The Exciting World of Having Employees!
We’re gonna break this section into three categories for simplicity! They will be separated by the Blue text above for east finding. We’ll talk about how to/what to do with new team, manage bad employees, what to do when things are going well and the tools we use for both!
Overall Team Truths
“Performance of a team will fall to the lowest accepted Standard”
Learn this lesson from me without having to learn it the hard way. You team will fall to the lowest level of your expectations. That is why we have such a high bar of what we want and what we expect out of our teams. Please, lead well and keep the bar set high. If you don’t, you’ll have to learn this the hard way.
New Team Members
Make New Folks Feel Abundantly Welcome
When we have a new arrival to the team, it is our duty to make them feel abundantly welcome and like they are part of the family. As a leader, it’s your job to make sure your team does the same thing. It doesn’t matter if you’re being awesome when they get to their first Tuesday meeting but when they sit down with your team the team is being awkwardly quiet.
Make people feel warm and welcome and make your current team do the same thing. First impressions are huge. If we spent all this time recruiting, interviewing and screening them and then drop the ball on Day 1, that isn’t a good look.
Casting Vision Early On
When we hire people, lots of times during the first week of Cert 1 they are blown away. As a manager it is crucial to cast the vision for them early on where they can go with us. In most cases if you are reading this, you started as an entry level employee and you worked your way up to the point where you’re reading this here. That in itself is inspiring. It means that if you can do it, your new employee can do it too. So it is important early on too give them a big vision and show them where they can go!
We need to let them know that their vision for their life can fit inside the vision of the company.
Team Management Tools We Use
Overview of Having Employees
Concerning having a team: It is your primary job to hire, fire, review, reward and recognize all of your core people around the Values and their abilities. This is the primary way to build an organization with all of the right people in the right seats.
Here is how we will do this…
The people Analyzer (Example Below)
This tool will help us clarify if we are on track as a team. We will do this the first Tuesday of each quarter. How it works, you will make lines horizontally across the page for each employee. Then across the top you make a row for each value (or the principles of get hot, stay hot). Then in each section you put a…
“+” for good. They exhibit the value or principle most of the time.
“+/-” for okay. They exhibit the core value or principle sometimes and not others.
“-” for bad. They do not exhibit the core value or principle most of the time.
You’ll notice on the example above, John rocks. George is on the fence and Sally is not a great team player. The idea here is we are going for people who exhibit the value 100% of the time.
The Bar (or standard) for us: We are shooting for all +’s of course, but we will tolerate two +/- and NO “-”. If you get a “+/-” then help coach the team member into better performance with the value. If you get a “-” then see the three strike rule. Once you start doing this, then it is up to you to hold your people accountable.
Managing Employees Who Aren’t Working Well
The Three-Strike Rule
What do we do when someone is below the bar? Before we make any drastic decisions to let someone go, etc. we need to communicate with them. This will give them a chance to do better and improve his or her performance. Almost 10/10 times people will rise to the occasion and improve.
Here’s how it works:
Strike One: Discuss the issues and your expectations with him or her and give him/her 30 days to increase performance and correct the problem. Note: I would HIGHLY recommend using the “Hard Conversations” section down below to structure this conversation.
Strike Two: If you don’t see improvement, discuss his/her performance again and give him or her another 30 days. During this time, if you aren’t seeing adjustments, start making hiring plans!
Strike Three: If you still don’t see improvement at this point, he/she isn’t going to improve at this point and they must go.
Your business is not destroyed by the people you hire— Rather the people you fail to fire. Hire intentionally, fire irrevocably.
In practice, using this, we shouldn’t have to fire people most of the time. The thing about using this method, is that most of the time the people who won’t improve don’t last until the third strike anyways.
Catching Red Flags
1. Slow to respond Set the expectation quickly that slow responses are unacceptable. They're probably not a fit if you can't get ahold of them for hours on end.
2. No good news Haven't heard any good news about the new hire? This means your team doesn't think they're a good fit. No good news = worse news for that employee.
3. Camera off If they don't have their camera on— They're probably disengaged. Cameras should be on for every call.
4. Calling out sick immediately Sure, there could be valid reasons. 9/10 times it's a red flag. Just be on edge if you see this.
5. Dressing out of step If they show up in pajamas, they're not taking their job seriously. Be as professional online as you are in person.
6. Tech isn't set up beforehand Good hires figure out how to use the tech ahead of time. If they don't take the initiative now, they never will.
As with anything, don't assume these are intentional. Investigate what's going on FIRST— Then act in accordance with your findings.
Hard Conversations
Easy & Lowkey Route
“Hey [NAME], it's so unlike you to be [NEGATIVE TRAIT].
Typically you're so [POSITIVE TRAIT].
Are you okay because I noticed [NEGATIVE EVENT]?
When It’s a Bit More Serious…
Nobody is born a pro at hard conversations. By nature, we want to avoid conflict— So you'll be uncomfortable at first. But, with a little bit of training, anyone can master this skill.
If you avoid hard conversations— You will unintentionally create a long-term harm to your organization. Yes, it will be painful short-term, but necessary.
First things first, you have to identify the problem at hand. Is it a performance-based problem? Or is it an intangible problem like character or integrity?
Once you know the type of problem— You can start using The 6 E's. This will primarily be you talking.
1. Establish the tone Every problem sits somewhere on the casual to severe spectrum. The less serious, the more casual you can be. The more serious, the more assertive you have to be.
2. Eliminate assumptions People are afraid of the unknown. Put their minds at ease by addressing the elephant in the room. If their job is on the line, tell them first. If not, deescalate the situation by letting them know first.
3. Explain the goal What should happen by the end of the convo? This is imperative, so they know what to expect.
4. Explain the problem's origin Why are you having the convo? What's been going on? Who brought this to your attention? This gives them context, so it doesn't seem like a personal attack.
5. Emphasize the impact Detail how the problem is causing (or potentially) harm to the organization. And explain why this is a critical issue to solve.
6. Estimate the severity Address how severe the problem is and how quickly it needs to be solved. Do not sugarcoat this.
Now that you've explained the situation, it's time to get them talking. I call this The 4 A's.
1. Ask How do they feel about what you said? Are they acting defensive or coachable? Don't allow them to vomit here emotionally. Keep it concise.
2. Advise Coach them on how they can solve the problem.
3. Agree Agree upon the next steps for them (and you). This allows you to hold them accountable.
4. Assure Let them know where they stand in the company after this conversation. The more serious the talk was, the more serious you need to be here.
Bonus tips:
1. Cool off emotionally before hard convos. (This is somewhere else in this training 😉)
2. Write down what you're going to say and rehearse it.
3. Record all of your tough conversations so you can study the game tape. (This is a non-negotiable)
Bring it back to the values
Unfortunately there are times when we as managers have to get on to, discipline, write up, etc. our team. It’s never fun and it doesn’t happen much, but it is the reality of the the job. When this is the case and you talk to, write-up, fire, etc. We want to go back to the values and cultural tendencies during these talks and have them tell US which one/ones they violated.
How to Tell Someone Is Going To Leave/Their Heart Isn’t In It
From time to time you’ll have a team member who cools down in dramatic fashion. It’s sad but it’s part of having a team and managing employees. Here are some tell tell signs that someone’s heart isn’t anymore…
Two Notes:
1) Sometimes the following things aren’t because they don’t love Wonder Dog anymore. They might be dealing with normal life stuff and slip as a result. In cases like this, it’s important to hear them out, offer to serve however you can and be gracious. While also explaining you need them to bounce back. There are a number of reasons that people may slip, like… marriage problems, parent problems, health, money problems, burnout, relationship problems, addiction, etc.
2) Typically if it isn’t due to some sort of normal life challenge, they are just falling out of love with Wonder Dog. It sucks, but it’s part of the game. It’s up to us talk to them, see what we can do as leaders and try to help them bounce back. But if we talk to them and we don’t see the bounce back, then they will normally either resign or get fired. So, let’s talk about signs to look for…
1) They got hot then cooled down either slowly or quickly
They were doing it all really well and right and then just… stopped or started doing significantly less.
2) They start missing what they are supposed to be doing, overall just caring less about what they are supposed to be doing
They aren’t doing checklist, follow-up, closing deals, not checking in with clients, etc.
3) Late to meetings, aren’t well put together, late to meetings/lessons/evals/etc., doesn’t come to team nights
They show up late, they aren’t put together (hair is a mess, clothes wrinkles, etc.), late to work outside of just meeting, they don’t participate in team night, etc.
4) They started their employment by taking responsibility then slowly over time make tons of excuses, never take responsibility and if they do they only do because that’s what they know you want to hear but do nothing to actually fix what’s going
5) Willingness to help gradually declines , shift in mood and general attitude, stops being a team player, slow to return calls, texts, emails, calling in all the time, they never have good news
Overall, these are tell tell signs someone is losing interest and their heart just isn’t it anymore. Once again, it’s up to us to be candid with them and find out what the deal is. Then work to address it with grace. If it doesn’t get better though, the door will follow shortly. When you start to notice this, it may be time to start making hiring plans.
Accountability
It's easy to see how the business as a whole is doing. It's much harder to identify where each employee stands.
If you're going to hold your team accountable— You need to know how each employee performs on a scale from 1-10. 1 = They're doing awful and need to be fired immediately. 10 = They're doing fantastic and need to be rewarded immediately. Hold employees accountable accordingly.
The biggest reason we don't hold our team accountable is because of negative beliefs, like:
"I don't want to babysit them."
"We're all adults here."
"What if they won't listen to me?"
"I don't have enough time to hold them accountable."
None of that matters if your biz is failing.
You need to hold your leadership team equally accountable as every other employee.
There are two types of accountability:
1) Tactical (20%) = Being on time, filling out reports, language, dress code, etc.
2) Developmental (80%) = Character traits, habits, how they operate in a team Your goal is to get your employees to grow out of desire, not fear.
Regular performance reviews and 1:1 meetings = high-performing team.