* Please note: We have 4 lovely ladies as part of today’s episode. In order to keep these show notes tidy, we have summarized our discussion below. Please listen to the above link to hear the entire interview.
When it comes to working with new team members, I tend to hear from people is they feel like they hired a great person, but then a month or two into that working relationship, they just tell me, “It is not working. I don’t know what’s going on”.
And on the other end of that relationship, chances are the person they just hired is sitting there going, “This person doesn’t communicate very well. I don’t know what they really actually want from me.”
So today’s conversation is so incredibly important. It’s all about setting expectations and having clear communication.
How to work with your team:
Trust the process. Trust your own hiring process and possibly the trial period that we discussed in the last episode. Practice handing things over and being open to letting them do their job. That doesn’t mean you can’t be involved and be communicating about what’s going on.
There’s always a little bit of a learning curve on both sides. Even if you connect really well, even if you’re description was really clear, sometimes it takes a little time to find a flow. There may be bumps but as long as things are moving forward and communication is good, that’s part of having someone join you.
If you hired well, you need to give it time for your team to get a hang of things. If you start freaking out at that early stage, you might start going through assistants or managers on a serial basis. This can be confusing to any of your clients who tend to get used to the people on your team.
Communicating with your team:
Communication is key. When you first bring someone on, they’re not going to know how you want to handle something for every single scenario. Keeping open lines of communication between you and your team can help solve these situations more efficiently.
Communicate about your work hours as well as theirs. In the online space, time zones and office hours can vary widely. No one wants your business to be a 24-hour situation. Not you, not your team, nobody. So having that open conversation will set both of you up for success.
Use a project management system. There are times in Team Racheal Cook when we communicate exclusively through Asana, which is our go-to project management system. Everyone in our team is easily able to see what everyone else is working on and it really helps our flow.
Being the CEO of your team:
Give your team the opportunity to shine. When you bring someone in and let them contribute what they’re really good at, that’s where they get a lot of satisfaction in helping your business grow. You really want someone there who wants to be there, who wants to contribute, and who’s thinking about how their role can enhance your business and help it grow.
Write down your process. Especially when you’re first hiring a team, a lot of people have never written down their process, it’s all in their head, which is another big thing entrepreneurs do. There’s this huge plan inside their brain and sometimes, writing it down helps your team know what you need.
If you want to have a successful working relationship with your team, you have to approach this thoughtfully. You have to think through, what is it that you actually need for them to do. What are the expectations you have? What communication do you need from them? Without thinking through this, both sides are set up to be disappointed right from the start.
I hope that this series all about finding the dream team, hiring the dream team, and working with the dream team was helpful for you in running your business, even if you feel like maybe you’re not quite ready yet to start bringing team members on.
Even if you don’t plan on having a huge business, it’s so helpful to have people who can really have your back, who can keep things running when you want to take a vacation or just take a little bit of a break from your business.