Treating your team like a professional sports team means paying for top talent, fully utilizing every player, and investing in coaching as a non-negotiable. Lia walks through three lessons from pro sports that directly raise performance, reduce turnover, and build a team that can win when it counts. This episode is especially useful for founders and corporate leaders who keep wondering why results are not improving year over year.
This episode is part of the Business Strategy & Scaling Your Team series. Browse all episodes →
Mic drop moments
“…when you connect the dots, you will achieve this win right away within days.”
“…the individual expectations of the account folks had nothing to do with bringing in revenue. So how were they supposed to know?”
“…within weeks, I think it was literally two weeks, two of the account executives had brought another $13,000 of revenue just because they knew it was an expectation.”
“If your teams think they’re just here to check a box, to check off their tasks and go home, they are not going to take an active role in growing your business.”
“…when we set those goals, we set those targets, and we shape that path, and we show them how to walk that path, wow, now they will achieve anything.”
Episode highlights
Why you feel like the only one focused on revenue
If you are a business owner or team leader, the feeling is familiar: you are hustling on sales and business development while your team members show up, do great work, and go home. Lia is clear that this is not a motivation problem. Your team members are not indifferent to growth. They just have not been told that contributing to revenue is part of their job.
The client case study that changed everything
Lia was working with the CEO of a PR and marketing agency who was hitting exactly this wall. Her account executives were genuinely excellent at their work, but their individual role expectations had nothing to do with bringing in revenue. As Lia put it, how were they supposed to know? The gap was not in attitude or ability. It was in clarity.
The fix: connect individual expectations to the bigger number
The CEO had a $2 million annual revenue target. Working through the Ops Playbook, Lia and the CEO mapped each account executive’s role directly to that number. Each person was assigned a specific revenue responsibility for the year. But the key move was spelling out exactly how to do it, because as Lia notes, if they already knew how, they probably would have been doing it.
What those specific actions looked like
Lia gave the account executives three or four concrete behaviors per client. For example, when a client was nearing the end of a contract, the account executive would proactively pitch upcoming seasonal opportunities to extend the engagement. They also learned to speak about PR in terms of the client’s own business growth, not just deliverables, so that continuing the relationship felt like a clear investment rather than an expense.
The result: $13,000 in two weeks
Within two weeks of rolling out these expectations, two account executives had brought in an additional $13,000 in revenue. Not because they were newly motivated. Because they finally knew it was expected of them and knew exactly what to do.
The principle that applies to every team
Whether you run a PR firm or something else entirely, the move is the same: connect your revenue and profit goals to the individual expectations of each team member. When the path is visible, people walk it. Lia is direct that many team members actually hold back from revenue activities because they worry about stepping on toes. Painting the picture removes that hesitation. If your team thinks their job is to check tasks off a list and go home, they will do exactly that. Set the targets, shape the path, and show them how to walk it.
Related episodes in this cluster
- Ep 227: How to get your team to actually care about customer service. You cannot force people to care, but you can create conditions that make it easier for them to. Lia walks through three tools every owner has: setting behavioral expectations from day one, building proactive follow-up into how the team operates, and using recognition as a culture-shifter. This episode is especially useful for anyone with customer-facing team members or anyone whose team’s attitude reflects on the brand.
- Ep 222: What investing in your team could cost you (or earn you). Waiting too long to address a team problem does not make it go away. Lia walks through two real client stories, one that ended in a $250,000 loss and one that produced a record $1M revenue quarter, to show how the timing of your action determines the outcome. This episode is essential for any business owner who suspects a problem but keeps putting off the conversation.
- Ep 176: What does doing nothing actually cost your team? More than you think.. Cutting team support, coaching, and training to save money is one of the most expensive decisions a business owner or leader can make. Lia breaks down the real dollar cost of inaction through two case studies and hard stats on turnover, wasted hours, and lost revenue. This episode is essential for any founder, team lead, or manager who keeps kicking team problems down the road.
- Ep 142: What would happen if you managed your team like a pro sports team?. Treating your team like a professional sports team means paying for top talent, fully utilizing every player, and investing in coaching as a non-negotiable. Lia walks through three lessons from pro sports that directly raise performance, reduce turnover, and build a team that can win when it counts. This episode is especially useful for founders and corporate leaders who keep wondering why results are not improving year over year.
Want to go deeper?
The Ops Playbook. Systems and SOPs for teams that need to scale without breaking.
Full transcript (click to expand)
What I want you to think about is how can you connect the bigger priority, your revenue goals, your profit goals, for your business, for your team, with the individual expectations of each team member. Because when you make that connection, when you connect the dots, you will achieve this win. Welcome to the Managing Made Simple podcast, where you get a masterclass in managing your team with ease in 15 minutes or less. I’m Leah Garvin, your host and team operations consultant.
Through this show and my programs with small businesses and corporate teams, I condense a decade of experience driving team operations in some of the most influential companies in tech, into strategies to save you time, money, and most of all, stress. Doesn’t matter if you’re a business owner who realized that running a team isn’t as easy as you thought it would be. Are a new manager learning the ropes, or a seasoned manager ready to up their game?
Everyone is welcome to hang out with Managing Made Simple. From conflicts to feedback to delegating and more, we leave no stone unturned when it comes to what makes us love managing, kind of hate it, and everything in between. Let’s go. Welcome back to the show. Today, I am sharing a quick win about getting your team members to bring in new revenue. Okay, this is something I know all of us want to tap into, because as a business owner or team leader, it can feel like I’m the only person focusing on going in the business.
I’m paying people well, I want to give people incentives, but really, if I’m the only one pulling the weight, then how is that even possible? So I want to share a story of how I transformed this team into taking an active role in growing their business with one of my clients. So a few months ago, I was working with a CEO of a PR and marketing agency, and she felt like she was the only person focusing on growing the business.
She was doing sales, she was doing business development, she was hustling, and she paid her team members well, and they were awesome. Her PR account executives, her folks were fantastic, but when it came to actually doing anything around bringing in business, they didn’t really, they didn’t do anything, right? But as we dove into her ops playbook, where we mapped out, you know, what are these team expectations? What are our priorities? How do we connect every single role to the priorities and make that path super clear for the team members?
As we were doing this work together, we noticed that the individual expectations of the account folks had nothing to do with bringing in revenue. So how were they supposed to know? And because they were awesome team members, really, really passionate about the business, about the work, we knew it’d be really easy to turn it around. So we looked at, well, what is this company’s bigger priority? And for this business owner, it was hitting a $2 million revenue for the year.
That was her big target. And she had a lot of the line of sight, but was going to really need all of the team members to step in and take an active role. And so we said for each of the PR account folks, they were responsible for bringing in X amount of revenue each year. But we had to explain how to do that. Otherwise, you know, like they would already probably be doing it if they knew how.
We made a list of the specific things that those folks had to do. For example, when a client was reaching the end of their contract, that PR account executive would say, hey, summer, we’re wrapping up and there’s all this stuff coming up in fall that I think will be awesome to pitch you for. Here’s some of the examples. So, you know, there’s a back to school thing, there’s fall holidays, whatever it is. By this account executive taking an active role in helping that client see past the end of their contract, they were taking a role in growing the business.
They also talked about, hey, a lot of this PR agency’s clients were business owners and entrepreneurs. And so we said to those account folks, hey, talk about this client’s PR opportunities in terms of business growth. So we asked each of the account folks to really get deep into learning about the person’s business so that they could speak in terms of how continuing with the PR engagements will increase that client’s revenue. We gave each account person specific three or four actions that they could take with every client that would increase revenue.
And I kid you not, once we rolled out these expectations, within weeks, I think it was literally two weeks, two of the account executives had brought another $13,000 of revenue just because they knew it was an expectation. Now, doesn’t matter if you own a PR firm or not, what I want you to think about is how can you connect the bigger priority, your revenue goals, your profit goals for your business, for your team with the individual expectations of each team member?
Because when you make that connection, when you connect the dots, you will achieve this win right away within days. Because I assure you, your team members, they want to do it. They want to help grow the business. They want this to be successful, but they don’t always know how to do it. A lot of times they think it’s actually stepping on toes to take a more active role. So we got to paint this picture for them.
And that’s why when I’m working with folks with the Ops Playbook, or even through the Team Whisperer Consulting Sprint, I’m messaging how to communicate this to our team so they see how their role fits into the bigger picture. If your teams think they’re just here to check a box, to check off their tasks and go home, they are not going to take an active role in growing your business. But when we set those goals, we set those targets, and we shape that path, and we show them how to walk that path, wow, now they will achieve anything.
So if you want to hit this goal, turn around your revenue, get all of your team members bought in, let me know. Because this is the kind of thing that I can help you solve literally within weeks. All right, see you next time. That’s all I have for today. Thank you so much for tuning in to the Managing Made Simple Podcast, where my goal is to demystify the job of people management so that together we can make the workplace somewhere everyone can thrive.
With that said, let’s spread the word. If you loved this episode, please pass it along to someone who might benefit from it. See you next time.
Questions this episode answers
Why won't my team members help bring in new revenue even though they're good at their jobs?
Most of the time it's not that they don't want to, it's that no one ever told them it was part of their job. If revenue growth isn't written into their individual expectations, they have no reason to act on it. Team members often assume that stepping into sales or business development territory means overstepping. Once you make it an explicit expectation and show them exactly how to do it, the shift can happen within days, not months.
How do I connect my revenue goals to what each team member actually does day to day?
Start by identifying your business's biggest revenue target for the year, then trace a line from that goal down to each role on your team. Ask yourself what three or four specific actions each person could take with their clients or contacts that would directly support that number. When you give people a clear path, not just a goal, they know what to do. The missing piece is almost never motivation, it's a defined set of actions tied to a visible outcome.
What's a practical example of a team member action that brings in more revenue?
In one case, PR account executives were coached to proactively talk to clients about upcoming opportunities before a contract ended. Instead of letting the relationship go quiet, they would say something like, here are some pitching opportunities coming up this fall that would be a great fit for you. That one conversation helped the client see a reason to continue, and it grew directly out of the account exec understanding it was their responsibility to keep that client engaged. Specific, repeatable actions like this are what turn a general revenue goal into real results.
How fast can I realistically see results after setting revenue expectations for my team?
Based on Lia's client experience, results can show up within two weeks of rolling out clear expectations. Two account executives brought in an additional $13,000 in new revenue in about two weeks, simply because they now understood it was expected of them. The team was already skilled and motivated. What changed was having a documented expectation and a specific list of actions to take. When the path is that clear, people move quickly.
How do I stop being the only person focused on growing my business?
The fix is making revenue growth a shared responsibility by building it into every role, not just leadership. Map out what your overall revenue goal is, then define what each team member's contribution to that goal looks like in concrete actions. When people only have task-based expectations, they check boxes and clock out. When they understand how their work connects to the bigger picture and have a clear path to walk, they start showing up as invested partners in the business, not just employees completing assignments.