3 Hiring Pitfalls
The people you choose make all the difference. So, how do you build a team that is a sturdy foundation for the growth of your business?
Growth requires more than just people. You need the right people. If you’ve found yourself with a high turnover rate, new hires causing more conflict than resolution, etc…then you may be making one of these three common mistakes.
1. You aren’t using your values to make hiring decisions.
Strong values create a strong company culture. But founders often end up using values as a sort of guideline for behavior once the contract is signed, rather than a guideline for hiring decisions in the first place.
In his book, Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business, Gino Wickman writes that “Once they’re [values are] defined, you must hire, fire, review, reward, and recognize people based on these core values.”
Just because potential team members are high-performing doesn’t mean they align with your values. Remember, the wrong hire can erode your team's motivation, mire you in unnecessary conflict, and even dilute your overall messaging.
In order to let your values attract the right people and deter the wrong ones, you need to clear messaging. This brings us to our next point which is…
2. Your brand isn’t communicating your vision effectively.
Usually, the first aspect of your business that potential hires encounter is your brand: your messaging, partnerships, visual language, voice, etc.
Consider this question: If you had to choose, would you rather work for Dell or Apple? Why? Your answer likely comes down to brand impression.
▶️Does your brand flow from your values or does it look and “smell” like any other business in your industry?
▶️Does your brand cut out and hold a consistent space in your audience’s mental landscape?
One 80/20 action you can take to improve your brand impression is to discover the brand archetype you embody and stick to it.
Click the button below to take your free Archetype Quiz and learn about brand archetypes.
3. You aren’t defining your “right seats.”
An article by Pure Direction outlines the EOS model for hiring: the GWC model, which stands for “Get it, want it, the capacity to do it.”
“In EOS terminology, the “right seat” refers to the role or accountabilities of each position, or seat as we call them in EOS, in your organization. You should identify the types of seats your business needs, and have a clear definition of each role.”
One pitfall early-stage business leaders fall into is the idea that a smart hire will be able to fix issues that they "just don't have the time to think through.” In other words, they hire before they understand what exactly “the right seat” is.
If you don’t know what “the right seat” looks like, then your hire won’t either. Knowing the job description and corresponding KPIs makes your hire 10x more equipped and motivated to meet and even surpass the expectations of the role.
Aside from your values, your team is next part of the foundation of your business. Build it right.
