My Business On Purpose

How Do You Manage Expectations?

How do I manage expectations? With employees, clients, everything... Let's talk about it. Good afternoon, Thomas Joyner with Business On Purpose here.

If there's one thing I've seen this year, it's the businesses that manage expectations the best are the ones who have the least issues with their employees and the least issues with clients.

So... let's break this up into two pieces. First, how do we manage expectations with employees?

I think it all starts with what we say. Do we honor what we say or do we tell people what they want to hear, hoping it will buy us enough time to figure out what to do? Don't do that! Slow down, mean what you say.

I had a client recently who had an employee leave. Just out of the blue, submitted their two-week notice and took a job elsewhere. At the exit interview, they drilled down on why they were leaving and all the employee would say was, "There are just a lot of unmet expectations from the hiring process."

So, at our next coaching time, we spent the majority of the time going back to listen to what exactly was communicated throughout the hiring process. I looked at their process top to bottom and it jumped off the page to me. "Potential for profit sharing and buying into the practice."

It sounds great on paper, right? Profit-sharing and offering ownership to key employees to give them more of a stake in the company. So, I looked at the business owner and asked him, "Did you ever profit share or allow them to buy in?" Well, not exactly. We were trying to grow and thought we could table it for a bit until the right time.

"So when is the right time?" Because what that communicates in the hiring process is that it's not a possibility, but a 100% option for the employee. That's the breakdown in communication right there.

Without intending to offer that, it sounded like a great idea that he could figure out in the future when the time was right. A great way to get a quality person on the team and then figure out how to keep them happy on the back end. But... that's misleading and not managing expectations well at all.

How else do we do this? Well, we tell employees we will train them and then feed them to the wolves. We tell them we'll have meetings to check on their progress and answer questions and then don't prioritize them ourselves so employees are left feeling unimportant. We tell them there is room for growth in the business, to give them more responsibility in their career and then bury them in their current job.

What if it looked different though? What if we scheduled training times with employees and gave them an onboarding time to ask questions about their role. What if we were prepared, ready, and engaged in new employee check-ins. What if we gave employees metrics to hit, with crystal clear expectations for what you're looking for in order for them to move up in the business. IN a way that you both know if they hit it or not.

You see, I think we're not careful about the things we promise, which in turn get our employees' expectations moving a direction we never intended. Be clear. Painfully clear in the expectations you set and watch the overall employee morale improve on a daily basis.

So if that's how we manage it with employees, how do we manage it with clients. Well, the exact same way! Do what you say you're going to do and know what expectations you are setting before you put them in place.

I have a friend who always feels like they are being attacked by clients. But here are the expectations he sets. Every time an email pops up on his phone, he answers it immediately. Every time a voicemail is left, it's answered as soon as possible. Texts, can't get to them quick enough. It's no wonder his clients get frustrated when it takes an hour because he's trained them that every text or call or email they send him is treated like an emergency. He is setting the expectation every day that he is available 24/7 to them.

Now if that's the message he wants to communicate, ok. But I will sometimes read emails, and if they are not an emergency I will leave them until the next morning. I want to be 100% clear in setting expectations that I block out time for email every morning and cannot orient my entire life and schedule around other people's minor inconveniences.

"But they'll leave!" Maybe... but the ones that leave are the headaches to begin with. The ones probably not worth working with anyway.

"Well, that's a very narrow-minded way of doing business?" Is it though? I want the people I'm face to face with to know I'm focused entirely on them. Not being distracted nonstop at all the things vibrating on my phone.

Let's talk about this practically. I asked for a quote from a contractor recently. I needed some work on my house and they came out to inspect. On the way out, the contractor said, "I'll send you a quote to your email." Great... thanks!

The next morning, no quote. 3 days later, no quote. Monday of the following week I finally called. "Hey, just making sure you're sending that quote." Yessir, I'll have it to you soon.

It took 2 weeks to get the quote. I was frustrated. Zero expectations were set, so I had zero confidence in what would be delivered.

Imagine if this happened. On the way out the door the contractor says, "It's probably going to be 2 weeks before I can get this proposal to you. Is that ok?" If it's ok and I'm in no rush I would have said yes. If not, at least I have the option and feel respected enough to make my own decision. It would also put the picture in my mind that this contractor must do good work or they wouldn't be booked out this far.

I did the same thing a few weeks ago. I had a sales meeting with a business and it was the Friday of 4th of July week. "Great, send us a proposal for us to look over." No problem, I said. Just so you know it will be Monday afternoon before I can get this to you as I'm about to head out of town. Is that ok? Yep, that's great! We'll look forward to reading it then.

Expectations, guys! Manage them. In every aspect of your business. They matter so much! They can give you a great reputation. Or can completely tarnish it. They can buy you freedom from work, or chain you to your business at all hours of the day.

So, a question for you to think through today. What are the expectations you need to appropriately set in your business to give your employees and clients the expectations you want them to have?

If I can help answer that question at all, please let me know. We build processes out for all of this to help make sure you are communicating everything the right way. Alright, thanks for joining have a great day, and make sure to subscribe to our podcast and YouTube channel.

Common Phone Interview Questions

You show up for that blind date, and within an hour your date asks, "so you want to get married?"

Country songs glorify fast love and love at first conversation, but the way of wisdom encourages time and intentionality in two people deciding to dive into a relationship.

Certainly, commitment can drag on too long at times, but more often than not, having a solid boundary of time for a relationship to root and grow will give the runway it needs for longevity.

As you begin the process of finding potential team members to hire into your business, it is necessary to have times of coordinated conversation. As important is to make time for casual, interactive, soft-skill revealing conversation.

Because we are usually desperate to find good people, we tend to make the initial phone interview a catch all for everything we need to learn from the new employee candidate.

In reality, the initial phone call should be just that, an initial phone call to help us get a feel for the person on the other end of the line.

It is meant to be casual, free-flowing, meandering, and insightful.

We are asked continually, "what questions should I ask?"

Our response, "what questions would you NORMALLY ask anyone the first time you met them on the phone?"

Where are you from?

Tell me more about that…

What is your background?

Tell me more about that…

How did you hear about us?

Tell me more about that…

What other work have you done in the past? Where? What did you like about it or not like about it?

Tell me more about that…

What are the things that you most like to do in life?

Tell me more about that…

What are the things that you don't like to do in life?

Tell me more about that…

Tell me more about that…

Obviously, you may not ask questions that are inappropriate (age, race, gender, relationship status, etc.) Again, would you ask those in a first phone call with a new acquaintance? Probably not.

The opening phone call should be used as a simple get-to-know-you.

You want to know if they have done their homework on you. You want to know if they can hold their own in a conversation and think on their feet. You want to know how they can respond to open-ended, general questions.

You want to know enough so you can answer this question for yourself…

"Based on what role we are looking to fill, is this someone I would want to continue to walk through our process?"

The initial phone call is simply a very broad filter to determine if you are ready to invest the serious time of the rest of the lengthy hiring process.

I can hear some of you now, "but we are just looking for someone with a pulse to come and show up for work, we don't need to take them through this entire process."

Whatever commitment you put into this process becomes the ceiling of commitment that you will likely get back from whoever you hire. If your ceiling of effort is a one (this is a made-up scale), then do not expect the level of commitment of your new hire to be any higher than a one.

Your commitment will help determine their commitment.

Most of us need a commitment level much higher than a one if we are going to collectively go after and achieve the mission that we have for our business.

Consistently, I hear frustration from employers who went too fast and hired the wrong person.

Rarely do I hear regret from an employer who makes the time for extended, intentional conversation.

3 Ways to Ensure a Successful Hire

Who isn't hiring today? And how do you make sure your new hires actually stick? Well, let's talk through 3 ways to ensure your new hire is a success.

Good afternoon, Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here. Thanks so much for joining!

I recently sat in a coaching meeting with a business who had made some really important hires. But they were frustrated!

"It just seems like they're spinning their wheels," they said. "They haven't really begun to own their job yet and I feel like I'm doing half of their work for them."

"Well, walk me through how you set them up?"

It quickly got very quiet. They realized that they hadn't done close to enough to set them up well to succeed in the new role.

This story is all too common. We know we need to set our employees up and our new hires up for success, but we just don't do it for some reason. Now, many times it's because we don't know exactly what we want them to own when we make the hire.

We realize that we're overwhelmed and we think more manpower immediately will help the problem. But that is nowhere close to true. Well-equipped manpower, well-trained manpower will help, but throwing more manpower at the problem is like handing someone a bike with flat tires and telling them you can get somewhere faster now. Yes, that's true, but you need to pump up the tires and give them ALL the tools they need to succeed. Before they can truly get where they need to go!

So what do we need to do to ensure that our new hires thrive? Not just survive? It's what we all want to know because everyone is hiring.

So…

1. Write out a Job Role

It MUST start here. So often, we make a hire and put a few thoughts down, and wing it as our new employees start. "We'll just see what they're good at," we say. Instead of asking…"What does the business need them to do?" That questions should inform you of what needs to go on the job role.

So write it all out. What are they responsible for owning? What does their day to day look like? You can even script out their first 2-3 weeks. Every hour, so they never have to guess what they should be doing! If it's not written down, it doesn't exist. That means if you don't write a Job Role down for a new hire, they will never know what they are held responsible for and, unless you make a 1 in a million hire, they will never accomplish what you hired them to do in the first place. But if you write down the Job Role, tweak as needed, and train on their responsibilities, you guarantee that they will at the very least know what they are being asked to do.

2. Build out their first 90 days of expectations

It never fails. Well, we had an employee evaluation at 90 days and they are barely keeping their head above water. Why? Because they don't know what they were supposed to have learned in that time. Other than a few day to day items, odds are they don't know the technical skills you've asked them to learn, the systems they were supposed to impact, the meetings they were supposed to lead.

No, we fail our employees when we don't tell them what the goal is at the end of 90 days. So they can ask questions and ask for help or clarity if need be. They have to know what our expectations are for them in the first 90 days so we can accurately tell whether they were the right fit for the role. If we don't set them up accordingly, their failure is on us.

So what do these expectations need to have? Well, a weekly schedule for them, technical skills to know like sales software, industry contacts, workflow systems, you name it. The next set of expectations is on deliverables you need from them. Any accounts they need to sell to? Any budgets they need to work through or processes they need to write out? Lastly, what meetings and trainings do they need to attend or become competent in. If you can give them expectations for each of these, they will be led to the standard, not left to wonder where it is!

3. Schedule a weekly onboarding meeting to make small course corrections along the way.

You have to check in on them along the way. Set 30 minutes on the calendar and a meeting that neither of you can cancel. Ask them some simple onboarding questions. What are you seeing? Capturing their eyes at the beginning and seeing what they see is amazingly powerful. What questions do you have about your job role? Again, always supporting, always providing clarity. Do we have any blind spots? Allowing them to speak and put words to what their seeing and maybe improve an area you didn't know needed it! And lastly, here's what we see. A chance for you to praise and critique. To make small course corrections instead of sweeping your frustrations under the rug for months until the next employee eval. Give them small windows of things to change and then you have a record for months down the road.

That's it! If you can give them a detailed Job Role, build out their first 90 days of expectations and have a weekly onboarding meeting to course correct, you show them the pathway to success. Because here's the thing... Yes, this takes time. Yes, this is hard work.

But you know what takes more work? Starting over with a new employee. We have to equip the employees we have, equip the hires we make, not always give up, and looked for the already equipped hire! When we understand and act on that, we give our team the key to success. Clear expectations, detailed training, and a system to thrive within.

I hope that makes sense and I hope you can put this into practice the next time you make a hire. Thanks for tuning in, make sure to subscribe to our podcast and YouTube channel right now!

Thanks

The State of your Attention Determines the State of your Life/Business

Hey folks, Brent Perry here, and I am one of the coaches here at Business on Purpose. Let's take a quick assessment.

James Redfield has a quote that states: "Where Attention goes Energy flows!" Take a few minutes and think over the past few weeks of work and life. Especially you business owners out there. Where has your attention been given in your business? Where has the energy, if you will, been flowing? Are you in a season where your attention is being focused on all the wrong things? Putting out fires everyday. Glued to your computer because you're drowning in emails and proposals. Finishing the day and already dreading the next? If that sounds like you, I promise you are not alone.

John Mark Comer has a quote in his book, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, "Because what you give your attention to is the person you become."

And he even follows it up again on the next page saying, "But again: we become what we give our attention to, for better or worse."

Where is your attention?

Story of Brad and his golf game... going pro!

As a business owner, where does your energy need to be flowing? It's time to take a step towards working on your business, and not just in your business.

Do me a favor next week…

Write down 3 things in your business that deserve your attention. Maybe it's training for employees. Maybe it's time to budget for your next project. Maybe it's hiring an HR manager or a bookkeeper to clean up those books. Maybe it's a team meeting that you have been putting off.

These are the types of things that need your attention as you lead your team and business into the 3rd quarter of this year.

Thanks for listening.

Four Steps Towards Better Intuition in your Business

Do you have intuition? Or do you think you do? Do you just wing it or do you have a process for it? Well, let's take a few minutes to find out if you truly do.

Good afternoon friends, Thomas Joyner with Business On Purpose here.

This past weekend, our entire team flew up to Franklin, Tennessee to celebrate the opening of a new BoP location in Middle Tennessee. True to our colors we spent time going over the vision, the mission, the core values and then spent the better part of the afternoon being taught by our own team members in ways that they are strong.

It was an incredibly powerful time to be together, to halt coaching for a day and reinvest back into our team. If you're not doing something like this, I can't encourage you enough to invest the time and resources to do so. We all have a little spring in our step this morning and are excited to be a part of this team.

One of our coaches asked us this question and the teaching from it was so powerful for me. He asked us if we have intuition. We all kind of raised our hands as we were like, "Of course, we wouldn't have been hired to do this if we didn't have some decent sense of intuition."

But he didn't stop there. Most self-aware and healthy individuals have some sense of intuition. They can typically take a problem and drill down to what's underneath. However, most of us stop a few steps short of actually fixing it, so we end up repeating our mistakes over and over again.

We walked through this "Intuition Process" as I coined it for my own memory, to never forget the 4 steps.

So what are the 4 steps? Let's dive in and talk about it.

The first thing we must do is wrap our arms around the problem. Asking simple questions to figure out what the dilemma is. Is it personnel-driven, a problem with a product or service, or maybe a client? I don't know... but it's asking enough questions to wrap your mind around the problem you're facing.

The second thing we need to do is drill down and ask, "What's the root of the problem or what's the real issue?" I injured my back a few months back working out. I went to a physical therapist as I could barely walk and they asked me a series of questions. I pointed to where it hurt and how I injured it and they told me it was a problem with my glute muscles.

"No, the pain is right here," I kind of said as I pointed to a spot 6-8'' above where they were telling them the problem was.

I'll never forget what the PT person said. "Oftentimes where it hurts is not the problem. That's just where the problem is rearing its ugly head!" Man, that is so true. Often times the problem is not what you see or feel, but a failure somewhere else along the line and this is just where it manifests itself.

So, as you're asking questions, what is the root of the problem? What created it? A breakdown in communication? Overlooking something in a hiring process? Maybe it was training-related? But find out what the real issue is!

Third, ask "What's the action to take?'' Now, this can be tough. Rarely are actions black and white, but most are somewhere in the gray spectrum. So, with the information we have, what is the action we need to take? This can take some time to discuss, but there should be an action to take.

Now, this is where most people stop. And it's natural to stop here. We fixed the problem, rooted it out, and took action. But if you stop here, you're bound to repeat your mistake! You've got to take one more step.

That step is what Process do we need to build or tweak to prevent this from happening again! That's powerful stuff right there. What do we need to put in place to make sure this root issue is solved! Think how freed up your business would be if you built a process every time something went wrong to insure that it never happened again!

For one, you would probably have a whole lot less mistakes every single day.

So, what does this look like in the real world? Let me walk you through an example.

We work with a client who hired a new salesperson. A few months in they just weren't getting the hang of it. We tried more training, we tried encouragement, we tried everything we could to get their performance up and it just wasn't happening. In fact, they were well below their peers who had been selling way less time than this new employee.

So we began to work this Intuition Process. We knew the problem. This employee was not getting close to meeting sales quota. As we drilled down a bit, we realized that the problem was NOT the employee. We realized that there were some assumptions made in the hiring process. This person should have never been hired for this role in the first place. They were just not a salesperson, but much more of a support role type.

So, the owner took responsibility for that and realized we had to take action. We put some metrics for the employee to reach to be able to continue in the sales role. There were other roles they could fill, but they couldn't be paid to produce without actually producing.

Lastly, we spent time figuring out what are the holes in the hiring process that need to be fixed in order to prevent this from happening again? We built a new hiring process with new ways to test salesmen on their effectiveness before they are hired!

Here's the thing. There will be mistakes. Always. We're managing human beings who make mistakes and that is ok. But... what we can do is build processes that help eliminate as many of those as possible. We can do our part to make sure the process is in place to prevent the same mistakes from happening twice.

So, take this and use it in your business. Figure out the problem, drill down to the root of it, find the action to take, and then build a process to prevent it from happening again!

That's some good stuff right there and I hope you enjoyed it! Make sure to subscribe to our podcast and youtube channel so you never have to come and download our episodes. We want them waiting on you every time we add a new one. Don't want you to miss a thing!

Have a great week!

3 MUST DO business tasks at mid-year…

We're at the halfway point of 2021... so what now? Well, here are 3 MUST Do business tasks that every business should do this month. Good afternoon Thomas Joyner here with Business on Purpose.

It's easy to get into the habit of putting it on cruise control. It's summer vacation for kids, everyone is restless to get on the water over the weekend. It's hot and humid... you name it. It's natural to hit the halfway point and just kind of hit autopilot for a month or two until you realize you have to hit your numbers by year-end.

But hey, that's not operating your business "ON PURPOSE" now is it? In fact, all that leads you to is getting stressed at all the work you didn't do in Q3!

So what do you need to do today? You won't achieve all of your goals, you won't earn your year-end bonuses, but you can definitely stall your business enough to prevent yourself from either of those things.

So... today. Get out your calendar and schedule 1-2 hours for each of these tasks. Now, that's the tip of the iceberg. Some of these things will take more time. But if you get the ball rolling you can always schedule more time to finish the conversations surrounding them. So, figure out who needs to be in the room and schedule it now.

Ok, so what are the 3 MUST DO business tasks at mid-year?

1. Look back over the first 6 months performance to see how you're doing

You set goals, where do you line up in relation to them. Are you over/underperforming? If you doubled your numbers will that get you to yearly goals? How is your team performing? Are there pieces that need some care or further training?

Lastly, take a peek at your financials. Ok, take more than a peek. Look at your Profit and Loss Statement, look at your cash flow month to month and check in with your CPA to see if there is anything that doesn't make sense. Are your margins where you hoped they would be? Are your labor costs high/low? Are materials and inventory where you thought? Any expenses way higher/lower than you anticipated?

These are all great questions to ask so that you know if you need to make some changes moving into the second half of the year.

I was looking over this with a client recently and they were frustrated at their payroll. It was almost 20% higher than they anticipated. So, we looked back over it and realized they were paying 8 guys 10 hours of overtime a week at time and a half. You do the math and that's a lot of extra payroll expense. So, we made the necessary decision to hire 2 new employees to get those overtime costs down. Had they not looked? They would be looking at a HUGE loss to the company, plus they now have the opportunity to get more work and grow their team. All because they took an hour to look back at the past 6 monthsperformance.

2. Spend some time forecasting THROUGH Q1 of 2022

What work can you plan on getting over the next 6-9 months? Do you have the staff to accomplish that work? Are there any roles you need to add? Roles you need to merge into one? Anything at all on the horizon, you need to be prepared for.

I can say from experience that most BIG mistakes I've seen when sitting in with clients are all a result of not forecasting. This is what I mean…

Acme Co. enjoys a slow summer. They take it all in and just enjoy the slower season. Waiting for them is 4 HUGE projects that all begin at the end of August. So... August 1st arrives, and by that time it's too late. They realize they need 3-4 more employees to handle the work. So, they have to rush the hiring process. They are unable to do the appropriate vetting because it's an emergency and they just need bodies.

Next thing you know, they mess up on the job. It costs the business time, money and reputation. Margins go down. Businesses notice the quality of your work. All because they weren't aware of what was on the horizon.

So what is coming in the future that you can prepare for now? Put in the time and then build out the systems to support it. You have time today. You will not 6 weeks from now.

3. Build out your hiring process for if, and when, you need people.

The one thing that we hear constantly is this…"I feel like my employees know I don't have anyone waiting behind them, so there's no way to hold them accountable!"

Well, what if there was a way to have someone behind them? What if you were in hiring mode all year round, with a pool of competent candidates ready to hire. It doesn't just happen.

So often we wait until we need someone to actually put in the time. But, when we are interviewing, or at least working on our interview process, we can seamlessly integrate new, qualified people into our business and use that to push our employees to a standard.

I can promise you this... you will need good people. I can also promise you that they will be tough to find in an emergency. Spend time and energy finding good people, build roles for them and then work hard to find the right role within your business to maximize their skills. That's how you raise the bar and hold your employees to a standard. When they know that their are multiple people waiting to do what they do. It's building a culture of hard work and quality that will raise the bar for everyone.

Ok...don't pick up your phone and answer a text... don't call someone back. Schedule time THIS WEEK for these 3 things.

1. Looking back over the last 6 months performance to see how you're doing.
2. Spend some time forecasting to make sure you're ready for the next 6-9 months.
3. Start your hiring process to get the right people on board.

That's it! Hope you have a great week and take a minute to go and subscribe to our YouTube and Podcast. Thanks for tuning in

Why Transfer Your Influence: How A Business Sets Itself Free

by Scott Beebe Founder | Head Coach Business On Purpose 12 Week Plan Live Event Hewitt Oaks, Bluffton, SC 17th June 2021

"Transferring Your Authority: How To Equip Your Team And Set Them Free"

by Thomas Joyner Business Coach, Business On Purpose

12 Week Plan Live Event Hewitt Oaks, Bluffton, SC 17th June 2021

What exactly IS the function of an ORG Chart?

Two phrases I've heard in the past week…

1. "I feel like our business needs more from our employees." and
2. "I feel like we have holes between what our business needs and what it actually has!"

My answer? You're absolutely correct. Happy Monday friends, Thomas Joyner with business on purpose here. We're going to answer the question today of what exactly is the function of an ORG Chart in your business.

Let's go back to those questions that I was asked this week. And surprisingly, the two go together.

The first one gets to the thought of What does your business need? It's a great question to ask. If you could wipe the slate clean, fire everyone (hypothetically speaking, please don't go out and fire everyone right now), and build your business to serve your needs today... would you have the job roles you have?

Probably not!

No, you need more from your employees, because they were hired in chaos... NOT from a place of vision. "Gah, the phones are ringing off the hook, we have to hire another administrative person!" Or maybe something like this, "We're driving all over the place, we need someone who can handle estimates and still do a little work on the job, so let's make a hybrid Project manager/estimator role to fill the gap for right now."

Well, that whole fill the gap excuse lasts a year, then 2 years, then you can't remember what you were hoping that role grew into in the first place.

You're not crazy, it happens all the time!

Let's look at the second question. "I feel like we have holes between what our business needs and what it actually has!"

Of course, because when you hire in chaos, it's solving an immediate need, but not the most efficient, best long-term need.

And here is what happens. You end up with a bunch of people on your team with overlapping job roles, working outside of their strengths because the urgency is informing the hire instead of the vision and the need informing the hire!

When we start in crisis and don't think things through we end up with an ORG chart that looks completely different than what the business needs. So... where do we start and how do we combat this?

You have to go back to this thought of if I could start over from scratch and build my business to serve my current revenue numbers, what job roles does the business need.

Notice what you didn't hear me say. I did NOT say, who do we currently have in our business and what else do we need.

No, this may take us shaking up our entire business to finally, FINALLY give the business what it so desperately needs.

So, go through the 4 main pieces to your business, ADMIN, Marketing, sales, Operations, and start putting down roles.

To handle the administrative tasks our business needs, what roles does that require? Do we have 4 people handling this part-time? Could it be blended into one job role to help with communication and collaboration?

In looking at Marketing, ask, who is quarterbacking the marketing processes. Who is leading the charge and what support do they need?

With Sales? Who's in the field, how much can they legitimately handle? How many salespeople and managers does the business truly need?

And with Operations, what does that team ideally look like? Is that how we're running things? If not, why not?

The last question I want you to filter all of this through… Does this ORG chart, we built allow us to manage the growth we're expecting and wanting in our vision? If not, what are the necessary roles we need to get there?

I love doing this! It's so simple and yet gives you a framework for all hiring. No more hybrid roles where one person is operating in total confusion because they're just a stop gap for all overflowing work!

That's not effective and horribly inefficient. Your business will tell you what it needs if you're willing to put in the time and listen.

But think long-term for a second. What if your business had all the roles filled that it needed, with employees that knew what they were held accountable for... with room for business growth!

That's the purpose of an Org Chart. To tell you what your business needs today... and what your business needs to accomplish your vision.

Thanks for listening today... Hey, make sure you subscribe to our podcast and our YouTube channel. We've got free content coming out daily for your commute to work or for just sharing with your team. Get on and subscribe...

How To Develop A Job Description

Growing up in a faith community, we would head out for loads of different community service opportunities picking up trash at a community park, repainting old homes, sorting through spoiled food at a local food bank; or the time in Denver when we were serving in a food line while a group of men smoked pot on one side of us while a knife fight broke out on the other side.

Serving people who will never be able to pay you back is rewarding, but what can put a damper on community service is a lack of preparation and planning. Showing up to a service project with a "whatever you bring will be helpful" message is far more confusing than a message of "here is exactly what we would like for you to do".

When there is ambiguity, the result feels like you are muddying the already murky waters of chaos without clear direction on what the mission and the task is.

Owners are notorious for simply "needing help" and then finding people with a mind and a pulse and "throwing them to the wolves" so they can "figure it out as they go". We tend to perpetuate the "whatever you bring will be helpful" myth.

It's a less-than-ideal way of empowering others to help drive the mission of the business, and yet it is done every single day.

There is a better way, a way that is more human, kind, and visionary.

People react to chaos, but they respond to vision and clarity.

A simple, honest, written job description is a powerful and necessary step in building clarity and vision that a new team member will require and is in search of.

Here are four ways to develop a helpful job description.

First, on a sheet of paper or document, do a total brain dump of everything you wish this person could do.

A healthy job description is just that, a description about the job. What are all of the tasks and responsibilities that this role will own?

What are all of the little elements you would want this role to do? In a stream of consciousness write everything down that comes to your mind. Even if it doesn't make sense, write it down, just get it out of your head into a place you can actually see it.

How specific should you be? The more specific the tasks you write out, the more clarity you will bring?

For instance, you may write down "accounting". Be more specific like "payables, receivables, receipts, bank reconciliations, payroll, timesheets".

Second, categorize tasks into three or four (or more) groups. For instance, if you are hiring a project manager for construction, you may want to categorize your job description this way…

• Pre Construction

1. Construction
2. Closeout
3. Team Communication
4. Admin

Underneath each section is where you will add many of the tasks that you wrote out in the first step.

The third step in developing a job description is to add your mission statement, your core values, and also to add any additional narrative you would like for a new recruit to know.

We actually have started to add an open letter to the new potential team member providing a narrative overview of what we are looking for and also insight into our culture.

Here is a snippet…

"We believe that business owners can have a great business AND a great life. The best way to have them make time for what matters most is to liberate them from the chaos that distracts them.

And that is where you come in!

We are looking for a Marketing Strategy & Campaign Manager to come in and set up the systems that will invite 100 new people per week into the BOP Train Station so they can engage and make the decision to be liberated from chaos or not.

We have good systems, good processes, and a great product. But we need someone to come in and obsess over drawing crowds of people in so they have an opportunity to know that help is available to them."

This is a massive contrast to the corporate job description that sounds more like a legal brief than it does a human document. Allow your job description to show your humanity.

The final step in developing a job description after you have the categories, the tasks, and the human element of the job description, it's time to test and title the document.

Read back through what you have written so you can test it. Do you feel like it brings a helpful level of detail and explanation for the role?

Send it to a friend or peer who has some insight into your business and allow them to read through it to see what questions or thoughts they may have.

Once proofed and tested, only then do you put a job title on the job description. That's right, wait till the very end. Why?

We put generic, placeholder titles on most roles (Accounting Manager, Sales Associate, etc.). Once you have read back over the role, what would you title the role regardless of what the industry suggests you title it?

What job title actually describes the role you see? Use that job title. A unique job title will help grab the attention of people and jolt them out of the cliche of hearing some generic title.

Once tested and titled, it's time to market your new role. When you ask for recommendations from others make sure to not say, "we're looking for a JOB TITLE." Instead, "we are looking for a person who can (INSERT A FEW OF THE SPECIFIC TASKS FROM THE JOB DESCRIPTION), the role is (JOB TITLE)".

This forces engagement from the person you are speaking to. Otherwise, you are setting yourself for a good old-fashioned, and non-helpful response, "yeah, I'll keep my eye out!"

Do a brain dump, categorize all of the tasks, add your culture to the job description, and finally, test and title.

This will give you a powerful job description that will grab their attention.