The BOLD Show | Episode 10 | Hire Hard to Manage Easy

(Mike) In this episode, I’m here with Paula Tett. Paula has over 20 years of experience working with internationally recognized lifestyle brands. As both an operator and consultant, she has a firsthand understanding of the daily challenges that owners face. Paula is known for her track record of generating substantial financial growth in her role by putting on conferences that help teach people how to create highly engaged employee cultures. And today, we’re going to be talking about Hiring Hard to Manage Easy.

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Growing a small business isn’t easy, and to be successful we know three things for sure: You have to work hard. You have to be bold. And you must constantly learn. We’re gathering some of the best minds in the business world to share their ideas and strategies with you, so you can grow your business easier, be more profitable, and have a lot more fun being a business owner. We are on a mission to connect the world of wellness and this is The MINDBODY BOLD Show.

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(Mike) What’s up, everybody! I’m Mike Arce and welcome to another episode of The Bold Show. Paula, are you ready to be BOLD? (Paula) I’m ready. (Mike) So when you say, “Hiring Hard to Manage Easy,” what exactly does that mean?

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(Paula) Well, it means first, to recognize that usually when you are hiring, you are in a state of panic. And so, once you recognize that, then the second thing is to step back and look at, how am I going to solve this problem? And the way to solve that problem is actually to have a system and a practical approach to being able to find that replacement and trading up to get that opportunity to bring someone to a new level for your company. (Mike) Awesome. So, what systems or processes do you have in place to achieve all of that?

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(Paula) That’s a great question. I find that most businesses don’t even have a basic job description for the job that they are trying to fill. So, I use the analogy of going to the supermarket. You probably—unless I’m the only one—have gone to the supermarket without a list. And when this happens, you tend to—well, you need something, right? You need milk or you need eggs, or you need whatever you need. That’s what gets you in the door. You might end up getting all this other stuff that you didn’t need. And then you get home and you are like, I forgot the batteries. So, hiring is the same way. If you don’t have that checklist of exactly what you are looking for, you wind up hiring somebody who doesn’t have the thing you need. They may not have the batteries, and they may have all this stuff that you may not even need, and may not be a fit for your culture.

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(Mike) So give me an example of that. Let’s say I’m hiring for customer service. And let’s say it’s for a company that you may even know of, or maybe even it’s yours. So, what would that checklist look like? So that you can say, OK, these are the things I have to have, or the qualifications I need to meet. What would that look like? (Paula) So, there are four key pieces of this checklist. The skills that they need to do the job. So, what are those skills? The actual technical skills. Second would be, the experience. And we can elaborate on each of these. If they are in the fitness industry, do they need a certification? Is that something they need to have? Do they have that? What is that list of experiential items? What are the skills? What is that list of skill items? Are they answering the phone? Do they need to have that skill coming in?

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And then the second two are really related to the culture of your company. So it will have to do with personality traits. If you have core values. Really identifying who that personality is. What is that personality success profile? Looking at people who you’ve had success within your organization and identifying all of the traits that they have in common. Though their personalities will differ, there will be some commonalities. And you really want to source those traits in your interview process.

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And the last ones are their competencies. So if the job is, let’s say a sales position. We need this person to be competent at sales. If they are working in the fitness industry, most people need to have some skills and competency in persuasion, because we are trying to motivate people to get out of their chair and do something—for most people—that they generally don’t like to do. Or they find a million reasons not to do it. So, looking at each role you have with those four items, and identifying who you’ve had success with, and also looking at people that have not been successful so we can know to screen out—not those qualities.

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(Mike) Awesome. And you talk about core values and make sure you hire based on your core values as well. We’ve had a few guests talk about this on the show. But, we’ve never dug into core values. So, number one, can you tell me what “core values” means to you? What is the definition of core values to you? Number two, could you give me examples of a company’s core values. Like what are a few core values most companies would want to have? (Paula) Sure. So core values are, say like, if a company had a personality, what is that personality? I think that’s one element of core values. I think it’s also the word “values.” What is important to the company? The ethos of that company? And what makes that company different? There are companies that can have a wide range of values and what’s important to them. And a lot of times that has to do with the owner, and why they embarked on their journey of having a company.

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(Mike) And an example of a few values? (Paula) Sure. So there is a book, Delivering Happiness, which is the Zappos story. If you are hiring for culture, I highly, highly suggest this book. And essentially, there is a lot of conversation about developing your core values and having them reflect. But one of the core values is doing more with less. I really like that core value, and I think it translates well to a lot of wellness and fitness businesses. So, if that’s a value that I have, I might actually, in the interview process, ask the person: Tell me about a time in your life where you’ve had to do more with less. And I just want to listen to that story and listen to that experience they had, and see if that is going to translate or transfer that personality trait into my business. I can ask that question to 10 people and have a very wide range of answers. Some of which I’m going to find that really align with my business and my core values, and some that really don’t.

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Another one that is really popular is having it be fun. Or, we put the fun in fitness. And whatever, around fun. And obviously, we are trying to make this fun. And so, that’s often a core value I find of companies as well. (Mike) Awesome. One thing that I really liked about the ones that you just said—having fun and doing more with less—is that you are not using one-word, generic phrases. You know, when people say things, like integrity or confidence. Integrity, at our business, we like saying: We’ll do what we say we will do. Which is pretty much integrity, but I can see that a little bit more. And instead of honesty, be honest in every category. That means something a little bit more, right. So, when you guys are developing your core values, don’t copy what other companies are doing, because you don’t know if that is working for them. (Paula) So true. (Mike) And make it really easy to understand. When they see the phrase, they know what that means every time they see it.

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(Paula) And I’ve worked with a company that I love that had a lot of core values and they were very long. And that was fine for that company. But if you can, make them short and concise and maybe five. People can count it off. They can say it. They can breathe it. It makes a difference to having them be concise. (Mike) Perfect. You’ve gotten to work with some really great brands. Do all of the brands you work with have core values? Like, the bigger ones? (Paula) Yes, every single one of them. (Mike) And mission, purpose? (Paula) Yeah. (Mike) So, can we dive into mission and purpose a little bit? (Paula) Sure. (Mike) Is that something you believe is important as well? (Paula) I do.

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(Mike) Because a lot of small business owners, I think they know they should have it, but they never really put a lot of time into developing one. So, when you say mission, to you, what does that mean? What does a company understand that as? (Paula) A company is made up of people. You have a lot of people who you are trying to replicate a certain experience or style. When we have a destination that we all know we are headed toward, it makes it a lot easier to do that. So, again, Hire Hard, Manage Easy. It makes it easier to manage when there is a clear vision of where we are all headed to and why we are doing this together.

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(Mike) Now you, obviously, have learned a ton to be able to execute what you do for the brands that hire you. You’ve learned a ton. As far as books that you’ve read, or podcasts that you listen to, or influencers that you follow, because you think they deliver great information. If the audience, the viewers and the listeners, they say, “I want to learn more about this. I want to be like Paula, and really know what she knows.” Where can they go? Do you have a blog? Where can people go to learn more about what you’ve become an expert in?” (Paula) I’d definitely say for culture, Delivering Happiness. That’s my go-to book for that. In terms of leadership, I also like a book called Conscious Leadership that is phenomenal about really understanding your teams and dynamics and the personalities that can come into play. And really, just straight forward, getting everybody on the same page and moving in one direction.

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(Mike) Love it, awesome. Paula, I want to thank you for coming in and sharing some of your wisdom. I know a ton of people here are going to be able to watch your talk. For those of you that weren’t able to make it to the BOLD Conference, you got a lot of value out of Paula today. And to learn more about Paula and what she’s up to, where can they go to follow you and learn more about you? (Paula) LinkedIn. (Mike) LinkedIn. It’s just Paula Tett. Thank you guys very much, and we will see you next week.

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Thank you so much for joining us today. If you like this episode, then subscribe to our podcast on iTunes, Google Play, or Stitcher, and to our YouTube channel to never miss an episode. You can get all the links by going to BOLDSHOW.com. Thanks, and see you next time.

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