Oct 22, 2020

Building A Dream Team and Your First Hire

“Hiring isn’t something you do to get yourself out of a pit, it’s what you do when you’re ready to build a mountain.” - Kaylan Thompson

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They say it takes a village to raise a family. The same might be said about building a successful, thriving business. As entrepreneurs, we will inevitably find ourselves needing to outsource some of our business tasks to get back to the reason we started our business in the first place. If you’re at a place where you're feeling overworked, overwhelmed, anxious and even resentful of some of the work you’re doing, you need to hire...like three months ago.

Today, we are chatting with my friend Kaylan who is a leadership and team-building consultant helping business owners put themselves in their CEO seat, unleash their vision and lead from their unique leadership style so they can hire, build and lead their dream team. Grab a notebook, your favorite beverage and get ready to take notes because Kaylan shares a whole lot of wisdom that we can take and run with. Let’s dive in!

Quotes I loved:

“As we build a team, we’re now people managers and communicators and a lot of us don’t head into hiring preparing for that.”

“Knowing what I know now, how would I go back and serve that CEO as she was building her team from the start?”

“I didn’t establish boundaries to protect myself from others; I had to establish boundaries to protect myself from myself.”

“There came a point where I realized, ‘I can’t give everything my all, so what is my priority in this season?’”

“Hiring isn’t something you do to get yourself out of a pit, it’s what you do when you’re ready to build a mountain.”

“As CEOs and business owners, our job is to focus on the work of the future which means we’re always creating momentum and then we hire to sustain that momentum.”

“If I’m spending all of my time focusing on sustaining the momentum, I’m stealing my time and energy away from creating further momentum.”

“No one can prepare you for team leadership because no one is this world can lead like you. You have to be the one to figure out your own leadership style. You have to learn it through trial and error which means as you progress, you internalize and become the leader you always dreamed you wanted to be.”

“The key to being the best leader you can be is to just be vulnerable.”

“By standing in my strengths, I can then lean on the strengths of other people which gives me freedom to be imperfect.”

In this conversation, we covered:

Establishing boundaries to protect the relationship you have with your clients and yourself
Learning it’s okay to say no to things that aren’t a priority anymore
Tips on when you’ll know you need to outsource in your business
Thinking and preparing for future teams as your business grows
How to strategize your outsourcing needs to make smart hires
Being a vulnerable and honest leader and leaning on your teams to thrive as you grow in your leadership
Understanding that there is freedom in being imperfect when you’re working with a team
Establishing clear role objectives and communication pathways with the people you hire
Knowing where to look and using your network to find new hires
Hiring based on purpose alignment and communicating business needs from the start