Why Your Team Isn't Performing The Way You Want Them To

Courtney Elmer 0:00  

Welcome back to the AntiFragile Entrepreneurship™ podcast! You're listening to Episode 71: The reason why your team isn't performing the way you want them to (and how to enhance your onboarding process and create a team culture of accountability, so you can start making real forward progress). That's coming up next, so stay tuned!

[INTRO TRACK] 

Today we’re diving into what it means to create a team culture of accountability. We've been talking about hiring and onboarding the past few weeks here on the show, and later this month, we have a live workshop where I'm going to teach you how to interview, hire, and onboard, and train new team members so you get the real support you need in your business. 

I shared my own story about hiring and onboarding in the early days of my business back in Episode 68, and how impossible it felt to create a team culture of accountability. I’ve learned so much in the process of doing the hiring and onboarding process wrong, that I've finally figured out how to do it right. And that's what I'm going to share with you in today's episode, so you can learn how to onboard your team members the right way and create a team culture of accountability. If you've started the hiring and onboarding process, but it’s not going the way you hoped or planned it would, this episode is for you. And if you're listening and you haven't made your first hire yet, keep listening. Because in this episode, I'm going to show you what to avoid so that you can hire with confidence, create a team culture of accountability, and have your team perform in the way that you expect. 

There are four big mistakes most entrepreneurs make when hiring and onboarding that prevents them from developing a team culture of accountability. One of the big mistakes when it comes to hiring and onboarding is having an incomplete Org. Chart. Now Org. Chart stands for Organizational Chart — that’s like an old corporate term. But they have an incomplete Org. Chart or none at all. So they’re hiring random people without having a vision in place of what their dream team should look like. So what happens when you start hiring and onboarding without having that clarity on who/what/when to hire, the people you hire inevitably aren’t clear on their specific role. And without a clear onboarding process to bring your new hire up to speed, wires get crossed, communication breaks down, the blame game starts, “Oh no, that's not my job. That was so-and-so’s job. I can’t do my job because that person didn’t do their job.”

All of that is eliminated by having a complete and clear Org Chart in place. But most entrepreneurs completely miss this step because they're so desperate to hire, that they don't even realize how much time, energy, and effort they're wasting by not slowing down to create an Org. Chart first. You’ve got to have the blueprint if you want to build a house. Having an Org. Chart is the foundation to building a dream team of A-players and creating a team culture of accountability. 

Another thing that I see happening in the online business space is a lack of clear core values. When it comes to hiring and onboarding, not having clarity on your core values makes it incredibly difficult, if not virtually impossible, to hire people who share those same values and create a team culture of accountability. Sure, you might have a one-in-a-million chance of hiring someone who just happens to share the same values as you. But if you aren't clear on what you value, how do you expect to hire people who share those same values or who have the same work ethic as you? 

Now, there are a few processes you need in order to make the right hire: first, interview process; second, a hiring process; third, and most importantly, you need an onboarding process. But most entrepreneurs miss one or all of these steps. The onboarding process is a period of time that you give yourself and your new hire to find out how well you work together. It’s like the trial run. You set that expectation from the get-go that they're being evaluated during these 90 days to find out how well they fit with your company's core values, and how well they catch on and take responsibility for the work assigned to them. And if at that 90-day point, you mutually agree that this is a great fit, then you continue. If not, it gives you an out so that you are not stuck long term with people who are not a fit for your team culture. 

Finally, you need a clear system for accountability if you want to create a team culture of accountability. During that 90-day onboarding period when you’re training new team members, you’re the one holding them accountable. During that time you're also responsible for teaching them how to take responsibility and be self-accountable so that long term you're not babysitting them. I remember back when I was an employee working for other business owners, I hated being micromanaged. It’s the worst feeling in the world. What it really boils down to is a lack of trust. It's a lack of trust on your part, that they are capable and have what it takes to get the job done. Then they don't trust you, because you don't trust them. That just breeds all kinds of problems and prevents you from being able to create a team culture of accountability. So if you want to create a team culture of accountability, you have to have a clear system of accountability in place. In the live workshop later this month, I'm going to teach you how to do that step by step-by-step so that you can create a team culture of accountability where everyone holds themselves accountable. 

The truth is, most entrepreneurs come by these mistakes honestly. I get what it’s like to be so desperate for that help that you do what you think you have to do, which is outsource and hire, because that's what all the industry experts are doing. But if you're not clear on your values, or if you lack a clear onboarding process, or don't know how to create a team culture of accountability, then hiring and onboarding is going to feel like a lot more trouble than it's worth.

Most entrepreneurs hire backward. They bring a new person on without onboarding them, throw a bunch of tasks their way, and expect him to take the ball and run with it. It doesn't work that way. Imagine if someone did that to you, how would that feel? Confusing AF! But imagine the difference it will make when you lead your people, clearly communicate what's expected, and take a stand to create a team culture of accountability. Creating a culture of accountability is often one of the biggest frustrations business owners experience after hiring someone new. They’re coming from this desperate urgency to get help, but don’t know how to teach people to be self-accountable, because they themselves are not taking ownership of their role as a leader. 

This goes back to something we’ve talked about often on this show: personal responsibility. It's about taking responsibility for the results that you're creating, both the results that you get and wanted or the results you got and didn’t want. You created both of them based on the responsibility that you took or did not take. This is such an important concept that is critical for your growth as a visionary leader. The degree to which you take radical responsibility is the degree to which your business will grow. The same goes for your team. It is your responsibility to educate and guide and teach them how to be responsible for themselves, and foster a team culture of accountability. 

To what degree are you taking personal responsibility right now? The degree to which you exemplify personal responsibility is the degree to which your team members will do the same. It is your responsibility to teach your team what is expected of them so that they can become self-accountable and contribute to upholding the team culture of accountability you're creating. 

Now here at our company, The EffortLESS Life®, we have what we call a business dashboard, just like the dashboard of your car. Most entrepreneurs try to operate their business and try to get from point A to point B without a dashboard. Can you imagine trying to drive your car from here to the Whole Foods down the street or wherever you're going here without a dashboard? No. And you don't have a dashboard to tell you how fast you're going, how slow you're going, or if something is about to blow up or not, then how do you expect to get there safely or get there at all?

During their onboarding process, we train our team members how to use this dashboard and see whether they’re on track or off track. We teach them to own their metrics, report on them, and be accountable for the growth of their metrics. Once that team member is fully trained, they can take full responsibility for their role. No more micromanaging. You're teaching people how to be self-accountable, and there is a huge difference. 

Like I said, these hiring mistakes are extremely common. Maybe you've experienced some of them yourself and wondered, Is it ever really possible for me to create a team culture of accountability like James Wedmore, or Amy Porterfield or Marie Forleo? Or Stu McLaren? How do they have such amazing teams and an amazing team culture of people who get up and show up and want to work every day? And I can't seem to get that? 

It starts with learning how to avoid these hiring and onboarding mistakes so you can begin to operate as that CEO of your business and lead your team to greatness.

First things first: before you even think about your onboarding process or creating a team culture of accountability, you have to have your Org Chart in place. If you don't know how to create one stay tuned till the end because I'm going to show you how you can get your hands on the process we use for creating an online business Org Chart, which is different from the typical Org Chart you’ll find if you Google “Org Chart.” If you Google it, you're not going to get something specific to your business, and a lot of what you bring up is going to be geared for corporate. That's not what you're looking for if you run an online business. So stick around and I’m going to show you how you can get your hands on our process for creating an Org Chart specifically for online business owners.

Second, and this is something you can do today, is to get clear on what you value. You might have visited this before, maybe in the beginning of your business, or maybe it's been one of those things that's been forever pushed to the backburner. (We won't tell anyone.) But it’s time you visit them because in today's day and age with more and more entrepreneurs bringing their businesses online, to stand out from the noise you have to differentiate yourself. To differentiate yourself, you have to know what you stand for. This is a process that takes time. But taking the time to get clear on this is something every visionary leader has to do. The influencers you look up to have all done it. They have the teams that they have and the team culture of accountability that they have because they've taken the time to get clear on what they value first. So get clear on what you value. 

Then, have an onboarding process. When you join me for this workshop that I'm hosting later this month, I'll walk you through our onboarding process so you can get equipped with what you need to train your team members fully. Because when you have this onboarding process in place, not only can you trust that the work that needs to get done will get done, your team will be happy to show up to work every day because they'll be clear on what's expected of them, and they will thrive. And you will thrive as a result!

 Finally, you need a dashboard. If you don't have a dashboard in your car, you're going to crash. If you don't have a dashboard for your business, how are you going to know if you're on track or not to achieving your greater vision? The short answer is you won't know, because you can't. You'll wind up somewhere, but that somewhere might not be where you expected to wind up or where you wanted to wind up. This again goes back to creating a team culture of accountability simply by taking personal responsibility yourself and teaching your team to do the same. 

Because of the onboarding process and culture of accountability we have in place, we're able to identify people who are grateful to find somewhere that they can finally feel like they belong and to use their gifts and skills. We experience faster growth because we grow together. 

As I mentioned, inside this workshop I'm going to give you an insider's look at our step-by-step playbook for finding, hiring, and onboarding your dream team. So if you want to get your hands on that, keep listening because in a moment I'm going to share about how you can register for that and discover the exact system that we use here at The EffortLESS Life® for creating a team culture of accountability so you can implement it in your business too. 

And assuming that you're listening to this episode on your phone today, I would love to connect with you. Come find me on Instagram @theeffortlesslife.co! I’m there every day sharing reels about the truths of entrepreneurship and tips on how to simplify your workflows so you can spend more time in your zone of genius. 

Thanks so much for joining us for today's episode about hiring, onboarding, and creating a team culture of accountability. Coming up next week, we are talking about the four systems you need in your business to scale beyond six figures. See you back here next time on the AntiFragile Entrepreneurship™ podcast. Until then, go live your EffortLESS Life®.