Hiring the Right People

It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.

—Steve Jobs, cofounder of Apple, Inc., innovator, entrepreneur, and business magnate

In Chapter 3, we covered the importance of hiring forward in order to scale your business. It may seem obvious but it needs to be stated that when hiring forward – or hiring anyone – you need to feel 100% confident in your gut that you are bringing in the right person for the right position. Even when taking into account all the advice and steps to follow in this book, the power of intuition trumps everything. Some candidates may seem like superstars on paper, but you may be sensing that something doesn’t feel right. You can’t put your finger on why, but the dots aren’t connecting between this candidate and your open position. Listen and pay attention to clues that are floating in the air, as they can potentially save you many heartaches and thousands of dollars.

The fact is, the cost of hiring and onboarding the wrong person could cost you between 6 and 15 times that individual’s annual salary. This may sound like an exaggeration, but it’s not – and misfire hires happen all the time. Think about the amount of the time and energy you spend searching for candidates, creating job descriptions, writing ads, plowing through resumes, interviewing candidates, checking references, negotiating terms, and running background checks – all before the new hire starts on Day One! Then the real work begins with the training processes, which chew up a lot of time. You are investing in the future of this new employee and it can take weeks, if not months, to get him or her fully onboard and acclimated. However, you want to start seeing results quickly so you can begin recouping your investment.

It should go without saying that your recruiting process needs to be spot-on or else you’ll have a revolving door of employees and will have wasted a ton of money, time, and energy.

Finding the Perfect Fit

When I’m searching for new employees, I seek to “hire where the fish are” – meaning, I try to get referrals from my team members and even clients. Since the people I approach are solid employees and enjoy working for my company, chances are pretty good they can identify someone who has the skills and is the right cultural fit.

Trade shows can be an excellent venue for finding recruits. If you need somebody in technology, go to a technology tradeshow. If you need somebody in the health arena, go to a health tradeshow. Meet the people in their environments where you can see them in action.

It also goes without saying that all bets are off when it comes to hiring talent from other companies. It happens all the time in every industry and you shouldn’t feel the least bit guilty about it.

Now, you may be asking: “Don’t you care about other companies doing the same and poaching from you?” Not at all. My feeling is that, if I have employees who are looking around and considering working for a different company, those individuals are not committed to my company’s vision. Of course, I have to take ownership and try to understand why they are looking elsewhere. I always address the situation with one-on-one conversations, so that I have a better understanding of their discontent and can see if there is anything I can do to improve my employee relations. Either way, I don’t want somebody on my team who doesn’t want to be there – and neither do you. By the same token, trying to save the position by offering more money is a temporary fix, at best. Statistics show that employees generally leave within six months of turning down an offer from another company. If a person’s heart isn’t in his work, he will probably end up leaving on his own anyway.

Once I’ve pared down the number of qualified candidates to five or fewer, I always have my team start with a surprise phone call. You can tell so much about someone by the way he answers the phone, handles the “out-of-the-blue” moment, and demonstrates enthusiasm for the position. Of course, you must take into account that the candidate may be in the middle of something important. Even so, catching someone in the midst of “real life” can often reveal more than when he is prepared and ready. You want to see how a candidate acts when he is not prepared. The rule of thumb is that I don’t want to waste my time or theirs, and this process helps me weed out many candidates without having to go through the process of a formal interview in the office.

Third Time Is a Charm in Hiring

Once the candidates pass the first couple of hurdles, apply the Rule of Three. This consists of at least three good candidates and three interviews in three locations by three different people.

You learn a great deal about a candidate when she is required to interview at least three times – not only by what she says, but what she does. How much effort is she putting into the process? Is she persistent? Is she willing to take the extra steps necessary to prove her skills – even if it means taking a test or assessment and/or providing examples of their talents? Does she follow up with a call and a thank-you letter or card? Does she show up on time on all three occasions? Is she consistently dressing in a way that fits your brand? Does she hold the door open for others? Does she treat others with kindness? A good question to ask yourself is, “Could you see yourself sitting next to this person on an international flight?”

Studying a candidate’s behaviors reveals a great deal more than asking basic interview questions. When someone goes on three interviews, she may say something inconsistent or suspicious between meetings. Or, she may lose the “character” she was playing by the third visit.

When I’m interviewing candidates, I look for people who ask questions. A lot of questions. Deep questions about whether they can grow these businesses.

At least in my industry, I’ve found that the people are coming from large beverage and food companies. They have baked-in ideas about what can and can’t be done. It’s almost harder to undo those things because they think, “Well, I’ve worked for a company that’s one hundred years old.”

This is what I say to that: “Well, that’s great. But you guys haven’t innovated in the last 50 years, at least.”

—Excerpt from my interview with Kara Goldin, CEO and Founder of Hint, Inc. For the full interview, go to: www.ScaleorFail.com/bonus.

Desperate hiring leads to hiring the wrong fit almost every time. People do their best to show up and display their best selves. When you hire on the spot, you miss all of the important warning signs about the person you might be welcoming into your company culture – hopefully for many years to come. Isn’t that worth taking the time to make sure she is truly the right fit?

This is why you need time to dig deeply to determine if the person you are meeting with is the same person who will show up to work at your company.

If you don’t have anyone else to interview a candidate, ask your significant other or a client or friend. Someone who knows you and your needs and won’t be swayed by a candidate who says all the right things, yet has nothing to back up these claims. Ask your co-interviewers to have their eyes open for potential red flags.

Several years ago, I placed an ad to hire an in-house public relations manager. I was contacted on LinkedIn by a woman who had years of experience in the television world and who, on the surface, appeared extremely professional and knowledgeable. During her interviews, she said all the right things regarding her dedication, skills, passion, and approach to overcoming adversity. I became excited to add her to our team. On Day One of her employment, I overheard her say the word “overwhelmed” at least three times. (Let me repeat: This was only the first day! Not a good sign…) Over the coming months I realized that she could not handle taking on more than one task at a time and everything needed to be repeatedly explained in great detail. She did possess one solid skill: a knack for sales. Prospects would walk into the door and she could close a sale with them like nobody’s business. As a business owner, this is always a big plus and, honestly, the main reason I didn’t let her go, despite my reservations.

Soon enough, my other employees began complaining about her tirades and meltdowns. She even burst into my office one day to inform me that three of our team members were out to get her.

An important question occurred to me: Who is the common denominator here?

I let her go the next day and proceeded to hear all kinds of complaints from my staff about her that they had suppressed. (In most cases, employees won’t tell you what is really going on until the person is gone.) Even though she was great in sales, we were losing productivity and it was wearing down the team. The lesson: Dig deeply in your interviews and do trial periods whenever possible. One wrong cultural fit can wreak havoc upon your business.

Be willing to destroy anything that is not excellent.

—Joe Polish, marketing authority, entrepreneur, and innovator

How Do You Know If You Have the Right Team?

Knowing whether you have the right team isn’t just about how well your company is doing financially (although that is extremely important). This is the question you need to ask yourself: Are you happy when you go to work? You should be excited to be around the people you hired. If you’re not, then something’s wrong. These are some good telltale signs you have the right people on board:

• You want to hang out with them.
• You want to take them to dinner.
• You would have fun in a long car ride with them.
• You enjoy business trips with them.
• You would rehire them again if need be.

Hire Slowly, Fire Fast

As brutal as the above saying might sound, you can’t afford not to abide by it. If an employee isn’t a good fit, it’s not fair for either of you to keep him or her on your team. It’s no different than being in an intimate relationship with someone you are no longer interested in, but not breaking up with him because you feel bad and don’t want to hurt his feelings. To me, that’s selfish and dishonest because you’re pretending to be interested and wasting his time and affection. You are also keeping him from finding a great relationship. In business and in relationships, a breakup might be painful at that moment, but ripping off the Band-Aid gives them an opportunity to find a better fit and removes the bottleneck in your business.

Yes, it may come across as harsh, but the fact is that the devoted people who helped you get your company off the ground are not necessarily the same employees who have the abilities needed to bring your company to the next level. They may be great at starting things out, but then when the organization becomes rote and systematic, they might not be knowledgeable enough to keep up with the changes and developments necessary for the business to grow. There is also the chance that they become stuck in their boxes and are unwilling to do what is necessary out of fear of change or of the unknown. When employees hold back, it can be dangerous for a company’s growth.

The Vibe of Your Tribe

In order to be a successful leader, you must create a rad company culture (meaning “radically awesome”). I call this the vibe of your tribe. It will drive the happiness of your team, your clients, and even you. People want to work for and with companies that have a strong vibe.

My team is always number one. I believe in them, take care of them, and show my appreciation to them every day. If they are happy, feel like they are well treated and respected, and enjoy being part of a cool company culture, they will try to take even better care of our customers.

Customers will never love a company until the employees love it first.

—Simon Sinek, bestselling author, motivational speaker, and marketing consultant

Sometimes you may have the right people, but they are in the wrong positions. You may have a diamond in the rough who is not displaying her true talents, perhaps because she hasn’t had the opportunity to do so. Discover what’s unique about every person on your team and capitalize on these skills. There is nothing more motivating to an employee than providing an outlet at work for his or her talents and passion to shine. One way to do this is to take the time to meet with your key team members and ask them their personal dreams and goals. Then do what you can to help them realize these dreams.

My creative director has been with me now going on six years. Besides working for me, he is an extremely talented filmmaker. He has had a dream to create his own film for years. When he launched a kick-starter campaign to raise funds to produce a mystery movie, I immediately gave a large donation to help with his efforts. When you hold people back from following their hearts, they become disengaged and leave anyway. When they see you care, the game changes and the relationship changes. Give with a purpose. Support their dreams and they will support yours.

Let the Meetings Begin!

One way that I strengthen the alliance with my team is by having a standing weekly meeting with my entire coaching team at Pinnacle Global Network. We have not missed a meeting in the past three years and it has made a tremendous impact on our connection and comradery as a team. Rather than making it a stale meeting about “projects,” the call is a brainstorm session about one thing: our clients. We are solely focused on navigating the challenges our clients are facing. We discuss ways to solve their problems and capitalize on opportunities. No one on the team feels as if he or she is flying solo. The team becomes excited and productive in this collaborative environment while merging their collective brainpower and creativity to search for solutions. Who benefits the most from this interaction? The clients, of course, who reap the rewards of working with an engaged and elevated team.

We also hold a weekly marketing, administration, and sales meeting. By sticking to these weekly commitments, my team feels supported, they know what needs to get done, and it keeps the momentum of our company going. In the early days, I was always changing the meeting dates and times due to my schedule, and I realized that this was causing confusion and unrest on our team. Our communication was erratic, which caused them to feel confused about what was expected of them. The problem was me – the CEO – and – I had to own that. I had to make the commitment to show up and stick to it. This one practice has made a massive difference in their trust in me, their ability to meet project deadlines, and their overall happiness.

In addition, you want to schedule monthly, quarterly, and annual meetings to review progress toward achieving goals and the Big Picture Vision. These meetings are a good opportunity to do a temperature take of individuals, teams, and the company as a whole while also sharing in everyone’s successes. If things are slipping, it’s also the right forum to bring those issues out into the light before it’s too late and make some course corrections. When you take the full day with your team and hold a planning meeting for the entire year ahead, you can create substantial growth, solve pressing issues, and get the team excited about what is to come.

You also take pressure off your own shoulders because, if you allow them to, your employees will begin to take ownership of their roles. Your team is smart and creative. Allow them to share their ideas and solutions. If you let them, they just might blow you away! This is how you grow. Then follow up with all-day quarterly team meetings to make sure you are meeting your goals and staying on top of your yearly objectives.

On the Fly with Your Virtual Teams

In today’s high-tech business climate, many companies have found ways to create collaborative team alliances that include offsite people who communicate virtually. Video conferencing, phone conferencing, texting, IM systems, VPNs, shared servers and, of course, regular email have become the norm to help employees communicate with each other and share, transmit, and review each other’s work.

Managing virtual employees entails a few additional challenges because those individuals can get left out of hallway conversations and decisions made on the fly in the office when they can’t be reached. These employees can’t be held accountable for things they weren’t told. Your offsite team needs to feel elevated, too, so it’s extra important that you (or a designated employee) keep them in the communication loop as things happen. Offsite employees may not be visible all the time, but remember that they are a crucial part of your company’s success.

Most important, you must ensure that they buy into your Big Picture Vision and feel connected to it at all times. One way to do so is to have what I call “Happy Hour Virtual Parties” with your entire team (in-house and virtual people all together). This is something like a daily huddle (some companies refer to it as an “All Hands” meeting), except that it’s done by video conferencing.

One of my clients created a daily practice that is aptly named “Tuck-Ins.” This is where all employees get a check-in call at the end of the day. Typically, there is no agenda; it’s just a check-in to see how their days went and to say “have a good night.” It also gives the offsite employees a chance to raise critical issues and questions that otherwise might not have been aired. In the early days of his business, Marshall personally made all of the calls. Now his service managers do them. His team feels taken care of and appreciated and all loose ends are handled.

If you have offsite employees, try to implement end-of-day “Tuck-Ins” with them. You’ll find that you can go to bed without worrying that anyone on your team has “bed bugs”!

Creating the Pinnacle Experience

In my company, we have a phrase, “the Pinnacle Experience,” which means that we all work together to go above and beyond for our clients to create a rewarding and fulfilling experience for them. Ultimately, customers decide to stay or go based on the experiences they are having. My team works together to come up with creative ideas to surprise and support our clients. For instance, we send glass gratitude balls to our new customers to show our appreciation. We host contests and give away trips to Hawaii and spa weekends. Or, we’ll even send them texts to show them how much they are appreciated or to wish with them good luck on a presentation. If my employees thought of their roles as “just a job,” then they would not get so involved in sharing their ideas and helping to implement these special extra touches.

Support Your Peeps

Many business owners get frustrated with their employees without realizing that they may be the cause of most of the problems. Either they hired the wrong people for the positions, didn’t define their roles clearly, gave too many roles to one person with unclear expectations, didn’t train them well, failed to communicate clearly (or enough), or have not created an environment in which people feel safe, heard, and appreciated. The more that employees are moved by your compassion and kindness, the more loyal they will become. When I shared with my father one of the biggest challenges our clients struggle with – finding good employees – he said to me, “This is not true. There are many great people out there. You just need to have patience and train them well.”

In my early entrepreneurial days, I had the notion that new employees should know what to do. In other words, they should be able to read my mind. Expecting them to be psychic is nutty and unfair. Take the time and put systems and processes in place to make sure your onboarding and training processes are solid. As you scale, this is crucial for securing good employees and streamlining their assimilation into your organization.

If you want your employees to step up and shine in their roles, give them even longer training that you think is necessary. Have them shadow you or another appropriate person in your company. Instead of recreating the wheel every time, create short videos explaining important processes and procedures and then upload them on the cloud or your server. Have your new employees watch them and send in their takeaways, so you know they are following along and understanding.

If you are training salespeople, an even longer process is recommended. Have them listen in on calls and accompany you on sales meetings. Record their sales calls and provide feedback on them. I recommend this process for at least six months as they are diving into sales. Discuss customer objections and provide opportunities for practicing by role-playing. The more prepared they are, the more your revenue will soar. Make sure you have at least one meeting per week to discuss leads, meetings, and strategies for those prospects in your pipeline. The more accountability you provide within your company, the more successful they will be.

Wherever possible, I try to be as supportive and understanding as possible with my employees. I have always found that, when I demonstrate empathy with a staff member, the individual always returns the favor with even greater commitment to the company. In my early days, I used to walk into the office, say a quick hello, and then scurry into my office and shut the door. This was not because I was being rude; I simply had a lot on my mind and was focused on getting things done. Type A people like myself are highly driven and are always focused on what needs to be done next. I learned early on that this does not work as you seek to build a cohesive and powerful company culture. Stop, breathe, and smell the roses. Take the time to connect with the people who are helping you build your vision. As the years have passed, I realized how much I value this time with my team. It is one of the most fun parts of running a business. Take care of your team and, in turn, they will take care of your business.

According to a 2017 Forbes article, 66% of employees said they would leave their companies if they felt underappreciated. That number tilts up to 76% when the Millennial population is polled. This underscores the importance of treating your employees with respect and showing appreciation for their efforts wherever appropriate.

The little things do matter. Take a few minutes out of every day to talk to your people and get to know them. Find out how they’re feeling, how their vacations went, and how their kids are. Remember these details for future conversation. By demonstrating interest in them and paying attention, your employees will feel a deeper connection and be even more loyal to you.

Cocreating with Your Team

Not too long ago I invited Robert Richman, the former cultural strategist at Zappos, to speak at one of my Pinnacle Global Network events. He used the phrase cocreating when referring to how a leader collaborates with his or her team to work through issues and come up with solutions together.

Many times I’ve worked with my team to figure out the best way to solve a problem and how we can best support each other. We also hold each other accountable for doing what we say we are going to do. This is cocreating, which is quite different from a leader barking out orders: “Okay, Barry, you need to do A, B, and C. Heather, you need to do D, E, and F. I want it all on my desk tomorrow morning.” Cocreating means asking them what they feel is the best way to solve a problem or capitalize on an opportunity.

Employees need to feel like they’re part of the creation and the solution. If you want to encourage your team to accomplish something, if you want them to be more passionate and loyal, sit down with them and ask them their opinions and their ideas. Really listen. Allow them to show you what they can do. Then watch the magic unfold.

“You Had Me at Hello”

Positivity is contagious and it starts with you right at the top. Your employees take note of everything you do from the first moment you walk in the door in the morning. Are your shoulders slumped? Do you seem frantic or worried? Are you muttering to yourself in anger? Or, are you smiling, saying “Good morning,” and starting up casual conversations with people?

A key ingredient in strong relationships is to develop emotional connections. It’s important to always act with integrity in your relationships, to be compassionate, friendly, loyal, and to make sure that you do the right thing and treat your relationships well.

—Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, from his book Delivering Happiness

Whether you realize it or not, you determine the company’s frame of mind each and every day. If people see that you are stressed out – even if it’s about a personal matter – the office chatter will spread like wildfire. They’ll hear it in your tone, read it on your face, and interpret it from your body language. “Did you see Allison today? I’ve never seen her so worried . . . something must be wrong. Maybe we lost a big client? What are we going to do? What if I lose my job?”

Your employees are going to bounce off you and reflect back how you deal with everything. If you are positive about something that is going haywire, they will feel and respond positively, too: “Well, if Allison isn’t worried about it, then why should we be?”

No one wants negative doom-and-gloom people on their teams. Excessive negativity and gossip should not be tolerated in your company. If you do find out you have a negative person or gossipmonger in your organization, face it head-on and nip it in the bud. Negativity spreads quickly, and it takes only one Debbie Downer to bring down everyone in the company.

Creating a Culture of Gratitude

What you appreciate appreciates. When you express gratitude, you magnify happiness.

My company maintains a daily “gratitude log” on our Facebook page. Every day we post the things we are grateful for. It doesn’t have to be a work thing. It could be something we’re happy about at home or a fun thing we did on the weekend. We post fun pictures. Someone may even post a message about someone at work she is grateful for.

It’s difficult to be fearful or negative when you are posting grateful messages and reading those of others. In fact, you cannot be fearful and grateful at the same time. Within 30 days of starting something like this in your company, you will notice that employee happiness goes up by at least 25%.

Gratitude also means celebrating team wins. In my company, we create a biweekly “rad report” in which we celebrate the success stories and all of the things that went right. This is quite different from other companies I know that focus primarily on postmortems and exploring what went wrong. While it is important to always examine root causes and make improvements when things go awry, celebrating the successes more often will bring a winning vibe to your team.

Many business owners skip ahead way too quickly from their successes before moving on to the next thing. They check the box by saying “thank you” and then ask, “Okay, what are you going to do next?” They believe this keeps employees on their toes. Actually, I am convinced the opposite happens; people feel that their efforts will never be good enough.

As a team, you need to show gratitude by celebrating and rewarding people. Handing out gift cards, dinners out, massages, and so on is great. But also keep in mind that it’s not just about giving money and gifts. What are some fun little things that you can do to help people feel appreciated? Here are just a few ideas:

• Order in lunch for everyone from a good local restaurant – or just pizza.
• Bring in ice cream for the team on a hot summer afternoon.
• Set up a company barbecue or picnic.
• Have a food truck day outside your building.
• Go to a fun place after work for Happy Hour.
• Let the team head out earlier than expected before a long holiday weekend.

What creative ideas can you come up with that can help your team feel your gratitude for a job well done?

If you want to have all that you are desiring, you have to drop from your head into your heart, get yourself into a place of love, appreciation, and gratitude and thank God for all the goodness in your life. That is how manifestation happens.

—Excerpt from my interview with Arielle Ford, relationship expert, bestselling author, and speaker. To watch the full interview, go to: www.ScaleorFail.com/bonus.

Barbara Corcoran from Shark Tank has shared that one of her biggest secrets to building her real estate empire was throwing crazy and fun parties for her team. She would tell them how to show up dressed in a particular party theme, then whisk them away for an unforgettable evening. If there were any tensions in the company, they melted away as they were all having fun and getting to know one another better outside the pressures of work.

Remember: You set the tone and create the vibe of your workplace. That vibe needs to be creative, supportive, fun, and positive. The team should be able to visualize your business environment and activities as a glittering trapeze act, performing astounding feats while seamlessly working together. If you do this right, your business will reap all of the benefits of a happy and productive workforce and will grow exponentially.