Hiring & Empowering Solutions

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To Gift or Not to Gift: What is the Perfect Holiday Gift for Employees?

perfect holiday gift for employeesBesides family, food, and traveling, a major pressure of the holiday season is finding the perfect gift. What is the perfect gift? Is it possible that the perfect gift from your boss is a gift that you didn’t expect, but that just so happened to be exactly what you needed the most?

This time of year creates a lot of uncertainty for business owners, too. What is the perfect gift for employees?

Let us tell you: the perfect gift is not what you think it is. It’s the perfect gift, but it doesn’t hit your bank account all at once, like the typical holiday or year-end employee bonus does. No, the perfect gift can’t be spent in an afternoon—it leaves a long-term, lasting impression. It’s something the recipient has no idea just how much they wanted and needed it.

Here are the top 3 gifts that employees say make the greatest impact:

1. An experience. Very much like the client experience you provide in the personal services industry—and the reason why your clients refer their friends and family to you. Duplicate that experience for your employees. Close the office for a half day, take everyone out to do something they would never do for themselves. A massage, a concert, horse races, a movie, golfing, a cooking class. It doesn’t have to be decadent or expensive—just a “splurge” that your employees don’t have the time or money to do for themselves. Afterwards, have coffee or dinner with your team and talk about the experience you just shared. The gift of an experience will be a gift that your employees will look forward to year after year!

2. R&R days: Instead of a year-end bonus, give the gift of three mental health R&R days. Our suggestion is to give employees one R&R day every four months. The R&R days must be used during that quarter, and have to be used 100% for them—no R&R days to take the kids to the dentist or your mother to a doctor’s appointment. Ask your employees to schedule lunch with you the next day so you can hear all about how they spent their day of rest and relaxation.

3. Growth opportunities: Employees leave great jobs because they feel they’ve hit their ceiling. There are no more “opportunities” for growth. So, this season, give the gift of professional growth: a monthly coach, membership to our Team Empowerment Program, a ticket to a specific CLE, a skillset program, a seminar or training. Something like Landmark Forum, Growth Summit, Genius Network, 10x, or FHL. This gift—or rather, this investment—in growth for your team has a-million-and-one strategic byproducts, but the most important, by far, is that they feel valued, appreciated, and as if they found their “place of retirement.”

So, to answer the original question—to gift or not to gift—YES! Give the perfect gift! Give the gift of a memorable experience, rest and relaxation, or professional growth and development. These are gifts that your employees don’t even know they want or need, but will be so grateful to receive. And, you know what they say…grateful employees are loyal employees.

Learn More About the Team Empowerment Academy

Membership in our Team Empowerment Academy makes an amazing gift for employees in any position. It’s a gift that shows you care about their professional growth and career trajectory. Schedule a free discovery session with our co-founder, Molly Hall, to learn more about this unique employee training and development program, and to secure one of the last open slots available!

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The Top 3 Bad Attitude Mistakes Not to Make if You Want Your Team Members to Work As Hard As You Do…

bad attitude hurting businessBosses, your attitude could be harming your business.

We know, who do we think we are? This statement is harsh. Remember, we’re “bosses” too…we don’t like hearing it any more than you do.

But, as business consultants and staffing experts, our commitment is to create impact, income, freedom and—dare we say—joy and ease for your business. Even when it means being a mirror and reflecting back to you some things you are doing to self-destruct your business. And creating those things all starts with your attitude.

Last week we were facilitating a 60-Day Employee Evaluation Onboarding call for a new attorney hire. The attorney owner was exhausted, frustrated, stressed, and overwhelmed with a large caseload, training a new employee, finding out another associate attorney on her team didn’t pass the bar, and well…just “business owner stuff” in general. The attorney dialed in to the call hot and heavy. All we had to do was ask, “How’s it going?” She didn’t skip a beat. “I feel like I am fighting alligators all day long and nobody in my office knows how to do their job.” Did we mention that the new associate and law firm manager were present? Mic drop. And then she said, “And you didn’t do your job either, sending me this attorney who doesn’t have the skillset or knowledge to do the job.” Again, did we mentioned the brand new hire attorney was sitting in the room? And it took us four months to find this superstar. If she walks out, the owner attorney is really going to know the truest definition of stress.

My response, “Excuse me?”

Attorney response, “Did I stutter?”

Now that she “felt better” because she blew off steam and was able to verbally vomit all of her stress and frustration, she was ready to talk about what was working.

Listen up: unless you’re trying to cause a mass exodus, don’t ever, EVER treat your employees like this. Bosses, your attitude is harming your business! Tony Robbins says, “An attitude of gratitude is where money and opportunity flows.” When your feeling like you need to explode (and trust us, we get it!) find a coach, a therapist, a spouse, a close friend…SOMEONE to unleash your stresses to prior to walking into your office when your hair is on fire. Don’t even walk into the office when you’re feeling this way—go find neutral ground and get it out of your system. Especially when there are new hires in the building, you’re still trying to enroll them in why your place of business was the best investment in their future they have made.

We know this isn’t how 90% of the attorneys we work closely with operate. But you may have an associate with this mentality— share your expectations and standards with them. Too often we get calls: the attorney owner is amazing but they are locked in a conference room all day; the managing associate(s) who we spend all day with are another story…

Here are the top 3 bad attitude mistakes NOT to make if you want your team members to work as hard as you do day in and day out:

1. Constantly telling everyone how many hours you worked, what time you got up, how you didn’t sleep, didn’t get to pee yesterday, what you have to do before lunch, and how you are never going to make it home tonight. We cannot tell you how many entrepreneurs do this. Obsessively. This is the most disempowering and de-enrolling, backfiring strategy we have witnessed. This is how your team interprets these complaints: keep busy and don’t offer to take anything additional on because we don’t want to end up negative, stressed, and burnt out like our boss.

2. Don’t verbally abuse your team. EVER. It only takes one bad day to break the trust you’ve built with your team members…and it’s next to impossible to regain it. Your employees don’t care who you are. They don’t care what title you hold. They don’t care how long (or short) you’ve been doing what you’ve been doing. They don’t care how respected you are in your industry. Employees simply won’t tolerate being verbally abused by a frustrated, exhausted boss. This is not the 1990s patriarchal tyrant manager era any more. Employees will not hesitate to give up every perk under the sun for respect and appreciation.

3. Don’t ignore your employees. Throughout the recruiting and hiring processes, when we ask potential new hires why they are looking to leave their companies, the one thing we hear over and over again is this: “we only hear from the boss when things are bad. I love the mission of the company, my co-workers, our clients, and everything we stand for. If only we could hear about what we are doing right, receive consistent feedback, support, and coaching on how to improve and grow. I can’t describe it, there is an energy in the office that feels like we are rearranging chairs on the deck of the Titanic all day.”

If you’re not showing up as a nice person, people won’t work for you. Sorry, but it’s the truth. If you’re ship is sinking, maybe it’s time to admit that your attitude might be to blame.

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If You’re Spending Most of 2018 Year End Frustrated, You Still Have 4 Weeks to Fix That!

molly and laneyIf you’re spending most of 2018 year end frustrated by clients falling through the cracks, balls dropping and work product not meeting your expectations, all while you deal with office chaos and practice management systems that either didn’t work or were not consistently followed…

…then we want to come aboard YOUR team to help you immediately stop the hemorrhaging, retrain your staff members, and refine all that you need in place to hit your revenue, volume and personal satisfaction goals in 2018—in just the final 4 remaining weeks.

As you know, we work with many firms in a high-level capacity, and are the “behind the scenes” team leadership to some of the top legal and business organizations in the country. We have gotten requests to “clone” our work ethic, mindset, and leadership ownerships for decades. We’ve written the manual (and Amazon #1 Best Seller) on the “how to.” And we have found a way to do it.

We have downloaded our 20+ years of expertise, best practice approach, and proven habits and behaviors into a program that will supercharge everyone in your office. Your team will be able to ensure that your practice starts running like a well-oiled machine and is positioned to handle controlled volume and growth without frustration, breakdowns, client dissatisfaction or the pressure for you to work 70+ hours a week.

We opened some spaces in our Team Empowerment Academy and, most importantly, made it affordable, because we know there are a lot of great small business owners (and equally dedicated team members) out there who need help.

Trust us: your team members don’t want to fail you and let you down. They want to take your firm to six figures and beyond.

If you want one of the remaining SIX spots left in our Team Empowerment Academy—to get started NOW, while there are still 4 weeks left in 2018—schedule a 15 minute call right here and now to see if this is the answer you’ve been desperate for. We have a few time slots still remaining for next week to discuss specifically the outline of the program and the results you can expect from working in this customized private capacity.

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Here’s How to Become Grateful in 10 Minutes or Less

molly and laneyOver the years, it has become a tradition for us to post a blog about gratitude as we enter the holiday season. It’s the blog we get the most response to—by far!—which is great, because it means we’re getting people to focus on the positive and think about what they’re grateful for!

We know how easy it can be to worry about all of the things we don’t have, or the things that haven’t happened to us yet. These thoughts distract us from making note of the beautiful relationships that exist in our lives, and the amazing things that have already happened. A negative thought or action can impact our mood for the whole day.

But, in that same token then, can’t a positive thought or action also impact our mood for a whole day?

The holiday season, while rooted in the spirit of gratitude, peace and love, has turned into this impossibly hectic, high stress, say-yes-to-every-party-invitation, go, go, go time of year. And when we’re in the middle of that chaos, it’s so easy to lose sight of what’s truly important in life. With Thanksgiving already here, and the holiday season knocking at our front door, let’s stop, take a moment, and acknowledge all that we are grateful for. The simple act of expressing gratitude will start your holiday season on a stress-free note, while allowing you to center your focus on why you do what you do everyday—what it’s all for.

Here’s how to be grateful in 10 minutes or less:

Spend 5-10 minutes tapping into five things that you are grateful for. Things that your life would be less rich if you didn’t have. Make note of why you’re grateful for each things. And there you have it—a ten minute gratitude challenge that can recharge your batteries, instill confidence, and start your holiday season on the right foot.

Here are Hiring & Empowering Solutions, some of the things we’re most grateful for are:

1. Family: Our children are healthy and happy. We have a family that loves us, and that can be a part of our children’s lives—not many can say that. It’s the little things that are so very impactful to our children that make our hearts swell with gratitude. What more can we ask for than children who are healthy enough to experience the thrills of childhood and everything in between?

2. Health: We know it sounds cliche, but we start and end our day by moving our bodies. We are healthy enough to work long hours and serve our clients well. We have nothing if we don’t have our health.

3. Clients: The people who have been there for us for decades, supporting us and trusting us with their business needs…and making us better people for it. The people who hold us accountable for being awesome every day. Thank you!

4. Faith: For bringing us calmness, inspiration, and strength, and for making us feel amazingly connected to humanity.

5. Community. In our connectedness, we have the opportunity to serve others, learn from others, share, and connect with humanity. It makes all the “work” worth it!

Take the time today—right now, even!—to practice this simple act of gratitude. Gratitude is a magnet for miracles. It will create new opportunities, improve your physical and mental health, keep you calm—even during the chaotic holiday season, and improve your self esteem. Furthermore, scientific studies have connected gratitude with the ability to achieve one’s goals.

What are you grateful for today? Grab your journal (or buy a new one…we hear there are a few Black Friday deals going on right now ?) and take a few minutes to acknowledge and write down the five things you are grateful for. We get it, and we know you are busy. We all are. But you can set aside 5 minutes for gratitude. And…you’ll be grateful you did!

This Thanksgiving, we will be remembering all of you with extraordinary gratitude. Gratitude for the constant support in its countless forms, for sending encouragement, sharing our resources with your colleagues, referring us to your friends, trusting us with your teams, befriending us on Facebook, and keeping us in your thoughts. We are constantly amazed by your kindheartedness, year after year.

To quote Johannes “Meister” Eckhart, “If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, ‘thank you,’ that would suffice.”

A very grateful Thanksgiving holiday to you and your family!

Molly and Laney

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Hold Your Team Members Accountable…to Each Other

micromanagement and accountabilityIf you are micromanaging your employees, please stop! Now. It is literally debilitating to your law firm or business. Micromanagement prevents your business from evolving with the times. It thwarts innovation. It pushes strong team members out the door, hinders workflow, disempowers staff, closes communication channels, and turns “teamwork” into a four letter word.

Shall we continue?

Micromanagement could be the biggest nail in your firm or business’s coffin. Do you find it difficult to delegate responsibility to team members, taking an if-you-want-something-done-right-you-gotta-do-it-yourself approach instead? Do you have high employee turnover, or do you get the feeling that your team members are walking on eggshells around you? Are you the only person at your business responsible for making decisions? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, well, we’re sorry to say it, but…you might be a micromanager.

But there is hope! Many a micromanager has been able to turn their leadership technique around and create a workplace environment rich with empowerment. Here’s how:

1. Hire the right people. The #1 reason why leaders micromanage is because they don’t trust their team members. Hiring quality people who you truly believe are capable of delivering the caliber of work you expect will reduce the need to micromanage them. One of the best pieces of advice we were ever given was this: hire people who are better than you. Put your ego aside and think about that for a minute. Hiring people who are better than you only stands to benefit your firm in the long run.

2. Hold your team members accountable…to each other. Nothing ensures quality control more so than peer pressure. Allowing your staff to provide anonymous feedback about the performance of other team members and departments will create a sense of ownership, and can help you implement systems that keep your team satisfied and productive.

3. Be clear about what you expect. If your staff doesn’t know what you expect, then how can they work towards it? So many times we see micromanagement emerge as a response to poorly communicated expectations. Be clear, give your team specific benchmarks and objectives, and eliminate the need to micromanage them!

4. Empower your employees. Providing your team members with the freedom to engage—meaningfully—in decision-making processes will help them “own their role” at your firm. They’ll be willing to go above and beyond because they know you won’t be sweeping up behind them, changing everything that they’ve done. They’ll be excited about their job, and will take the success (or failure) of your business personally.

5. Recognize your own bad behavior. So the saying goes, the first step is admitting. Once you recognize your own micromanaging tendencies, you can begin to change them. Working with a management consultant or executive coach can be a huge help for those with the tendency to micromanage.

No matter how you look at it, micromanagement is a huge problem that needs to be stopped before it destroys your firm. You want—no, you need—empowered employees who aren’t afraid to step up and lead. Forget about the robots who need to be told what to do, and how to do it. Hire cream-of-the crop-employees, empower them, and you’ll find there is no need to micromanage anything (or anyone) anymore.

Schedule a FREE Discovery Session

Is your firm or business struggling with micromanagement? Are you confident that you have hired amazing people? Are you confident that you have communicated your process for holding your team accountable…to each other? Maybe it’s time to hire your next (or first) superstar hire and empower them to take ownership of your business. Hiring & Empowering Solutions specializes in legal staffing, and offers the only Team Empowerment Academy (TM) in the country. Schedule a 30-minute discovery session with our co-founder, Molly Hall, today. Find out how we can support the evolution of your firm, and ensure its viability today and tomorrow.

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