Business Focus Area #4 - People

We recently posted "If You Want Business Success in 2021, Focus on These 4 Areas of Your Business" where we suggested that SMBs focus on Processes, Systems, Structure, and People (usually in that order) to both organize and prioritize their respective workloads.

If you're just now catching up on this series, here's our summary advice, so far, on both evaluating and planning for your business' success as presented in our 3 previous articles:

1. Processes: Determine WHAT things you DO that determine your best business success. What you DO can be defined as a Process. Define the Process. There are likely to be a number of Processes you need for success. Carefully define each and every one.
2. Systems: Look carefully at each Process and examine HOW you accomplish it. Is it a manual process? Can it be automated? Can it be made easier? When in doubt, ask US to provide suggested Systems to make accomplishing your Processes more effective and more efficient.
3. Structure: Nail down the Resources needed (in terms of both time and skills) to best use your available or new Systems to accomplish your defined Processes.  In essence you need to determine WHO would be the best person to be responsible and accountable to carry out your Processes - yourself, another business associate or employee, or an out-sourced vendor.

Since one of the most important Resources you're likely to need is People, we want to share some thoughts on identifying, engaging, hiring, training and retaining the best talent match for your needs.

Once you've gone through the "cards exercise" we presented in our article on Business Focus Area #3 - Structure, you will find yourself faced with one or more of the following situations:

• You have enough people to manage your Processes (given the Systems you have or plan to use) - it's just a matter of matching People to Processes, and perhaps with some additional training needed for some of your folks. 
• You don't have enough people, or the right people on board to effectively manage your Processes. You have to hire and/or train and/or replace your staff to remedy the situation and prepare for success.
• You don't have enough of the right people to effectively manage your Processes, but you're not in a position to either hire additional staff or replace existing staff. In this case, you'll be faced with the tough decision to either out-source some of the Process management, take on the additional workload yourself, or make the conscious decision not to support that Process.

Let's assume that you're in a position where you need to enter the realm of Human Resources Management - hiring or training members of your staff. Two disclaimers here - (1) We are not a Human Resources Consultancy and suggest that if your needs in this area are complex or case-specific, that you seek advice from qualified legal and HR professionals, and (2) the advice we provide is general in nature and designed to increase your likelihood of building a high-performance, engaged, satisfied team for your business.

Let's start with some underlying "People Principles":

• Employment should represent a Partnership between employer and employee, where both parties understand their respective contributions, roles, and responsibilities. Establish all of these at the outset, but don't set up the paradigm as primarily "Boss" and "Worker". 
• All of us have Natural Strengths (which exhibit as certain definable Competencies) and other areas that are either Weaknesses or Undeveloped Competencies. The difference between Weaknesses and Undeveloped Competencies is that the "undeveloped" can be overcome by adequate training, whereas a Natural Weakness will likely persist despite training attempts.
• Make sure you identify the "must have" competencies necessary for given positions in your business.

Here's our thoughts on hiring:

• No matter how small your business is, don't "wing it" - establish a consistent hiring process.
• While it doesn't have to be lengthy or complicated, use a structured interview. Don't rely solely on behavioral-based interview questions (they're so common, the Q&A often ends up as a game of cat & mouse); incorporate situational questions as well. Don't ask stupid questions like, "What's your biggest weakness?", you might just as well ask the candidate to lie to you.
• Thoughtful and incisive questions like, "What did you do to prepare for this interview and why?" can yield remarkable insight.
• Ask all candidates for a given position the same group of core questions. It forms a basis for comparison.

Finally, don't "manage" your employees/team. "Lead" them! Embrace Servant Leadership! It's a stepwise process:

• Define what your team's success looks like.
• Ask them what they need to achieve that success.
• Provide what they need.

Everyone wins!