Dave Braun
00:00:02
Hello folks. Welcome to another episode of our 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. I’m Dave Braun and my partner is also with me. Larry Broughton. Larry, how you doing?
Larry Broughton
00:00:20
Awesome. Another great day here in Orange County.
Dave Braun
00:00:23
It is, Yeah. Another awesome, beautiful day. So the topic that we got to get into today is I’m concerned if somebody says, Hey, I’m concerned about tracking their time and getting the value for which I paid. So in other words, they’re concerned about the fact that, you know, they’re not next to them or they’re a whole time zone away or country away. They’re not monitoring them. How do they make sure that they get the value for which they pay?
Larry Broughton
00:00:49
Yeah, that’s a good one. By the way, please send in your questions. All the ones we’ve done so far, they’ve been like, wow, this would be good. You know, because we’re all afraid that a lot of things, you know, Dave, this is one of those that I think if you’ve gone through the hiring steps, the modules that we offer you on how to actually select the right team member, this may be more about you than it is about them.
Dave Braun
00:01:14
Okay. Tell me more- good point.
Larry Broughton
00:01:15
Because if we’re hiring somebody to do a task and we know that they’re strong at this, most people don’t like to be micromanaged, right? And people who micromanage do it out of fear. I’m afraid they’re not going to do what I need them to do. I’m afraid that this was not going to be a great investment. There’s just a lot of fear about this is why people micromanage. When we let go of the fear and just let people do what they are great at, you’re going to see great productivity, but here’s the key we have to set expectations. We have to set goals. This is why this one of the things that you’re so good at so many things. They, when you do your meetings, you say here’s what the agenda is. Here’s what the goals are. And here’s what we expect to achieve.
Larry Broughton
00:01:59
And then let them go be available for them to ask questions. And this is why one of the questions that came up, I think in the early and earlier podcast was how do we communicate if they’re in different time zones? So if you’ve got some overlap, you can just check in, but checking in is different than micromanaging. If that makes some sense. But clearly we, you have to set expectations. Everyone has to understand what the strategy is for that week or that month or that quarter or whatever it is that you’re you’re working on. And then you do check in and you have accountability meetings, whether it’s three times a week or daily like you do. So I have gotten very brief daily stand-ups so it’s a way that you communicate and set expectations and then manage to those expectations.
Dave Braun
00:02:45
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, creating systems, I’m a systems guy, loves systems, creating systems where the accountability is built in is what works the best, not hovering over them, like a Hawk and saying, did you, this, did you do that? Did you do that right?
Larry Broughton
00:03:02
Well, that’s counterintuitive to what we’re even doing here. The idea is to create more freedom for you, not more work.
Dave Braun
00:03:08
Yeah. I mean, if you’re spent starting to spend, you know, half of your day seeing what they’re doing, watching their screen, there’s, here’s an example area. There’s a screen recording software, right? And so you can, if you want to have that installed on their machines and they record their screen, but guess what, you’re going to have to do it, you’re going to watch it.
Larry Broughton
00:03:29
When you get to the point where you are watching every minute they do watching every keystroke that they do, you’ve got the wrong person on the bus, or you need some coaching and counseling yourself and we’ve had those people and we can, we can help you with that. But like I said earlier, if we’re in this point, it’s probably more about you than about them.
Dave Braun
00:03:47
Yeah. Yeah. So there’s something wrong either. I won’t say with something wrong with you, but there’s something wrong with how you’re hiring the people that you’re hiring. Like I said, the systems that you have in place to maintain accountability without having your face all day long. And you, you mentioned before, you know, every other day meeting or weekly meeting, or like, what I’m doing right now is every day meetings. What we do is we say here’s the top three things that I’m going to accomplish today and what help do I need. So they, so that everybody knows what everybody’s working on and what their goal is to get done that day. And then of course we, you know, have a checkout. Now you’ll obviously know if you’re not getting the value. If they say, Hey, there’s these three things, these top three things, they say that on Monday. And then on Friday, those are still the top three things to do. They haven’t done anything you will know without having to watch and by the Hawk like a Hawk. If you have your system set up, right. Just doing some simple things like that.
Larry Broughton
00:04:48
Yeah. Well, I would encourage them – You folks, if your team members are continually falling short of the three things or whatever the goal is that you set is to lead, they use this word intentionally lead, not manage lead by asking questions. What happened? Why didn’t we get there? What are the roadblocks that you’re having that you’re struggling with? Is there something that I can do to help you? Am I the roadblock? When you ask questions, you get them to open up. Instead of making assumptions, you’re not cutting the muster, you missed another goal, right? You are falling short of what what’s expected. That’s not appropriate leadership. And I can promise you, particularly with our team members that are in the Philippines, they’re not going to respond well to that. And so I would just encourage you to lead by asking questions and then analyze what are the answers to that, and then develop ways to navigate those roadblocks that are preventing folks from reaching the goals.
Dave Braun
00:05:48
Yeah. Ask them the right questions. A little bit of, you know, setting the systems in place where they’re more like self-monitoring you’ll know soon if you’re getting the value or not. And then at that point, it’s like, you got to discover what is going on with them. What’s going on with you and the tasks that you’re given. You may not be clear. I mean, then it can go really deep. Right? That’s good. All right. Sounds good. Anything else on this one? Not for me. I think we hit it. All right. Well, thanks folks for being with us. We appreciate it. And remember building a team is the way to reclaim your freedom. We are here to help you. And there’s three things we’d love for you to do. Number one, subscribe to this podcast, if you haven’t already done. So number two, give us a rating.
Dave Braun
00:06:33
Five-star we love those are the best. Do that. And then go to hiremyva.com for more info on our course and community. Remember with our course, with our community and you know, Larry and I are there with you guys all the way. Even without experience, you’ll learn how to prepare for hire and thrive with virtual assistants. Larry and I have helped a lot of folks and we’re just ready and willing to help you to just go to hiremyva.com for more information. Have a great, awesome rest of the day.
Larry Broughton
00:07:03
Have a great day folks, go get them!
