In today’s post Paul Azad, the founder of ServiceTree talks about hiring people.

 

 I only hired the best

 

When I talked to MSPs, it sounds uncommon when we talk about our team, what they’re good at, what they’re not good at, and all those things that are related to them. it’s interesting, the number of times I hear somebody sort of say – Oh, no, no, my team don’t do that. I only hire the best – And many times when I hear that, I think to myself, and I really feel like I want to say to that person – Do you think anyone else doesn’t say that? When you talk to your customers? Oh, yes, I only hired the best – I don’t think we would go out and hire somebody that we don’t feel is the best for our organization. 

 

So how are we able to communicate with our customers? And how we’re able to ensure we are doing what we say we’re doing? How are we able to ensure our customers feel like the people that we’ve got are the best? And it all comes down to the people. But what we’re able to achieve with that people is more important than the people we start with. Because it’s very, very easy to start with a person within your team that is really good and excels at what they’re doing. And unfortunately, over a short period of time, that changes. 

 

Most people have heard that it only takes one bad seed and that is definitely the case. I found a MSPs that sort of says – I wish I just had one strong person – or an MSP I spoke to about two weeks ago, he had issues with his people and it really was the broken window story for that one, but he’s like – I think what I’ll do is I’ll hire somebody new, they’ll be really good. And then the rest of the team will be able to see that I’m being serious and that they have to improve – And I was very clear, I said, listen, there is a chance that’s going to happen. But in all honesty from experience, the chances are that before that’s going to happen, that great new person is actually going to become not a great person, because looking around that the newbie is going to see that others are getting away with some subpar performance. So don’t expect a new team member in your team, even if it is the best that you’ve hired. Don’t expect that person to be able to change things that you’re not changing. 

 

The right mechanism in place

 

When we do hire people, it is important that we hire the right person for the job, we need to ensure that, that’s definitely very important. But we’ve also got to make sure we can put the right mechanism in place, build the right not so much structure, but the right ethos around the pit team, make sure they feel comfortable to get the most out of themselves and the environment they’re in. Definitely make sure you don’t let the rest of your team pull the new person down. 

As I mentioned, it’s happened to me before more than once where I’ve thought – What if I just hire a new person? I didn’t sort of do it in the case of fighting the other people but I thought that all I need is one strong person and I should be able to start changing things. And in all honesty, it didn’t work. It didn’t work because before that person had a chance to rub their good on to the rest, the actual reverse happened. They started to fall backwards because for them the rest of the team were able to do less than required and for them, it was no different.

 

 The hard stance 

 

There are no really other ways to sort of resolve this issue. Sometimes in your organization, you’ve just got to take the hard stance and be the bad, and sometimes you feel like you’re the baddie because you’re gonna have to let somebody go or put your foot down. But you need to really reevaluate that because not being the bad person or not putting your foot down, unfortunately, in most times, most cases, is actually creating long-term pain and creating a bigger problem for you to deal with. 

 

So start off by hiring great, yep, as I said we all say we hire the best. The best for us might be not the best for others. But make sure that the rest of the team that you’re bringing that person into is ready for that, ready to benefit from that newbie, and able to excel together to deliver greatness for our customers.