employee retention Archives

Over the last few years, Kupfer & Associates has grown a great deal. All of the support and growth we’ve experienced, along with the deals we’ve closed, have meant that we’ve also gotten to bring in new team members. I’ve noticed that making key hires in my business has a great impact on our deal-making capacity.

My hiring process is not just about serving clients well (although that’s a part of it). It’s also about creating a firm that has more value going forward.

Team-Building is Business Changing

Building a great team is not easy! However, too many people are saying things like, “It’s impossible to find the right people.” or even, “There are no good people out there.”

The reality is, that’s not true. You’re quite likely not hiring thousands of people (even huge organizations aren’t looking to onboard that many people at once!). No matter your size, you’re typically only bringing on a few people at a time, or even just one person. I guarantee,the right fit is out there!

So, what are you looking for? The first step is gaining clarity around what you need, and to then look for new hires who will help you create additional capacity in those areas.

In terms of deal-making, that might mean looking at future joint ventures or collaborations that appeal to you, and then considering what kind of candidates might best help you grow in those ways. Ultimately, you’re also looking for key people that will help you become redundant. The worst thing you can do in your business is to create a situation where you are so important to the business that it would be crippled without you.

Building a team that keeps your clients super happy and that perform at a high level is incredibly freeing — it changes everything in your business.

There is Leeway

Sometimes bringing in the right people means identifying the candidate who will need just a bit of leeway to get their feet under them. Being able to see potential, and knowing how to hook that potential into your business, is part of building an amazing team.

Business owners who “can’t find anyone” are often being overly stringent on small things that could be fairly easily taught. Just because a candidate hasn’t used a specific system, or done a specific type of transaction before, doesn’t mean they “couldn’t” do it.

Quite frankly, incredibly skilled and educated candidates get passed over all the time, for small reasons that could have been easily overcome. Instead of doing that, I advocate for empowering your people. If someone has the passion, energy, and drive to be great (along with the basic requirements of the job), I’m more than happy to work with them on potential gaps.

Refusing to be flexible (and insisting there are no good candidates out there) just holds you back and hurts your own business.

You Need a Team

No matter what you offer, or what you’re selling, you are going to need to build a team if you’re serious about growth. The reality is, what got you here won’t get you there.

Next level growth, scaling, and sustainability usually mean, at some point, hiring. That’s a good thing!

Beyond just hiring new people, you can also look for ways to grow your current people. Investing in their education, empowering them to take on new roles, and encouraging their continuing professional growth can help you build an incredible team around you. It’s also a way to fill the most pivotal positions without having to look outside your own walls. (Don’t forget that you’ll need to bring in someone new to take on the old position still!)

I have team members who have been with me for decades because I’ve given them room to grow. I’ve also had to make hard decisions about team members who haven’t been able to grow with the company.

Through it all, I’ve seen again and again the power of having a team.

Sometimes You’re the Problem

The reality is, sometimes the biggest problem in our businesses is our own management style.

Whether that means you’re hiring poor fits, micromanaging the team you do have, struggling to adequately train team members, failing to provide growth opportunities that will help you retain top talent, or otherwise not creating a positive work culture: be open to areas that you can improve your own leadership skills when it comes to team management.

If you have a low retention rate, or consistently have employees that don’t perform well, it’s key that you take a look at your own style (or the management style of your high-level employees).

Eventually, your ability to do deals and to eventually exit your company is deeply impacted by the quality of the team you have. It’s vital that you build an incredible team, and that you’re willing to take a look at yourself as well. Finding that balance is a key part of your growth.

To hear more about my own experience with hiring, listen in!

Corey Kupfer is an expert strategist, negotiator and dealmaker. He has more than 35 years of professional deal-making and negotiating experience. Corey is a successful entrepreneur, attorney, consultant, author and professional speaker. He is deeply passionate about deal-driven growth. He is also the creator and host of the DealQuest Podcast.

If you want to find out how deal-ready you are, take the Deal- Ready Assessment today!

Business psychologist, How to Hire the Best author, and Tap The Potential Founder Sabrina Starling is back with us again! This time she joined me for an amazing interview we conducted live on Facebook. Dr. Starling has coached thousands of entrepreneurs to overcome the day-to-day struggles of business growth by getting out of their own way and developing a success mindset that propels them to higher and higher levels of success (and profitability). Last time we talked we focused on transforming small businesses into highly profitable, great places to work. Today, we focused in on her latest book in her How to Hire the Best series.

Small Business Owners with Growth Opportunities

Years ago, Dr. Sabrina realized she was working with small business owners who were passing on growth opportunities because they didn’t have the capacity to take on anything new. They were stuck in that place so many entrepreneurs find familiar: running their business reports, ordering supplies at Staples, and wearing so many hats they were ending every day drained and exhausted.

Even though they were reaching the point where more and more opportunities were naturally coming their way….they had maxed themselves out and could no longer take advantage of their natural momentum and growth. If they did happen to have an employee or two, they were often what Dr. Sabrina calls “warm body” employees. That is, they were technically hired to work there, so they were there. They didn’t really have that A-Player, above-and-beyond, valuable asset energy of someone who could help you reach a new level.

Dr. Sabrina knew what they needed: to hire A-player employees and increase their capacity! However, she also knew that hiring is a huge commitment. From candidate searching and posting your job, to screening and interviewing, to onboarding and then releasing responsibilities to this new team member — the time, expense, and potential for things to go wrong make it feel prohibitive!

That’s why so many small business owners and entrepreneurs make the choice to put off hiring until “later”. The truth of the matter is, however, that you will never magically become less busy. If your business keeps growing (which is usually desirable!), you’ll actually have less time and capacity. You have to choose to either “cap out”….or find a way to expand!

For Growth, You Need A-Players

As a business psychologist, she tried coaching business owners on how to turn their “warm body” employees into something more…and it just didn’t work. The alternative, however, seemed to be hiring top-line employees. A lot of small business owners didn’t feel that was possible. After all, the more skills and experience someone has, the more they expect to be compensated.

This felt like a true dilemma, and was one Dr. Sabrina herself believed for quite a while!

One morning, however, she woke up with this question: “What if it’s not true?”

That question resulted in the search for small business owners who already had employees they considered A-level. She started interviewing them, and kept asking how they had found them and hired them. Their answers, again and again, were “I don’t know!”. (They also requested she come back and tell them if she ever figured out, because they all wanted to do it again!)

I see that as “unconscious competence”, which Bob Proctor has done lots of work on! Somehow, some small business owners had hit the hiring jackpot. Since they weren’t clear on how they had done it, they weren’t able to truly profit from it.

Eventually, Dr. Sabrina found that networking and word of mouth seemed to be the key for success. (Very similar to the most proven marketing techniques for finding clients.) Because the small businesses employing these tactics weren’t aware WHY they were working, they hadn’t been able to consistently and methodically employ them for ongoing, repeated hiring success.

Traditional Hiring Methods Don’t Work

When you follow traditional hiring methods, you have a 1 in 4 chance of hiring an A-player. (And a 3 in 4 chance of ending up with another “warm body”.)

Traditionally, you decide you need to fill an opening. You make a job ad, and put that out into the world. As applicants respond, you complete interviews, then you pick someone. That’s how we tend to do it….and that’s the method that offers a 75% chance of missing the best fit for the role.

In How to Hire the Best, Dr. Sabrina teaches employees how to leverage her non-traditional method that’s been proven to work consistently.

Part of her approach includes starting with the end in mind, and employing best practices in a strategic way.

The first question I had is, “When does all this start?” I knew it probably wasn’t going to be “Once you realize you need someone.” – and I was right!

A-Players Think Differently

For one thing, Dr. Sabrina notes that traditional job postings tend to attract people who are unemployed. This can mean they’re willing to accept anything — even if they aren’t that excited about your company, mission, or values, they’ll position themselves as if they are because they need the job.

A-Players, however, move from one opportunity to the next. They are looking for opportunities, and they transition when people in their networks let them know about promising positions. You should be networking for A-Players long before in the position of desperately needing to hire.

The best time to hire is when you are generating consistent business leads. As soon as you hit your rhythm here, you should be tapping into your networks and using them to look for your next A-Player. I appreciate Dr. Sabrina’s technique here, and see that it would fit into the bucket I call “entrepreneurial freedom”.

It’s important to note that A-Players aren’t necessarily people who are superstars on every level. An A-Player might be a role player with a very specific ability or capacity — but in your business, that ability is what enables them to shine. You can’t be the best at every single thing, and your employees can’t be either. It’s not fair to expect that from them!

Hiring an A-Player is more about bringing on the people who have the gifts, talents, and personality strengths to do what you need them to do. They also need to resonate with your business’ values and culture. When you can get them plugged in, the change is powerful!

So who are these magical people? Well, they are go-getters, problem solvers, and autonomous agents who know how to use resources. A team full of people who think like that can change your business from the inside out!

Build Your Team to Create Your Desired Lifestyle

Regardless of what you do, building a team enables you to create a lifestyle business that will allow you to step away as needed and have your business continue to run without you. (Your A-players are there making it all happen!)

This could mean you’re setting yourself up for a 4-week vacation, or that you’re working on a future transition plan. Dr. Sabrina notes that no one comes along and says, “I hear you work 70+ hours a week in your business. I’d love to buy it!” No one is looking to buy a job, they want to buy a business.

When you learn how to hire the best, you’re setting your business up for success, both now and in the future. The more A-Players you bring on to your team, the more value you are adding.

Dr. Sabrina notes that if you currently have many players who are more like D-Players, it can be overwhelming to know how to fix it. She encourages business owners in that position to focus on hiring up as they grow. That might mean you have the chance to replace someone, and you find an A- or B-Player for the open position. Once you hit a tipping point (say 3 out of 5 are strong employees), those who are lower performers will either choose to leave, or will rise to the challenge.

Gradually, your culture will shift!

If you’re looking to hire the best, you NEED to listen in to this interview!