Dave Braun
00:00:00
Welcome, everybody to the HireMyVA Team and Business Building Podcast, where we help you to reclaim your freedom through hiring and thriving with Virtual Assistants without breaking the bank. And that means without breaking your bank. And I don’t have my glasses on, I should put ’em on. I’m Dave Braun and I’m here with my partner and great, great friend, Larry Broughton. Larry, how are you doing? Ready to record another episode?
Larry Broughton
00:00:25
Let’s do it. Thank you, Dave. It’s been a great week. Glad to see you again. Thank you for being in my life. I love you, I’m glad that we’re on this journey together.
Dave Braun
00:00:32
Yeah. Thank you very much too, man. It’s awesome. All right, that’s get to the question.
Larry Broughton
00:00:37
All right. What is it?
Dave Braun
00:00:38
All right. We had this asked recently by somebody in one of our programs that we’ll have to talk about one of these days. The question is how do I get my team to take more of an ownership role?
Larry Broughton
00:00:50
Oh yeah. We do hear this a lot. And you know what? When we kind of dive into this and we go deeper, you know, I’ve said this oftentimes. I’ve got plenty of friends who are attorneys, they say behind every question is another question, where somebody’s really asking is this. I think really when someone says, how do I get my team to have more of a ownership mentality? I think what they’re really asking is how do I get my team members to take more initiative? Isn’t that really what they’re asking?
Dave Braun
00:01:23
I think so.
Larry Broughton
00:01:26
So I don’t know. There are a bunch of ways that we can handle this thing, but my sense is that’s really what they’re trying to figure out. How do they take more initiative? How do they take more responsibility, just to do stuff? Let me throw a few things out that just kind of roll off the tip of my tongue first and then we kind of dive in. I know you probably got some ideas here too. I think Dave, we need to set up an environment where we hold people accountable for results, not task necessarily. So if ownership is really more about initiative. Accountability is really more about follow through and getting things done. We need to build, if we want people to take more ownership, that really means that we need to set up an environment of trust. We trust that they’re gonna get things done and take initiative and they trust us that they’re not gonna get ground down by making a mistake.
Dave Braun
00:02:28
Yeah.
Larry Broughton
00:02:28
Right? Because that’s sometimes why people don’t take initiative is if they bring with them baggage oftentimes, or we just have the wrong people on the wrong seat, on the bus. And the way I think that we can help with both of those is by expressing confidence in their ability. There are all kinds of stuff that goes into that, and the next thing is, I think we need to avoid being problem solvers and that we let them actually—Isn’t this part of the problem though, Dave? We want our team members to take initiative to have a sense of ownership, but when they do, do it, there are some people who then slap them down for spreading their wings and actually making decisions and will ridicule because they’ve made a mistake that they wouldn’t have made. So sometimes you have to watch out what you ask for. If you want your team members to take ownership, they’re not you, but you can’t grind them down. If they make decisions that you wouldn’t have made. And then I think part of the last thing that just kind of comes to mind is we have to create an environment where people approach everything with a kind of a solution oriented mindset. When I think about an ownership mentality, those are the things that kind of come to mind for me.
Dave Braun
00:03:43
Yeah. We talked a little bit about that in the previous episode, right?
Larry Broughton
00:03:47
With the previous episode was on, remind me, what was the previous episode?
Dave Braun
00:03:51
The previous episode was 57, where we talked about balancing out our tasks with our team’s tasks.
Larry Broughton
00:03:58
I see. Yes, you’re right.
Dave Braun
00:03:59
Accomplish that kind of stuff. Right?
Larry Broughton
00:04:00
Yeah, that’s right. So go back and listen to that one. That was a good one. I think that’s probably a 15 or 20 minute one, but yeah.
Dave Braun
00:04:06
Yeah. And I think a lot of it though starts with us, in hiring the right kind of people.
Larry Broughton
00:04:15
Right. So how do you do that though? How do you make sure Dave, that you’re hiring the right people?
Dave Braun
00:04:21
Well, first of all, you get into the HireMyVA Program. Plug. Shameless, plug.
Larry Broughton
00:04:27
Funny. You should bring that up.
Dave Braun
00:04:29
Yeah. We talk a lot about that. You know, a quick couple of tips here is, it’s kind of like, I remember somebody talking about an owner of a company who would say, I want my team members to smile more, they just don’t smile. Like how do I get them to smile? And the answer is really to hire people who smile just naturally. So basically then, you gotta hire the right kind of people. And you start off with a question that might be something like this, Larry to answer your question is behavioral interviewing. It might be like, give me an example of a time in your work life when you’ve worked or felt like the company you’ve worked for was your own and not someone else’s or give me a time, an example of a time where you took initiative, you went out of your way to do more than what was asked for. And tell me about the results. So hopefully when you’re asking somebody those questions, they can come up with a couple of scenarios where they’ve actually done it. And the idea is if they’ve done that stuff in the past, then it’s likely that they will continue to do that going forward.
Larry Broughton
00:05:44
That’s the great point, Dave, and it just reminded me that if you want folks to have an ownership mentality and you’re asking them, Hey, gimme an example. I’m gonna guarantee you that these are people who hate to be micromanaged. Micromanagement is a killer to the ownership mindset. So if you want people to have an ownership mindset, don’t micromanage them. Ask for results. And I think my sense is that when you ask somebody during the interview process, you know, share with me a time when you felt like you had ownership in something, it’s oftentimes periods or projects where the team member or the employee was asked for their input on a project or on a task before they were just told, Hey, go do this. But if you’re saying, Hey, here are the results we want, we wanna have this kind of result from this marketing initiative or developing new operational standards. And here’s what we expect on the other side. How do we get there? And you engage team members on the front end instead of just coming in and delegating or telling them to do stuff, they’re much more— Are you ready for this word? They’re more invested in the process. So I think that does help.
Dave Braun
00:07:06
So you brought out a really good point about micromanaging. And I was thinking, well, how do I really know, maybe I am micromanaging my team members? You know, maybe more than I should. How do I know that? And I guess the answer to that would be, well, ask them.
Larry Broughton
00:07:24
Exactly. And you learn. I mean, I know that there are some folks that are in my hotel organization and they are workhorses or task masters. If you have a list of things that need to get done, that’s what they’re really good at. I can’t expect them because they’re not built to have an ownership mindset. They don’t want that. They wanna put in the hours and when they’re done, they’re done. And there are some roles in the organization that, well, that’s really good. But there are other people, or there are other roles where they have to be problem solvers. They have to be solution-oriented. So the person over here who’s a taskmaster, they need a little bit more micromanagement. And by that case, I’m not saying like I’m over their shoulder or their supervisor is over their shoulder constantly.
Larry Broughton
00:08:08
But we know that when we go to them with a list of tasks and they love this to check ’em off as they get, ’em done. There are other people who are more supervisory and leadership roles, who need to be solution-oriented. Those are the ones we really want to have, give them wings to fly, give them the freedom to make decisions, and give them the latitude to make mistakes. Because that builds confidence. What builds confidence? Like you said, let them make mistakes, that builds confidence? Yes. Let them make mistakes. Don’t fire them when they make the mistake, but do an AAR, an after-action review afterward. What did we do right? What did we do wrong? How can we improve the next time? So that they get better. Any team member, whether it’s a sports team or someone that’s in a debate team or someone that’s on your team in your business, what makes them better is making mistakes. No one ever goes out to the free-throw line the first time and starts hitting, you know, putting up shots on that. No one does that. There are air balls. There are people that miss the backboard completely in the beginning, it’s practice, it’s making a ton of mistakes before they ever start putting it through the hoop. That’s just the way it is.
Dave Braun
00:09:26
I mean, that’s a great analogy. And you if you’re watching, a sport like that, say it’s basketball and the team is having problems with their free throws. The coach is not, most coaches, good coaches, they’re not screaming on the sidelines. Like, get that ball in there, you can do better, come on! What’s wrong with you? They don’t do that. What they end up doing is, at the end of the game, they go back and they’ll start doing some practice and start working—
Larry Broughton
00:09:52
The elbow in. Right. Exactly.
Dave Braun
00:09:54
Figure out what’s going on. And then, work on it offline. So it may end up being, if your team is making a bunch of mistakes like that, maybe they need some more training from you, or you have to come up with some training scenarios where they can walk through things in an environment, where they’re gonna feel like, well, if I make a mistake, nobody’s gonna be yelling at me or the game’s not on the line kind of thing.
Larry Broughton
01:10:22
That’s absolutely right.
Dave Braun
01:10:24
The other thing I think is so key and so important is, and this is why there’s a prepare section in our course, is because you gotta prepare yourself to be able to handle situations like this. And so often this goes back to your vision and mission of your company. And there’s gonna be times when you need to make sure you remind them that, well, here’s our vision. Here’s why we’re doing what we’re doing. Here’s how we’re changing the world, here’s how we’re changing our client’s lives. Here’s the importance of it. And I think once your team members adopt that more, and realize the impact that they can have on others, they’re gonna take a little bit more ownership.
Larry Broughton
01:11:10
You’re absolutely right. So what I’m hearing here is that we gotta let people make mistakes. What we’re really trying to do is figure out how do we get people to take more initiative? How do we ensure that we have self-starters on the team? And then holding folks accountable, which means really following through on how you institutionalize a follow-through results-oriented organization. You know, Dave, I would just encourage people to do this. If you’re watching this through the HireMyVA platform, then go participate in the community. That’s really one of the most important parts of the entire program. Yes, we have the Prepare section of the program. We have the Hire section of the program. We have the Thrive section of the program. But really the community where we get interaction back and forth sharing of ideas is really one of the most powerful parts of this program. If you’re watching this on YouTube or one of those other video platforms, then smash the subscribe button, and ask questions in the comment section below, and we’ll get back to you. And if you have another question, make sure and put it there as well. Hit the like button, we’d appreciate that as well.
Dave Braun
01:12:20
And one of the great things about our program is we have live Q and A sessions on a monthly basis right now, we’re doing them two times a month. So you can ask the same question and make it in terms of your exact situation. We’ll just answer it right there. Give you some ideas on how to overcome any issue that you got.
Larry Broughton
01:12:40
Yeah.
Dave Braun
01:12:41
So I guess, to sum up, join our program.
Larry Broughton
01:12:44
Join the program. And if you’ve got ideas on how to get your team members to have more of a sense of ownership, put them in the comments below. We’d love to hear your feedback on what are you doing to make that happen. I’m on the journey with you. I’m learning every day as well. And I’ve learned a lot from the masterminds that we run in from the clients that are in this program as well.
Dave Braun
01:13:05
That’s right.
Larry Broughton
01:13:06
Thanks for your input.
Dave Braun
01:13:08
Okay. Anything else, sir?
Larry Broughton
01:13:09
No, I think that’s it for me.
Dave Braun
01:13:11
All right. Well, thank you everybody for joining us on this powerful episode. And building a team is the way to reclaim your freedom. We’re here to help you. We want you to give us comments, and ask questions down below if you’re watching it, as Larry said. Give us a five-star review, hopefully, five stars when rating this podcast, subscribe, subscribe, subscribe. You gotta do that if you wanna get the biggest benefit out of this because we’ve got different questions coming up every single week and different thoughts. And it’s all meant to help you build your team and to grab more freedom in your life. So please do that. Finally, then go to Hiremyva.com for more information on our course and our community. Because even without experience, if you have zero experience, you can learn how to prepare for hire and thrive with Virtual Assistants through our course, through our community, and through these great Q and A sessions that we’ve got. And Larry and I are just having a great time helping folks and we’d wanna help you too. So go to Hiremyva.com for more information.
Larry Broughton
01:14:16
That’s right. And do yourself, your family, and your community in the world a favor. Go do something significant today. All right, my friends. God bless you. God keep you. God hold of you. All right. Go get them, my friends.
Dave Braun
01:14:28
All right. Bye, everybody.
Larry Broughton
01:14:42
Bye.
