Hello and welcome back to the podcast. If you are a business owner or leader who is moving from doing everything yourself to leading a team, today's episode is just for you. This is episode 55, so I'm excited. We are continuing in year 2026, but this is episode 55. Sorry, got a little excited. And we are talking about the mindset shifts required to move from solo leadership to team leadership. I find that many of the people that I work with, they haven't made these shifts. I got support now. But in practice, this is where many leaders get stuck, frustrated or disappointed. Not because their team is incapable, but because the leadership mindset never shifted. And this is bigger than we realize, right? Because we carry that mindset into a team and then we wonder why things aren't working. And this could be why 70% of business owners say that one of the things that frustrates them the most, or one of the things that they have the biggest issue with, is managing teams. Many of us start out as solo by ourselves. We're doing everything. And then business grows or picks up and we start to hire, but we haven't made these mindset shifts that we need to make. And if you try to do it, that's where you're going to feel stretched and resentful and constantly pull back into the work you thought you delegated. You're like back into the weeds. So today I want to really talk through the key mindset shifts every leader must make when moving from solo to team. And we're not going to go into a lot of tactical tips, but these are foundational shifts that change how you lead, how you show up for your team, how you create sustainability within your business. So let's start. Let's go ahead and dig in. The first shift that I want to talk about is actually moving from being a doer to now becoming a designer. When we are solo, we're doing it all ourselves. And that works when everything runs through you. It's just you. But when you have a team, your value has to shift. Your job is no longer doing all of the work. Are there some things that you still have to do? Yes. But your job isn't doing everything. Your job is to design how the work gets done. You have to determine what this looks like. So this means that you have to put some structure in place. There are some foundational things that you have to make sure that you have in place so that your team is successful. So you gotta have roles and job descriptions. You gotta uh have expectations that are clear so people understand and they know what success looks like. You need to have decision-making authority so they know where to draw the line, right? What things that they can make a decision on versus what things they need to escalate to you or whoever they report to. Standard operating procedures are going to be big so they know how to do the work, workflows, priorities, all of these things have to be put in place. You become the person that designs all of this, and you want to have some things already in place before you start hiring, and then as you hire, of course, people can help you revise or update as things change, but you need to have something for when they get there. If you do not design these things intentionally, your team will create their own version that when they come on, if you don't have things in place, they'll start to make assumptions and and do things the way they think is best to be done. Or you're gonna have people that are going to consume a lot of your time because they have a lot of questions, because they don't know. So making sure you have these things in place is going to be extremely helpful because if you don't, that is where confusion and the rework and the time drains and the tension starts. So the hard truth is if everything still depends on you, you do not have a team. You want to make sure that you are giving them all of the tools that you need, they need to be successful. So this is the mindset shift that all of this stuff that's in your head, because you're a doer and you're doing it by yourself, it now needs to live somewhere. You now need to design this in a way that a team can come in and they could utilize it and they're not draining all of your time. Okay, so from doer to designer. First, I'm doing it all, it's only me. Second, I'm now designing it. What does my team need to be successful so that they're not fully dependent on me? That's the first shift. The second shift is moving from personal productivity to team capacity. When you are a solo leader, it's about managing your time and your energy. It's only you. But when you have a team and now you're moving into team leadership, it's about creating collective capacity. It's not just you. This is another area that leaders get stuck and sometimes stay stuck. They ask, how do I get this done faster? instead of asking, What would allow this to be done without me? We don't want our team to be fully dependent on us. So we need to be asking the right questions. And capacity is created through clarity, repeatable processes. A lot of the things that we talked about in mindset shift number one, being able to provide your team with this. Busy teams are not productive teams, but structured teams, they are productive teams. If your team is constantly busy, but progress feels slow, that's not a motivational problem. It's a design problem, it's a capacity problem, it's something that you need to fix. So really think about not just my productivity, because I'm still I still have to manage my time. But now as a team collectively, how do we get more done and the right things done? Of course. That was shift number two. The third shift is moving from control to clarity. I need to say that one again. The third shift is moving from control to clarity. A lot of leaders struggle to let go. But what they are actually struggling with is control, right? But when you replace that with clarity, that is where you really start to shine. This is why when this shift is not made, you have leaders that are say, oh, I'll just do it. It's quicker if I just do it myself. But then you're always doing it yourself. That's not serving the purpose. How does someone else get up and going? You know, how does someone else get up to speed if you're always doing it because it's quicker to do it yourself? You have to be able to identify these are the things that I have to do because only I can do, versus these are the things that I can delegate. It doesn't matter if you're faster at it. You're probably going to be faster at it initially anyway, which is fine, but you have to give people an opportunity. So you have to make that shift from control to clarity. Control shows up when expectations live in your head, when success is not clearly defined, and when feedback is reactive instead of intentional. Clarity replaces control when you define what good or success looks like, how decisions are made, when and how work is reviewed. Micromanagement is usually a symptom, not a root issue. When leaders get clear, crystal clear, they naturally loosen their grip. It's automatic. I have clarity, I have my processes, my workflows, everything is in place. It becomes easier, just naturally easier. I know that I've given them all of the tools to be successful, and then you could have checkpoints in there where you randomly go and sample, but you don't have to micromanage. All right, so that is a big one moving from control to clarity. Let them do it. And let me just add this sometimes the work doesn't get done exactly how you would do it. But are they doing what's expected? Sometimes we have to look at that. I just need to say that because we have a certain way of doing things. Maybe something needs to get done by 12, and your normal habit is you do it first thing in the morning. They may do it second thing in the morning. Is it getting done by 12? Is it right? Is it what you expected? As long as they're not missing steps and it's getting done on time and all of the things. Loosen up. You gotta loosen up. Okay. The fourth shift is moving from trusting yourself to building trust systems. This is another big one. Sometimes I get it, I get it. Sometimes it can be tough to trust, right? We don't we don't know. We don't know these people. As a solo leader, you must trust yourself because you know how you think, you know how you work, but with a team, trust isn't automatic and it must be designed both ways. You have to develop trust in them, and then you have to build systems that allow them to build trust in you. But keep in mind that trust is built through consistent communication rhythms, clear ownership, we know who owns what, and follow through. Once they see that in you, then it makes it easier to trust. So trust is is less about personality and chemistry, it is about systems that support real reliability. As a leader, not only do you have to be clear, but you have to be consistent, you have to show up consistently, you have to make sure everybody understands who owns what. And you have to follow through. If you say you're gonna do something, you have to do it. But it's the same thing with the team. You want the same thing from them as well, right? So it goes both ways. When leaders say they do not trust their team, what they often mean is there is no system in place that supports consistent performance, and you have to build that. This is part of what you're designing. You want them to consistently perform well. Well, there's things that you have to put in place to make sure that is happening. But first, the mindset has to be that I have to build some trust systems. All right, so our last shift, the fifth shift, is moving from reacting to leading intentionally. Solo leaders often live any notice, any van's notice two days ahead of time. It's me. I know everything that needs to get done. I know when it needs to get done. So I can be reactive if that's what I want to be. When something comes up, you just jump in and you fix it and you move on. But teams need leaders who set priorities before urgency hits. They need leaders that make decisions visible. They need leaders that create space to think instead of constantly responding. This is a big one, which is what I say. All of them are big, but this one is why I save the best for labs. You have to get out of the reacting mode and you have to lead with intentional. You have to plan things out, you have to set priorities. People need to know what they need to do when it needs to be done. Are there going to be some things that come up at the last minute sometimes? Of course, absolutely, but you need to be ahead of the game. Intentional leadership creates stability, and then confidence grows. And once they are confident in you, then performance grows. It's really hard. Think about it. You probably have been a part of teams where everything is a fire. Every time you turn around, there's a fire, and that's a that's a difficult place to be as a team member. So kind of put yourself in their shoes. So you want you want to make sure that you are being more intentional. If your leadership day is driven entirely by what is loud or urgent, your team will never feel grounded. They'll never feel grounded, and then their performance is going to suffer because they're all over the place. Let me just give you one bonus shift, and this is the shift of moving from success as output to success as sustainability. As a solo leader, success is measured by what you can produce. As a team leader, success is measured by what you can continue without burning you out. It's about sustainability. So if your team cannot operate without you or without your constant involvement, if things fall apart when you step away, if everything depends on you coming in and saving the day instead of systems, then leadership capacity has not been built yet. You want your team to be able to sustain certain things. If I need to step away, if I have a conference that I have to go to and I'm not fully there, your team should be able to depend on some systems, some workflows, some things that you this structure that you've put in place. They should not have to depend on you every minute of the day. You shouldn't have to have constant involvement. So think about that. If you have a team and you're constantly being pulled into the day-to-day, then you really need to, first of all, acknowledge that leadership capacity has not been built yet. And secondly, you need to go back and review the questions that they have and the things that they need your involvement in and put some structure, put some systems in place so that they can be dependent on those things instead of always depending on you. Because if you still have to have that continued involvement, what you've built is dependency. They've become dependent on you instead of relying on the systems and tools and structure that you have in place. So here's the bottom line: moving from solo to team is not about hiring fast or delegating harder. It's about thinking differently about leadership and having structure and responsibility in place. If your mindset does not shift, your team never will. So you can hire as many people as you want to, but you're still going to have those limitations because your team is depending on you. This should be an awesome time, especially if you are in business, that you are hiring a team. It says that you are growing and you need support, which is fine, but you want to make sure that you are actually getting what you need. It starts with you, it starts with shifting your mindset. And just remember, like I said before, if your mindset does not shift, your team never will. You are just incurring additional expenses if they still have to be totally dependent on you. All right, that is it. I hope this helps. And thanks for spending this time with me today. If this episode resonated, be sure to share it with a leader who is in the middle of this transition. And if you are realizing that you need support redesigning how you lead as you grow, that is exactly the work that I do. That is exactly who I work with. So you go ahead and check out the leadership shift. Say that three times. The leadership shift. It is a one-on-one program where I help you, if you are in solo mode, I help you put these things in place and build capacity so that you can continue to grow and be prepared to hire a team. All right. I will see you in the next episode. Have a wonderful day.