3 Signs It’s Time to Restructure Your Team as a Leader

As your business grows, the roles, responsibilities, and team structures that got you to where you are might not be the ones that take you to the next level.

Believe me, I’ve been there—it’s tough, it’s emotional, and it’s absolutely necessary.

In this episode, I’m diving into the three major indicators that it’s time to revisit your team structure. From market shifts to internal inefficiencies, I’ll show you how to assess what’s working (and what isn’t), create a clear plan of action, and lead your team with transparency and confidence.

Click play to hear all of this and:

(00:01:00) Biggest challenges when considering team restructuring for growth

(00:02:05) How market changes influence your company’s needs for specific roles and responsibilities

(00:07:13) Steps for identifying particular pain points in team performance

(00:09:03) The importance of transparent communication and phased execution of changes within your team

(00:09:03) The three main indicators that suggest a need for team restructuring

Listen to Related Episodes:

• How to Ask Questions that Get Results
• My (Un)Sexy Strategy for Business Growth

📧 Join my Newsletter for a weekly cocktail of insider business strategy, personal reflections, and the journey of being a thought leader: https://jasminestar.com/newsletter 📧

For full show notes, visit jasminestar.com/podcast/episode530

Transcript

Jasmine Star 00:00:00  Clear communication is key when it comes to making changes. Be transparent with your team. Talk about why the shifts are necessary and how they're going to improve the individual and company performance. Welcome back to The Jasmine Star Show, a place where we talk about business mindset and today, how to know when it's time to revisit your team structure and roles. Now, some time last year when I started my mastermind, there was a group of seven figure founders. These are business owners who are doing multiple seven figures in their business. And there was a pattern that came up. And I see this often hit business owners around that $1.52 million frame. And it's the ability to grow and scale because of the current team in place. Now, that's hard to talk about because the team that got you to that point may or may not be the team that gets you to the next point. And inside as a CEO, as a founder, you feel guilt. Sometimes you feel that you're asking yourself questions like, do I have the leadership skills.

Jasmine Star 00:01:01  Is this fair? If they're not happy with my decision, if I have to restructure, well, they're going to leave. And how can they do all of their work? And it's going to come back on my shoulders. When business owners are in this place. I have deep empathy. I have been there, and I will tell you that the longer you sit in the time, by not restructuring, changing or adding or even subtracting to the team, the longer it's going to take for your business to grow. Now our responsibility is our business only. We make decisions that might adversely affect a few people, but they will benefit the whole. It's not easy, but it's the truth and it's not easy. And I've had to do it. And that's why exactly this short episode is going to give you three indicators for revisiting your team composition and framework to help you make the adjustments as needed, and make sure that you stay until the end so you can complete the one action step that I have for you now, starting with the first big reason why you might need to make internal adjustments.

Jasmine Star 00:02:05  And that's market changes. As the market evolves, so do the demands on your business. And when this happens, it's important to take a good cold, hard look at your team. Do you have the right people in the right roles to meet those new market demands? Are there areas that need more focus or new skills that weren't necessary before? When the market changes, your team must be agile and ready to adapt. For example, if an area of business that was bringing you in money is no longer profitable, or maybe it's just starting to kind of fall stagnate, it might be time to reallocate resources so that team members are focused on bringing in and maintaining revenue. Maybe this means transferring an employee to a different department, assigning new responsibilities, or restructuring multiple roles so that everybody is working on tasks that contribute to the company's overall growth and success. Now, the second reason are technological advancements. When do you need to, like reassess your team and the structure? Well, the first one was market changes and the second is going to be technological advancements.

Jasmine Star 00:03:04  Now I want to be very real. Technology is moving so fast and it's not a bad thing. Not at all. I love technology, I love how quick things are changing, automation and I are changing the way we work, and they're making our teams a lot more efficient. And this is a good thing. Tech is streamlining processes and freeing up time for more strategic tasks and improving accuracy in a way we had no idea it was possible before. I will say this though when technology evolves, so do customer expectations. So you have to ask yourself, does my team have the skills to leverage these tools? Am I using the best systems available, or am I sticking with outdated methods because it feels safer? This is what we've always done. We must stay proactive about tech, not just to adopting it, but making sure our teams have the ability and resources to fully integrate it in what it means to their work. And if I'm being very real right now, it's not just about the tools themselves, it's about the mindset.

Jasmine Star 00:04:01  Your team has to be open to learning and evolving. If not, you might find yourself with a technology gap that holds your business back instead of propelling your business forward. Now, the third reason you might want to shift things around on your team is that you're experiencing internal challenges or inefficiencies. So a little bit of a backstory here. The podcast costs over $100,000 a year to produce. I'm not going to get into specifics, but it's definitely over $100,000. It's tens of thousands of dollars each month, and it is, without a shadow of a doubt, a cost center in our business. In October of 2020 for JT, he's my husband and my business partner and Jade, our CEO. They sat me down to explain that I could not keep on adding and building to the podcast, because it continued to push our costs up until I found a way, either to number one, lower the cost of the podcast or to monetize the podcast. I needed to change my approach. I decided to do a cost analysis to see where I could cut back on cost and take on more responsibility for the podcast myself.

Jasmine Star 00:05:07  Now allow me to explain just one cost cut I made, but still found it a way to make it a win for the team. So what we decided to do was I had a content director that was focused on my podcast, The Jasmine Star Show, and being a creative component for social curator. What we decided to do as we talk about team structure and change is I made a re offer to that employee. I had to tell that employee you were hired in to come in and be a creative director for the podcast and social curator, but the offer is full time employment on the social curator side, so that you can employ all of your skills to social curator. And she had to say, yes, I am good with that change. I know me. Speaking of just Jasmine Star, who is now creating directing everything for the podcast, I had to accept more responsibility and that's for the time being. But if I had to go back and make a team structural change. I needed to offer the employees that were contributing to the podcast, moving them to a different side of the business, have them accept the offer, and then have me tell myself, okay, Jasmine, this will require a lot more from you to make this podcast bring it to life.

Jasmine Star 00:06:18  And that brings me to the third reason for shifting things around in your team. And that's internal changes or inefficiencies. I explained my recent experience, but it could also be several other different things. A department that once ran smoothly. Maybe now it's being bogged down by bottlenecks and delays. Perhaps team members are overworked by these time sucking tasks, or they're underperforming, or they're simply out of alignment with the business goals. When you notice these kinds of inefficiencies, it's a good sign that your current team structure might need a fresh look. Are people in roles that truly play to their strengths? Is there a better way to optimize tasks and responsibilities? Sometimes, just like in my situation, it's like a simple shift in rules or even adding a new position, but we only add new positions when they're absolutely need it. Maybe that when you do this, it can help unlock a higher level performance and put that business right back on track. So what do you do when it comes time to make changes? Right.

Jasmine Star 00:07:13  It's not always simple, but I'm going to give you a three step framework. Step number one assess the situation. Take a close look at what no longer is working. Identify specific pain points, whether it's a lack of skills, outdated processes, or team members who are overextended. Ask yourself, what are the critical areas that need improvement and what's the potential impact if they stay the same? That's what I did with the podcast. It's what if things stay the same? I need to go back and get a very clear idea and assess what am I doing with the podcast in 2025? What is going to be our YouTube strategy? I need to go back and sit in that seat and cast a clear vision, because if I don't do that, then the people behind me will not know what to do. So until I have the clearest vision and know exactly what it is I need to assess, I need to then move into step two. Prioritize and plan. So once you've identified the issues and you prioritize them, start with the most pressing challenges that will have the greatest impact on your business.

Jasmine Star 00:08:11  Then create a clear plan of action. Whether it's reorganizing your team, investing in new technology, or offering additional training. Step number three. Communicate and execute. This is what I just explained to our team member. I had to make a offer. I just didn't say, okay, so what we're gonna do is we're gonna put you over here. No, no, no, I actually had to make her a new job. Offer her job. The roles and responsibilities were changing. She was going to be doing more in different parts of the business. I made it offer. She accepted. So I had to communicate and execute. Because clear communication is key when it comes to making changes. Be transparent with your team. Talk about why the shifts are necessary and how they're going to improve the individual and company performance. Then execute your plan in phases. I want you to remove that overwhelm like everything has to be done right now. No, make any adjustments as you go to ensure that those changes stick.

Jasmine Star 00:09:03  Okay, so before we get to your action step, let's quickly review the three big indicators that are going to show you if you need to restructure our number one market changes. Number two tech advances. And number three you're experiencing internal challenges or inefficiencies. And now for your action step this week. Take 30 minutes to evaluate your team's current structure. Identify any areas that need attention and choose one area to focus on for the next month. Map out small but impactful changes that you're going to say. I'm going to implement these because I want us to be efficient and I want this team to grow, and I want us to scale. And then you're going to track those results. You deserve more than just to survive in business. You deserve to build something that not only meets your goals, but also fulfills in your vision and aligns with your values and allows you to enjoy the process. I would be thrilled if you would be so kind to leave a review for the show. If you haven't already, please take the time to do it because it makes a big difference.

Jasmine Star 00:10:01  Thank you for watching and listening to The Jasmine Star Show.