Explain your plan
You see the potential in the interview, something that grabs your attention and convinces you that this employee has what it takes to be a leader in your business. Or maybe you just want to be the one that takes that person who’s a little rough around the edges and mold him or her into a great leader.
Wherever you’re starting from, how do you unearth that hidden talent and get the person to recognize his or her own gifts?
“You don’t throw them right in the deep water and let them try to swim because you can shock even a good swimmer,” Hayim says. “You need to train someone and give them the basics and not get frustrated. You need to have a plan of steps that will allow that person to develop in a reasonable time frame.”
It starts by creating a learning environment where you’re available for questions and feedback about what’s expected and what’s coming up.
“We talk every day,” Hayim says. “It may be a relatively big business in some people’s minds, but it’s a small business in my mind.”
Be up front about what you’re trying to do. You’re not trying to trick employees or play games. You’re giving people opportunities to learn and grow. Work with an individual to develop a plan of steps and a reasonable time frame to work through that plan.
“The key to it is to grow somebody to a point where you give them the potential to keep growing within the company,” Hayim says. “Basically, I’m not going to limit them. They’ll limit themselves based on the natural limitations of their abilities.
“You have to nourish it. You have to create a challenging environment to see what that potential is. It’s specific to each job and what it is. If they are a manager, you might be adding more people to report to them. If they’re involved in advertising, you have them create a couple creative ads and see if they work. It really depends on who the person is. You need to challenge them and see where their limitations are.”
Make sure you’re clear about your expectations and about why you’re offering up a regular dose of new challenges.
“Make it very clear what their job is and what they do,” Hayim says. “What are their duties? It’s very clear. I’m not hung up on titles, but I am hung up on a very good infrastructure where people understand what they do and everyone else understands who is responsible for what so there is accountability.”
One thing you don’t want to do in expressing expectations is to make promises that you can’t live up to.
“You might have a goal of where you want them to be,” Hayim says. “If it’s a short-term focus, it’s a lot easier to tell someone, ‘Here’s where I see you here, and here’s where I see you in six months.’ But you might make a plan for somebody to eventually run the business and it just may not work. So to promise them the world could be bad for morale. They won’t trust anything you do.”
