PopUP! Series ✈️ Part 4/5: How to Hire the Right People as You Grow.

Save yourself some frustration and learn how to hire and delegate the right way so you have a solid team that supports the goals of your business.

Ready to hire the right people for the right roles? Apply to work with me here and let's start designing a business that can run without you.

Apply to work with me here, and let's start designing a business that works FOR YOU.

Link to Music Credits
Track: Positive Motivation
Author: AShamaluevMusic (ASM)
Publisher: CD Baby (IPI 700570289)

Connect With Ilonka On Social Media
Instagram | Facebook | YouTube

Transcript

Ilonka Ras (00:00.088)
This is episode number three of the series, Take a Vacation Your Laptop Isn't Invited To. In this episode, we are diving into the biggest mistakes we make when we hire team members to support the growth of the business. Now, if you haven't listened to the previous episodes in this series, definitely do so, so that you have everything you need to plan and go on that very first unplugged vacation. Welcome to the Effortless CEO Podcast.

The only show that teaches South African business owners how to improve their operations and design a business that can run without them. If you're interested in leading your team more effectively, creating more operational efficiency, delivering with excellence while getting some of your life back, then you're in the right place. Here's your host, strategic intervention coach and operations specialist, Ilonka Ras.

Ilonka Ras (00:58.496)
Every successful business owner reaches a point where they realize that they cannot do it all themselves anymore, that they need help. So they start looking for that perfect person that can take some of the load off. After lots of back and forth, they finally take the brave leap and hire their very first employee. Six months down the line, however, they still feel like they are carrying the weight of the business. They're answering endless questions, fixing mistakes, putting out

buyers and they start to wonder why isn't this working? Wasn't hiring supposed to make my life easier? If you want to grow your business, if you want to step out of the day to day and focus on those high impact, high energy activities that you want to do in the business, your zone of genius, you are going to need help. What help looks like might be different for other business owners. Hiring help doesn't always mean a full time employee.

Now, whether you hire a full-time employee, maybe you have some already, whether it's a part-time employee or a virtual assistant that helps you out for a couple of hours a week, there is one very important thing you need to understand before you take that leap, whether it's hiring your first employee or first team member or your next one. The most important thing you need to understand is that we do not hire to increase our capacity, which is what most business owners do.

We recognize that we have more work than we can handle and we think that we need more hands to take on the work. So we hire to increase our capacity. In other words, to take on more clients, to be able to deliver more work. This is a mistake because hiring to increase capacity doesn't help you, the owner, to work less. It doesn't help you to focus more on the things that actually light you up inside of your business.

What happens is we hire for capacity, which means that we basically just have more hands on deck. So we're taking on more work and everyone is collectively doing more work. What we need to do instead is hire to free up your time. When you hire, it should be a strategic hire that helps you get time back so that you can have more time to work on the things that you want to work on and that you

Ilonka Ras (03:24.066)
can add the most value to as the owner of the business. And the reason why we hire is to take everything off of our plates that does not grow the business and give us energy. Here's why. When you only work on the things that grow the business and that you actually enjoy, you have so much more to give. You are able to

bring so much more value to the table because you actually enjoy what you do. You are a happier person. And this is what we should be aiming for as business owners. Now, once you've hired the team member, right? Or if you're in the position where you already have some people on your team, the next important step is to actually delegate work in the right way. Now, what typically happens is we hire and then we expect this person to get up to speed with how we do things in the business.

We do training and we teach them how to do the work, but we are only actually transferring tasks to them. We delegate activities. The problem with this is that we are still making all of the decisions. Our team members still need our input and approval. So we've delegated the task, but we've not actually delegated the outcome.

We want our team to be able to do their work without us checking up on them or micromanaging them consistently. We want them to be able to operate autonomously. Now, in order for this to happen, your team actually needs three things. Firstly, they need the permission. And this might sound very obvious, but you need to tell your team what they can and cannot do. You need to give them the permission to do the work that you want them to do.

They need to know what the boundaries are and they need to know that you trust them to do it well. The second thing they need is they need to understand the outcome. In other words, what are we working towards here? Why are we doing this thing? And how will we know we are successful? And number three, they need the confidence. Now remember, you learned through experience. Confidence comes with experience, which means you need to allow them to make mistakes.

Ilonka Ras (05:37.142)
And to not take the work back onto your plate because they aren't doing it perfectly. They need to know that it's safe for them to make mistakes, to fail. And one way to do this is to create some guardrails as you train them to do the work so that they can take action, make mistakes and learn without hurting the business. Now going from solo entrepreneur to managing a team can often feel like a massive leap. And it is because it requires you to step into a different role. You're going from.

doing all the work to now managing and leading people. But if you hire, but you don't make this shift, this mental shift or role shift, your team will always be dependent on you for answers. You will stay trapped in decision-making, which is probably one of the most exhausting things you can do during the day. You will grow in revenue because you're taking on more clients, but you will not have more freedom in your day.

Your business might get bigger, but you will also find that your personal life actually gets smaller because you're at work all the time. So shifting into the role of leader requires a different skillset. And it is often the shift most of my clients admit is the hardest. And it can also be the most rewarding thing about owning a business because you have the opportunity to build an environment where your team can thrive, where they can work in their zone of genius.

together with you working in your zone of genius and make a meaningful contribution to the impact you want to create as a business. So let's quickly recap. If you want to grow your business, you're going to need help sooner rather than later. Who you hire depends on the work that is currently on your plate because we want to hire to buy back your time, not simply increase the business capacity to take on more clients.

In order for this to happen, you need to shift from doer to owner. You need to let go of the belief that you are the only one that can do things right. And then we need to design clear outcomes. We need to create systems to support the team. And you are going to have to step into your role as a leader and coach your people to take ownership instead of micromanaging or rescuing them every time an opportunity presents itself.

Ilonka Ras (08:00.204)
If you're ready to step into your role as leader, if you're ready to build a business that doesn't just grow, but grows in a way that is sustainable and fun, I want to invite you to apply to work with me. Together, we will design the systems and create leadership shifts that you need to build a business that works for you. You can head over to the link ilongaraz.com forward slash apply, or find it in the show notes.

In the next episode, you will learn the one decision you must make if you want time, energy, and financial freedom from your business. I'll see you there.