Steal Our 4-Part Hiring System

Courtney Elmer 0:00  

Welcome back. It is the AntiFragile Entrepreneurship™ Podcast and this is episode 125. And in today's episode, I'm going to reveal our four step system for hiring the right person. Finding, interviewing and hiring your dream team members so that whenever you're ready to hire, whether it's for the first time, or whether you're ready to add another member to your team, you can get rid of the confusion and the overwhelm that most online entrepreneurs experience when it comes to hiring the right person, and have the insider's playbook in hand for knowing where to find how to vet and how hiring the right person will help you grow your company. 

Globally ranked among the top shows in business and education, we're known for one thing, helping overworked entrepreneurs like you learn how to run your business like a true visionary leader, because when you get the right systems support, and structure (hiring the right person) in place, you can spend more time in your zone of genius. So if you're tired of listening to today's business influencers teach this same old worn out marketing strategies that aren't making you any money, it's time to take a look under the hood of your business and fix the engine itself. Because the truth is, you don't have to work as hard as you are right now to scale beyond six figures, and create the greater influence income and impact that you deserve. The secret to scaling starts on the back end of your business and hiring the right person. This is the AntiFragile Entrepreneurship™ Podcast.

Courtney Elmer 1:22  

So I did a training recently for our mastermind students on hiring the right person and we dug so deep this is something that very few people out there are teaching today and it boggles my mind. And it's a question we get often because you know whether it's from colleagues in this space, or whether it's from our students, at some point in your entrepreneurial journey, you need to learn to be hiring the right person. And on the flip side of that coin, how to let people go when it is time to let them go. And so what I thought I would do is that I would lift the curtain and share this with you as a special mini series here on the podcast, because it's so good and hiring the right person is so important. 

I couldn't not share this information with you. In fact, when I put a poll on my Instagram recently asked me if I should turn hiring the right person into a mini course, the answer was overwhelmingly Yes. And that tells me one thing that you don't have the resources available to you to know if you're hiring the right person. Sure, you could type it in Google. But a lot of that slant is very corporate, and very traditional business model. But when it comes to building remote teams, when it comes to working online, when it comes to being the visionary leader in your business, who is looking to put people in place that you can begin delegating, and getting things off of your plate, there's a lot that goes into it, there's the actual hiring the right person process, there's the mindset piece of it, there's the trust piece of it, there's the learning to let go piece of it. 

And so when you don't have guidance to know if you're hiring the right person, and when you don't have those resources available to you for your unique situation, as an online entrepreneur, it feels a lot like fumbling in the dark. So I admittedly have made every mistake in the book when it comes to hiring the right person, I can sit here all day and tell you some horror stories. But the point being that if you feel overwhelmed, or confused, or that you just don't know where to start, when it comes to hiring the right person much less finding them. I know exactly how you feel. Because I've been there. And I have felt that way before too. And what I've found is that when you know what specific role you need help with first and foremost, it makes it easier to know what to look for. 

And when you know what you're looking for, it makes it easier to know where to look for them. And when you know where to look for them, and makes it easier to actually find them. So in today's episode, as well as in the episodes ahead, I'm going to show you how to do exactly that. So when you walk away from this four part episode series, you will know exactly how to find how to interview and how to hiring the right person. You ready? 

Okay. So to kick us off today, we are going to cover in this episode, this simplest hack for figuring out who to hire first, this is really important. And it is a step that 99.9% of entrepreneurs miss the first time they go to hire. And most of them make this mistake the subsequent times that they go to hire as well. We're also going to talk about the three things that make a candidate a right fit, how do you know if someone's a right fit? And I'm going to show you how to quickly assess any current team members you might have to determine if they are a right fit for your team for the role that they're currently in and for your company vision long term. Plus, I'll show you what not to do when hiring and I'm going to give you the one key thing you need to be on the lookout for in an applicant that will make or break you any team member relationship down the road. So let's roll the tape on that training on hiring the right person right now.

Courtney Elmer 5:15  

In the lessons ahead, I'm going to give you have the gift of confidence in your next hire, even if you've been burned in the past, because we're going to move into now, my four step system for identifying, interviewing and hiring the right person. And today, we're going to talk about the intention behind that process to really set you up for complete and total success as you build your rockstar team. Because chances are, you probably know it's time to start hiring the right person and building that team. 

But you might feel a little bit overwhelmed by the whole hiring the right person and attracting interviewing, vetting onboarding training process, because you don't have any of that in place right now. Or maybe you have pieces and components for hiring the right person, and you've hired before, but the whole onboarding training process has just been a mess. Or you've spent time thinking you were hiring the right person that didn't work out, and you're worried about that repeating itself. And this was me for a long time, trying to hiring the right person, you know, I was always on the search for that unicorn, going through that time, that energy, interviewing people, thinking I was hiring the right person, paying them only to find out that they weren't the unicorn that I thought they were that really I hoped they were, they were just a donkey with a fake shiny horn. And I say that with love.

And I also say that to say that, I get it, I've been there, I've done it. I've gotten several T shirts. And thankfully today and the hiring the right person lessons ahead, you get to learn from my mistakes. So in the hiring the right person lessons ahead, we're going to revisit that accountability chart that you created back in week seven. And you're going to learn how to identify which role you need to hire for next, you're also going to learn how to craft an application that will weed out people who aren't in aligned fit for your organization and save you the time of interviewing them so you can be sure you are hiring the right person. Because there was nothing worse than sitting down on an interview and realizing 5,10 minutes in, this made me really wasn't worth my time to sit down with this person.

Courtney Elmer 7:26  

You'll also learn the one key thing that you have to look for in an applicant that will make or break any team member relationship down the road and why this is so important. And of course, I will walk you through my proven four step interview process that we have used time and time again, to help you find, interview and hire your next dream team member. And we're going to talk about how to Finally Heal your relationship with hiring. Even if you've been burned in the past. If I can do it, you can do so I want to kick off this Convo by revisiting that accountability chart. 

Remember, you design that back in week seven, you outline your dream team. Now we're going to take that and use it to direct your first or next hire. So just to recap here, the purpose of that chart is to clarify team members function, their role, and their reporting structure, who do they report to? It's also to determine who should be on your leadership team when you begin to build out your leadership team. And that chart is going to help you put the right people in the right seat based on their skills, their expertise, their level of emotional intelligence, the way they are wired their personality traits, and really help you put that person in a position where they can thrive and really matching person to role that you need filled. Now, this accountability chart I had you build it out as if you had your dream team tomorrow when you go out and hire all those people tomorrow. But we're not going to do that. 

This is not about hiring everyone at once. That chart is to help you have a clearer picture of what you want your company to look like X number of years from now, maybe it's a year from now, three years from now, five years from now 10 years from now, I built out my chart with a 10 year target on it. And then we're simply breaking it down just like we learned how to do with your BTO who do we need to bring on board by the end of this year? Who do we need to hire by the end of this quarter to make that happen? so you can be sure you are hiring the right person.

And also, I just want to remind you, here it is. Okay. In fact, it's more than okay to have a small team it is so much easier to manage a small team. If you grow too fast. You will be spending the bulk of your time training and onboarding new people and guess what that's gonna take away from your time spent in your zone of genius as a visionary leader, and it's going to take away time from your revenue generating activities. And so again, this is a mistake I have made I am Speaking from experience here, so please, you take nothing else away from you from these lessons, please at least just learn from my mistakes and learn what not to do, do not trade more busy work, and hire someone only to do more busy work training and onboarding, and training and onboarding and hiring people to get help, and you're just training and onboarding all the time.

So we're gonna put some hiring the right person systems in place to help you with all of that, just remember this, a few good employees are worth far more than a bunch of average ones. So let's take a look at what it means to be a right fit for the role that you're hiring for, there are three things that have to be present. For someone to be right fit, that person has to get it, they have to want it, and they have to have the capacity to do it. And by it, I mean the job the role you are hiring for. So let's take a look at what each one of these means so you are hiring the right person.

So by getting it, this means that they truly understand their role, they get the culture of your company, they want to be a part of it, which that kind of goes into what it but they get it right, they understand your vision, they understand the systems, they understand the pace that's expected of them, they understand how the job comes together, they get it, not everyone gets it. The good news is there are plenty of people who do they have to want it, they have to genuinely like the job, they have to want to do it based on fair compensation, and the responsibility of that role. If you feel the need ever, if you ever feel the need to motivate or cajole or overpay or beg a person to want it, the reality is they don't.

Courtney Elmer 11:37  

And if they don't, here's the reality for you, they will never provide you with that spark that you're looking for from them, no matter how effective of a manager you are. This is where we can trap ourselves in because when we've got someone on our team that is not performing the way that we expect. We feel like we're having to bribe them in a sense, hey, I'll pay you more. Is that what it is? Oh, what's gonna, what's it going to take to motivate you write you're looking for that spark from them, they're not giving it to you. And all of a sudden, you start to think, Well, gosh, maybe I'm just a terrible manager, maybe I'm the bad leader, maybe I need to brush up on my leadership skills. And maybe you do, we can always be learning. 

But the truth is, if they don't want it, they're not going to ever give you that spark, no matter how effective you are a leader. The good news is, though, that you don't have to keep beating your head against the wall, find someone who does want it, and the difference will be immediately evident. And finally, they have to have the capacity to do it. I mean, this just goes straight down to do they have the time do they have the physical capacity? Do they have the mental capacity? Do they have the emotional capacity to do their job? Well, sometimes a job requires a certain level of intellect or skill or knowledge or emotional intelligence. And the person just might not have that capacity. 

Now some of these things you can teach like skill, you can teach skills, maybe knowledge, you can teach knowledge. But other things you can't teach, like intellect, innate intellect, or emotional intelligence, emotional maturity, emotional capacity. Or maybe it comes down to time, if you need someone to be present in your business between the hours of nine to five to take care of incoming student questions, or their job is customer service. Right, then maybe a mom who stays home and has two kids at home isn't going to be the best fit, simply because she won't have the capacity. If a position requires 55 hours a week, but someone only want to work only wants to work 35 They don't have the capacity.

I ran into this hiring the right person issue with a team member once before she worked for me for almost 18 months. She was amazing. She was so skilled. She was emotionally mature. She understood what the job required. But she didn't have the capacity. I needed more hours from her. And she didn't have it to give nor did she want to. She was happy in the current lifestyle that she had working part time. And that's all she wanted. And so no amount of me trying to get her to do the job that I wanted her to do so badly because she was so good at it was going to change anything. 

So here's the thing, a no on any of these makes it crystal clear that it is not the right seat for that person. You mustn't fool yourself on this point, you can occasionally turn a no into a yes. If and only if you are willing to invest the time and the money that it takes to get a person to the level they need to be. But in most cases, you're not going to have the time to wait for them to adjust to the learning curve. You just won't you need the help today. After all, that's the point you are hiring. That's the whole point of hiring the right person. 

So now we want to take a look at your current team members. If you have members on your team right now. How do you know if they are in the right seat? How do you know if they are right fit or not? And so let's just imagine here for a second that Shawn and Rachel and Taylor and Austin are all members of your current team, and you're trying to figure out, okay, are they a right fit? Are they in the right seat, you might get a vibe from some of these people, you know, maybe one of them really seems to perform well, and some of the others, you're kind of like, I gotta be like, I have to stay on top of them to get their work done. Right, but you want to know for sure, so we're going to assess it.

First, what you need to do, is you need to write down your core values, those core values, you identified way back in the beginning here of this program, what are they write them down? Then you're gonna write down? Do they get it? Do they want it? Are they capable of it? And you are simply going to assess on a yes or no basis? Do they exhibit that core value? Do they embody that core value? Do they get it? Do they want it? And are they capable of it? So you can see here very quickly how you can assess your team members and notice, okay, Shawn, well, he's got most of the core values down here. He's kind of struggling on core value number five, I don't see him exemplifying that one very often. It seems to be a struggle for him. Maybe it doesn't come naturally to him. That's okay. Maybe it's not his value. Does he get it? Yeah, it gets what's required of him? But does he want it doesn't seem to? Is he capable? Actually, maybe not. Because I really need someone in this role. 40 hours a week, and he only wants to work 20.

Courtney Elmer 16:34  

Now, Rachel, though Rachel does an amazing job. She exemplifies all the core values. Gosh, if I could just find another Rachel, I would definately be hiring the right person. All of my team problems would be solved. Can I just replicate Rachel, please and have her and if you were thinking about that on anyone on your team, chances are, guess what, they're probably aligned with all of your core values. They get it, they want it and they're capable of the role. And you can see through these examples, if you were to just quickly run an assessment of each member of your current team, whether they're freelancer, whether they're an employee, this is how you can determine are the right fit. 

Now, here's where some rubber might meet the road. Okay, so let's say you do this assessment for hiring the right person, you realize right now, Whoa, there are people on my team who are not a good fit. Now what? Here's what you need to realize about hiring the right person, if you want to grow, you have to recognize first not everyone's going to be able to keep up. And they're not going to be able to remain in the same seat forever, necessarily. You need someone who's going to be able to keep up with the role and the growth. This was in the case of my team member who didn't want to work more than part time, and I needed her more than part time, she was an excellent team member, she had the skills, but she wasn't going to keep up with my growth. There just wasn't any way around that. And keeping people around just because you like them. Or because they've been with me since the beginning.

That's destructive, you're doing a disservice to their company, you're doing a disservice to yourself, you're doing a disservice to everyone else on the team. And to that person, because people must add value, the degree to which your people are in the right seats is the degree to which your company culture can thrive, I cannot emphasize that point enough. So I want you to look at hiring the right person this way, this is called the 36 hours of pain principle. Because when it comes down to it, and you recognize you got to let someone go, because they are not for the good of the company. They're not growing in the same direction that you want to go, here's how you have to look at it.

You can either spend 36 hours of pain in the days leading up to that conversation where you have to sit down and let that person know, hey, this is relationship isn't gonna continue. Or you can keep them around and be miserable for the next three months, six months, a year or more. And so when we put it into perspective like that for ourselves, often the answer becomes very evident very quickly. And this is I believe, where the adage comes from hire slow, fire fast. If you recognize that someone is not a fit, you are only shooting yourself and your business in the foot to keep them on. 

So what's worse 36 hours of uncomfortability leading up to that conversation with that person, maybe feeling a little bad about it after but also quickly realizing that was the best thing you could have done and wondering why you didn't make that decision sooner. I can't tell you how many times this has happened. For me, where I procrastinated and procrastinate and procrastinate and it just kept hoping someone would change all the while while I was suffering While my business was suffering because the role wasn't being ill the job I gave someone to do, they weren't taking responsibility for it. Or you can just hold on to that person, let them stay there for the sake of whatever you're letting them stay there for and continue to suffer, continue to experience that frustration. And that anger and that resentment. 

So just to reiterate, a role on your accountability chart is a hat that that person wears, and someone can wear more than one hat at once. So here's what I want you to remember. And keep this in the back of your mind as we move forward through this in the hiring the right person lesson ahead. You can have one name in two seats here. In other words, you could behiring the right person for two roles, but you cannot have two names. In one seat, you cannot have two directors of operations, you cannot have two integrators. Just like you wouldn't have two visionary leaders because your visions are going to be different. Same thing you don't want two people in one seat. 

So when you first start out, you occupy every seat, you're the one wearing all the hats you're the integrator, you're the head of sales, you're the head of marketing. Oh, today I'm the head of operations. Now I'm the head of finance back you're doing my taxes, right? You've chances are you've been there you know exactly what I'm talking about. as your organization grows, new people are brought in to fill the seats that are needed.

Courtney Elmer 21:32  

Okay, so if you had an aha today about hiring the right person, or if you learned something new about hiring the right person or if something just jumped out at you and kind of blew your mind about hiring the right person, I want to hear about it. Come connect with me on Instagram. You can find me @CourtneyElmer if you're not already following me there, hit that follow button, make sure we are connected. And send me a DM and let me know that you heard this episode, I want to hear your biggest takeaway about hiring the right person. And I would love to support you in the DMS and answer any questions you have about hiring the right person -- whether it's your current team members, potential team members that you're looking to hire, I would love to support you in hiring the right person.

And if at any point you would like to work with my team and me directly, to get help to implement the hiring the right person system within your business as well as the four other key systems that every online entrepreneur needs to scale to seven figures. Then just head to our website theeffortlesslife.co and get on the waitlist to be notified when the doors open again, to our visionary leader incubator. 

Now coming up next week on the show, we are diving into part two of this four part series and talking about how to know when it's time to be hiring the right person. This is so important so that you aren't wasting your time and that you can make sure that you don't hire the right person too soon or too late. So I will see you back here next week. And until then, go live your EffortLESS Life®