Lead Better with These 3 Essentials

Well, hello and welcome to the podcast. I am so glad you're here, and this podcast is in your inbox or in your feed on the Monday before Thanksgiving here in the US . And so what I thought I would do is do a high level podcast on three of the vital skill sets and considerations that I know female entrepreneurs really need to have when they're running your companies.

And I'm doing this because we're also going to make this available to you over this week, this Thanksgiving week, let's call it a Black Friday, we don't normally parse out our content out of the Lead program, but I wanted you to have some resources that I think are really vital. Especially as we start thinking about the new year and you're looking at year end and you're looking at performance reviews and you're looking at bonuses and all these things so.

What we've decided to do is bundle, or you can actually get them all individually, three modules. One is how to pay people, which is a module from Lead. I'm going to talk a little bit more about each of these here in a second. The second module is accountability and firing. That's quite a lot involved in that one. And then the last module we're making available to you is how to conduct team meetings. And what's included in that is not just a team meeting, it's retreats, it's one on ones, it's, as I mentioned, performance reviews, it's how to really think about what you're trying to create when you're having these meetings.

So I'm really excited. I think it's going to be really valuable to you all. We're really making this very affordable. I'd like you to have the resources and the tools as you go into the new year. So go to thevisionary.ceo/boutique, and that's where you're going to find all of the information that I'm talking to you about. And if you want to access any of the courses individually, you can. Or, you can actually get them all as a bundle.

Okay, so as all of you know, right, you've been here a long time, we talk a lot about all the things related to leading, managing, developing team, but through the lens of Leadership is Feminine. And so that's my ever goal is to always bring to you the alternative ways to think about normative processes, right? So, we know we have to pay people if they're going to work for us. And unless you want to go back to bartering we know we need to hold people accountable. We need to have difficult conversations. We need to be able to fire people. And we also know that in order to build a culture the leader has to have some acumen and some skill depth in conducting meetings and really how to think about those.

And so that's why we decided to put these all together. Because it's a little bit about you, and a little bit about them, and a little bit about why the both of you are ever together, which is to make money, right? Your business needs to make money through the efforts of the team and the people on the team want to make money.

So why do we want to talk about paying people? So this is something I did. I actually did a stand alone course on how to pay people several years ago, and it was by request. And it was also after I'd had a lot of conversations with a lot of different clients about that very question. How do I know how much to pay someone? How much should I pay someone to be an executive assistant? How much should I pay someone to be a marketing coordinator? How much should I pay someone to be the ops manager? How do I find out what I'm supposed to pay people?

And then also, how do I give people raises? How much am I supposed to give them? Should I pay people a bonus? I've been doing a bonus. Should I keep doing that? How do you decide if someone gets a bonus? What if you've been doing a bonus and now this year you can't pay a bonus, right?

These are all very real questions that my clients are asking. And rather than, what people want, is they want the answer to their question, right? How do I pay this executive assistant that I'm hiring? And the truth is that if I answered that question and I said to you, "Oh, you should pay an executive assistant $72,000."

What would you say to me? You would either say, "Really? Well, that's a lot." Or you'd say, "Wow, that's all I have to pay."

Like you would have a- I don't know. I don't know what you would say. Because where does, what we pay people come from? Where did anybody's salary come from? Like, I know there's people listening to this, who work in companies, right? Where do you think your salary came from? Where did the average salary for a chief IT officer come from? We just accept that it's just, that's what it is. Where did it come from? Somebody made it up, y'all.

Somebody decided, this is what I think, the value - I don't even know if they would have thought this way. But this is what I want you to think. The value of that role, to the result that I'm expecting is this, and therefore, I should pay them this.

We have such an interesting relationship with how we pay people. And I think we're very dumbed down about it, just as a whole, as a collective, as employees, as team members, and as leaders. We just sort of are going along here, with what everybody's always done.

When the truth is, if you're an entrepreneur, you realize you could do whatever you want. And so what I walk you through in this course, this module, is how to do that. Like, the questions to ask yourself, the insights you need to really make this decision, not because I told you. That's well, I mean, if you could Google it right now, what's the median salary for X, Y, Z position in your state, in your city, you'll find something.

But the reason that you don't like the answer is it's not of you. It doesn't take your business into account. It doesn't take your revenue into account. It doesn't take your profit margin into account. It doesn't take the workload of the position into account. It doesn't take into account how hard it is to find that person.

So if you don't have a process and a practice for how you pay people, I want you to buy this course and get one. It'll change everything. That indecision, right? "Oh, well, we pay Joyce this much. I wonder if we can get..." Like, who cares what you pay Joyce? You're hiring a brand new person. The roles change. The work changes. The results you need change.

And what's really cool about all of the courses that you're going to get if you buy them individually, or if you buy the bundle is you get what we call a reflective guide. So in addition to what I teach you in the video lessons, you get a reflective guide and there's some questions on there that help you sort of expound upon your own insight. So I think you'll really find that valuable.

The second module that we're providing for you is all about performance. And this is the other big bugaboo - , that's a very professional term, by the way, bugaboo. This is another big one that my clients come to me about. Which is, you know, how do I hold people accountable? How do I deal with people not doing their jobs? How do I figure out what to say to them if they're not doing their jobs?

And this module, specifically performance fundamentals and accountability, is very specific on that. And we look at what's required to actually hold someone accountable.

And then how do you deliver the beginning of that or the end of that? Like, where are you in addressing the results that they're delivering? Have you ever done one? Have you've never done one? And then ultimately, how you might fire someone. But here's the thing about- I'm going to add this here.

I was talking to a client earlier, later last week. And we were talking about the podcast I did a few weeks ago about, what if we ran our businesses like sports teams? And we know that on a team, on a sports team, people who don't do their job, who don't play well, get benched. And it's very understood that that happens. It's a drag. It's not fun to be the player that gets benched, but it's an expectation. You know it could happen.

And it's not like everybody's running around like pleading and filing lawsuits because they got benched, right? No. They got hired. They get paid. But they're not delivering, so they get benched. And most benched players still get paid. But you have to earn your spot back.

But then when we go out into the work environment, that's not the case, right? That environment is, I got a job. I, as a leader, I'm supposed to just accept what they deliver. And as the team member, a lot of them just think, I have a job. I get to keep working. But as soon as you start introducing accountability and high levels of accountability, performance accountability, people get very put out. It's like shocking. "How dare you 'bench me' if I'm not doing my job?"

It's like somehow it's unexpected. Why is that unexpected? It doesn't make any sense. I hired you to deliver a result. You're not delivering the result. You're not going to work here anymore. I'm not trying to be callous. I just, I really don't get why this is so complicated.

But I was having a conversation with another client. And we were talking about that sometimes people think accountability is mean. Now, I think people can be mean. I think that there are leaders who hold people accountable and they are cruel. I think that there are a lot of people in leadership positions who have never learned how to be effective at leading. Just like we know, there's a lot of coaches and sports teams who are wretched at coaching people. They're great, maybe at strategy, but they're terrible at the player part, right? It's no different.

So I think, you all know, if you listen to me, my philosophy is, if you've made the decision to lead a team, you have a responsibility. It's not a luxury. It's not, I'll get to it when I'm less busy. It's not, I'll get to it when I don't have such a crazy season. Unacceptable. It's tough love, but I want you to hear it. It's not okay.

If you've hired people to come and work for you and do work in your company, and you don't really know what you're doing as a leader. I don't think that's okay. I think it's okay for a while because you're figuring it out. But then, once you know that you're in over your skis, and you're not holding people accountable, and you're not addressing performance, and you're letting things slide. Or, you're just yelling and screaming and having tantrums all day, it's not okay.

Because, what I said to her, because I said, "Well, no wonder people think accountability's mean, because in a lot of environments, it is. It's not only mean, it's like cruel." But I actually believe that accountability is kind. I think when you learn, when you establish clear expectations, and you learn how to communicate those, and you have ongoing active communication, accountability is one of the kindest things you can do.

Because when we don't know how to do that, we tolerate poor performance, or we just fire people and we never tell them. And then that person goes and gets another job somewhere. And they didn't experience what accountability looked like in a healthy way. And so maybe they do it all over again. They keep getting fired. Is that kind? Maybe they blame you for how wretched it was to work for you. Is that kind for them? For you?

Years ago, I worked with a gentleman at a company that I supported a lot and I admired his philosophy so much. And he was the one who said performance accountability is one of the kindest things you can do.

And I think about my kids. I think about this in light of so many relationships, but we think just about our kids, right? If we have kids and we just don't hold them accountable to anything because we don't want to be mean, we don't want our kids to be mad at us. They don't want to be the mean parent, right? And accountability is, "Hey, I'm not okay with that. That's a no. You broke a family value. You know, no. Here's what's going to happen. I'm taking your car keys. I'm telling you, you're going to stay home for the weekend. Not sending you on that great trip that you wanted to go on..."

Whatever it is, right, whatever the result of it is. If we don't do that, we end up with these kids who are, a lot of them now, in the world working. And they're working for people like you, you try and hold them accountable and they can't handle it. They don't know how to be told that they're not doing well because no one ever told them. They don't know how to receive feedback because no one ever told them.

And I'll tell you, I've gotten tons of feedback in my lifetime. And I remember actually, years ago, I went to, Brooke was leading a master coach training, and I went as a master coach. I went to sort of compliment that experience. And it was interesting because she even said to me, she said, "I always appreciate how you take feedback. You really listen to it."

And I mean to, I want to hear it. I don't have to agree. And that's what we have to teach people. Just because someone says to me, "Listen, I think you could have done this better." Maybe factually they're right, but how they would think I should do it or the reason why they think I didn't do it, I don't have to agree. But I don't have to dismiss it. But we take it all so personally, right?

But I appreciate when my, even my dear friends say, "Hey, have you noticed this about yourself?" We could call that accountability. We could call that feedback. But what it is, is just honesty. And we just don't have enough of it.

So I want you to do this course, this module, so that you gain your chops a little bit more in how to hold people accountable. It's your job. It's your responsibility. And it will make your life better. If you start to actually show people that first of all, if they're doing great, they get told they're doing great. And if they're doing terrible, they get told. Like, it will change your life . It's good news. Right? So I want to really encourage you to do that one too. Because you're going to also get the reflective guide and lots of cool stuff with that.

And then the last one that I want to talk to you about is the team meetings. Which I think we're all just a train wreck at. So, it's interesting because if you've never worked in an environment that has structured meetings, it's kind of one of those, like everybody's sort of making it up. And that's not to say that what you're doing specifically isn't great, but I know a lot of people, a lot of entrepreneurs, especially, just are very, they're almost just not even thoughtful about meetings.

But there really is a science to effective meetings. And, ultimately, the only reason we ever should have a meeting is for communication, is to make sure something is happening between people. And that involves communication. So whether it's the overall meeting, the one on one meeting, retreats, performance reviews, right? What we're going to do in each of those, that, that module is actually pretty robust.

It has four lessons in it. And it's really going to break down for you how to go through the process of each one of those. So that we're not just having a meeting, but we're doing so with thought. Because I would argue that some of the most wasted time on the planet right now of the human psyche, energy, spirit, soul, and time are meetings.

Meetings you shouldn't be at. Meetings that were a waste of time, meetings that are poorly run. Meetings that are meetings to talk about meetings, because there's another meeting I think it's the best gift I ever gave myself leaving corporate America, was the meeting. No more meetings. I have one. I have one a week. It's such a waste of time.

And if we're the leader of the meeting and we're not thoughtful about that, we're wasting not only other people's time, but we are actually wasting the money of our own company. So even in my business, when I find out people on my team are meeting and I pay for their time, like, why are we meeting? Can that get handled in a Slack conversation? Do we have to have a meeting?

But the default, because so many of us are verbal processors. We want to talk to each other about whatever we need to get done, but it may not necessarily be necessary. So we have to have a process that we expect ourselves and our team to go through before any kind of meeting is ever conducted.

So my invitation to you here is I think you're going to find it quite illuminating. I think you're going to find like, "Oh, this is helpful to have context for when and why I would ever have a meeting."

Now, some entrepreneurs default the other way and have none. No meetings. And that will absolutely rear its ugly head of a hot mess in your company over time, especially once you're over seven figures, if you are not having standardized meetings that cover all of the topics that I just talked about.

So I really hope you will check out thevisionary.CEO/boutique, because I think you're going to find that this is a really, really palatable offer. And something you can do for yourself over the holiday. You can take me on a walk with you and listen to the videos. You can use the reflective guides when you have a cup of coffee. You can use them with your teams. All those kinds of things.

So we're excited to offer it to you. We're only going to have it available for this week, Thanksgiving week. It will close. It won't be available again. Once we close it, I think we'll close it on Saturday, but maybe we'll leave it open Sunday through the holiday weekend. So head on over and check it out, and you can get each one individually if you just think you need one of them, or if you want the bundle. But I want to really - can you hear my pleading voice?

And if you have a girlfriend who is also like running her own company and kind of like, "I'm going to hire people. I don't know how much to pay them." Just send her the link. Let's help a girl out. Because you don't have to be making these decisions by yourself. There actually is some guidance here, I think, that could make a huge difference.

So, thank you for tuning in today. I have so much exciting stuff I want to share with you about 2024. It's going to be a good year. We're going to have a lot of fun. We're going to make some big moves. And I'm going to tell you right now, if you're interested in being a part of what we do, you want to get on our private subscriber list. Because we're also going to - I'll give you a little teaser - we are going to only work with a hundred women next year.

The yumminess of that is heaven. Because we want to do deeper, more powerful, dives into our clients, into our client's businesses, into our client's teams, and into our client's challenges with all of that. So that we can help you transform your business from what it is today to where I know you want it to be by the end of next year.

I really believe we can do that. But we have to limit how many women we can support. And so let's get your name on our list. If you haven't done that yet, you can just go to thevisionary.CEO, or you can always just email us, [email protected]. If you're not on the list yet, because those offers and invitations will always go out to our private subscribers first.

So, happy holidays to those of you in the U. S. And for those of you around the rest of the world, you get the benefit of us having a holiday, and you can grab How to Pay People, How to Conduct Meetings, and Performance Management and Accountability at this fabulous offer, simply because it's a holiday here in the US. How cool is that? All right, I'll talk with y'all soon.

Lead for Women is now open for registration. If you're a woman and you are also a visionary, somebody who sees the world differently than it is, and you are eager to achieve that through your work and by leveraging the hearts and minds of others, then I invite you to go to thevisionary.CEO/lead and learn everything you can about our Lead program.

While it's not for everyone, it really is for you if you are a woman who is ready to learn how to think better, so you can lead better, and you can live better. You have a legacy to leave here and I wanna help you leave it by enhancing and improving how you show up as a woman who leads. Join us there.