Looking to hire new faces into your company? Don’t know how to manage third parties? Keep reading for some hiring-well practices! Plus, get to know how managing innovative & creative leaders has helped us reach success!
Leading through Leaders
In startups, finding the first few employees is critical to the success of your business. Putting it into context, a good workforce can either lead to the success (see Amazon’s story after hiring creative people) or the absolute failure of your company, especially at the beginning. Starting to hire and trusting a stranger to help you execute the vision you represent best is not an easy task. With it being so hard at times, you are likely looking to spotlight those candidates with leadership skills that are capable of finding ways to thrive in the entrepreneurial world. Lucky for you, we have a great variety of leaders all around! It is only a matter of finding the right match.
If you are looking for guidance in the onboarding process and are ready to start hiring in your startup, contact the Perspectivas Globales team here or become a member today! We are ready to help you succeed.
Related: Take our Leadership Type Quiz and find out what type of leader you are!
Finding the Right Leaders
Here is a newsflash: there is no such thing as “right leaders.” Your team can only be best composed with people who have the same vision as you, the same values as you, and the same drive as you. This is not very complicated. Identifying if your potential candidate and you are on the same track of mind is something you can figure out through preliminary resume reviews, behavioral questions in interviews, and their body language.
“Okay, that sounds great… But how do I find the candidates with those characteristics without knowing them?”
The possibilities are endless! Nowadays, we live in a networked world and finding the right characteristics in potential candidates is easier than ever before. From just having newspaper callouts and “Help Wanted” flyers posted, we now have a new set of alternatives to discover, like:
Using LinkedIn.
LinkedIn is a great tool to look for potential acquisitions. The alternative of Talent Solutions exposes you as a recruiter to many qualified candidates. You can also eavesdrop on people’s profiles (for job purposes) to look at what other people have seen as an aptitude in your prospects.
Asking for Recommendations in your Network.
You can always feel free to reach out to your support network (investors, stakeholders, mentors, partners, etc.) and ask to see if they know anyone with the characteristics you are looking for. Always approach with confidence and complete clarity of what you are looking for in your future team. Someone almost always knows someone else.
Here is some Advice... Leader to Leader
On a personal note, I have been in this program since day one, and as I have seen interns come and go, I only have a few pieces of advice for entrepreneurs managing their first few sets of employees.
Guiding instead of Managing
There is a world of differences between guiding and managing that is often overlooked. As a team leader, I have chosen to serve as someone that shows the way and walks with my team, instead of telling them to walk down a road that I do not know. So far, it has helped me create transparency and across-the-board equality with my teams. Even if good leaders are independent and can work through ambiguity (which is important when starting a business), walking with them and making sure you are facing the right uncertainties will save you loads of headaches.
Some leaders are very creative. Allowing your team to fully express themselves and have your doors open to new ideas will create new levels of trust and passion for the common vision. As long as their idea gets you closer to your overall strategic goal as a company, there is value in listening and adapting the ideas.
Appreciation goes a long way
People work better when they know that their work is being recognized and appreciated (research source). There are various ways to let your leaders know that they are doing great and that you appreciate their efforts! Here are some of my favorites:
1. Detail-oriented feedback with gratitude for the work they accomplished.
This lets them know you are looking for their success even in the smallest things and that you are grateful as their guiding leader. Telling employees they are doing something well motivates them to keep doing what they are doing. This happens because there is assurance that they’re doing a good job!
On the other hand, if they did not do something in your definition of “right,” using the first-person format is crucial. Never approach high-performers with a second-person perspective (“You are doing this wrong!” or “We are behind schedule because of you!”)– instead, go for “I noticed that you are having some trouble with…,” “Is everything okay with X project? I think we can…” and so on.
Ending your message with a simple “I appreciate the work and time you put into this,” gets them going after any feedback session and gives them the motivation to start as soon as possible to apply the feedback.
2. Staying Human.
Easier said than done, for sure, but staying human is a big factor in appreciation. There can be times where employees may not be executing to your expectations. Going straightforward and judging them is not the way you work with leaders–instead, try to sit down and seek-to-understand. High performers not achieving expectations can come from a miscommunicated message, personal mishaps and worries, or general dissatisfaction. Find the root cause and come up with a solution as human beings, not machines.
Looking-into-the-Future: Tip: As your workforce grows, look into creating employee recognition programs & implementing rewards. These can help keep motivation thriving in the masses.
Some free employee recognition programs examples are Assembly, Guusto & Nectar. They all have reward systems!
Challenge Them.
There is no getting better if there is no challenge to be better. Getting to know your employees strengths, weaknesses, and capabilities will help you get a head start in what their next challenge should be. Just like when you start going to the gym, once you develop a muscle with a certain weight in dumbbells, you need to look for a heavier weight so your muscle can be further developed. It is important to keep in mind that you should be SMART when challenging your team (read more about the SMART method in this blog). You cannot ask a fish to climb a tree.
We hope this information can help you work with your resources and great leaders to achieve your common goals better through motivation, appreciation, and challenges! Do you have any pointers for managing interns? Feel free to share them with the team through [email protected]. You should also check out our blogs on How to Build a Successful Team & How to Set & Achieve Goals for your Business.
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