Dani Tan: Hi, I'm Dani Tan, and if you're here, you are in the right place. Welcome to the Pivot and Promotion podcast, where we say, forget the rules because they weren't written for us. I'm Danny Tan. I'm your host as well as career and leadership coach and a proud advocate for redefining what success and leadership looks like. And here's what I know. You can lead at any level. You can pivot at any age, any. And you can make moves that feel right for you. Whether you're climbing the corporate ladder, starting something completely new, or just figuring out your next step, I've got you covered with strategies, stories, and straight up inspiration. So let's make some moves. Hello. So for today's episode, we're going to talk about how to turn chaos into systems without slowing down.

And what does that even mean? It just means that if you feel like things are a bit chaotic right now or just crazy in general in your business, how that actually is more so a way of saying, hey, opportunity for a system, opportunity for a process. And that does not mean it's going to slow you down. I think a lot of founders believe if they are creating a system, they're going to process, oh, my gosh, we don't have time for that. It's going to slow us down. We have to grow, grow, grow, move, move, move. And in reality, that's not true. You can take your chaos and turn into a system and not slow down. So let's break it down. So here's the thing. Growth will feel really messy. It's going to still feel super, super messy.

And that's completely normal. So you are not doing anything wrong. Chaos, the messiness, it's a signal that you've hit the edge of growth. There's like a growth edge that is coming up for you within your business. And so that just means that it's time for a little bit something. So as the team or business grows, decisions will start to start to, you know, kind of pile up. Your mental load will start to increase. These are, like, some signals that you will notice. You'll be like, oh, my gosh, the team is growing, the business is growing. There's two so many decisions. I don't have enough time for all of them. My brain is, like, overloaded with things that I have to do. And most founders will wait too long before they shift from being reactive to strategic.

And so that is usually a signal of like, hey, you're about to. You're hitting a growth edge here. It's Time for you to, like, level up, essentially, for a lack of a better term. And so these are the signals that you should start to notice. It's that, no, it's, it's gonna be a little bit messy. And that's telling you it's time to make some big decisions in order to be more strategic versus constantly being reactive of the day to day to do list. And so I had a client who she was like, I just feel like I come in, she was coming in every single week. And we were talking through, like, what her, her big thing she wanted to focus on for that week, for the business. And she kept being like, I feel like I'm dropping all the balls, like, I'm not getting everything done.

I feel like there's always something like that I cannot complete. And that was because her business was scaling and she felt like she was constantly behind. But the thing was, was that we always had to bring it back to, like, what are the biggest things that you're trying to focus on right now for yourself and for your business? And when you're looking at your massive list of things you have to do, what actually is going to help serve the purpose to move those things forward of your goals? Right. And so versus feeling like every single thing has to get done, you know, what are the most important things that she specifically needed to focus on in order to move it forward? And then to create a decision filter to reduce the noise.

Because if your team, if everyone in your team and your company is coming to you, like, make this decision, make this decision, help us with this, give us your POV on that. It is going to take a lot of mental load. It's also going to feel really chaotic. And you're also going to feel super behind on your specific to do list. Now. Yes, of course, if it's a company of yours, is everybody's roles and responsibilities and tasks technically roll up into. Yes, but there are certain things that you need to focus on as the leader of an organization to move it forward. So, so we had to sit down and clarify what was her focus in this organization versus the different departments and teams in her organization and what did she need to focus to move those things forward?

So when she was getting hit with everybody coming to her to make decisions, to ask for her input, she had to look at, okay, what are the things that I have to move forward this week and what are the things that they can go ahead and have some autonomy to move forward on their own? So she created a decision filter that if it was something that had to do with a decision in these certain areas that the team could drive, drive it forward and recap her afterwards. If there were decisions that were going to be made on certain areas over here, then she would be the one who'd have final say. And so we essentially created like a decision tree and a filter for her to reduce the noise that she was getting from the meetings she was having, from the messages she was getting from her team, to what she truly needed to focus on.

So she went from being like completely overwhelmed of all this like chaos and constant overstimulation to being able to lead and focus on what she need to do for herself and for the overall business. And so when she would come into their calls, it was much different. We could focus on strategy, we focus on what she want to do for the next quarter versus constantly trying to like fire drill all the decisions. It created a need. This chaos created a need for a system in place with decision making. And so question for you is like, where are you blaming yourself for chaos in your life, in your business, instead of seeing it as a signal that maybe it's time to create a system instead, or maybe a way to lead a little bit differently.

Because we are really quick to say, I can't get everything done on my to do list. I can't get everything delivered, what needs to be delivered. So that means something about me, but in reality that usually means something else, whether that is a system that is missing, support that is needed, or a boundary that needs to be created. And so noticing that the messiness and the chaos does not mean something about you, but it means something that is potentially missing, that is a support. So think to yourself, what is it you're potentially blaming yourself for? The unreality just maybe needs a system or potentially a way for you to lead differently, to support yourself as well as those around you.

And so here's the next piece that comes in, is that systems don't have to be rigid, they can be human. A lot of founders will say, well, I'm growing really fast, or the team is really small, or we do not have enough time so we can't create these systems. We don't have time for the systems. We have to be focusing on this, this and this. And so, okay, I hear you. And is that going to help you scale? A lot of folks are worried that having a system or a process is going to slow them down from what they are doing, but in reality, no. What's going to slow you down is keep doing it the band aid way. That you're doing it. And then while you're scaling, everything falls apart because it was held together with like band aids and bubble gum.

And so if you want to scale, you have to identify when there is like some chaos or pain points or things continually keep buckling in the same places. It's things that's the signal to create a system. And so knowing that a system does not have to be rigid, it does not have to feel corporate or inflexible, you can create some kind of structure that has flexibility still, but then support something that needs to happen. So for example, a lightweight system, if that makes it feel a little bit like more digestible, can create more space, not less, because it's creating the capacity to make things a little bit more organized versus them falling apart on the other end. The key is creating a system that aligns with your strengths, with your team dynamics, and with your overall org and what it values.

So here's an example that I have. I have a co founder who was stuck really always doing everything herself, because whenever she was delegating something, I'd be like, okay, delegate to this team, delegate to this team member. She was like, nope, everything is just slowing down. It just slows down so much more. And I said, okay, well, delegation, yes, let's talk about it and break it down at first, could potentially feel like it's slowing down the process down because you may have to teach initially or coach or mentor initially. If it's something that someone hasn't done before, it may feel slower at the like start point, but eventually it will speed up because then that person knows how to do things.

But the biggest thing was that she needed to also understand like what was going on each week. So we actually had to create like a dashboard for her team, where in the dashboard it showed what was going on and what had to be prioritized and worked on. So that way while she was delegating, it didn't feel like it was slower for her to delegate things to each person. By having a one on one with them and teaching them and coaching them, she could actually just create a dashboard and put priorities of what needed to be done. So in her weekly leadership meeting, they'd have the dashboard, they pull it up and she'd say, okay, what are your things that you're focusing on? They would, they would speak to them and then they would update the dashboard.

That way everyone knew what the clear priorities were of that person for that week. And then ultimately she was not sitting there meeting one on one with every single Individual person talking about what their tasks were. She was having essentially like a weekly one time meeting with her leadership team, doling out the priorities, having a conversation about it and everyone goes and they run and they do it. Everyone's clear on what their focus on their focus is as well. This freed up so much time for her because first is her having these constant one on ones with every single person on our team. She was having in a way quicker organized agenda set meeting. Now that did not burn her down. It did not become inflexible, it did not become super corporate.

It was just a quick way for them to get everything started. So it freed up at least six hours for her of her not having to sit in these one on one meetings to focus on these things. She had a quicker touch point with folks and if they needed to have a deeper meeting with her, they could do that on a different level. And not everyone had them every single week. Some people were fine and so she was able to start focusing on bigger picture growth. And so my question for you is like, what system could you build that would save your future self time, time, energy or decision fatigue, Right? So if there is something that I would recommend is looking at your week, looking at the meetings you had, the work that you did, and out of that work and those meetings that you had, what kind of like what drained you or what do you feel like, you know, fell to the bottom of your to do list or what keeps continuing to be incomplete?

Those are the signals of things that potentially need a system. So the things that are draining you, the things that keep getting pushed to the side, the things that are never getting done, like those are signals of what support potentially is needed, those things forward. So it's important to then think about this is that when we have all this chaos, when we have all this messiness, clarity is truly a leadership skill. It is the skill that you need as a leader. It's not just about an outcome because you do not have to have all the answers to lead effectively. No one's telling you like, oh, you are the co founder, the entrepreneur, the CEO. You must know every single answer. That's not true.

That's not true at all. It's not about that. It's about being able to have clarity by narrowing your focus, by setting priorities and setting expectations. So that is the part that's most important. Clarity comes from communication, comes from having a clarity on what to focus on what the priorities and like how to set the expectation that makes sense. Your team can't follow you if they don't know where they're going and you have to show them where they're going. And so a best way to turn this chaos right into a system is to be able to learn how to develop the skill of clarity and to be able to set the, the priority, set expectations and to show people where they need to go. Right. And so I had a founder who was really, really struggling with team dynamics and burnout.

A lot of folks were constantly feeling burnt out. She was feeling burnt out. And it was in all honesty, because they kept shifting so many different things they had to do. She would have like, things that she would have on her list would be like, I'm focusing on inventory, I'm focusing on marketing. You know, I'm focusing on hiring. I'm focusing on doing this. Okay, no, no, no, no. We got it. We need to stop with the constant, constant shifting of all the different priorities. Like, let's create a way for your brain to feel more supported where we have dedicated days or at least dedicated blocks, where you're focusing on different priorities that are going to move you forward. It was the same thing with her team.

Her team was like constantly pivoting and jumping because she was constantly pivoting and jumping. If you don't know where to go, they don't know where to go. And so the biggest thing was creating clarity for her of how she needed to move through her day to day, her week to week, of what she was focusing on to avoid this burnout, of the constant change of the topic she was focusing on, to be less reactive and to be more grounded on what it is that she was working on. Once she was able to do that and her calendar got more clear, her team also was able to feel more clear and relieved because now they knew her direction, she knew her direction. And that allowed for there to be less amount of coming into each week feeling like they were depleted of energy already.

So it's important to understand, like, how clarity of what it is you're going to be focusing on week to week expectations, expectations and priorities can help and affect you as well as your team. So I'm curious for you, you know, in general, if you're thinking to yourself, like, where do you feel like clarity potentially is lacking? Right? Where you're like, I don't know, I don't know what I'm really doing right now. I really know what I'm doing this week. And maybe that's something that you just need to kind of like focus in on and start to break up and create A plan and structure for. So if you're thinking about like in my, in my week to week, I'm kind of always feeling like I don't know what I'm doing with this thing or it just feels like really messy and chaotic.

What could potentially use some, some time for you to sit with and create some clarity. And so the biggest thing I want you to take home is that when it feels like there is chaos, when it feels like it is messy, when it feels like it is all burning down, in reality, it's usually telling you that it's time that you're going to go to the next phase of growth and capacity in your business. And so that typically means you have to start to identify the patterns of where things are kind of falling apart or slipping and need support. And that will tell you a system that potentially needs to be created, some structure around there so you're able to move to the next, the next level of growth essentially.

And that is your responsibility as a co founder, as an entrepreneur, as a CEO, that is your responsibility to start to notice those things. Of course, yes, with your team, but especially how those things impact and affect your team when there is not clarity around them. So hopefully you found this helpful when it comes to what does chaos really mean, what does messiness mean and how you can create some, start to identify them to see what systems and support potentially may be needed. So you could essentially grow, right, continue to grow and you don't have to slow down to do it. And so if you found this helpful, amazing. You can come back next week and there'll be more episodes. com and that talks about all about coaching and working together or that's strategy session, private coaching or group coaching.

That's where I'm at. All right, talk to you soon. Have a good one.