Here’s why your people can’t do the work as well as you?

Many times, I have been told how hard it is to hire great people. I get questions and statements like:

Why can’t they do the work I expect them to do?

I hire experts and I still have to make everything happen.

Is there a secret or is there really no good people?

Well, it’s not a secret, but it is a challenge we all face when letting go of the work we do well, to someone else. Even an expert can seem incompetent if they don’t know specifically what your expectations are.

Picture yourself doing something you do well, you do often, and you do for yourself, the home, your business, etc. Now think about a time you asked someone else to do that for you. Getting neighbours to look after your pet, asking your kids to put away the dishes, expecting your spouse to clean the washroom. They probably all did a fine job, to their expectation, but maybe not to yours.

There is often a gap between your expectations and those of your neighbours, kids, spouse, and especially the people you pay, like your contractors and your employees. As it is your work and your process that must be transferred to them, it is your duty to ensure that gap is small or non existent. Here are three things you can do to reduce or eliminate the expectation gap in the work you offload.

1. Don’t expect them to do it perfectly the first time.

I guarantee you did not do it perfectly the first time, so why would you expect someone else to? Let them know what the first time might look like. Tell them the challenges they will face. Let them know there is a lot to learn and you know they will get it over time. Maybe share a story about what went wrong for you in the past. Let them know that there is room for practice and you will help them get it right.

2. Have a process.

Your training process, for on-boarding new people, will take time for you to get it working well. Have your processes in writing. I like using Trello boards (thanks to Diane Rolston for introducing this tool) with check-lists and templates, that help my people know the steps to take. I walk them through my process, using videos or Zoom, then check in regularly on their process, adjusting, and guiding as they get up to speed. I know they will not get it perfectly right the first time and we’ll troubleshoot what went wrong. Get them to help with this, so they are able to evaluate for themselves where the process can go wrong and learn how to adjust.

It will take you a lot of work up front, but your guidance and direction will help them have a clear idea of what is expected of them.

After they have done it a few times, I give my people ownership over the process and ask them to make it work best for themselves. Often they will make the entire process more effective with the expertise they bring to the job.

3. Give yourself permission to learn

Like your people, you likely need to learn to be a good leader, trainer, and manager. These all have different skill sets. Even if your expertise is HR, you still need to learn to be that person, not just teach about it. Even after gaining accreditation for teaching and training adults, I continue to attend training sessions, take additional credits, belong to groups of people that do, so I can continue to do it better.

You did not start your business able to do everything expertly and perfectly, so allow yourself to learn from failure, find ways to get better, and grow. You will then be able to model these characteristics for your people, and continue to build a growing and learning culture in your business with people that are continually adding to their skills so they can bring the best to their work every day.

Building a business that starts with a learning environment and guided by process will help you create a team that  builds excellence into their every-day work. By not focusing on perfection your will instead create a team of agile thinkers that adds value to your business and gives you the space to do other things well.

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This article is 100% original content – The articles you read in this blog are 100% created by Barb Stuhlemmer, not by AI.