Solar is a Team Sport.

That might just be the biggest understatement you’ll read on this blog.

A wise leader from one of the largest, most successful employee-owned solar installers in the U.S. once said this to me, and it stuck.

I knew it intuitively from my own experience starting, operating, and scaling a solar installation business. But I’d never quite put it into those words.

Why does it matter?

Some of us (ahem, any other control freaks out there?) believe that through sheer force of will, rationality, innovation, creativity, and charisma, we can scale our businesses indefinitely—while still delighting customers, building a great reputation, and never missing a beat.

I’m here to tell you: That’s very, very hard. Maybe even impossible if you don’t embrace the team mentality.

Sure, it’s obvious that every company needs a “team” to succeed. But in some industries, individuals can simply perform their discrete tasks like parts on a conveyor belt, and the company will thrive.

For solar installers, that’s far from reality.

By its very nature, solar is a complex, rapidly evolving industry. It’s full of idiosyncrasies and inefficiencies, requiring team members not just to collaborate, but to actively trust and respect one another, share information freely, and over-communicate to a fault.

Here are just a few examples:

Digital Communication

In the early days of my own solar installation business, we had no centralized mode of communication. Team members toggled between WhatsApp, Google Chat, text messages, and probably Snapchat (for all that I know). Migrating to Slack transformed how we shared and delivered information. It became our hub, where the CEO shared weekly newsletters and crew members could troubleshoot problems with the larger team instead of relying on ad hoc DMs (direct messages).

Office vs. Remote Work

Need I say more? Unless you’ve been in a coma for the last five years, you probably have strong opinions about remote vs. in-office work. Did you know that we had a once-in-a-century global pandemic that forced half the population out of the office and into their pajamas (or shorts and t-shirt) during the workday?

Now, during this pandemic, the creative flow of in-person problem-solving dropped from 100 to near zero. It’s hard to quantify what was lost, but if you’ve been back in the office for even a day, you’ve likely noticed problems being solved in ways that simply don’t happen from home. Encouraging—or even requiring—in-person collaboration a few days a week or month can bring that creative spark back. You’ll see the productivity gains immediately.

Don't Forget the Parties

Okay, maybe not “parties,” but regular get-togethers that are actually fun are critical for building culture and fostering teamwork. They create an environment of care, joy, and connection. In our solar business, we would at a minimum have a quarterly food truck delivery to the warehouse with games so everyone could get together, and an annual float trip down a river in West Virginia. Those were the days.

Break Down Silos

You know how sometimes it feels like one department has no idea what the other is dealing with? Like sales might not really get how tough operations has it, and operations might think sales just has the easy job of “talking to people”?

Yeah, that’s the classic case of information silos, and it’s not great for anyone.

One of the best ways to break down those walls is to get everyone talking. This could mean bringing departments together for shared meetings, giving everyone a chance to cross-train, or even just planning some team-building activities that are actually fun. When people get a better understanding of what their coworkers are dealing with, this changes everything.

Suddenly, there’s more empathy, more respect, and way less of that “us vs. them” vibe.

At the end of the day, every team’s success depends on the others. The sooner everyone realizes they’re on the same team, the easier everything gets.

Create Feedback Loops

One of the best things we ever did was start a “lessons learned” forum after every big project.

It wasn’t just a venting session (though, let’s be real, sometimes we needed that too!). It became this super constructive space where we could pinpoint what wasn’t working, figure out how to fix it, and, honestly, just get on the same page as a team.

Over time, these forums turned into something we really depended on. They helped us improve processes, tackle issues before they became full-blown problems, and, maybe most importantly, they built trust. When people feel like their voices are actually heard, it changes everything.

Why It All Matters

Okay, so, why a strong team matters?

Well, it’s simple: when every part of your team is firing on all cylinders, everything gets easier.

If you’re still not convinced from a strategic perspective, consider this:

• Great marketing and consumer education make salespeople’s lives easier.
• Great salespeople set proper expectations, making site surveyors’ and project managers’ lives easier.
• Great site surveyors who’ve been installers (or electricians if you’re selling storage) make PV engineers’ lives easier.
• Great PV engineers who’ve been onsite ensure permitting and installation go smoother.
• Great permitting coordinators keep backlogs healthy, steadying installers’ workloads.
• Great installers trained in-house make inspection coordinators’ jobs seamless.
• Great inspection coordinators ensure project managers can confidently flip the switch.
• Great project managers lead to happy customers.

And happy customers? They write five-star reviews and send referrals.

It takes years to build that flywheel, and there will always be kinks in the chain. But needless to say, “solar is a team sport” is an understatement.