These Leadership Mistakes Will Cost You Money - Here's How to Ensure You're Hiring Great Leaders in Your Startup Company

In a corporate environment there tends to be lots of inefficiencies that often go overlooked and unaddressed. But in a small business, one single under-performer can negatively impact the entire organization.

The truth of the matter is, the hires you make will either cost you money or make you money — and my guess is, you want the latter.

This is why it's absolutely essential to think about hiring leadership roles within your organization. Not having a leadership team in place is a recipe for burnout and, let's be honest, total insanity.

If you want to stay in the entrepreneurial game for the long haul, enjoy the work you do while taking the company to the next level, and retire early (or, have a successful exit in any capacity down the line), understand that great leadership is essential.

Great leaders are the people you will collaborate and execute with. They are ones who will go through decision-making processes with you, and work hand in hand in bringing the vision you have for your business to life.

While I'm a huge advocate for promoting people from within your company, there were lessons I learned the hard way when it comes to hiring good leadership.

As our company grew from $1M to $10M very quickly, I wanted to bring the loyal, hardworking, right-hands who had been with me from the start, all the way to the top.

I learned that the skillset required to lead within a $10+ million dollar company is entirely different than the skillset required to lead within a $1-$5 million dollar company. With that said, I ended up promoting many individuals from within that were not able or ready to step into those leadership roles.

This past year was a year of really learning how to create the perfect balance of both internal promotion and hiring outside of your organization, to assemble an A-team of leaders who can carry us toward our goal of $100M.

Things to consider when hiring leadership roles:

Hiring leadership is a process that you need to be mentally prepared for.

Many people get overwhelmed and frustrated in the hiring and team-building process because of employee turnover, investing a lot of time and energy into employees who end up leaving, or making a bad hire.

The same things happen when hiring for leadership roles. When you're making your very first hire for a new role in the company, there's a high possibility that the first person you hire will not be the person that ultimately stays in that role long-term.

Understand that building a leadership team will require a massive learning curve from both you and the rest of your team as you uncover the skills, temperament, personally and cultural match required to own that department within your business.

Remember: you can't make the perfect hire when you've never had someone in that role before.

Adjust your expectations when it comes to timeline.

Don't underestimate how long the process may take and what will be required from you as the CEO. Many people assume hiring leadership is very different in hiring entry level employees, in that they can simply come into the business and make an impact from day one with no coaching, training, or support.

In reality, while leaders don't necessarily need the same type of coaching and support, they absolutely still need to be coached through your company's thinking, strategy, philosophy, policies and procedures. And that takes just as much time, energy and effort as onboarding new producer roles.

Know that you will need to invest that time and energy to get your leaders up and running so that they can go on to sustain success in their respective role.

Seek outside support and resources to recruit the top 1% of candidates.

When you're in the process of hiring great leadership, you will likely need to link arms with a direct search agency who specializes in a specific skillset and can go through a strong and thorough vetting process before candidates even land on your desk.

Now: hiring an agency in no way guarantees they're going to put the right person in front of you. It's your job to ensure you understand the most critical make or break requirements for the role you're looking to fill.

But, if you want to tap into the working population, you may want to consider getting that outside help.

You want to seek out individuals who have sustained careers and can keep up with the pacing of your fast growing organization. When a company is laying off, downsizing, or cutting jobs, they are typically fighting to hold onto the best of the best. And, you want the best of the best.

Remember at the end of it all that hiring great leadership is about being ruthless about bringing someone in who is truly capable of operating and performing not just tasks at hand, but a high level of leadership and responsibility to manage P&Ls, coupled with an understanding of how things work in a startup environment.

It takes intensive thought work, time, energy, resources, support and even ongoing learning to understand what's required of that particular role.

If you are committed to investing in the learning process, click here to instantly download a free digital copy of my bestselling book, Bigger Than You: The Entrepreneurs Guide to Building an Unstoppable Team .

If you are looking for support in building a self-led organization, explore my Legacy Leaders Mastermind group for CEOs at $1M+ in annual revenue.