November 11, 2025 • 17 mins
In this episode of Leveraging Operations in Leadership, I’m talking about one of my favorite topics: the power of small teams.
I’ve worked with organizations of every size, and I’ve seen that small teams, when led intentionally, often outperform larger ones. Why? Because they operate with clarity, culture, and focus — the real drivers of high performance.
You’ll learn how to build agility through structure, hire for values instead of just skills, and protect your team’s focus so performance thrives without burnout.
If you’ve ever believed your team was too small to make a big impact, this episode will shift your perspective and help you see that small isn’t a setback — it’s your strategic advantage.
Ready to close the gap between goals and results?
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Grab the download 👉🏾 https://go.cignalpartners.com/gap
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
You know, so many leaders believe that growth
means adding more people.
But I've seen it time and timeagain.
Adding more people doesn'tautomatically make things
better.
In fact, without structure,clarity, and culture, it can
multiply the chaos.
(00:23):
Hello and welcome to anotherepisode of Leveraging Operations
and Leadership, the podcastwhere we bridge the gap between
strong leadership and solidoperations.
I'm your host, Tanya D.
Harrison, a leadership andoperations consultant, and today
we're kicking off a new focus,one that's all about helping
(00:46):
small teams make a big impact.
Today I want to challenge theidea that growth means adding
more people.
Think about it.
What if, just what if, lesscould actually lead to more?
More clarity, morecollaboration, and more results.
(01:09):
Yeah, I said it, more results.
That's exactly what we'retalking about in this episode.
How small teams can drive bigimpact when they lead with
intention, structure, and focus.
Here's the truth (01:25):
small teams are not at a disadvantage at
all, they are an opportunity.
There's a common belief that youneed a big team to make big
impact, but impact doesn't comefrom head count, it comes from
clarity, consistency, andalignment.
(01:47):
According to 2024 Zen BusinessReport, nearly 70% of small
business owners say managingpeople is the hardest part of
running their business.
That tells me the challengeisn't size, it's structure.
When you have a small team, youactually have an incredible
(02:11):
advantage.
You can pivot faster, you canmake decisions faster, you can
build a culture that reflectsyour values from the ground up.
Small teams have something largeorganizations often struggle
with, and that's agility.
(02:46):
The first thing is the speed ofclarity.
When your team is small, claritybecomes your competitive
advantage because claritycreates speed.
Clarity eliminates hesitation,it replaces guesswork with
confidence and allows your teamto move quickly and make
(03:09):
decisions without waiting forapproval or direction.
You see, in largerorganizations, messages pass
through layers.
You have your CEO, you know,your executive team, your senior
management team, or your seniorleadership team.
And then you have your middlemanagement, director, manager,
(03:32):
sometimes supervisor, team lead,all the way down to the actual
frontline employees.
So you have a lot of layers thatthings have to go through.
Priorities shift, but it's notas easy to make the shift.
Projects get stuck waiting ondecisions.
(03:53):
But see, here's the thing withsmall teams they can meet in the
morning, decide by lunch, and beexecuting by the afternoon if
everyone understands the missionand their role in it.
Clarity answers the questionsthat slow teams down.
(04:14):
When those questions areanswered up front, your team
moves faster.
They stop second guessingthemselves and they start
producing sooner.
So let's be honest.
Confusion is expensive.
It will cost you your time, yourenergy, and your trust.
(04:35):
But clarity builds alignment andalignment builds momentum.
Because clarity isn't aboutcontrol, it's about confidence.
It gives your team permission toact.
If you are leading a small team,I want you to think about an
(04:58):
area that needs more clarity.
Start there because when youcreate clarity, you create
capacity.
That's number one.
That's the first advantage.
The speed of clarity.
The second advantage is cultureby design, not default.
(05:20):
Every team has a culture,regardless of the size.
The only question is whetherit's happening by design or by
default.
When your team is small, cultureisn't something you hang on the
wall.
It's something you live outevery day.
And it's more visible becauseit's not as many people.
(05:44):
It's how you communicate, it'show you solve problems, it's how
your team defines what good worklooks like.
Culture forms whether you planit or not.
So what you want to do is youwant to design it.
And when your team is small, onewrong hire or one unchecked
(06:09):
behavior can shift everything.
That's why culture must be builtin with intention because it's
harder to fix it later.
You have to design it from thestart.
How you do this in small teamsis you do it right out the gate
(06:33):
when you hire.
Right out the gate when youhire.
In smaller teams, you build thatculture intentionally through
your hiring process.
When your team is small, everyhire matters.
(06:55):
You're not just filling a role,you are actually adding a
personality, an attitude, and aset of values to your team
dynamic.
And you can see it clearer andyou can feel it faster.
So you want to make sure thatyou are really taking your time
(07:16):
to make the right hire.
That's why hiring for values isjust as important as hiring for
skills.
And it's even more important insmaller teams, like I said,
because it's more visible.
Some of these things can bemasked in larger teams.
It may take a little bit longerfor some things to float up to
the top, but that's not the casewith smaller teams.
(07:38):
However, when you do it rightfrom the beginning, it's a lot
easier with smaller teams.
When you are hiring, you want tomake sure that your candidate
not just has the rightexperience and skills, but they
have to align with yourprinciples.
(08:03):
Six people, small team.
At the time we started workingtogether, he needed to hire
really fast because he was downtwo people.
Now, when you are managing orleading a small team and you're
down people, woo, that's a bigdeal.
(08:25):
So if you have a team of six andyou're down two people, that's a
third of your team.
That's a lot of work that's notgetting done.
As we started working together,it became really clear that the
turnover wasn't just about work,it was about fit.
(08:47):
The two team members that hadleft had the technical skills.
He acknowledged that they hadthe skills to do the job, but
they didn't align with theculture he wanted to build.
And as we continued to haveconversations, I asked him what
his interview process lookedlike.
(09:09):
And I noticed right away thatwhen he was hiring, he was only
considering skills.
He did not consider values, hehad real strong convictions
around collaboration andinnovation.
This was extremely important tohim.
He wanted to bring in peoplethat were like open to trying
(09:31):
new ideas and willing to testconcepts and that were confident
enough to contribute creatively.
He wanted innovative people.
He wanted people thatcollaborated, but his interview
questions didn't reflect any ofthat.
(09:52):
So we went back, we redefinedthe process, we added in some
questions that revealed howCanada's approach teamwork,
creativity, problem solving, andthings like that.
The next two hires werecompletely different than two
people that had left.
(10:12):
Not only did they have the rightexperience, but they were a fit
for the team.
We considered what his valueswere, and we considered what the
team dynamics were.
And within weeks, let me tellyou something.
Within weeks, the entire dynamicof the overall team shifted.
(10:36):
I mean, communication improved,morale was lifted.
He felt better about his team,and performance skyrocketed.
He was on his way to building ahigh-performing team.
And that experience, it remindedme and him of something that was
truly important.
(10:57):
Skills can be developed, butvalues have to align.
And that's something that's outof the gate.
When I work with leaders ofsmall teams, one of the things I
talk to them about is values andmotion.
And this is really about thefact that culture isn't written
(11:18):
on the wall, it has to be livedout in the work that we do.
That's what values emotion is.
It means that your values theyshow up in how your team does
everything.
I mean, from communicating,solving problems, how they
support each other, how theyprovide feedback to each other,
(11:38):
how you provide feedback to yourteam.
It becomes more than a handbookor a slide deck or something
that's on the website.
It's visible, it's walked out,is lived out.
Culture becomes consistent.
And this is why I am alwaysreminding leaders that you have
(12:02):
to be cognizant of what thevalues of the organization is
and how you are literallywalking it out on a regular
basis.
Right?
So we have to be thinking aboutthat because our team is looking
at that, and our team usuallymimics that behavior, and
(12:23):
they're going to exhibit that,and that becomes our culture.
So culture has to be by design,not default.
That's number two.
The third advantage that smallteams have is focus.
(12:44):
Focus is the greatest strength.
When your team is small, focusis your greatest strength.
You don't have the capacity tochase every idea, to fix every
problem, to try every platform,to do all of the things.
That becomes a distraction.
(13:04):
But when you focus, you aregoing to easily outdo a larger
team.
Focus isn't about, it's notabout doing less.
It's about doing more of theright things.
It's about doing what mattersthe most and consistently doing
what matters the most.
(13:26):
Friction shows up when yourpriorities are unclear, when
people start working hard, butnot together.
They're going off doing theirseparate things.
They get busy, but they're notproductive.
And that's what leads to theburnout, the confusion, and the
missed deadlines.
And all of those things start tocreep in.
(13:47):
But your role as a leader is toprotect the focus.
That means setting clear, we'retalking clarity again.
That means setting clearpriorities, defining what the
boundaries look like, andensuring your team isn't
spreading its energy across.
When everyone knows what mattersmost, productivity becomes
(14:10):
natural.
So when you have a small teamand you set the direction and
(14:30):
you are clear, you're going toaccomplish more.
And the great thing about it isthat when you set the tone, when
you say what the direction is,again, you don't have to go
through a bunch of levels.
It's easy to talk directly tothe team.
(14:53):
Because it's not that many ofthem.
So that's an advantage.
Think about where your team maybe experiencing the most
(15:16):
friction right now.
Or think about if there's anopportunity to provide
additional clarity around whatthe focus needs to be.
Because again, you have toremember you have a small team.
You don't want them going in abunch of different directions.
This is only an advantage if youset the focus properly.
(15:41):
If that's not the case, then itbecomes a disadvantage really
quickly because you have a smallteam.
So you really want to make surethat you are focusing.
Clarity is going to give youspeed.
Culture gives you strength.
Focus gives you direction.
(16:03):
And to sustain it all, you needstructure.
So those are three advantages ofsmall teams.
And when you implement thesethings, you are going to see
your performance skyrocket.
(16:27):
Before you hire, implement someof these things first and see
where your team can go.
Small teams don't need to domore, they need to do more of
what matters most.
You don't have to scale in sizeto scale your impact.
You just need to align yourpeople, your processes, and your
(16:50):
priorities, and you aredefinitely going to see the
results.
Now, if you really want to takesome of these principles to the
next level, be sure to check outthe Leadership Shift Coaching
program.
This is my one-on-one programwhere I work with leaders of
small teams to help them tobuild that clarity, the
(17:14):
capacity, and what they need fortheir small teams to take them
to the next level.
Alright, so I'm gonna put theinformation in the show notes
and you can go and you can checkit out.
You can even schedule a callwith me so that we can see if
this is something that alignswith what it is that you need
and where it is that you aretrying to go.
(17:35):
And also, if you like thisepisode and leave a like and
please share it with anotherlink and some of the
information, and take 30 secondsto give us my really have a
break until my last day.
You know, so many leaders believe that growth
means adding more people.
But I've seen it time and timeagain.
Adding more people doesn'tautomatically make things
better.
In fact, without structure,clarity, and culture, it can
multiply the chaos.
(00:23):
Hello and welcome to anotherepisode of Leveraging Operations
and Leadership, the podcastwhere we bridge the gap between
strong leadership and solidoperations.
I'm your host, Tanya D.
Harrison, a leadership andoperations consultant, and today
we're kicking off a new focus,one that's all about helping
(00:46):
small teams make a big impact.
Today I want to challenge theidea that growth means adding
more people.
Think about it.
What if, just what if, lesscould actually lead to more?
More clarity, morecollaboration, and more results.
(01:09):
Yeah, I said it, more results.
That's exactly what we'retalking about in this episode.
How small teams can drive bigimpact when they lead with
intention, structure, and focus.
Here's the truth (01:25):
small teams are not at a disadvantage at
all, they are an opportunity.
There's a common belief that youneed a big team to make big
impact, but impact doesn't comefrom head count, it comes from
clarity, consistency, andalignment.
(01:47):
According to 2024 Zen BusinessReport, nearly 70% of small
business owners say managingpeople is the hardest part of
running their business.
That tells me the challengeisn't size, it's structure.
When you have a small team, youactually have an incredible
(02:11):
advantage.
You can pivot faster, you canmake decisions faster, you can
build a culture that reflectsyour values from the ground up.
Small teams have something largeorganizations often struggle
with, and that's agility.
(02:46):
The first thing is the speed ofclarity.
When your team is small, claritybecomes your competitive
advantage because claritycreates speed.
Clarity eliminates hesitation,it replaces guesswork with
confidence and allows your teamto move quickly and make
(03:09):
decisions without waiting forapproval or direction.
You see, in largerorganizations, messages pass
through layers.
You have your CEO, you know,your executive team, your senior
management team, or your seniorleadership team.
And then you have your middlemanagement, director, manager,
(03:32):
sometimes supervisor, team lead,all the way down to the actual
frontline employees.
So you have a lot of layers thatthings have to go through.
Priorities shift, but it's notas easy to make the shift.
Projects get stuck waiting ondecisions.
(03:53):
But see, here's the thing withsmall teams they can meet in the
morning, decide by lunch, and beexecuting by the afternoon if
everyone understands the missionand their role in it.
Clarity answers the questionsthat slow teams down.
(04:14):
When those questions areanswered up front, your team
moves faster.
They stop second guessingthemselves and they start
producing sooner.
So let's be honest.
Confusion is expensive.
It will cost you your time, yourenergy, and your trust.
(04:35):
But clarity builds alignment andalignment builds momentum.
Because clarity isn't aboutcontrol, it's about confidence.
It gives your team permission toact.
If you are leading a small team,I want you to think about an
(04:58):
area that needs more clarity.
Start there because when youcreate clarity, you create
capacity.
That's number one.
That's the first advantage.
The speed of clarity.
The second advantage is cultureby design, not default.
(05:20):
Every team has a culture,regardless of the size.
The only question is whetherit's happening by design or by
default.
When your team is small, cultureisn't something you hang on the
wall.
It's something you live outevery day.
And it's more visible becauseit's not as many people.
(05:44):
It's how you communicate, it'show you solve problems, it's how
your team defines what good worklooks like.
Culture forms whether you planit or not.
So what you want to do is youwant to design it.
And when your team is small, onewrong hire or one unchecked
(06:09):
behavior can shift everything.
That's why culture must be builtin with intention because it's
harder to fix it later.
You have to design it from thestart.
How you do this in small teamsis you do it right out the gate
(06:33):
when you hire.
Right out the gate when youhire.
In smaller teams, you build thatculture intentionally through
your hiring process.
When your team is small, everyhire matters.
(06:55):
You're not just filling a role,you are actually adding a
personality, an attitude, and aset of values to your team
dynamic.
And you can see it clearer andyou can feel it faster.
So you want to make sure thatyou are really taking your time
(07:16):
to make the right hire.
That's why hiring for values isjust as important as hiring for
skills.
And it's even more important insmaller teams, like I said,
because it's more visible.
Some of these things can bemasked in larger teams.
It may take a little bit longerfor some things to float up to
the top, but that's not the casewith smaller teams.
(07:38):
However, when you do it rightfrom the beginning, it's a lot
easier with smaller teams.
When you are hiring, you want tomake sure that your candidate
not just has the rightexperience and skills, but they
have to align with yourprinciples.
(08:03):
Six people, small team.
At the time we started workingtogether, he needed to hire
really fast because he was downtwo people.
Now, when you are managing orleading a small team and you're
down people, woo, that's a bigdeal.
(08:25):
So if you have a team of six andyou're down two people, that's a
third of your team.
That's a lot of work that's notgetting done.
As we started working together,it became really clear that the
turnover wasn't just about work,it was about fit.
(08:47):
The two team members that hadleft had the technical skills.
He acknowledged that they hadthe skills to do the job, but
they didn't align with theculture he wanted to build.
And as we continued to haveconversations, I asked him what
his interview process lookedlike.
(09:09):
And I noticed right away thatwhen he was hiring, he was only
considering skills.
He did not consider values, hehad real strong convictions
around collaboration andinnovation.
This was extremely important tohim.
He wanted to bring in peoplethat were like open to trying
(09:31):
new ideas and willing to testconcepts and that were confident
enough to contribute creatively.
He wanted innovative people.
He wanted people thatcollaborated, but his interview
questions didn't reflect any ofthat.
(09:52):
So we went back, we redefinedthe process, we added in some
questions that revealed howCanada's approach teamwork,
creativity, problem solving, andthings like that.
The next two hires werecompletely different than two
people that had left.
(10:12):
Not only did they have the rightexperience, but they were a fit
for the team.
We considered what his valueswere, and we considered what the
team dynamics were.
And within weeks, let me tellyou something.
Within weeks, the entire dynamicof the overall team shifted.
(10:36):
I mean, communication improved,morale was lifted.
He felt better about his team,and performance skyrocketed.
He was on his way to building ahigh-performing team.
And that experience, it remindedme and him of something that was
truly important.
(10:57):
Skills can be developed, butvalues have to align.
And that's something that's outof the gate.
When I work with leaders ofsmall teams, one of the things I
talk to them about is values andmotion.
And this is really about thefact that culture isn't written
(11:18):
on the wall, it has to be livedout in the work that we do.
That's what values emotion is.
It means that your values theyshow up in how your team does
everything.
I mean, from communicating,solving problems, how they
support each other, how theyprovide feedback to each other,
(11:38):
how you provide feedback to yourteam.
It becomes more than a handbookor a slide deck or something
that's on the website.
It's visible, it's walked out,is lived out.
Culture becomes consistent.
And this is why I am alwaysreminding leaders that you have
(12:02):
to be cognizant of what thevalues of the organization is
and how you are literallywalking it out on a regular
basis.
Right?
So we have to be thinking aboutthat because our team is looking
at that, and our team usuallymimics that behavior, and
(12:23):
they're going to exhibit that,and that becomes our culture.
So culture has to be by design,not default.
That's number two.
The third advantage that smallteams have is focus.
(12:44):
Focus is the greatest strength.
When your team is small, focusis your greatest strength.
You don't have the capacity tochase every idea, to fix every
problem, to try every platform,to do all of the things.
That becomes a distraction.
(13:04):
But when you focus, you aregoing to easily outdo a larger
team.
Focus isn't about, it's notabout doing less.
It's about doing more of theright things.
It's about doing what mattersthe most and consistently doing
what matters the most.
(13:26):
Friction shows up when yourpriorities are unclear, when
people start working hard, butnot together.
They're going off doing theirseparate things.
They get busy, but they're notproductive.
And that's what leads to theburnout, the confusion, and the
missed deadlines.
And all of those things start tocreep in.
(13:47):
But your role as a leader is toprotect the focus.
That means setting clear, we'retalking clarity again.
That means setting clearpriorities, defining what the
boundaries look like, andensuring your team isn't
spreading its energy across.
When everyone knows what mattersmost, productivity becomes
(14:10):
natural.
So when you have a small teamand you set the direction and
(14:30):
you are clear, you're going toaccomplish more.
And the great thing about it isthat when you set the tone, when
you say what the direction is,again, you don't have to go
through a bunch of levels.
It's easy to talk directly tothe team.
(14:53):
Because it's not that many ofthem.
So that's an advantage.
Think about where your team maybe experiencing the most
(15:16):
friction right now.
Or think about if there's anopportunity to provide
additional clarity around whatthe focus needs to be.
Because again, you have toremember you have a small team.
You don't want them going in abunch of different directions.
This is only an advantage if youset the focus properly.
(15:41):
If that's not the case, then itbecomes a disadvantage really
quickly because you have a smallteam.
So you really want to make surethat you are focusing.
Clarity is going to give youspeed.
Culture gives you strength.
Focus gives you direction.
(16:03):
And to sustain it all, you needstructure.
So those are three advantages ofsmall teams.
And when you implement thesethings, you are going to see
your performance skyrocket.
(16:27):
Before you hire, implement someof these things first and see
where your team can go.
Small teams don't need to domore, they need to do more of
what matters most.
You don't have to scale in sizeto scale your impact.
You just need to align yourpeople, your processes, and your
(16:50):
priorities, and you aredefinitely going to see the
results.
Now, if you really want to takesome of these principles to the
next level, be sure to check outthe Leadership Shift Coaching
program.
This is my one-on-one programwhere I work with leaders of
small teams to help them tobuild that clarity, the
(17:14):
capacity, and what they need fortheir small teams to take them
to the next level.
Alright, so I'm gonna put theinformation in the show notes
and you can go and you can checkit out.
You can even schedule a callwith me so that we can see if
this is something that alignswith what it is that you need
and where it is that you aretrying to go.
(17:35):
And also, if you like thisepisode and leave a like and
please share it with anotherlink and some of the
information, and take 30 secondsto give us my really have a
break until my last day.
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