Lauren was paired with coach Jennifer Mizgata, who helped her think through how to create policies that brought more structure to the team while offering enough flexibility to preserve the unique spirit of the Southwest Contemporary culture. She started creating job scorecards for each of the roles on her team so her staff has more clarity around expectations and is initializing a performance review process.

Lauren also created a staffing plan in which she envisioned the next two roles she plans to add to her team and how they will integrate into the current organizational structure.

She said completing the team’s “How We Work” document was her favorite task. New hires and freelancers now have an easy way to get up to speed with how the Southwest Contemporary team operates, even including basics like how the team uses Zoom and calendar invites.

Lauren feels positive about her team’s ability to launch more sophisticated revenue initiatives after her time in the Startups Lab. And she’s proud to have convened Southwest Contemporary’s first advisory board to help lead that challenge.

Successes:

Built a regional advisory board

Created a robust assortment of management documentation, including job scorecards, an employee handbook, a “How We Work” document and future staffing plan

Initiating a performance review process