It bears repeating: Your people are your biggest asset. That’s true in any enterprise, but it’s especially important for an enterprise that’s planning quick and large-scale growth. As you grow, your needs will change—which means the kind of work you need out of your people will change. You may be able to afford new workers in this case, and if so, great! Growing and thriving is what 8 Figure Firm is all about.
But careful growth means careful financial planning—and nobody likes wasting money. That’s why we’d like to encourage you to think about how you can meet those brand-new needs by playing to the strengths of your established employees. Leveraging your people’s existing skills is far more efficient than hiring new people—not only is it cheaper, but it gets you needed skills from someone you already know and (hopefully) trust. In addition, employees appreciate having their strengths noticed and celebrated, which can build loyalty.
Identify and Amplify Your People’s Strengths
Building on your people’s existing assets during a growth phase can be as simple as thinking about those people in a new way. You may have hired someone as an administrator, but if they make friends easily and are good with clients, you might consider giving them some responsibility for networking and client development. Someone who throws excellent parties at home might be a good event planner for the firm.
As you grow and consider expanding your departments, you should also be looking at your people for leadership potential. Not everybody is comfortable in a leadership role; some people just want to be great at the work they do and leave the decision making to others. But if you have someone who combines expertise with the self-awareness, courage, and people skills to lead, they might be a candidate for supervisor when the time comes.
Doing this requires that you take a serious look at your people’s strengths, and likely also what work they enjoy the most. That’s great because it’s a skill leaders need. Another leadership skill that’s likely to come out of leveraging your people’s strengths is mentoring—anyone you believe can be groomed for leadership may naturally turn to you for advice. In this way, leveraging your people pays dividends to both you and them.
To Your Continued Success,
Luis Scott
