If you’ve struggled to scale your business, you may be wondering what you’re doing wrong or what it takes to reach the next level.
“Sometimes, you set people up for failure if you don’t have clear expectations,” says Noe Loarca, owner of Avanza Landscaping.
He says establishing accountability by setting clear expectations and putting specifics in place can be a gamechanger for organizations.
Loarca will provide practical strategies on how to organize teams, define leadership roles, and reduce reliance on constant hiring during his session, “From Crew to Leaders: Building a High-Performing, Accountable Landscaping Team” on Wednesday, Nov. 5, at 8 a.m. at ELEVATE.
Creating A Culture of Ownership
Loarca says that often companies struggle to establish a leadership structure because they confuse leadership with job titles.
“Leadership is definitely about parity, consistency, ownership, not necessarily hierarchy,” he says.
He acknowledges this is particularly challenging for smaller organizations where employees are typically wearing multiple hats. Loarca says the key is to clarify what each role is responsible for.
“You have actual goals that are not a moving goal post,” Loarca says. “You say, ‘This is what we’re aiming for. Can we do that? Is this attainable?’ And they say, yes or no. We both agree this is attainable. Great. Let me check in with you next week and see how you did with it.”
Loarca also encourages his team members to think like leaders.
“Am I in charge of the guys when they leave for the day?” Loarca says. “Are they planning what their day is going to look like? Somebody needs to own that. If it’s not going to be me, who’s going to be doing it? And then we have to be consistent on it.”
Loarca fosters a culture of ownership by leading by example. If a client-facing mistake is made, he never blames the team.
“No matter if it’s a mistake any of them made, I’m always like, ‘I’m sure it’s my fault because I didn’t explain something,’ so I take ownership over all the problems,” Loarca says.
He says it’s always helpful not to place blame but to simply find out what happened and use it as a teaching moment.
Loarca also encourages identifying and mentoring the individuals you see taking initiative.
“Are they doing the things that are going to get you to the next level, or are they coming just to do the same thing over and over again?” Loarca says. “They have to say, ‘Hey, how can we get better? What can I do to make this job better?’”
The Power of One-on-One Meetings
While you shouldn’t micromanage your teams, Loarca stresses the importance of meeting regularly to avoid assumptions of who is handling what and to hold team members accountable to your set expectations.
“We’re tracking everything,” Loarca says. “Like, ‘Hey, so you guys laid flagstone, and it was this much per hour. Is there a reason why it went down? The thing is that there may be a really good reason, but we need to have those conversations. Such as ‘That machine that we had was five years old, and it really screwed us over.’”
He says that by gathering this feedback, it’s easier to see what you’re doing right or wrong and where you can improve.
“(In the past) I hated meetings, and now I’m doing them all the time,” Loarca says. “It’s because, ‘Hey, what were the issues? What can we do to try to avoid that in the future?’”
Aside from having a chance to learn what could be done better, Loarca says one-on-one meetings serve as a regular pulse check with team members to see if they feel overwhelmed. He notes these meetings are also useful for gathering insights from the team.
“I think there’s so much feedback that goes on, but the key is you have to be open to feedback,” Loarca says. “If you think you’ve got everything right, that your way is the only way, you’re going to have to struggle trying to grow.”
Ready to gain actionable tools to build a high-performing team that can grow with your business? Register for ELEVATE and we’ll see you in Phoenix, Arizona
