3 ways to keep your team aligned as you go from start-up to scale-up

4 Sep

In the first in a series of posts on what to focus on after a successful raise, we share some tips for aligning your team around your mission.

It’s the dream of every start-up: winning the investment pitch that allows you to grow your business and accomplish your mission.

Post raise, the pressure’s on to fulfil the promise you’ve made to your investors - and your employees are the people you’ve entrusted to do that. So after all the excitement of the fundraise, you’ll want to refocus them on delivering on that promise.

Plus, chances are, your team will be growing fast. And up till now, keeping everyone on the same page might have been easy. But what happens when you become more than a handful of people thrashing things out around a table?

As the team expands, you’ll need to become much more purposeful about making sure:

everyone’s focused on the right things, even when you’re not there to guide them
all decision making is aligned with your long-term goals
your people are motivated to deliver for you and your customers — day in, day out
you’re nurturing a culture where people feel happy, connected and heard
you’re creating the conditions for constant innovation
you’re hiring and keeping the people who are best able to grow your business

Here are three tips to get you started:

Embed your mission into people’s day-to-day work

To win over your investors, you no doubt had to convince them of your organisation’s sense of purpose. So maybe you’ve already articulated your mission in clear, beautiful language (if not, here are some thoughts).

Either way, it’s one thing to have a nice-sounding purpose statement. A whole other thing to have people living and breathing your mission every day. To make your mission statement more than just words on a wall, you need to be proactive about embedding it into the very fabric of people’s work.

Start by asking some questions. For example: do you have evidence your people are inspired by your mission? Do you talk about it regularly as a team?

If the answer’s no, it’s time to kickstart a team-wide conversation about your mission. After all, 93% of Gen Zers say they’re looking for a sense of purpose from their employer. So being clear on your mission will be key to attracting and retaining the talent you need to scale up.

2. Identify and articulate your team’s values

Your company’s values are the link between what you want to achieve — your strategy, your goals, your purpose — and the employee behaviours that will get you there.

A strong set of values acts as a decision-making tool. As you grow, they’ll give you the confidence to know your people will do the right thing — even when you’re not there in the room to guide them.

But only if you’ve:

uncovered your employees’ true values (as in this example)
articulated those values in a way that resonates with people (as in this example)
embedded the values into your day-to-day processes — and are role-modelling them yourself (as in this example)

Being a values-led organisation is essential if you are to attract and retain the best people, with 68% of professionals saying they want to work for a company that shares their values (Jobseeker Nation Report, Employ, 2022)

What you definitely want to avoid is imposing from top down a set of values that people don’t recognise as true. That’s especially true if they’re “table stakes” values like Trust, Integrity and Respect. For some thoughts on how to avoid that trap, see our post Two rules for getting to your real values

3. Share employee stories

An employee going out of their way to help a customer? A team devising a creative solution to a business problem? An example of someone demonstrating your values in action?

Stories like these are a powerful motivator. They’re also a great way to bring your vision, values and business strategy to life.

So take steps to actively uncover and tell the stories in your business. For practical tips on how to do that, check out our post on How to bring your vision and strategy to life through storytelling.

Start-up to scale-up? 3 things to do to win more business