How to successfully lead your VA team.

Having one VA or a team of VAs has the amazing benefit of saving you time and allowing you to focus on what you do best. We all know this. But what we also need to realise is that when you have a team – of one, two or more, you will need to step up and lead them.

Leading people does not mean telling them how to work, or micromanaging. Leading simply means ensuring you are all on the same page, heading for the same goals and outcomes. Leading means showing up and being an example of how you want your business to run. It means communicating what you need, what you want to achieve and how you envisage getting there.

The best partnerships allow each contributor to shine in their area of expertise. Allow the copywriter to write. Allow the marketer to market. But ensure that they know what you’re trying to achieve and by when. And where possible, allow them to be part of a team and be aware of what each of the cogs in your machine are doing.

When you have a team the following elements are vital:

  1. Communication
  2. Respecting skills
  3. Respecting each other’s understanding of the goal and always ensuring gaps are filled
  4. Leading by example
  5. Never assuming.

Too often I hear business owners saying that they ‘assumed something would be happening’ or ‘assumed it was going to be done a particular way’ – and it wasn’t. We all know about assumptions. They aren’t a smart business habit to have. If you really want to save time and make things work for you, you just need to clarify and confirm. Much like spending less money and hoping to achieve the same outcome, not spending the small effort to clarify and confirm while hoping to streamline and leverage just doesn’t work out.

We all know about assumptions. They aren’t a smart business habit to have. If you really want to save time and make things work for you, you just need to clarify and confirm. Click To Tweet

Your VA team can help you streamline, but when it comes to leading and managing a team, you can’t cut corners. Always consider how you’d feel if you were on a team and you weren’t being guided appropriately. You bring amazing skills to the table but aren’t being told how they need to be applied, what the priorities are, what the rest of the team are working on and what the end goal is. It makes it frustrating and uninspiring.

The best teams are excited, passionate and inspired. If you want to run a successful business you need to step up and lead in such a way that allows for this to happen.

If you want to learn more about creating and managing a team for your business – be it hiring a single VA or a small team – please check out our book The Outsourcing Secret.