What To Do When The Team You Have Is No Longer The Team You Need

At some point in your nonprofit's growth, you’ll realize that the team that got you this far might not be the one to take you to the next level. In this episode, I walk you through the crucial steps to move from the team you have to the team you need, so your organization can scale successfully. We’ll unpack how to rework your current team, add capacity where it’s needed, and avoid the common mistake of treating these two strategies as one. By the end of this episode, you'll know how to assess, map, prune, and plan your team for smoother, more strategic growth.

What You’ll Learn:

• How to recognize when your current team is holding you back from growth
• The essential differences between adding new people and reworking existing roles
• A clear process for aligning your team structure with your nonprofit’s goals

Key Takeaways:

1. Reworking vs. Adding Capacity: Reworking your team is about getting people in the right roles, while adding capacity ensures you have enough hands on deck. Both are critical, but they need to be handled separately.
2. Start with Role Mapping: Before you look at people, map out the roles your organization truly needs based on your goals. This gives you clarity and prevents misalignment.
3. Don’t Avoid the Hard Decisions: Sometimes, the team you started with isn’t the team that will get you to the next level. Making tough choices now will pay off in long-term success.

Steps to Build Your Growth Team:

1. Assess: Start by looking at your strategic goals. What outcomes are you aiming for, and what skills are necessary to achieve them? Without a clear understanding of the work that needs to get done, you’re flying blind.
2. Role Mapping: Separate roles from the people currently on your team. Create a roadmap for the positions that need to be filled, considering both current and future needs. I always say: role clarity is step one to building a high-functioning team.
3. Pruning: This is the tough part, but it’s necessary. If someone on your team isn’t a fit for any of the essential roles, or if they can’t be trained up to fit, it’s time to make the hard call. It’s never easy, but clinging to misaligned team members slows your growth.
4. Hire Strategically: Now that you’ve pruned and mapped, you can bring in the right people. Whether you need full-time staff or fractional support, hire with precision. Think about the skills you need now and the flexibility to scale as you grow.

Resources Mentioned:

• Strategic Planning Podcast Mini-Series
• Role Mapping Episode
• High Impact Hiring Bundle: A step-by-step guide with templates to help you hire the right people every time.

Want to work together?

Apply for the Next Level Nonprofit Accelerator, a high-touch coaching and training accelerator for established organizations that want a smart, powerful playbook for taking their growing organization to the next level.

Join The Collective, a community of practice for nonprofit leaders who want to build and strengthen the organizational pillars that drive growth!

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