This is where A Chief People Officer (CPO) comes in. Having someone dedicated to being the bridge between the business needs, such as technology and efficiency and the people needs softens the tension between these two essential elements of any business, especially for those getting ready to or currently scaling.

In sports, the constants are the rules, history, and structure. The people – the players and the fans- change, shape, and create energy for the sport. For this reason, coaches can be the constant holders of history, and sometimes they can be the fresh perspective a team needs. In sports, players and coaches change for so many reasons and needs.

Your business is the same, it needs constants such as values, goals, budgets, systems etc. These are the business elements and are separate from the people elements, co workers and customers who bring the energy and life to your business. These elements need to be clearly defined and put together in a way that makes unique sense for your business, the people working in it, and, if relevant to your business, the clients or customers.

How your team shows up for work is key to knowing if you are solving the right problems. If the team is enthusiastically arriving to work, exceptionally resilient when faced with obstacles, generally productive, meeting deadlines with minimal overtime and taking their personal time regularly, you are likely solving the right problems.

If there is a sense of low energy at work and regularly missed workdays, roadblocks of any size stall the work and deadlines are often missed or require overtime; you may be solving the wrong problem.

As a small business owner putting a team in place isn't enough to create the results or impact you want. The dynamic and complex nature of a team requires a culture of curiosity and commitment at the organization's heart.

Taking the time to observe potential challenges of group dynamics and create ways to solve them before they happen is ideal. Still, things can happen very subtly or exceptionally quickly, and we don't notice them until we are in the thick of them.

A lack of empathy in your workplace can show up as drama between people getting in the way of the work. Lack of inspiration exhausted energy in the office or on zoom. Lots of overtime, redoing work rather than sharing feedback and/or unmanageable workloads. And probably the most dangerous, resentment towards each other.

As my own career progressed, I experienced firsthand not feeling like I had enough time to do what I wanted to do at work or outside of work. I fell into saying yes to each new offer of an “exciting new project” before evaluating what I actually had the energy for.

Sneakily, workdays got longer and days without work got fewer and far between. If I did take a day off or a vacation, I doubled down before, worried during and panicked after. I constantly felt like I was behind.

Making professional development accessible to small businesses. Integrating life and work to make sense for me and to work with others to help them integrate life and work in their business and with their people.