Build a Growth Mindset with New Hires

“Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up… A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.” - Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

What is your primary purpose for hiring someone on your team? Is it just to fill open positions? No! The purpose of hiring a new team member is so they can add to your business growth. Many companies look for talent already operating at peak level. Well, if you have the money to pay high end wages, go for it! Being a small business owner, I like to hire people who are hungry - starving for personal and professional growth. I tend to hire people who want what I want - fulfilling life purpose, and finding satisfaction and happiness from our laborious efforts. I tend to hire people who have no experience in my industry. This way I can brand them with my leadership image; work ethic, values and my expectations. When you brand someone with your own business philosophy, they are more likely to stick with you through the discomforts of your business growth. When you grow people - they will grow your business. When your business is on a growth projectory, we ofttimes stretch our team to their limits, causing a mixture of emotions from excitement to stress. When someone is able to endure your growth spurts, they come out the other side as a better person, and a better leader. When you add value to people, they won't be so easily swayed by promises of increased income with another company. The grass is not always greener on the other side. Investing in your new hire will allow them to stay loyal to you and your work culture. As an entrepreneur, you should adopt a growth mindset of your own and transfer it with all new hires. It starts by: 

1. My efforts were able to hire you.

Hiring good team members is difficult; many just want a job while looking for the next best thing. When I am ready to hire someone, it means that through my own efforts, I scrapped and saved enough to invest and expand business by hiring a new team member. After my first free hires, I now hire based on inexperience. You know why? I want to shape my next hire in my image, with my own vision and work ethic. I want to build loyalty within my new employee, so they will want to stay on my team based on the projections of growth in our company.

2. Now, your efforts should allow me to hire someone else.

When I hire someone, I tell them: Your efforts should allow me to hire someone else. So I add a new metric for this employee. Business growth is more than just acquiring new accounts and increasing billing. It is the ability to see one’s own efforts were able to multiply the business so they it can hire more people. You will need to embed this idea into the mindset of your new hires. One of their objectives is to produce to help me hire our next employee. So you will need to give the right amount of metrics to show them the amount of revenue needed to hire the next one. You can break it down into monetary amounts, number of accounts, etc. to make your point known to them. Within a certain period of time, not only does a new employee need to pay for themselves, but for the start up costs of the next employee, as well as, increasing profits. This is true business leadership!

3. Our combined synergy should grow the business to add more employees.

Now, that you have your new employee operating at a peak level, you will be able to see your investment come back to you in many areas. For one, you will see their efforts are now able to garner you another employee. Who do you think will be the best mentor for this new employee? Ah, you got it! The Bible states, "a cord of three strands” is not easily broken. When you grow your team, you stabilize the resolve and strength of your team. Your organization becomes better, stronger and more viable as it grows into the future.

As an entrepreneur, you should adopt and build a growth mindset from the beginning of your new hire. A culture of growth should be one of your objectives, constantly spoken about with measured results and celebrations.