We get it. However, this is our third year of taking a very different approach to the year-end wrap up and New Year’s resolutions. It has made a tremendous difference and we’d like to share it with you.

We like to end the year with a declaration of the Top 3 things we learned over the past 12 months. These will launch us into 2013 with intentional determination and discipline that is filled with passion, purpose and permission to grow. Here’s hoping they will do the same for you.

The Top 3 Things We Learned in 2012

1. Less is more. In October we shut down and spent an entire day working on our business plan for 2013. Usually we would come out with our “Top 10,” but we quickly realized we would have been completely depleted by the end of month ONE, and not necessarily any richer or wiser, if we planned to operate that way. We gave ourselves permission to be completely honest with ourselves and committed to creating “4 Power Projects” – not 10. We did an analysis of what work would suck the life out of us and what would allow us to work within our passion keys, and very quickly we were focused on and committed to what we were declaring for the business. It wasn’t a “man oh man, it’s gonna be hard work, but we can buckle down and muscle through,” it was much more “WOW, that feels really light and exciting. And we’re still able to keep a work-life balance, make a difference and make the money we need.” We made a conscious commitment to focus on staring these routine fears straight in the face. For Molly it was public speaking and sharing with the world what she was up to. For Laney it was sharing her voice and creating a new work-life balance that will be necessary with a new baby on the way.  All while enabling us to focus on the projects that allowed us to feel not merely needed but appreciated and celebrated, which will challenge us and keep us engaged and inspired.

2. We quit the school of Shoulda– In the past we’d receive a critical email and become paralyzed with doubt about ourselves and the value we provide. In 2010, we stopped beating ourselves up. We shoulda said this, instead of this. Maybe that was too harsh, so and so will think we were talking about them. In 2011, we stopped trying to retain clients who were not a good fit for us and focused on those who were. In 2012, we found our voice and spoke the unedited truth about the challenges we see businesses facing every day. Sometimes people were thankful for our message, sometimes they were offended. But we know what our soulful client looks (and acts) like and we will not accept anything but that – it is a disservice to them and to ourselves. And… it feels GREAT because it allows us to lock arms with like-minded people and support them every step of the way. And in 2013 we will cross the proverbial threshold with resolute confidence that we know when we feel the “Shoulda” bug, it’s just fear speaking. And we will strive to apply our high-level skill to shrug off other disappointments or judgments and choose our voice, the one that we know will make a difference in this world.

3. Permission to grow— This was a big one for us, both as a business and personally. One big lesson for us was to nurture our willingness to be a stand for ourselves. We are so used to being a constant stand for others, helping unleash the courage to share your true voice and gifts in order to grow.  For us, it was our willingness to share our stories more, to put a voice to the words. This allowed us to truly connect with our audience and their darkest fears around business, team, life, and gave us the strength to shine a light on those fears and name them. Giving ourselves permission to receive the gift of people’s lives and businesses, something they really don’t even trust themselves with, and fulfill our promise to give it back to them in better shape than they could ever imagine. That is the true essence of permission to grow.

If you’re feeling like you need a launching pad to move into 2013 with anticipation, we recommend a book that we continue to read every year. “Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes into Stepping Stones for Success” by John C. Maxwell. The theme of the book is: “The difference between average people and achieving people is their perception of and response to failure.” Most of our stress, worry, indecision and hesitation come from the fear of failure. But Maxwell has learned to make failure his friend, and he does a life-altering job of sharing that in his book. Don’t let fear of failure be a self-fulfilling prophecy any longer and rob you of what’s possible for you in 2013.

Champions for your continued success,

Molly and Laney

It’s been an amazing year. We celebrated our third year of business this year, which is very exciting. As we look back, we are amazed at the wonderful practices that we have had the privilege to work with and learn from. We get just as much out of our interaction, if not more, than each of you do.

For us, 2012 has been a year of joy and ease. Less is More. It’s been a year about teamwork, community and growth-based conversations. It’s been about getting folks to understand that, at the end of the day, it’s about the people vs. the paper. We have witnessed teams pushing each other to rethink their firm’s core values, and we see a monumental industry shift moving toward thought provoking vs. the simple head-nodding, and toward intrapreneurs in an entrepreneur’s world.

We are very much looking forward to 2013. Some of the themes we see firms playing with are: a year of active choice, a year of discernment with guiltless boundaries, a year of intentional time and space.  All of these are very exciting and we are very much looking forward to helping firms create their themes and keep them “off the shelf.”

Your continued inspiration, with your comments and requests for webinars and writing topics that will impact you and your team’s growth, are truly appreciated and necessary for our growth.

But before 2012 comes to a close, we want to say thank you. You are wonderful community and we are so fortunate. We’ll see you again in 2013!

Wishing you and your family the happiest and healthiest of holidays,

Molly and Laney

So what is it about getting our Christmas card list cleaned up that makes this impossible “task” an enormous “project”?  And this applies to many similar messes … streamlining the process of getting new contacts onto our newsletter list, getting our old files scanned in, etc.  Those things that don’t happen every day, but are periodic nightmares that we swear we will fix so we don’t have to go through the torture of dealing with them again…but that we never seem to get around to.  Why is that?

First, we all respond to the pain and aggravation of the situation, but that has a short shelf life.  We quickly move on to more “important” things like producing revenue, marketing and dealing with the client at hand.  We don’t stop to calculate, in dollars and cents, what these “messes” are costing us.  How many hours are you, or your team, spending to send out Christmas cards in the current, non-systemized, unorganized way?  Don’t guess, ask them to track it.  You may be shocked to find out that this often shuts down your support team member for easily 3-4 days, most of which is unnecessary time spent sorting lists, finding addresses and figuring out who to send to.  How many prospects could your team follow up with during that time?  How much billing could they get out the door?  It’s literally costing you!  Not to mention the cost of lost opportunity, because any unorganized process like this is bound to miss important contacts.

Once you see in dollars and cents how important resolving this mess is, the biggest obstacle we see is not getting out of the way.  Fixing it is often made a much larger project than it needs to be with WAY too much involvement from the business owner.  Since the team is usually left to execute the task, give them parameters of what you want the end result to look like and let them create a resolution.  They can forecast the hiccups, so let them create a plan to solve them.

Don’t over-entangle the project.  Often it starts as “we need a better way to update our Christmas card list throughout the year and keep it current” and stalls because you end up at “we need all new software, computers and a new server.” Fix the problem … not ALL your problems.

Lastly, outsource it.  If you don’t have time to fix the problem, find a company or person that you can pay to fix it.  (And be realistic, if no one has had time to fix it in the past no one is going to “find time” now.) Going back to dollars and cents, the money you spend fixing the problem will likely be nominal compared to what it’s costing you to have your team deal with the same mess every year.  Not to mention the increased energy, confidence and tremendous appreciation your team will have for your spending what could easily be as little as a few hundred dollars to take away a huge pain and frustration for them.

What messes do you continually allow to steal your time, energy and opportunities?

Champions for your continued success,

Molly and Laney

“Wisdom” such as this is just disempowering baloney lined with fear-based thinking. We’re not just saying don’t carry that torch, we’re saying blow that sucker out and BURY it. In a recent focus group we were leading on celebrations, we had a great discussion on why people can’t celebrate their triumphs, no matter how big or small. Why is it that we work tirelessly to enroll a client, collect a well-earned check, get the girl or whatever victory it is that we have won, but then shrug our shoulders and mutter, “No big deal, I really didn’t do anything” or “It’s not a done deal yet” and then move onto to what’s next?

We bet our bottom dollar that if we launch a strategic, businessy tool and package it under some clever name that included an ROI, we could “trick” folks into celebrating their personal victories. Such as: stop, analyze what worked and how you can repeat what you just did so you can produce the same results, again. SHHHHH….this is celebration.

By quietly moving on to the next thing, we rob ourselves of a huge opportunity for growth. By not taking a moment and truly acknowledging your efforts, as well as the triumph, we aren’t refueling our tanks so we can do what we did again and again, in all interactions and areas of our life. Instead we move to the next thing with an empty tank. That crucial refuel puts us back on the road with a tank full of confidence, pride and an unwavering commitment to make a difference again and impact those in our lives in the best way possible. To share your gifts, the best you can.

The irony of this is, the prize that is the reason for celebrating is actually your willingness to find the celebration in what could appear as a loss. You’re celebrating your ability to get out there and give it your unwavering dedication and commitment.  It’s not about saying “I got this life thing nailed, I’m the man.” Tis quite the opposite.  It’s about saying I was committed, present, authentic, and intentional. I gave it my best AND I learned something from it. Sometimes in hindsight, our biggest challenges, struggles and upsets can become our greatest celebrations. For Molly, here are a few that come to mind in 2012:

1. My Mom was diagnosed with cancer this year and I live 1,300 miles away and I feel helpless. And that’s a celebration HOW? After 14 years of not being with my family for Christmas, my kids will spend Christmas with their grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles for the first time. It was crazy expensive for all of us to fly, so we’re driving from Colorado to NY, dog and all. And for me there is much to celebrate in my decision-making process to do the road trip; not accepting the expense of the airline tickets, or the time away from routine, or the possible bad weather, etc. as “reasons” not to go. Rather, looking at how thankful I am for my steadfast commitment to family. Taking a few minutes to sit with this gave me reason to bask in my unrelenting dedication.
2. I get to pay the largest tax bill EVER on 1/15/13. For a tiny moment I had a giant fit of panic, but then I stopped and asked myself “Where’s the positive in this?” Well I have a job that isn’t work at all because I love what I do; I work with a phenomenal team; I have a ton of room to grow, improve and challenge myself in the coming year; and now I know what I must make in 2013 and what I’m no longer tolerating come January 1^st because I never want to feel this panic. Ever, ever again.
3. I published a book that was an Amazon bestseller 18 months ago and I never celebrated it.  People would constantly say, “That’s so amazing, you wrote a book” and I would blow it off and talk down like it was no big thing. [ed. It’s true, I’ve seen her do it.] I didn’t realize how much I was discrediting a gift they were giving me with my refusal to accept their gift of celebration. I wasn’t willing to sit with it and celebrate it so I wasn’t able to receive their gift of acknowledgment and excitement. It wasn’t until recently that I realized how that landed for them, as if I was saying, “No thank you, I don’t want your gift. Take it back.” I was crushed when I realized that was how it was perceived. Only then did I allow myself to savor the absolute accomplishment of not only publishing the book, but also embarking on the writing process with my incredible partner.

Laney’s are:

1. In 2012 I hired a personal coach.  I’ve had coaches before and have been a part of many team coaching programs, but I’ve never hired my own personal coach dedicated to my personal growth (versus my growth as part of a team).  This is a huge celebration for me to invest the time, money and courage to stay in a constant conversation about growth and to consider myself worth the effort.  As someone who usually powers through things, taking time to stop and work consistently on my personal growth from an insight and soul perspective versus an action/doing perspective is a huge celebration, not of my skills and abilities, but of my heart and my soul.
2. In January, my husband and I were astounded to find out we were expecting our first child.  In February we had a miscarriage and were absolutely devastated.  In this loss, I found a deeper, more meaningful definition of celebration than I thought possible.  A week later we went on a vacation we’d planned months before to try to begin to heal.  In the Cayman Islands we happened to pass a little local church right by the ocean.  The church was empty but the doors were open, and I asked my husband if we could go in and pray for our baby. I thought I would pray for God to hold her and bless her.  But instead my heart had me pray a prayer of thankfulness, thanking God for giving us the joyous weeks of having our baby with us, the absolute joy we felt during that time, and for the privilege of loving her.  I learned that above all else, beautiful things that we lose deserve the honor of being celebrated and honored, even in our pain.
3. In 2012 I also learned to celebrate my voice.  So often we hesitate to share parts of ourselves with the world, thinking it might not “land right.”  In the weeks and months after losing our baby, I would often share my thoughts and journey with others and on Facebook.  Sometimes I would find myself hesitating, thinking, “people are going to think this is TMI or think it’s too much.” Yet every time I shared, I received an outpouring of love and support, but also validation of how my willingness to share my pain and my faith helped others, many who had dealt with the same situation, or had loved ones who had and didn’t know what to say to them.  A woman shared with me the loss of her child which had happened almost 20 years ago and how in sharing with me, she finally was able to honor her, because she previously felt it was a taboo topic.  I learned through this that my voice can powerfully connect with those who need to hear it. And for others who don’t make the connection, those just aren’t the people who need to hear what I’m saying. But it felt like robbing what I can offer the world to quiet or dilute my voice.

So, here’s a year-end challenge to you: Are you ready to acknowledge your credit, accept it and celebrate it? Take 10 minutes and jot down what your recent victories were, NOT ONLY THE WINS, but the victories in the losses as well. We would love to hear about them, so send us with what you came up with!

Champions for your continued success,

Molly and Laney

What rang very true was the realization that they can no longer try to “muscle through” like they have for the past 11 ½ months. When we started dismantling the definition of “muscle through,” the heart dump began: trying to get the phone to ring, doing the work themselves, taking a break from getting the phone to ring so they could catch up on work, trying to train a new employee who then left, while slogging through busy work hoping the documents would miraculously turn into checks. Their frustration prompted us to go forth with a complimentary session, “Eliminating Bottlenecks: A Workflow Analysis.”

This process begins with an analysis of what is occurring in the business, what the ideal revenue would be and what the current reality is. We then take a snapshot of what growth apparatuses are already in place. That’s when the diatribe begins: I subscribe to this publication, joined this organization 15 years ago, oh and this one, and I also belong to X but only pay them $$ a month and on and on. After the extensive list the attorney takes his first full breath in 20 minutes.

And then we really get into the sweet spot of the process. All the while we see the crazy 8 dance begin, switching between a gigantic feeling of relief because they just dumped out the junk drawer labeled “muscling through” that they’ve been hauling around for, ummm, an average of 15 years, and the defensiveness of protecting how they’ve operated for those 15 years. When we start diving into each one and how much they pay each month and what’s the ROI, the defensiveness starts rearing its committed head.

Then we move to the phase of acknowledgement after hearing the justification cross their lips, and the mind chatter has a voice. After that we reach acceptance.  It’s time to be honest and admit some of these organizations, publications, groups, etc. need to go. We recommend starting with the ones that aren’t creating results, even if you like to hang with those guys at the national event.

And then FINALLY, our favorite road,: course correction. That’s when they are willing to let go and recommit with a simple, specific and achievable plan to create the life and business they’ve been seeking, and to invest in the helpers that will hold them accountable to their goals and dreams, sometimes in spite of themselves.

The 5-Step Process is:

1. Relief
2. Defensiveness
3. Acknowledgement
4. Acceptance
5. Course correction

It takes a courageous human being to course correct. (And yes, attorneys, despite societal stigmas, you are not only humans, but actually some of the most compassionate humans we know.) There is a tremendous amount of self-inflicted humility that comes with declaring “This isn’t working for me anymore and I am letting go,” ESPECIALLY when you have no idea what your new direction is.  And ESPECIALLY when you have been known for starting something, quitting and then signing up for the next thing. ESPECIALLY when you have never trusted your own internal compass and instead followed the masses because “they’ve been successful.” It’s even tougher when you have the mind chatter of “I’ve already spent X on this, I’ve been here for X long,” and our all-time favorite lie we tell ourselves: “For me to quit after I have invested so many resources (time, money, relationships), and I could be really close to this paying off.”

Every year, Americans spend up to $20 billion on products in hopes of reversing the effects of time on their appearance. It’s a hunt for miracles.  We are here to take a stand against you adding to the 2013 market research numbers of people on the hunt for miracles. As you complete your 2012 chapter and turn the page to 2013, give yourself the greatest gift, the gift of time and reflection. Carve out 2 hours before the clock strikes midnight and dig deep to discover what the miracles are that you’ve been paying for. Write them down. What specific results have they produced? And do these still fit you?  Do they come from a place of muscling through or from a place of joy and ease?  Once you confront the brutal facts of your reality, that’s when the miracle appears. And the cost?  Your future. You decide if it’s an asset or a liability.

Champions of your continued success,

Molly and Laney

They are unable to produce the results that they set out to and they can’t understand why.  There are multiple reasons, but the biggest mistake law firms make is trying to cross-train every person on the team. Attorneys like to cross-train because they want to make sure everybody knows how to do everything in case somebody quits, needs to be fired, or has a prolonged absence. The rationale seems like it makes sense, right?  But in all honesty, it creates more confusion, causes people to quit, and ultimately diminishes the results you are trying to produce.

So what’s the right way?  The breakdown in creating the results you want actually comes about because people are uncertain what their role is.  You hire a new employee and you want to be sure she knows all aspects of the business.  Then, as you start to add to your team, you seek out new members with similarly broad skills. By the time your third employee comes on board, we see this phenomenon called cross-training.  One of the first calls we often conduct is to take law firms through a diagnostic of who’s doing what to reach goals. And we are just floored by how this seemingly one?hour call is turning into three separate one?hour calls.  We have such a challenge getting the attorneys to agree to let each member of their team have a designated role.  They want to make certain that everybody knows how to do everything, just in case.

But you can’t live your life according to the exceptions. You have to create the rules.

So what are the rules?  The rules are that you have defined job descriptions, you have designated people who are working in departments or within their job descriptions, and they understand how 80 percent of their day?to-day life impacts your goals. Then, if you do have to fire someone, if you do have an employee leave, or if, God forbid, your employee does have a tragic accident or illness, your business can still operate.  It can operate because you will have job descriptions, you will have a training plan, and you will know who is doing what to reach goals.  So if something goes awry, you will have a path and a plan to be able to plug in the person who is going to take up the ball.

So the difference between cross-training and “what’s my role” is simple: cross-training is blunt force trauma day in and day out.  Cross-training is reacting.  Cross-training is operating by the seat of your pants and crossing your fingers that you hit the bull’s eye.  Operating by “what’s my role” is defined job descriptions, defined process, defined system and a path to reach goals. “What’s my role” is very much proactive, with intentionality, and with a process to track, measure, and make certain nothing falls through the cracks.

Because at the end of the day, the mentality and the intentionality of making certain that everybody knows how to do everything really has an underlying current of a lack of trust — not necessarily a lack of trust in the people on your team, but a lack of trust that they know what the hell they’re doing, what you’re striving for, and where the North Star is.  The “what’s my role” approach, and how you’re designing that and how you’re getting there, is very, very, very much the path and plan to achieving your goals.

So, with two weeks remaining in the old year, what are you doing differently as you step into the New Year?

Champions of your success,

Molly and Laney

Recently, while helping a firm hire a new receptionist, or Director of First Impressions (DOFI), someone exhaled into the air the all-too- common comment, “We’ll just limp along without a receptionist for a little while.” We hear this one … hummm … All. The. Time. The reluctance often stems from valid “reasons.”  The first is inconsistent cash flow. The second is too much change/unknown in the office. Regardless whether the inaction stems from the former or the latter, those are the very reasons TO hire right now. One of our earliest mentors taught us, “Reasons are the cemetery for your dreams.” And we couldn’t agree more when it comes to the “putting it off for now until ‘things’ are a little more stable” plan. When’s the last time unsteady grew into steady merely due to the waiting process? We see so many entrepreneurs limp along without the DOFI position filled, and having been team members in this situation, we know that is just flat out counter-productive.

Not having a DOFI creates a heap of breakdowns for every single person in your office, team member and attorney alike.  If cash flow is a concern, you need a consistent front desk person so you can spend MORE time bringing in new business, instead of revamping who is covering what and dealing with things slipping through the cracks.  We would REALLY love to see you NOT fall into this trap, but if you do, you don’t want to get stuck in this smaller world for long.  Not having a strong DOFI will force you to shrink to a lesser reality versus giving you the ability to push through and grow.

The same is true if you are holding back because you have transition going on in the office.  Again, you need MORE time to focus, not less.  The decision to NOT fill the DOFI position is going to force everyone to spend time reacting day in and day out while all the “work” stacks up. You will never get off the hamster wheel.  What’s the chance that any of you finds the time to focus on revenue-producing activities while trying to catch up on cash flow or getting through the hump of the transition or navigating whatever change the business is going through? Slim to none.

It is absolutely critical to move forward and fill this position.  You must have proper help at the front desk making sure your existing and prospective clients are heard, acknowledged and serviced in real time, not to mention keeping your schedule correct and your team supported. Otherwise, any time and money you have invested in goal setting, coaching, new processes,  systems or marketing will fall flat, because you and your team will be chasing your tail day to day versus controlling your week.  The latter provides a much more powerful possibility to make decisions from a place of pro-activity.

If you are limping along without a DOFI, don’t delay.  It’s costing you more than you know in money, time and energy, and the confidence your clients and power partners have in you is surely draining away.

Champions of your continued success,

Molly and Laney

In our last blog on this topic we discussed reason #1, not knowing exactly what position you are hiring for, and instead hiring out of pain and overwhelm.

In this blog we’ll share reason #2 your attempts at hiring a new staff member may fail.  It’s very simple, lack of process and time.  In a moment of frustration or overwhelm, an employment ad is placed.  Now what?

It sounds simplistic, but considering that your next three days are back to back with meetings, work you promised would be completed, phone calls to return and emergencies that will inevitably pop up, it could easily be a week before you even have time to start sorting through the too many resumes you receive.

When you do find some spare time, often at home when you would rather be spending time with your family, you start reviewing resumes from a “mood view”.  This means you delete some, keep some, aren’t sure about some, get frustrated and you shut down the computer. Unqualified candidates slip through and possibly good candidates are deleted.  Welcome to “the process”.  And what is already a time consuming, frustrating process for you doesn’t produce valuable, dependable results.

Most importantly, once you get around to contacting candidates a week or more could have passed.  The best of the best have already received job offers and are unavailable.  At the very least, they have interviews lined up that will occur before they can meet with you, which will likely result in them receiving and accepting a job offer prior to you ever getting an interview.

Your hiring process should be just that – a process – predetermined, with consistent standards and steps.  It should be designed to weed out not just the unqualified candidates, but the ones who are great (overqualified)…but not a fit for what you are hiring for.  And it should allow this process to be streamlined and move candidates through the process quickly.

So, before you ever place an ad make sure you have a process in place of what to do next and time scheduled on your calendar to handle the next steps.

If you are trying to hire a new team member, but don’t have a process in place to produce results (and reduce your time and frustration) consider our Smart Hire Solution™ process and let us be your virtual hiring team.  We handle guiding you to the clarity you are hiring for, crafting and placing an ad that attracts qualified candidates and weed out unqualified ones, receiving and reviewing resumes in a systematic, consistent, timely fashion, conducting phone interviews to further qualify candidates and assisting you with a decision after your face to face interviews.  Give us a shout out if we can be of service.

Champions for Your Continued Success,

Molly and Laney

They are so used to getting ‘beat up’ in conversations from employees  who are upset with them, clients who are complaining or trying to  justify fees, and referral sources who aren’t delivering on their  promises.  Many have accepted, or even embraced, an “I’m just the  jerk in the corner office” persona and often fall into a good cop-  bad cop interaction with others…with them always being the bad  cop.  They become the excuse for someone being told “No” or held  accountable.  BIG, BIG MISTAKE.  You might as well not even show  up in the office because you just cut your own legs out from under  you and undermined any authority you had, rendering yourself  completely ineffective.

First, and absolutely foremost, you are not the jerk in the corner  office.  You are a part of the team and more importantly the leader.  You provide vision, confidence and direction for your intrapreneurs.  By interacting with yourself as the jerk in the corner office, you are creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. It steals your personal power.  You will witness the team as they begin to ignore any corrections or requests you make of them.  Not out of disrespect, but because you yourself have thrown your hands up for the “good of the team”.  They will assume you are just having a bad day and that whatever complaint you are bringing to them will blow over by tomorrow.  Instead, they need to take your corrections and requests as essential teaching moments.

Second, usually the mindset “just the jerk in the corner office” is followed with “so don’t mind me”.  With all due respect, no.  As stated above, you and your opinions should be minded.  Your impact on the team can’t be ignored and if you are, in fact, coming off like a jerk it IS impacting your business and can’t be overlooked.  Yelling, hairsplitting and surly behavior shouldn’t be something you expect the team to let roll off their backs.  It creates an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty which paralyzes your team.  You can’t expect them to have initiative and ‘step up’ when they aren’t certain which day you are going to greet them with a growl.  They have no way to know if your mood is in response to despondency with their work or if you are just grumpy that day.  And since they don’t know, 1 out of 2 team members will assume you are disappointed with them.  They will become tentative, unsure and this puts them back ‘in the box’ you worked so hard to get them out of.  They will begin to walk around on eggshells, never confident in their decision-making capabilities.  If you have a complaint or correction for your team, by all means, it’s important so share it.  But don’t hide out behind “being a jerk” because the conversation makes you uncomfortable.  It’s disempowering to you AND your team.

One of the most productive and courageous things you can do is learn the skills to have an “Empowering Conversation” with your team; taking those too often awkward or tough conversations and transcending all involved to move forward in an impactful way.  For a free copy of our web-recording “Keys to an Empowering Conversation”, including a written copy of the 8 Keys, email us today at info@yeschick.com.

Champions For Your Continued Success,

Molly and Laney

Often when you go to hire a great, new team member the current market may demand a salary higher than what you pay current team members or sometimes the position is just a higher paying position.  Either way, once your team finds out (not “if” but when) it can cause an explosion on your team of bitterness and resentment.

Ignoring the issue just allows it to unexpectedly explode in your face one day when a team member announces they are quitting or you can’t put your finger on why she suddenly has an attitude problem or seems to have shut down. Proactively addressing the state of affairs will allow you to take a position of leadership and head off the potential of employees coming to their own conclusions.

We suggest you follow the three steps below to proactively take control of the situation.

1.  Written Standards for Employee Reviews – Look at when the last time you gave your team a review and a raise.  Be honest with yourself.  It is not uncommon to look and see that the current team member hasn’t had a review or a raise for many years, if ever.  We know this is the last thing you want to think about when you are already bringing on a new team member, but consider the possibility the current team you depend on may quit if they find out a new person is making more than them without any context.

This happened to me once.  I’d hired a new Client Services Coordinator and the market, at the time, required I pay her more than the boss’ strategic assistant, who’d been with us for over three years, was being paid.  I was already in conversation with the boss to correct this, but we decided since we were paying out quarterly bonuses the team had earned that month to wait to finalize her raise until the next month.  I thought I was doing her a favor by not overwhelming the boss with too many ‘money discussions’ in the same month but instead alerting him to the issue and getting his agreement to handle it the following month.  Big mistake on my part.  Within two weeks the strategic assistant heard a comment from the new hire revealing her pay rate and was completely offended.  I found out when she came into my office a week later and gave me her two week notice.  She felt so unappreciated she’d applied for another job, which she got, and quit.  And while I wish she’d have discussed the issue with me so I could let her know we were working on it, it was my mistake to not proactive bring up the conversation with her.  Instead I let her come to her own conclusions.  We lost a good team member and to add insult to the situation, the new hire quit a few weeks later!  This was a HUGE learning opportunity for me to proactively address pay conversations.

To avoid this becoming a problem it is best to proactively spark the conversation with existing employees. One quick suggestion is to bring the conversation to your weekly team meeting like this, “Now that we are adding to the team, I think it is an ideal time to start formalizing our Employee Review Process to make certain everyone is on the same track for quarterly and annual reviews. What do you think about taking this on as a top project for this quarter? Let’s schedule a one hour meeting within the next two weeks to brainstorm if raises are automatic, what criteria we want, etc.” You will be amazed at how receptive the team is to this conversation and it eliminates any potential for drama and/or justification on anyone’s part. The act of proactively identifying this area as one of importance and attention up front is authentic.  And if it comes up you can honestly say it’s been identified as an area we need to standardize now that the practice is growing.

2.  Employee Manuals – If you don’t have an employee manual in place, including a process for team reviews and expectations for raises, this is a great time to put one in place.  Start your new employee off right and get your team on the same page. WRITTEN Employee Manuals are a must once the 2^nd employee is added to the bus.  It is now time to start operating like a real business, including all facets of HR.

3.  Create Growth Tracks – We realize that the position you just hired may truly be a higher paying position than the ones your current team fill.  This isn’t a matter of who is more important – all team is important – but some positions may carry more pressure to produce revenue and come with a higher salary. Now is the time to have this crucial conversation with your current team members.  Set aside the common misconception that team is paid based on seniority or titles. Let them know everyone has the opportunity to grow in the firm including growing into positions that pay more.  Create a path and plan with each team member of where they’d like to grow and what it would take to be qualified for that role.  Let them know what areas they would need to start learning and stepping into.

You will keep your team members vested in your company as they know how to grow there.  You will also allow some team members to realize they want to stay in a certain position and understand why they aren’t making as much as some other team members.  For example, I had a phenomenal receptionist once.  The best I’ve ever worked with.  We had a client services position open up and she asked if she could move up into that position.  We agreed.  She was fantastic with people, our clients already loved her, and we thought it could be a great fit.  She was thrilled with the promotion and the pay raise that came with it.  However, after a few weeks she came to me and told me that she honestly wasn’t a fit for the position.  The pressure to convert appointments and the increased expectations of hosting evening and weekend workshops was stressed her out, keeping her up at night and interfering with her ability to be there for her young daughter.  We talked it out and agreed that she would move back into her role as receptionist.  It was a great conversation which she was thankfully brave enough to have with me.  We didn’t want her miserable in her new role and she now understood why that position paid more than hers.  There was no bitterness when we hired a new person to fill this role and she made more than her.  The key is that she was allowed to choose her own growth path.  She had a say in the matter versus being ignored.

As long as each team member has a growth track with clear expectations then you can have salary conversations authentically and without fear of team leaving or growing resentful.  Team reviews are a great platform to create a growth track for each team member and to check in at least annually on their progress.

Remember, ignoring the issue will only allow it to fester and become unnecessary, uncontrolled problem(s) versus handling it proactively.

If you are ready to implement employee reviews or take yours to the next level, register for our webinar “Empowering Your Team Through an Employee Review System“.  November 29th at 4-5pm ET.  $45 registration – includes a copy of our Team Member Growth Map™, the tool to support you in preparing and conducting your review.  Click here to register.

Champions For Your Continued Success,

Molly and Laney