Getting unstuck starts with the people decisions you've been avoiding. In part one, we looked at how accidental agencies get built and why owners rationalize staying stuck. This post is about what it takes to build the agency you want instead of the one you've settled for, starting with who's on your team.
The real cost of keeping the wrong team member
Most agency owners we work with have a holding-on problem. They’ve known for a long time, usually too long, that a certain team member isn’t the right fit. And when I ask why that person is still there, the answer is always some version of “it’s complicated” or “it’s not the right time.”
Those aren’t business reasons to hold on; they are relationship reasons. When you run your business on relationship reasons, you’re making one of the most expensive decisions an owner can make.
Every month a misaligned team member remains, you send a damaging message to the rest of your team. You are communicating what you’re willing to tolerate, that your culture isn’t what you say it is, and that you are okay with the rest of the team having to pick up the slack for the poor performer. This is what happens every day in agencies where the owner hasn’t made the tough call.
Hiring for culture fit, not just skills
The strongest teams are the result of a leadership team that makes intentional decisions. They define what they want the agency to become, hire people through that filter, and, before the cost gets too great, take quick action when someone isn’t the right fit.
Hiring through the filter of your culture means understanding and committing to your values well enough to use them as a filter, not only a slogan on your website. It means instead of only looking at whether they can “do the job,” evaluating whether a candidate agrees with your purpose and client experience you are committed to delivering. Skills can be trained and should be a secondary hiring consideration to cultural alignment.
As a business owner, no decision you make is more important than who you allow, retain, and develop on your team. This is grounded in being honest when you’ve gotten it wrong (and you will at times).
Owners who build great teams are the ones who recognize when they’ve made a bad hire and act on it.
How to build your people up and hold them accountable
There are no secrets to building the team that can help build the agency you want. That’s not to say it’s easy, it’s not. But the hard work that is necessary is easy to identify.
The most successful owners recognize that one of their greatest responsibilities is to build their people up. They invest in skills training, development, and honest feedback delivered during good times and bad. That's the same reason we built Goose: to give owners a structured way to develop their team and give team members a peer group, through PAR groups, that holds them accountable to the growth they say they want.
The regular check-ins alone change behavior. Team members who understand what is expected of them, are supported, and held accountable will perform at a higher level when they know the conversation is coming. Another upside is that when you’re in the habit of having easy, frequent conversations, the difficult ones become much less daunting.
Successful owners know that the right team members want to be held to high standards. This isn’t about unrealistic pressure; it’s about respecting the team member's potential. Setting aggressive goals for someone and then holding them accountable for reaching them tells them their contribution matters. That’s one of the clearest signals of how much someone means to the team.
Finally, successful owners give their people a voice and expect them to use it. The best contributors on your team go quiet when they don’t feel heard. A healthy culture allows for different perspectives, as well as expects them and celebrates them. If the highest performers on your team have stopped pushing back, that’s a red flag worth paying attention to.
What your team says about your leadership
Introspective leaders will ask themselves, “Am I leading by example?”
This is the wrong question. Of course, you lead by example! The real question then becomes, where is the example you’re setting leading to?
Your team is a reflection of your decisions, indecisions, and the behaviors you tolerate. If you have a group of people who are processing transactions and keeping their heads down, that didn’t happen by accident. If you have a team that’s engaged, accountable, and pushing the agency forward, that didn’t happen by accident either.
The accidental and reactive agency produces an accidental and reactive team. An intentional agency is built around a defined culture, clear expectations, and leaders willing to make the hard calls.
The next people-based decision to make
If you’re ready to build the agency you want, start by being honest with your team about the people decisions you’ve been avoiding. It may be uncomfortable for you and them, but your strongest team members will be thinking, “Hell yeah, it’s about time!!” Not because confrontation is good, but because further delay only gets more expensive. More importantly, an honest conversation like this will signal the start of a new day to everyone on your team.
Committing to building the agency you want and then ensuring the right team is in place will be much more satisfying than managing your current, accidental agency. The owners who figure that out stop asking what’s holding their agency back and start doing something about it.
What people decisions have you been avoiding?
Frequently asked questions
Why is it so hard for agency owners to let go of the wrong people?
Because the decision almost always involves a relationship and not just a business assessment. Owners hire people they like, work alongside them for years, and find reasons to delay the inevitable. But every month that decision gets deferred, the rest of the team is watching, drawing conclusions about what the agency tolerates, and carrying a disproportionate amount of the weight. The cost of the delay is rarely visible all at once, but it definitely accumulates over time.
How do I know if I’m hiring the right people for my agency?
Start with your culture. If you haven’t defined your agency’s purpose and values clearly enough to use them as a hiring filter, that’s the first problem to solve. Once you have them, every hiring decision gets easier.
Will this person enhance your culture and progress, or detract from them? Does this person agree with what you’re trying to build and how you want to build it? If the answers are yes, then consider skills. If the answer is no, move on regardless of how impressive the rest of the profile looks.
What does accountability look like in a healthy agency culture?
It looks like regular, honest conversations, not go-through-the-motion annual reviews or crisis interventions. Owners who build strong teams establish a rhythm of check-ins where performance, good and bad, is discussed openly. That rhythm makes difficult conversations less difficult over time, because neither side is surprised. Accountability isn’t a corrective tool in healthy agencies; it’s just how the team operates.
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Content originally published by Q4intelligence
Photo by Miljan Živković