When the CEO of a fast-growing digital agency came to me, his frustration was clear:
📍 "We don’t know our roles."
His team was stepping on each other’s toes. Handoffs were unclear. Deadlines were slipping.
🚧 The Problem: A Lack of Clarity Was Slowing Them Down
⚠️ A lack of defined roles and decision-making clarity.
In fact, his team had already told him directly:
🗣 "We can't keep working like this."
That’s when he reached out. He knew his team was struggling, and it was time for some outside perspective.
We started by inviting the whole team to take the System & Soul Diagnostic 🧭
Like many companies, their S2 Healthscores revealed gaps in all six dimensions of organizational health.
💡 What We Did
We kicked off their System & Soul implementation in November, starting with a Clarity Day. The team:
🔹 Defined their roles (and who owned what)
🔹 Set a 5-10 year destination 🏁
🔹 Created clear 90-day objectives 📅
🔹 Established measures to know when each team member is winning 🏆
🔹 Designed the culture they wanted, built on compelling values and strong habits
🔹 Developed problem-solving skills 🔍
🔹 Implemented a Weekly Sync Meeting to keep the team in rhythm 🔄
🛤 The Three Phases of a First Team
At Strategic Matter, we help first teams flourish by making confident decisions, aligning to their destination, and turning plans into action.
As companies grow, first teams evolve through three key phases:
1️⃣ The First, First Team
🔹 This is the first group of people beyond the founder who take on key roles—marketing/sales, production, client services, and operations.
🔹 They’re still doing the work while defining the work that needs to be done.
2️⃣ The “Senior Leadership” First Team
🔹 Over time, the first team becomes the senior leadership team because new hires are junior to them in tenure.
🔹 This phase often brings growing pains—team members must learn to lead while continuing to contribute.
3️⃣ The “Intentional” First Team
🔹 As the company scales, the first team must grow too.
🔹 At this stage, the CEO or founder must decide—can this team step up and take on leadership roles, where their job is to lead others?
🚀 Setting the Right Foundation for Growth
Every growing company must navigate these transitions.
Getting the "first, first team" on the right footing creates the foundation for healthy growth through all phases.
Want to bring clarity and momentum to your first team? Let’s talk.