Welcome to the last lesson in the My first hire course, this lesson is about stepping into your role as a leader. And I am one who thinks of leadership as something that basically all people are doing. But this particular lesson is meant to help you step into your role as a leader of someone who is working for you. So what are we going to talk about, we're going to talk about giving clear and consistent feedback to your team, revising your original agreements with them, and then when to and how to say goodbye, when that becomes necessary. So we're talking about feedback. When we don't give feedback, what tends to happen is that our intention around what the work should be or look like, and what the work actually is diverge. And it's our responsibility as the leader as the business owner to be giving clear and consistent feedback about the work so that it can stay on track. So the longer you wait until you give feedback, the more off track, it tends to go. So it's better to give feedback at regular intervals, in a way where the other person can receive it and act on it. So being specific about what you're requesting, any changes you're requesting, and just kind of knowing at the outset, that when there is some kind of frustration or difficulty around the work that is being performed, often there is a misunderstanding that's happening, and the MIS understanding from you, as a leader, it starts with you, making sure that you're very clearly articulating the vision that you very clearly are explaining what it is that you want, I would say 90% of the issues that come up, come up, because that is not done well. The other 10% you can be more than that. But the other part of it comes from that the person not understanding what it is that you want, and how you want it to be done. And so feedback is an opportunity to correct misunderstandings, basically. And to come at, at frustration from a space of, okay, something didn't get communicated? Well, let's try this again. And you try that a few times, right. And sometimes, it just doesn't work out. And we're gonna get to you know, how to deal with that if it's not working out. But it's really important to take this step of giving feedback before you just give up on the whole situation. So one tool that I've learned about giving feedback is asking first if it's okay, so asking, Can I give you feedback? There's like a particular situation at one point in my career where a boss asked me if I if she could give me feedback, and I was not in a space to receive it at that time. And so for asking that question was very helpful, because it allowed us both to be like, Okay, right now is not the time, but to be able to come back to it at a later point. So often, if you ask, someone will say yes, but you're opening the doorway, you're letting them know that that's kind of where the conversation is going. And then to use sort of objective, and, and simple language around what the feedback is about. So increasing something, decreasing something, or retaining something. These words can be really helpful when you're thinking about giving feedback. So like, increase the number of social media posts that you're doing each week by this many or decrease the amount of emojis that you're putting in the emails, or you know, retain the voice that you're using when you're writing materials because I think it really is aligned. And the reason that you keep feedback as as simple as possible and as direct as possible is so that people can hear it, and they can respond to it. And in that way, it is less charged than if it's coming with a bunch of justifications and examples and all these kinds of things. So that is feedback. So then something else that is useful when you're bringing on a new hire, is to update your agreements with them. And there's a few different times when you can do that, I'm not saying with this list, you need to do it at 3060 90 days, six months, and every year, what I'm saying is that these are opportune times to have a look at what your agreements are, and to see if they need to be changed. So in growing organizations, people's roles can shift very quickly. So it can help to have a check in around that 60 or 90 day mark to see how things are going to see if things have already shifted in that amount of time. And then to update either your job description or update the proposal, the ongoing proposal. And then at six months, and then every year after that, these are also helpful times. So it could be that the work has totally shifted into a different place, it could be that the person has taken on way more responsibilities than they had before. And so it's not just updating the job description, but it's also looking at pay again. So updating agreements is something that and it is something that can get lost in the work. But it is something that's really important to do, especially if you really want to keep working with people. That way you are showing them that you recognize that their work is changing, potentially, they're taking on more responsibilities, and that you want to have a reciprocal agreement with them about what they're putting into the business and what they're, they're getting out of the business. So that's for when things are working, when things are not working, when it's not the right fit. Usually, you will know that pretty early on. Usually it's within the first 30 to 60 days that you'll know if it's just not the right fit. Reason, reasons that it can be not the right fit is if communication breaks down if you're not able to communicate well and consistently with each other. And if the person does not have the skill set that you were looking for, you know, maybe they said that they did, but it turns out they don't. Or if you hired someone knowing that you needed to train them, but for some reason, after you've done all the training, it's still not working. So what do you do, when that happens, and it does happen. And so the one thing, one way to go about it is to decide what the person's last day of work in is going to be. So with yourself, you look at the calendar and you decide, okay, it's going to be this day, then you have a conversation with them. And you just tell them, I'm sorry that this just isn't working out. I know that we're both trying our best, but it just doesn't seem like it is the right fit. And so you discuss with them the last day that they're going to work for you, and how you're going to wrap up billing final paycheck and wrapping up projects. And this conversation should be a pretty short conversation, it should not be getting into giving them feedback. It should not be getting into telling them all the things that they could have done better. All of that should have happened before you get to this conversation. There should already be a well aware of the the goals that you have for the role and knowing how they aren't fitting those needs. So that when you have the conversation about ending things, it doesn't come as a surprise, they know they probably will know that this is
an A coming their way. And there are things to consider with ending employment with an independent contractor versus an employee. Different states have different rules about getting someone their final paycheck. And so just brush up on those for your own state and be aware of them before you end employment with an employee. With an independent contractor. You normally will stay on the same billing cycle and will finish out any kind of work that you have that is in process. You can also just cut it off right there if you want to. So that's definitely available to to right. Wow. And wish you all the best and if there is anything that I can do to help you with hiring please don't hesitate to reach out I would love to assist.
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