Lessons

Lesson Info

Hiring Tips for Leaders

- [Peter] So we're going to really dive into building a... Once you hire, how do you build a culture of excellence and make sure that's sustained to build your business to the biggest possible arena? So questions to ask people that are in the interviews, that are actually applicants wanting to get into your company, wanting to maximize the position they're applying for. Okay, these are big and these are questions a lot of people don't think about. But these are the ones that I ask, that I've gotten from other entrepreneurs. They say they're really important to them because the ideal situation for an applicant is you screen them so much you get the right person to where you don't have to ever hire somebody else for that position. They're there long term, right? So first, you've got to understand and get their other commitments. What are your weekly commitments? Do you have your kid that goes to basketball every Tuesday? Are you gone every couple of weeks? Do you like to travel a lot? Yo...

u have to get very clear expectations up front. How long were they at their previous job and why did they leave? How do they handle difficult situations? What are they going to do when they don't know how to complete a task or when they have a lot of questions? Because you want problem solvers, right? Literally, you want problem solvers, solution creators, not problem finders when they always go to you with problems. - [Woman 1] So my question is, when you're talking about handling difficult situations, I think that a lot of times, you kind of put out there what you want people to perceive you as a problem solver. Do you have any, I guess, tests or something in the application process to kind of help clarify who they really are and how they really handle difficult tasks? - Yeah. So two things. One, we had a person like…it's not really personality, a core value test that we gave them. I can't say the exact name of it right now, I could tell you later, that told us if they were analytical, if they were a problem solver, if they were more like relationship-driven, emotionally-driven, or if they are more power-driven, results-driven. And that really helped us, but I never really had specific questions. So that'd be something really cool to create. I know what you're getting at, to where how they explain how they solve problems, so you know. But yeah, we never had anything deep dive with that, but I literally asked them in the interview, "How do you handle difficult situations? Tell me a time in your life where you had a problem that seemed insurmountable and how you solved it and what your reaction to it was and what you did afterwards." So we asked those kind of questions and based on their answer, how confident they are, if they could think of something, we would take that into consideration, but never really an exact thing as far as like a task. So that's a good idea. Yeah. Tell me about three or four things of which you're most proud? What are you most proud of and why? Where have you gotten results in the past? What are some things that can kind of show you're different than most people? Is there things you can tell me that kind of show us you're an action taker and a go-getter versus a talker? Now, if you're hiring like an admin, you probably don't want to ask those questions, right? They just want to get the job done. It's different. Why do they want this job and what are they looking for in a position right now? How many hours are they looking to work? These are all questions that give you more information to make the right decision. If we all completed 50 interviews, you would not believe how simple a lot of them are. They really don't have the highest standards. Okay? So what do you feel separates you from other applications, from other applicants? You're going to get a lot based on that answer. So building your dream team. So here's how you really, now once you hire them, how you continue to make sure they're executing and they're delivering on their promises. First, your dream team right now or your team currently, everything is based off who you are and where you've set your standards in the past. So your current dream team, your current business, your current infrastructure is all based on who you are as an entrepreneur. What you've learned up to this point. What you've mastered, what you've failed at. Everything is up to like right this point where you've set your current standards, right? So the biggest thing first is consistent and ongoing training needs to happen. This is one of the biggest things. With research I've done and studies I've done with the top tier performers in the world, there's ongoing training in the company. One of you guys, I believe, works at CreativeLive, and you get a chance to check out the training while working here. That's amazing. So you learn stuff while you're working here. That's awesome. I mean, there's a lot of stuff that you can learn while you're working that could help you be more effective when you're working. So consistent ongoing training. A lot of companies, they train you for a long time at the beginning, and then they're done training you. That's when you hear people say, "I have 20 years of experience." No, you don't. You have one year because you do the same thing over and over again, right? Expectations. Okay. This is huge. You need to make sure that you're giving very clear, and proper, and precise expectations to people you're hiring. What to expect, what not to expect, exactly what they're going to go through. Like what the learning curve is going to be. Because if you give expectations and they're slightly off of what reality is, you're going to have all your best people quit. So this is big in direct sales, and a lot of marketing companies, and a lot of sales companies and startups. Here's what the founder or the people that are hiring promote. This is the best job. You're going to love it. It's amazing. We have the culture, it's awesome. Oh, there's so much opportunity. You're going to be here for a long time. And they're just blowing so much smoke and there's so much fluff, that they're not giving clear expectations where it's going to be hard sometimes. Like when I hired people for my sales organization, I said, "To be honest, this is not easy. Like, you're going to actually feel like quitting in your first couple of weeks. Because it's something different. You're going to get uncomfortable, but, I promise, if you push past that, you're going to see amazing success, growth, confidence, and you're going to build a lifestyle few people do. Because most people can't push past the challenges. So, I promise you, Chris, you're going to actually feel like quitting in the first couple of weeks." Now, when they get to that point in that hiring process or that trial period where they feel like quitting, what do they think in their head? What's in their head right now? "Oh, my gosh, Peter told me this would happen. Wow, I'm at that point." Sometimes, they used to call me, "Peter, I'm at that point, I feel like quitting." I'm like, "What are you going to do?" "Well, I'm going to keep pushing." Almost all of them. What if I never told them it was hard, though? Other managers used to call me and say, "All my team is quitting in the first couple of weeks." Yeah, because you told them it was going to be easy, and it's a perfect job, and you don't give them any expectations of failure, of what could happen, of the learning curve, of their comfort zone being destroyed. Like, "Oh, well, we have more hire than you." I'm like, "Exactly, but we have more performers," right? So you've got to give them clear expectations. "Hey, you might be overwhelmed a little bit at the beginning, there's a learning curve, but I promise when you get past that, things get easier and your capacity expands." Right? So give them very clear and precise expectations, okay? Because some jobs, they are hard at the beginning. There's a learning curve and if you don't tell them clearly that they're going to go through that, it's so... If the expectations are at all off from what you promote, they just quit or they don't fully have trust in you, and they don't feel like you're fully transparent, and then, subconsciously, they lose respect for you. Does that make sense? Expectation is number one. Number two, accountability. You have to, in the first couple of weeks, when you're training them, there has to be accountability, right? You can't just hope and trust. You can afterwards, right? After they prove themselves. But give them some accountability. There's an accountability sheet in here, right, Chris? That I used to literally give my receptionists, where it says the weekly standards, number of calls, how many people show up to the actual office. We had a physical, like 2,000 square foot, office. We had applicants come in that we interviewed. They're in charge of calling, setting them up. So we had a call schedule, date, number of reps, calls made, demos completed. So we also had a rep schedule, where they would make appointments, schedule appointments with customers, whether it's to businesses, to families, to sell the product. So we would literally have, and this is from 2012, which is crazy, number of reps, calls made, demos completed. How many demos they had the next day. Number of sales, sales amounts. We literally kept track. Anything that you want repeated has to be managed. Anything you want improved has to be managed, right? So how many calls are they making? How many customers are they reaching out to, right? And this depends on, of course, your specific role you're hiring for, right? So it's impossible to know everyone online and all of you guys here the exact position you want to hire, but systemize and create accountability for whatever that you want tracked. Does that make sense? Number of websites they're creating, the conversion on the lead pages, right? Track all of that. So whatever's important, get it tracked, and get it systemized. Accountability. Here's where most people fail. A lot of people have expectations, a lot of people have ongoing training, and a lot of people have accountability, but few people actually give feedback after expectations and accountability. So for me, and I use examples of salespeople and receptionists and VAs, sometimes because that's what I had and that's what I have now, but here's feedback. We'd set the standards, we'd have a receptions meeting. That's accountability. We'd have a meeting every week and we'd go through all the standards. Feedback would be, "Hey, what do you feel like you did really well? What do you feel like you can improve on?" And then I taught them how to be self-sufficient. That's a key. You don't want your team always to come to you for solutions. So in the end, I'll talk about this later, but anytime they bring a problem, say, "Hey, I challenge you. I want you to bring two solutions to me. I want to treat you like a leader that you are. So when you have problems, just bring me two solutions." And eventually, they just solve everything themselves. But the reality is you want to teach them how to be self-sufficient. So when my receptionist had a issue, I would have them reach out to other top receptionists to solve the problem, to talk to the best. So they were all learning how to develop themselves personally and how to reach out to people to get better information from them. So you don't have to always be the one teaching, right? Because do you want every employee going to you with every problem? You want to teach them how to solve them. So teach them how to be self-sufficient by giving them feedback and then telling them how to solve that problem without you in the equation. And you want to frame it where it's like, "Hey, I don't want to not talk to you. I just want you to be able, Terry, in a couple years, to be super self-sufficient. You're not going to always be working here. You're going to be your own leader, you're going to build amazing businesses. I want to make sure you don't always need me and you can figure things out on your own." Sound good? Perfect. So you want to share that with them as well. I cannot imagine if Chase got every problem. He'd kill you, right? But the reality is he's trained and hired excellent people that can figure it on their own, right? So same thing with you. Has everyone got that? And then the biggest thing with hiring, guys, never settle. Too many people settle. Never settle. "I need somebody." Yeah, I know you do. I'd rather wait two weeks and have to keep doing what I hate and find the right person than hire them right away then fire them in two weeks and waste money. So never settle. Okay? Let's simplify with implementation plan. Pick one habit to master right now. Pick one to master. Whether it's delegation, whether it's training, whether it's hiring. You can't do all of it at once. This is not like you leave this class without doing anything and you can hire everybody that are A-players and build your company to 10 million. You can't do that. There's no free ride. This is not get-rich-quick. This is real results, real time and energy put in, and this is real people that you're hiring to build a real business that outlasts you. So it takes a while. So pick one habit to master, okay? Map out your next hire strategically. Now, some of you guys have figured out maybe you don't need somebody, but map out your next hire strategically. And here's what's cool about entrepreneurship. It doesn't need to be an official hiring process if you're getting someone from the local college or school. You could just test them out. Say, "Hey, you've got two weeks. Show me what you're capable of. Show me what you can do. Show me where you feel like you can fit into this business and add value." You have nothing to lose if they're on a trial period and they're showing you what they're capable of, right? Now, what's cool is when you get your business to a certain level, people reach out to you and want to work for you. That happens a lot to the top businesses, which is the goal for all of you guys eventually. So, for now, a lot are now, a lot of people reach out to us and want to work for the company. And they say, "I can do this. I can do this." And usually, we have them prove themselves. Like three people on my team right now, were helping me for free, showing me certain things that they were capable of, that they can do, and then once they showed value, I paid them. My video guy is like, "Hey, let me just create videos for you." "I already have a video guy." "But trust me, let me just... I won't say anything. I'm just going to create videos for you." After two, three months, he created such dynamic videos that I'm like, "I'm going to pay you. You're amazing." I didn't even want to hire him, but he made himself valuable by putting himself into the company. So you want people like that reaching out to you as well, okay? Next. Complete your three lists to freedom. That's a big one. What can't you do, what shouldn't you be doing, and what don't you want to do that you should be delegating? And what's the rule? If it's not a strength, and someone can do it 80% as good as you, what should you do? - [Woman 2] Delegate. - Delegate it. Okay? And as far as training, we're going to hit on that a little bit, but as far as training goes, when you're asked about, Rebecca, the biggest thing is figuring out exactly what the role is going to be and then finding the best training possible for that role. So if I have a guy that's doing marketing campaigns, I will pay for them to go to a marketing summit. I'll pay for them to get a marketing course that I know is the best course out. I'll pay two grand to have them go through the course, to have them do it. So I was at Ryan Blair's... Does anyone know who Ryan Blair is? Pretty successful entrepreneur, he has the book, "Nothing to Lose." But he's a great, great entrepreneur and he's good at, amazing at certain things, his team is crushing it, but guess what? His team, he doesn't know how to do a lot of what his team is doing. But he pays for the best training and they're all really good at what they do. So same thing. So give me an example, by the way, of someone that you need to hire and what their role's going to be. Do you have an example of a task or of something that they need to do, like accounting, marketing? Because I want to get some context with this so I can really help people. Because I want to help your problem that you asked about training. - [Woman 3] We, Lisa and I, run a team of entrepreneurs that are Esty sellers. We have 2,200 Etsy sellers here in the Bay Area and we are the leaders for that group. All of the leaders on our team work for free. It's a little tricky. But I think what we're trying to do is help them. We're looking for people who want to learn and develop their own leadership skills. And also, you know, they're creative entrepreneurs. So they're trying to... They have a product, and they're making things, and they're selling things, and they're doing different things. - On Etsy? - On Etsy. And, you know, maybe they have their own website where they sell their products too. But anyway, what Lisa and I are looking for in our community is to help us develop programming for this group of 2,200 people. So we do skill-building workshops, we run a large craft show of over 200 sellers that can come and sell their work. We go on retreats, so we do these creative field trips. And so what we need are leaders to, like, stand up and say, "I want to take this on. I'm going to be the leader for field trips." You know what I mean? - I got enough. - Okay. - So that's what I needed. So you almost need someone, almost a CEO or someone that's taking over all of that, where they are in charge of finding people to run that, to hire it. I would also have a system in place for Etsy users, whoever the best 1% are, figure out exactly what they're doing that's different, what they need, what's the system. They have one assistant, they have one person doing this, one person doing this. This is the ideal package for someone that's selling on Etsy. This is the ideal package and these people are making the most money. How can you package that and help everyone else get to that 1% level? That's something I would do, is package something where you know that these people are crushing at the highest level. Because probably 90%, 10%, where there's probably, how many users, you said 200 that are selling? - Yeah, I mean, Etsy has millions of… - But for you guys. - Our group is 2,200. - Is there probably like 200 selling more than everybody else? - Oh, I'm sure. - Yeah, it's probably... - I mean, there's the [inaudible] you know. - Yeah. So there's probably a couple percentage that are at the highest level. I'd figure out what they're doing and then teach everyone else that first of all. But second, I would hire someone that has experience in management, has experience in like looking at a company from 50,000 foot and figuring out how they can take over, and you just tell them what you need, and they take it. They take over it. Does that make sense? - Yeah. - So you don't worry about that. - I think, you know, we're helping people develop those skills. So that's where I kind of had my question. What's like your ideal genius? What's the only thing you want to do? - My superpower is networking. So I've been able to sort of go into the community and say, "Oh, look, we can work together and then take that to..." - So that's your value, is networking, bringing people into the community. - Yeah. And so I guess what we want is to find people who have other superpowers. Like Lisa's superpower is Twitter. And so she's a Twitter genius and so we want to find other people who are like geniuses and help them develop that skill and be a leader in that. - Yeah, I would figure out what skills... You know, I don't... Yeah, you're good. I'd figure out what skills consistently that you want to find and create that are most important to your business, and to your organization, or what... Like she has Twitter. Think about the next 10 skills that you want someone to develop and then have campaigns or have something where you go out and market and find those people because you probably already have the people in your network. But if you don't know what exact skills you want to develop and look for, then you're going to have a headache and be overwhelmed. So I would just map out what skills you want to look for in people in order. So this next week, this next month, I'm going to find an expert at blank that can teach. Then after that, I can find someone that does this and then look for it that way. You have a lot that you're doing, so I would just dial in on exactly what your expertise is and then find someone that can help you organize and delegate what you don't want to do and then she can go all in on Twitter and that's it. And then you can find someone else to go all in on this. But this has to be relevant to the big vision and this has to be something that is proven to get results. Does that make sense? So that's it. And I could talk you about it later. It's a bigger issue than just hiring somebody, like one person. You know what I mean? So next, create a timeline for your delegation and training. So with what we just talked about, create a timeline, Rebecca, of when you need to hire someone or find an expert in this. Figure out a timeline. And the challenge here, guys, map out your next hire and think everything through until they're thoroughly trained. Literally, think through the ad, think through the expectations, think through hiring, and think through till they're fully trained and their two-week trial is up, and now they have an actual position. So think through that.