Sue Austin worked in the corporate world for much of her career, latterly for an entrepreneurial start up. It was this role specifically that gave her the idea of taking her knowledge, experience and leadership skills to smaller businesses. And whether it was through luck, fate or something else, she’s ended up mostly working with architect practices.
We caught up with Sue in between client meetings, where she shared her advice on how to build high performing teams within architect practices.
Over to Sue…
Moving from Big Business …
Big corporates are fantastic places to really get to know how business should be run. You learn process, you have the leadership training, plus access to all the expertise and competence that you need in a huge organisation.
When I left the corporate world, I wanted to take some of that fantastic leadership experience to small businesses. Not to make them corporate, I should add, but simply to inject some of that experience into them as they grow and develop.
…to Small (architect) Practices
After I set up on my own, I found that most of my clients were architects. I have a personal passion for architecture having been through my own projects, so it just felt right. And as I started working more and more with architects, I realised that although they undergo a hugely rigorous training, they don’t, as part of that, have any formal training in how to run a business.
Architects are experts at designing beautiful buildings and spaces, but where I can add value is in the business side of things. And by that I mean helping practices manage time, money, people and enabling them to build effective teams.
Teams in architect practices
When I work with practices, I start by focusing on the end to end process of how the business is run, but also the behavioural issues and opportunities in the team. What are the team dynamics, and how are they either getting in the way, or helping drive the business forward in the right direction?
And it’s not just about CPD. There are a lot of practices that have CPD in place, but this tends to be quite industry-specific. It’s necessary as part of getting qualified, or remaining qualified, but what I’m working on is CPD in its broadest sense; investing in overall skills and teamwork.
So how can I improve my team culture?
There’s a culture in every organisation, but to build a great culture and a high performance team you need to make a conscious plan to do so. And when I say ‘high performance’, that sounds like it’s all about the bottom line. It isn’t. It’s about high performance in the individual. People being at their best. People being able to operate at their full potential, and getting time to learn and grow so that their potential is really reached.
So where should I start?
That high performance culture has to start with vision and values. Where’s the business heading, and what are the behaviours that we need from each other? Are those in place? Because if they’re not, you haven’t got a point of reference to what great looks like. And this all starts with effective communication.
Run purposeful meetings
Make your meetings work hard for you. They should have a clear purpose and objective, be to the point, efficient and they should engage people. Without that, meetings have the potential to be incredibly demotivating for your team. Give them a sense of urgency in terms of the time and energy used.
Listen
As well as regular meetings and updates, stop being the person who says the most in the room. Less is more. Often I find the business owner feels they need to have all the answers. They don’t. Instead, keep people informed about what’s going on, but ask for their ideas, expect them to have a say, and invite that conversation on a regular basis, and most importantly, be prepared to listen.
Great leadership is about bringing together everybody’s input, and that’s how you get the classic two plus two equals five situation; as a team you become more than the sum of your parts. And it doesn’t matter whether somebody’s a part one, or they’re a tenured, qualified architect. Everybody’s got an angle and a perspective that has value, and you need to embrace that input from across the practice.
Feedback
I also advise what I call a ‘feedback culture’; giving and receiving feedback. High-performing teams always have a culture of feedback, where everybody is encouraged to be really open and challenging. They celebrate the success, and call out the stuff that’s not working so well, but do it in a constructive way.
People find it quite easy to give praise, but they find it really hard to give constructive feedback, and that’s just human nature. So make feedback work for your team. Be open to receiving feedback yourself, and make sure it’s an upward as well as a downward process. Make it run up, down and across the business
The one to one meeting
When I’ve managed teams throughout my career, I always did one-to-ones with my direct team at least once a fortnight, and normally once a week. It was a chance to set objectives, but it was also an opportunity to talk to them about what’s going on in their work more broadly. It’s so important to have that time with your team members to reflect and move forward.
Empowering your team
As a business owner, you often feel like you’re the one doing everything. So flip it over. Think ‘do I really have to do this myself? Can my team do this? Can this individual do that?’ So empowering and pushing responsibilities to others is absolutely fundamental.
So there’s empowering responsibility, but of course you’ve got to hire people who are going to take that responsibility on. Recruiting, and hiring people who have the right mindset, as well as the right experience, would be one area to work on.
Essentially, if you start with an action plan on how people in your culture need to behave and should behave, you can work on that in parallel with all of the commercial activity and the sales and marketing activity that are necessary to grow the business. Both sides of the practice, the people and the commercial can work together, giving you an effective team, and hopefully, a thriving business
Sue Austin has 30 years’ senior and director-level experience working in large and small scale organisations, with a track record of success in transforming performance and culture. If you’d like to talk to her about your practice, visit her website here to find out more.
