Developing Your New Team Members for Long Term Success

I’ve had entrepreneurial leanings for most of my life. As a child, I watched my mother grow a successful winery in Southern Oregon, which evolved into helping her in everything from admin to marketing to sales to pruning the vineyard and bottling wine.  I started my first business at 13 (short lived though it was as the requests outgrew my ability to produce the product – grape vine cuttings for the barbeque), and I was hooked. I’m now the owner of my third business, and one thing remains the same: one of my favorite parts of being an entrepreneur is developing my team members for long term success.

I’ve talked with business owners over the years who seem to want a “ready-made” team – people who will just come in, automatically know what to do, and magically take things off their plate. While I completely understand that desire (especially when you’re already overwhelmed), it doesn’t generally work that way…and honestly, part of me is glad it doesn’t.

Granted, there are times when I’ve hired a contractor to come in and do a job, simply because it needs to be done. I’m grateful for their expertise and speed, but this is best reserved for one-time jobs – the setup of a new platform, for example.

When I bring someone on my team for a long-term position, I want to be able to work with them, develop them, and have as much of an impact on their life as they do on mine. I love being able to help them grow in the areas they’re passionate about just as much as I love seeing them grow in their role.

I don’t want them to just clock in for a paycheck and clock out at the end of the day; I want them to love their job, love being part of the team, and know that they’re valued for far more than their technical skills.

It does take intention and effort, but it’s worth it. This is actually why we developed our Staffing Packages – to help you get straight to what matters and start developing your team for success. I’d like to share some examples of how this works!

Working with My Executive Assistant

Many business owners are hesitant to bring on an Executive Assistant, even though they desperately need the help. My EA is my right hand – she keeps me organized, triages, the mountains of email I get, and helps protect my time so that I can focus on what I really need to be doing.

However, this isn’t a role that just anyone can take on – and it’s not a role that can be learned in a day. My EA needs to be able to understand how I like to work, why I need things organized as I do, and how to anticipate my needs.

This starts with understanding the general framework of HOW to organize emails and conquer the chaos, HOW to manage my calendar and batch similar appointments together and HOW to support a CEO in managing the different departments of the business.   The great news is that we have an EA Onboarding System where she could learn all that quickly on Day 1.  

From there it was much easier to fine-tune how I work and my nuances so she can support me.  This helps up more quickly develop a deeper level of communication that lets us quickly through the “noise” of everyday distractions and focus on what’s important!!

And of course, we need to develop a mutual respect that allows us to work easily and consistently together. She’ll see me when everything’s running smoothly, and she’ll see me when I’m stressed; in order for us to work well together long term, I need to put the time into training her well and helping her find satisfaction in her role.

This doesn’t just “magically” happen, and it’s something that too many business owners forget. That’s honestly where having strong systems and onboarding procedures comes in – implementing that foundation allows you the freedom to more intentionally develop your team!

Creating Raving Fans with My Client Happiness Coordinator

Another key team member that I love to work with is my Client Happiness Coordinator. Mine is a superstar, and she takes incredible care of my clients. She gets to know them and looks for ways to delight them and cheer them on. I depend on her for so much!

My CHC is also my Team Happiness Coordinator – and as such, she’s integral to our company culture. She looks for ways to encourage and bolster each member of our team, and she’s intentional about finding ways to help everyone achieve more satisfaction in their role.

However, she didn’t just show up one day and step into these roles, fully prepared and moving full speed – and she didn’t just “know” how to care for my clients like I would. Instead, we onboarded her with a variety of videos that explained what we are trying to accomplish and then the procedures of how to do the tasks.  We then made sure she had time to meet with me and others on our team to answer questions, show her how we had done things in the past, and working with her to better understand our clients and our systems.  This is how she was able to get up to speed so quickly and start innovating even better, more streamlined ways of doing things.  

This is the beauty of a strong onboarding procedure: it allows you to develop team members that will truly support you and stick around long term, rather than just handing off some tasks and hoping they get done correctly!

I understand the mindset of wanting someone to step into a position and hit the ground running from Day 1, but honestly, that won’t get you the results you’re looking for. Strong onboarding and systems will fast track the process, but there is no substitution for intentionally developing your team!

If you’re ready to take action and develop these procedures and systems in your own business, let us know – we have solutions for owners at every stage. My team and I are committed to helping you grow your business and develop your team in effective, sustainable ways!