The theme during our Brand Maintenance call this morning quickly moved to team building. One client was onboarding an Architect and a Senior. Another was determining what roles would build her best team while she’s serving two coasts.

The org chart, renumeration, duties and culture are all systems that, if you get them right, plug into a larger vision. That big vision is something that matters. It matters not only to you but to that team member who is joining your firm. You might want a doer, but mid-career firms also need leaders. That is unless you’re okay being the bottleneck.

Arthur Gensler said it best, “Every leader in the organization has three key roles to play. They need to be Guardians, Champions, and Protectors of your firm and brand.”

Can you define your brand in a sentence? Can every single person on your team?

You’re the one who had to live through every pivot, teardown and re-build from the ground up. You know what you’re in for when your client puts their signature on the dotted line, so you better choose wisely who you’re in with.

Your design firm is only as good as what your weakest link doesn’t know.

That means not everyone can come in as a freelancer. But a bad hire typically costs between 30-40% of that hire’s first year of salary and can surge up to 5 times the salary if they’re Senior. So you want to get it right and that means you have to have enough internal structure to know exactly what you need, and how those new people will plug in.

Ask yourself, are the people supporting me the cream of the crop?

Are they committed to playing their A-game?

Have you never hired someone who is more qualified than you because you’re worried about the cost? The problem you’re experiencing is not actually financial.

Have you hired someone into a position that focuses on their strengths? Because people who get to focus on their strengths are six times more likely to be engaged.

How would things shift if every person on your team knew exactly why you’re in business? Would it change the way you deliver your services?

What if they were fully committed to your vision and to championing your brand from the moment a new client walks in the door?

What if they brought that client too you?

If this is something you can’t imagine, let’s talk about getting you structured for support.