Are you ready to let go?

As a founder you’ve most likely been involved in all the hiring in the early days but one thing for sure, you won’t grow at the pace you need to now you have funding, if you don’t let go!

Chances are you don’t have anyone in HR and if you do, just leaving hiring as their responsibility won’t cut it.? Your line managers need to own this, but are they ready?

Firstly, let me assure you, you’re doing the right thing by detaching yourself from being involved in every hire. You’ll become the bottleneck if you don’t, leading to missed deadlines and a frustrated team.? It’s ok if you want to be involved towards the end of the process, but it mustn’t be dependent on you to move forward.

Word of warning!

Don’t underestimate just how powerful your story telling has been to your success in hiring the right people so far.? This is something you probably do unconsciously – you'll deliver your story with clarity, commitment and authority.? You’re also likely to trust your instinct when making hiring choices, but this isn’t scalable.??

You should also ask yourself these questions too.

1. Are your managers capable of enthusiastically and consistently telling the story?? You haven’t hired them for their ability to ‘sell’ but that’s what they need to do to ‘hook’ and motivate the right people to join the team.

We often meet managers who view interviews simply viewed as a process to discover whether a candidate has the right skills and experience – considering nothing beyond that.? They just hadn’t considered the need to ‘sell’ the opportunity, and the importance of building engagement.

1. Are you as a management team clear and consistent on the behaviours & expectations you have of the team.

As a senior team you might routinely work 10 hour days, speaking and exchanging emails outside the usual working hours, but as you grow it’s important to be conscious about how this will shape the culture of the business and set the tone around expectations. You're probably not expecting that commitment from entry-level candidates but could give that impression without realising it.

I recently had to coach a hiring manager because several of their candidates pulled out. During the interview the manager shared that, whilst the hours were 9-5.30pm, ‘most people come in around 8am and don’t tend to leave until 7pm’.? The manager was just trying to be transparent, but it wasn’t helpful – or relevant for that junior role.

1. Management style.? The mantra so far could have been “just hire good people, set them a direction and let them get on with it”?

As you scale you need to have clarity about the qualities you want from new hires.? This is how you maintain your culture.??

Without clarity, adopting your philosophy of “let good people get on with it” isn’t helpful for early-stage career people.? Instead, you might agree that hiring ‘strong problem solvers’, or (to maintain an innovative culture), ‘people without fear of trying and failing’ are important.? This is something that can be assessed in the interview.??

Having partnered with many founders/CEOs over the last decade to improve their team’s ability to hire and scale, I’d recommend implementing the following:

• Interview training for everyone involved in the hiring process. Make sure that you go beyond the legal stuff and leaves them with confidence that they know what they’re doing.

• Have a session with your leadership team to agree what the ‘proposition’ is - including the 'pitch’ to everyone who goes through the interview process.

• Arm everyone with a bank of stories they can draw on dependant on the interview e.g. if it’s an early career candidate, sharing a story of how someone in the business has progressed, can be very powerful. One memorable client we worked with hired a school leaver who progressed to open their New York operation just 4 years later.?

• Agree standard questions that your team can use. This not only means less time spent on preparing different questions every time they interview, but also gives you consistent information to help when you’re making the hiring decision.?

Try implementing just a few of these and see your results skyrocket! If you need any help, let me know.?

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