

How to Lead Your Startup Team Through Change

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