Don’t hire unicorns

Let’s chat about a pet peeve of mine – and that is this concept of finding a unicorn team member.

There are a few reasons why you DON’T want to go out in search of a Unicorn and then hire what you think is a unicorn.

Let’s dive into this.

Firstly – Unicorns don’t exist.

So – if you are starting out your hiring process or you’ve set a hiring strategy trying to find a unicorn – your mindset is in the wrong place. You are going into your hiring process trying to find something that you don’t believe exists and that all the stars in the universe need to line up to make it happen.

And let’s say you actually FIND a unicorn. This magical creature which is so rare and you hire them.

Then what?

You better hang onto them pretty tight because they are so rare.

And let’s say your business starts to really rely on that person – what then? 

What if your unicorn runs away? Decides that they no longer want to work for you – even though you are so magical and it’s no fault of your own. What then?

Thinking like this…Hiring someone that is rare and letting your business rely on them…

THIS is not setting up a sustainable business. 

When we are building our businesses – yes of course we are going to rely on people. Sure. In fact in the early days we rely on the people who support us heavily. And that’s OK.

But – as soon as you can – you want to shift away from heavily relying on any one person – to creating systems so that anyone can come and go – maybe that’s just going on holidays, getting sick or perhaps they do leave entirely – and your business is OK… because it’s the SYSTEMS that hold your business up >> not the PERSON.

I’m going to say that again.

You want to shift from a BUSINESS that relies on PEOPLE to a business that relies on the SYSTEMS – with people working within the systems – so it’s the systems that hold up the business, not the people holding up the business.

And it’s doable.

You don’t have to do it overnight.

But you DO have to do it – if you want to build a sustainable business that can continue – to make sales, to deliver, to offer amazing customer service – regardless of the functioning of any one person on your team.

And it’s this type of thinking that will help you have a stable business – stable revenue – stable delivery – stable customer experience – rather than something that goes up and down based on the effort of YOU personally or the effort of any one person in your business

OK >> so back to the unicorn.

When it comes to hiring someone for your team, whether it’s your first or your 5th – go for average and then make that person FEEL like a unicorn to YOU – by supporting them to thrive, through the way you communicate and the systemisation you put around them.

Now if you are sitting there thinking “BUT I DONT HAVE SYSTEMS”. That’s ok! You get to build them…. Slowly if you like! You can literally record one process or create one rule per week if you’d like. Keep it simple! 

AND 

You can create them WITH the person – make it a dual project if the thought of YOU creating the systems makes you want to hyperventilate.

OR>>> you can create them all yourself and punch them out in one big project if that feels good to you too. You can create them before someone starts, give them to the person and let them try to follow them and be the test if they work.

You get to build the systems that your business needs in a way that feels good to you –

-You do it

-You do it together

-They do it and you review it

So, we aren’t hiring unicorns. We are hiring normal average people who have a personality that feels good to work with us and who have a working style that suits our personality.

We are not going out and trying to hire someone who is particularly RARE and we aren’t putting anyone on a pedestal for their amazingness, thinking that if they were to ever leave us we wouldn’t be able to survive.

THIS IS A BIG DEAL. And it’s something that most entrepreneurs learn the hard way.

Hire someone who is a match to your hiring criteria – brings the skills and the experience you need, the way you want them to work and that feels like a personality fit >> and then WORK WITH THEM TO ELEVATE THEM into feeling like an angel in your business.

And when you are going out looking – if you notice your mindset or your thoughts going to ‘these people don’t exist’, ‘it’s hard to hire anyone like this ‘ – if you are starting out with that defeatist attitude – then really check yourself on that and review what you are looking for. Make your hiring criteria – the profile of the person-  reasonable, so it’s also sustainable for your business.

And next time you hear someone talking about their soul team or their unicorn team member – just know that what they are really saying is that person functions in a way that makes them feel like a unicorn – but they aren’t necessarily a unicorn in the skills or experience they bring to the table.