Hiring The Wrong People
A Few Business Lessons From A Budding Entrepreneur.
In my brief experience as an entrepreneur, I have come to notice a stark contrast between those who succeed and those who don't. I wanted to learn more about these differences, and outline them, so I can learn how to make better hiring decisions in the future.
These lessons may be helpful to you as well in your entrepreneurial journey.
Here's some my notes and takeaways for you to consider.
When you partner with someone you are also partnering with their spouse/the person closest to them. If you are able to understand the thought process and mindset of the spouse upfront, then that will be a huge indicator to you of whether or not the person you are hiring is going to get support at home. A negative spouse will very likely carry over to the person you are hiring and impact their performance. If one spouse is a fixed mindset person and the other is growth minded, there’s going to be serious conflict at some point. Where possible, look to hire folks who have spouses who are also growth minded.
Similarly, ask about the candidate’s past relationships. If they don’t have any long-term relationships, they are more likely to NOT have a long-term relationship with you. Not only are you hiring the person to do a job, but you want that person to be in your organization for a long time. For me personally, I only want to spend time and partner with long-term thinking folks who have long-term relationships. All benefits in life come from compounding returns over time. A good question to ask is, for example, do you still have any friends from high school / growing up? Do you stay in touch with them? Then dig of course because maybe there’s a good reason why they don’t — but look for other examples of relationships in their past and ongoing that have lasted 5+ years.
Look for a track record of frequent jumps from company to company to company. This jumping can be a big red flag. It's likely this person hasn't figured out that they have to develop themselves first and it's not the company that’s the problem. As we say in real estate sales, a successful agent is going to be successful anywhere. Why is that? Because of the type of person they've become attracts success, regardless of the environment. A track record of frequent jumps means that they're likely to jump from you as well. Don’t develop and spend time with folks who don’t play the long-term game. Short-term relationships won’t generate great returns for anyone.
Don't let a B players hire anyone else into the organization or even be involved in hiring. Only allow A players (talent) hire for your organization. B players will not hire A players, they'll be intimidated by them, and won't be able to attract them. A players attract other A players and also B players who want to become A players. Let talent do the hiring and no one else.
If the person you hired is not proactive and hungry, there is nothing you can do to help them. Just don’t hire the person from the start. 90% of hiring is simply finding the right person before they enter your doors. One example of a mistake (and I’ve made it several times) would be hiring and paying for a coach for someone who is not willing to help themselves and is not willing to change. If the person really wants to change, they’ll just change themselves or learn the skill they need to learn. It will be natural, not forced by you - or by a coach. No one else externally can change the person. It comes from within them and to have the awareness that they’re the problem. Yes, the environment helps facilitate the space to make a change, yet if there’s any resistance from the person to change, it won’t work.
If you have to keep following up, you have the wrong person. For some reason that person is not in alignment with their job or hasn’t acquired the skill you need from them to perform the job. If you have to keep following up with the person, and they don’t report in, even on basic tasks and activities, it’s the wrong person for the job. This is especially true if the lack of follow up occurs even after you’ve set this expectation.
When you provide quality feedback to the person, if there’s any resistance to receiving the feedback, then it’s the wrong person. If you are fearful of providing raw and direct feedback because the person will leave, you definitely have the wrong person. It’s just a matter of time as it’s no longer a business relationship. You are just working around their ego. You want folks in your organization who desire and love getting feedback, so they can get better and evolve, and become more valuable to the organization. You want self-aware and self-critiquing folks.
There’s some people who really get the business and some who really don’t. For example, in your business there are variables that matter and others that don’t matter as much. Find people who know the difference between what is important and what is not important in your business. If you have to keep telling the person what’s important and what’s not, then you have the wrong person. These people tend to make bad decisions because they focus on the wrong variables, and then they’ll make bad decisions for you, too. Also be weary of people who just can’t figure out why things aren’t working. Why it’s not working is probably obvious to everyone else, but if they don’t have awareness and aren’t willing to look in the mirror, you have the wrong person.
Lastly, to protect yourself after hiring the wrong person (because it’ll eventually happen), always have a healthy non-disclosure agreement and non-compete signed by every person joining your organization. While the person may seem professional and of high integrity on the way in and during their time with you, there’s still the possibility of theft, extortion, and long-term anger, etc. that can occur and persist at the end of a business relationship. Having these legal agreements in place ahead of time will prevent you the possibility of many headaches down the road and give you legal options. And when it does happen, just pass the agreements over to your attorneys to figure out what to do, and move forward. Unfortunately, without these legal agreements, you’d be at risk of losing sleep, a lawsuit without and legal protection, and worse, being distracted away from your big life goals!
That’s all for now, hope this helps! Onward!
You can learn more or follow me @realestatejax on Instagram.