Hey everyone! Lisa Young here, holding down the newsletter fort this week for Mark. He’s been enjoying a two-week holiday with his family, and returns today. We’ve all been busy bees in his absence – Steve just wrapped up an incredibly successful Open House for our Community, and we’re working on a bunch of projects we’re looking forward to launching – including our upcoming Virtual Retreat and a new format for the weekly newsletter (stay tuned).
As an entrepreneur, one of the gifts of growing your business is supposed to be more time and freedom – like the ability to take a vacation and still keep things running smoothly in your absence. But how do you know when it’s time to hire? Should you hire employees or go the independent contractor route? What kind of tasks should you assign them? What if it’s not working out?
A few weeks ago, Mark promised that I would share with you an interview I did with our Operations Manger, Lincoln. That day is today. He’s been a behind-the-scenes guy for a while now. Lincoln has an incredible gift at making sure the right people are in the right places doing the right work in our organization, and as a practitioner, he’s doing the same for our clients.
In all my years of following Heart of Business, I’ve never seen a public conversation about Heart-centered hiring. That changes today.
Lincoln and I sat down for a short (about 15 minutes) chat about what Heart-Centered hiring is all about, and how we do things here are Heart of Business. I invite you to listen in, and share your questions in the comments on the blog. Your questions will help shape a new program we’re developing.
VIRTUAL RETREAT
We’ve welcomed in a bunch of new members to our Community over the past week, and in case you needed one more reason to consider joining, our next Virtual Retreat is this month.
Mark leads a Virtual Retreat every other month, where the community gathers to do spiritual practice (your own practice, or you can try the ones we offer), go deep, clear the clutter in your heart, and get deep guidance and heart nourishment.
The retreats are profound, and worth the cost of admission to the community on their own. Our virtual format provides the power of spiritual practice done in a group, support and guidance from a teacher in your spiritual journey, and without the expense of traveling or staying somewhere.
Learn more about Virtual Retreats in the Community
Mark just got back into town yesterday after two weeks away, and I’m sure he’ll have great stories and epiphanies to share from his vacation. We’re looking forward to sharing some of our new developments, too!
Until then!
In blessings and peace,
Lisa Young and the entire Heart of Business team
15 Responses
It certainly is true that we didn’t start businesses in order to lead a life that consists only of work. And that should be the cue to hire some help.
Yep. If only we took those cues more often, eh, Beth? 🙂
I spent years as an elementary school principal. You could say that I’m more of a intuitive leader, going with my gut. Our “team” comprised of 8 others interviewed for the position of school secretary deciding on the candidate who looked best on paper as opposed to my “gut feel pick”. Years later this person sued our school district for over a million dollars. Of course she lost the court case but still a difficult lesson to listen to my inner guidance system.
Lincoln is so right on getting the retreats together to see what the values are and who would fit in as a “visionary” and “friend” who you would like to spend your time with. That structure he referred to is so important.
Patty,
Thanks for your insights. Isn’t it odd how we sometimes ignore our inner promptings when we’re dealing with business stuff? Glad you were able to re-connect and trust your gut again. 🙂
Hi Patty, thanks for sharing your story with us. Love to hear you being more of an intuitive leader! My children attend elementary school, I deeply value the work you do! We’ve had great experiences at our retreat, they have been instrumental in our growth.
Hi Lisa and Lincoln,
I really enjoyed this video. I am a chiropractor and do not yet have an employee/desk person. I am still a year or two away from this, however, here is my inquiry when hiring someone for the first time. I’m not sure if this can be answered, but it is something I am pondering for now. My question is: how much do you let your employee in on your company’s financials? A lot of the desk work at my office involves entering client visits into Quickbooks and keeping track of payments, etc. Do I let my employee do that? If I do, then they see my income, which I am not sure I want to have them do that. How do I know if someone is trustworthy enough to see my income? This is something that I protect. Maybe at first I would keep doing the Quickbooks until the person was fully trained and I get to know them. Anyway, that’s my inquiry! Thanks again for inviting feedback and questions.
Hi Stephanie, thanks for your great question, and sorry about my late reply. When you have hired somebody, it is always tricky to decide how much you can trust this person, particularly when it comes to finances. Trust is like a plant, it has to grow over time. I find it helpful to balance trust with another value: responsibility. You know that you have to trust, relationships can’t thrive without trust. On the other hand, you are responsible for your business and all decisions you take. Because you are responsible, you need to implement check-ups and procedures to keep up with what’s going on.The more likely it is, that certain actions could ruin your business, the more control you need in those areas. That doesn’t mean that you “mistrust” a person. If you are planning to hire for the first time: there are many other useful things a person can do for you, before you decide to hand over your complete finances. In spring, I will launch a new group program on hiring with lots of freebies. If you would like to learn more about it, subscribe to my list or check my website from time to time. All the best for you hiring plans, keep growing your business, the world needs you and your work!
Speaking from 30 years working as a career counselor to unemployed professionals, it takes the right person to work as a contractor. Most people come to it after losing an employee position & unable to find a new job. I would start someone out as a contractor and see if its a good fit and then hire if you are uncertain about offering permanent position.
I made a bad hiring decision once, listening to my heart instead of my gut. Within three weeks, he was gone.
I am just at the stage of feeling that I need to hire, but not yet feeling ready to make the investment in paying a salary. I began working with someone as an intern with an agreement to pay her commission on a particular program that she is working to build and promote. How does that sound as a start up strategy for right now? What other ideas do you have for the in-between place.
I really enjoyed this video. Great job Lincoln and Lisa! I thought the insight Lincoln provided about the early days with HOB was particularly interesting. It demonstrated to me how a successful business person (Mark) still needed an objective point of view from someone (Lincoln) with a very specific skill set in order to help fill the holes Mark wasn’t able to see. As business owners we all have significant strengths – but in my experience – many of us don’t look to get outside help soon enough. We wait and struggle when life and business could be made much easier with a few simple conversations.
I want to offer a thumbs up on the proposed topic. I’ve just had a BIG increase in my business (yay!) and am aware that operations (whew! big word!) is going to need to change soon to catch up. I’d love more focus on that. Thanks!
Thank you Lisa and Lincoln for sharing yourselves and views on the topic of hiring and developing a team.
And thank you Lisa, for jumping in so soon after joining HOB and bringing Lincoln into the limelight so we could get a sense of who this guy is and what he does for HOB (and all of us). And what a gift he is!
And as I have already said, I LOVED finally getting to see and get a sense of you Lincoln, as I have been hearing of you for awhile. I felt inspired by your clarity, confidence and obvious mountain of experience – hoping someday I get to the point that I need your services to help me with putting together a powerful, harmonious team.
I am far from that place now but now I know where to go as I am approaching that point.
Warm Blessings,
Tory Blue
Great article. If you are serious about growing your business it is imperative that you delegate some tasks. Whilst this can be scary at first it is a great way to free you up to do things you love and only you can do.
Dear Lisa and Lincoln, Thank you so much for your interview, I really enjoyed watching / listening to it. So many important questions and ideas around hiring and team building. It’s great watching you at Heart Of Business growing yourself and building your own team together with Mark.
Sorry about my late reply. I help small business owners with heart centred hiring and team building. Please continue offering advice and courses on this topic. So many heart-centred entrepreneurs struggle with entering the next stage of building a solid foundation for their growing business. This can put everything at risk what they’ve reached so far.
There is a general lack of knowledge, many need to deal with personal doubts and dilemmas, feel “stuck” and uncomfortable when it comes to hiring, some are traumatised by negative hiring experiences. Common questions are: How to find the time for hiring & training, when the reason you need new people is that you are already working way too much? How to pay them well and still make good money for yourself? How to lead with integrity if you actually don’t want to be a “leader” at all? How to find the right balance between trust and control? – So please continue with this work, I am happy to share my knowledge with you and also to learn from your experience