Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Whether you are a
business owner preparing to
bring on a team or a corporateprofessional getting ready to
lead a team for the first time,this is an exciting step.
You are expanding your impact,you're creating space for growth
and stepping into a new level ofleadership.
But here's the thing (00:19):
hiring or
leading a team doesn't
automatically make thingseasier.
In fact, if you're not preparedbefore you hire the team, it can
actually make things moreoverwhelming, confusing, and
stressful.
That's exactly what we're divinginto on this episode of
(00:40):
Leveraging Operations andLeadership Podcast.
I'm your host, Tanya DeeHarrison, and my goal is to help
you lead with clarity andconfidence by connecting strong
leadership practices with thesystems that make them work.
In this episode, I'm walking youthrough five things that you
should do before bringing on ateam.
(01:02):
These steps are going to helpyou build a value-driven
culture, lead with structure,and set your team up for success
from day one.
Because leadership isn't aboutjust hiring people, it's about
preparing yourself to lead themas well.
Let's dig into it.
(01:23):
The very first thing, and thisis going to sound cliche, I
already know, like, oh, it's anice thing to say and do, but
it's often overlooked and itwreaks havoc in the end.
You want to define your valuesand shape the culture right from
the beginning.
(01:44):
The very first thing you need todo before bringing on a team is
define your values because yourvalues shape culture and culture
drives performance.
This is one of the things thatoften gets missed when people
are hiring the team.
They just don't realize thevalue.
(02:05):
So I am going to reiterate thatthis is step number one.
Your values determine howdecisions get made, how people
treat one another, and howsuccess is defined within your
team.
And if you're a business ownerwithin your organization, when
you're clear about your values,you attract people who align
(02:30):
with them.
And that's how you build ahealthy culture from the start.
When you are laying thisgroundwork and you are defining
the values and the culture, youwant to think about the
experience that you want thepeople that you serve to have
and the experience that you wantyour team to have.
(02:52):
If you say you value excellence,collaboration, flexibility,
respect, all of those things,those priorities should show up
in your processes and the wayyou communicate.
To get started, ask yourself acouple of questions.
What are the non-negotiablesthat define how we work?
(03:16):
I share this in another episodehow valuable non-negotiables are
when it comes to protecting yourvalue.
But first you have to know whatthe values are, and then what
those non-negotiables arebecause you want to protect the
values.
So ask yourself, what are thenon-negotiables that define how
we work?
And we're talking about a team.
(03:38):
Next, ask yourself, what do Iwant to be known for as a
leader?
How do I want people to perceiveme?
That's extremely important.
And knowing this is going tohelp you start putting your
values in action.
(03:59):
Values are meant to be livedout, not just written on a wall
for people to see, not justwritten on a website because
it's a nice to have.
They're meant to be walked out.
So their values in action.
The other question that you wantto ask yourself is how do I want
(04:19):
people to experience workingwith me?
So one of them is what do I wantto be known for as a leader?
But the other one is, how do Iwant people to experience
working with me?
What do I want that experienceto look like?
Values and culture, they don'tjust happen.
They're created throughconsistent choices, day after
(04:42):
day after day.
The choices that I make and theactions that I take.
When you lead with clarityaround your values, you build
the kind of culture people wantto be a part of.
And that's how you build a teamthat lasts.
I understand that sometimes thismay feel a little challenging
(05:03):
when the overall culture of theorganization may not be the
same, but you want what you havecontrol of, meaning your team,
you want that culture to bethere.
You want those values to bewalked out.
That's number one.
Number one, clarifying thosevalues and starting to define
(05:25):
the groundwork for the culturethat you want for your team.
The second thing is audit yoursystems and workflows.
This is about getting your housein order.
You don't want to invitesomebody into your house and
it's chaotic and things aren'tin place.
If you want your team to thrive,you need order.
(05:48):
Teams don't thrive in chaos.
Document your key processes,standardize how work gets done.
Even if it's just checklists,templates, videos, give people
the structure to succeed.
Even if the people that you arehiring are coming on board to
(06:12):
help you do some of this stuff,you should already have some
things in place because you'vebeen doing them.
Before we start hiring a team,you have already been doing a
lot of the processes.
They shouldn't have to come intoa blank slate.
There should be something there.
(06:33):
Think about what it is thatthey're going to be doing and
how you can create some type ofstructure around it.
You can document some type ofthings and then go from there.
Optimization is about creating arhythm that supports
productivity and performance.
When your systems are strong,your leadership feels lighter
(06:56):
because you already have thesethings in place.
The other thing with making surethat you have some
documentation, some systems andworkflows already in place.
If you allow somebody to walkinto an environment where
there's nothing, absolutelynothing, in place, nothing
(07:17):
documented, they are going toconsume more of your time.
And you're going to feel likehiring a team may not have been
the best decision because you'regoing to feel drained.
Whereas when you have somethingin place that you can refer them
to, now they have a startingpoint.
And they don't have toconstantly ask you questions
(07:39):
because you already have giventhem something tangible that
they could use to get started.
Okay?
So make sure you have thesethings in place.
Make sure you audit yourworkflows.
If there's an opportunity tooptimize them, optimize them.
And then when your team comes onboard and they're actually doing
this day in and day out, theymay find opportunity for
(08:03):
improvement and you can continueimproving it over time.
But don't let them walk intonothing, okay?
Or just chaos.
Because if not, you're going tospend a lot of your time trying
to train them and get them upand going.
So help them and help yourself.
The third thing is understandyour resource readiness.
(08:25):
And this may look a littledifferent from a business owner
to a corporate leader, but atthe end of the day, what it
means is making sure that youhave the resources to bring
somebody on, not just to be ableto pay them in the short term.
And for my corporate leaders,understand what your budget
(08:46):
looks like, right?
And understanding what yourbudget looks like is going to be
instrumental in who you hire andthe skill set.
If you can only pay somebody$15an hour, then you need to really
be thinking about what yourlevel of expectation is from
(09:07):
that person.
Understanding your budget iscritical to who you hire and how
you hire.
(09:28):
So many times people try to hirepeople and they want them to
have a master's degree and 20years of experience and all of
these things, but the budgetonly allows for$20 an hour or$15
an hour.
That's out of alignment.
Let's be realistic.
We want to pay people for thevalue that they're bringing.
(09:52):
And if you can't afford, if yourbudget doesn't allow you to pay
somebody that has that master'sdegree and 20 years of
experience, then you need tothink about okay, I'm going to
bring somebody in that may nothave as much experience.
That means I may have to do alittle bit more training.
(10:12):
That's it.
The other thing which fallsright in line with this, so
aligning your expectations withyour budget is defining the
roles and responsibilities,making sure it's crystal clear.
Before someone joins the team,define exactly what they're
responsible for, how success ismeasured.
(10:34):
I can't tell you how many timesthis is missing, and how you'll
communicate.
This may look like creating arole profile with specific
outcomes instead of a laundrylist of tasks.
Or it may mean ensuring eachrole is aligned with the
department goals andexpectations.
(10:57):
Either way, when the personcomes on, they should know what
it is that they're responsiblefor, how it's going to be
measured, and what success lookslike, and how you're going to
communicate with them.
Making sure that communicationplan is tight is going to be
helpful.
When people know what successlooks like, they can own it,
(11:20):
they can be accountable and youcan hold them accountable.
And now, because that level ofaccountability has been built
in, you don't have to worryabout micromanaging.
Right from the beginning, you'vealready said, here's what you're
responsible for, here's whatsuccess looks like, and here's
(11:40):
how I'm going to communicatewith you along the way.
Now they have no excuse, and youhave no excuse.
We're eliminating excuses rightfrom the beginning.
Clarity isn't about control,it's about an act of
empowerment.
We want to empower our team.
(12:02):
The more clarity we provide forthem, the clearer we are with
our expectations, the easier wemake it for them, and the easier
we make it for ourselves.
In general, people want to besuccessful, and we want to tell
(12:23):
them how they can be successfulwhen we hire them.
How can they be successful inthis role?
And we want that to be laid outand clear.
The last thing, number five, isprepare to lead, not just
manage.
This is where the real shifthappens.
(12:45):
When you step into leadership,you're no longer responsible for
doing all the work, you'reresponsible for creating an
environment where others canthrive.
That requires a mindset shift.
You'll need to learn to delegateeffectively, give feedback that
builds confidence andcommunicate with consistency.
(13:11):
A couple of questions you canask yourself is how will I set
expectations and hold peopleaccountable?
Again, remember clarity.
Also, how will I recognize winsand address challenges early?
(13:32):
I find that many times we arebetter at addressing wins than
we are at addressing challenges.
We'll tell somebody when theydid a good job, but we're
hesitant on telling them whenchallenges arise or when they
are not doing what's expected.
People need to know if they'redoing a good job or not.
(13:54):
The sooner we address achallenge, the sooner the person
can now fix whatever it is andmove forward.
You don't want somebody thinkingthat they're doing a good job,
and behind the scenes, you'rethinking that they're not doing
a good job, but you haven'tcommunicated this to them.
(14:14):
This is why I say one-on-onesare so important because it
gives you an opportunity to havethat face-to-face conversation
on a regular basis, and you canshare this during the
one-on-ones.
Of course, yeah, they're doingwell, we want to share that.
(14:36):
If there's areas of improvement,we want to be sharing that, and
we want to be sharing it earlyout the gate.
We want to give them anopportunity to do a good job.
If you don't tell me that I'mnot doing a good job, I'm
probably gonna think that I'meverything's okay.
You haven't said anything.
(14:58):
So be fair and communicate thesethings early.
Another question to ask yourselfis how will I protect my own
energy while supporting others?
I'm pausing because this righthere is one of the things that
(15:20):
leads to overwhelm and burnout.
Because we don't think aboutourselves as leaders, and we
have to be able to pause.
We have to be able to thinkabout what are the things that
we're going to do to replenishour energy, and this is a real
(15:42):
question, especially when youare preparing to hire a team.
You're going from it just beingyou and you doing everything to
now, yes, I'll have help withdoing the work, the task, moving
everything forward.
However, it requires that Isupport them.
(16:10):
What am I going to do to protectmy own energy?
What does that look like?
Making sure that you have somethings already put in place.
I have to tell you, this isextremely important, and it's
something that we don't thinkabout.
As leaders, it has to be abalance, right?
(16:30):
And I'm not saying it's alwaysalways 50-50, but just like we
think about our team and wethink about how we're going to
move things forward and successand all of that, we have to
think about ourselves as well.
This question right here, howwill I protect my own energy
while supporting others?
You want to answer before youhire your team.
(16:55):
Just a quick recap.
So we have five different thingsthat you need to do before
bringing on a team.
And the first thing is toclarify your values and start
laying the groundwork for theculture that you want within
your team.
Number two, audit your systemsand your workflows so that
(17:19):
people are not walking intochaos and they are not starting
from a blank slate.
They actually have somethingthat they can build upon.
Number three, resource readinessand alignment.
What does that budget look like?
And making sure that you arealigning your expectations with
(17:40):
what it is that you can afford.
Fourth, define roles clearly,making sure that you have
outlined what the roles are,what the responsibilities are,
and what success looks like.
And lastly, how am I going tocommunicate that?
The last thing is prepare tolead, not just manage.
(18:02):
What are you going to do toprepare yourself to now lead
from this next level?
For those of you that have nothad leadership experience, you
want to go out and startgathering some of that,
understanding what type ofleadership systems you need to
have in place in order tosupport you as a leader so
(18:23):
you're leading with moreconfidence and clarity.
Successfully lead the team asyou want to lead them.
When you approach leadershipintentionally, when you build a
lot of these things in place,you create a team that performs
with purpose and precision.
And if you're preparing to leada team or stepping into
(18:46):
leadership for the first time,my leadership shift coaching
program is designed for you.
It's going to help you buildconfidence, create structure,
and develop the leadershiphabits that turn stress into
strategy.
You can learn more by headingover to signalpartners.com slash
the shift.
I know that there are a lot ofpodcasts out there, and I'm glad
(19:11):
that you gave us an opportunityto listen to us.
And until next time, make sureyou leave a purpose, operating
precision.
And if you have 30 seconds, Iwould really appreciate it if
you leave us a review, bring upthe podcast, and also show it
someone else who makes benefitof the content of this shit.
(19:31):
Until next time, stay blessed.