Leadership & Team

Your Next
Best Hire

Knowing who you need to hire is one of the most difficult parts of being a CEO, no matter what stage of growth you're at.

It's also one of the most important things.

Today, Chris explains exactly how to determine the next person you need to hire to grow your company to the next level.

You'll hear important things to keep in mind, like whether each new hire should be an employee and whether systems are more important than people.

He also shares how to build a process org chart step-by-step and how to use it to find the next A player in your business.

Tune in, do this one hour exercise, and never make a poor hiring decision again.

Time spent developing leaders has possibly been the most lucrative time that I've ever spent in any business.

In this Episode

  • Does everyone in your company need to be an employee if you want to see major growth?
  • Why the people in your company are even more important than your systems
  • How to make a process org chart, step by step
  • How to finalize the roles you need to fill within your company
  • The one question you need to ask yourself about your process org chart that will show you who you need to hire next

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Transcript

One of the hardest parts of growing a business, no matter what size you're at right now or how many employees you have or don't have, is knowing who your next best hire is. What's the one position that, if it was filled with an A player, would get your business to the next level?

The biggest difference between a company that struggles and one that consistently scales is their ability to create a team. That could be a team of employees or vendors or independent contractors. It doesn't matter, but you need to be able to develop leaders and a team in your company.

There's one company in Club 28 that was doing about $5 million when I met them less than 14 months ago. They'll probably close this year around 35 million and the only employee in that company is the owner. Everyone else is either a vendor or an independent contractor. I'm not saying that that's the best model, but it certainly proves that you can build leaders out of almost anyone who has leadership qualities in them. Whether they're an employee or a vendor or an independent contractor.

The Most Lucrative Time Spent in Any Business

In fact, time spent developing leaders has possibly been the most lucrative time that I've ever spent in any business. Which is why I could go into practically any company and scale it two to five X its growth curve with one good person. Even if they're running crappy systems.

What you cannot do is grow a company with great systems and crappy people. And there's two parts of this. Number one is knowing who your next best hire is. Then finding them and hiring them and motivating them to be a driver in your company. Now, if you need help finding great people, watch the video that I shot titled How to Find and Attract and Hire Great Employees. That episode details every aspect of how we put together teams of A players who love working with us and who drive our growth in every company in my portfolio.

How Do You Know Who Your Next Best Hire Is?

But how do you know who your next best hire is? For that, we use a process org chart. This is simply an org chart that's built not for where you are today and not for where you want to be five years down the road. Because in my opinion, both of those are useless for growing a company. They're usually more damaging than helpful. But rather build a process org chart for the team you need in place to get you to where you want to be in eight to 12 months.

You'll have a lot of boxes on your org chart. And you'll be on top and then everybody who reports underneath you will be right underneath there. Everybody who reports to them will be underneath that line. But after you do that, what you'll have are just a lot of boxes with maybe job titles written in them, but no names yet.

The Next Step In Finding Your Next Best Hire

Now the next step is add bullet points in each one of those boxes. And those bullet points should detail the most important tasks. The most important tasks that need to be accomplished by that person in that box. So let's just say your project manager box might have bullet points in it. Like, develop the big idea, organize project tasks, assemble the team, manage the project budget, lead the team, hold the team accountable, and develop and deliver daily reports. So that might be your project manager box.

Then after you do that for all your boxes, look at all the boxes and decide if certain boxes are just too overwhelming. Because there may be some that need to be split into two boxes or some boxes. Maybe you only have two in this one and three in this one. Some are similar that you need to combine the boxes. Now you'll be able to see all this and you'll be clear on what tasks each person needs to accomplish to grow your company to the next level. That alone is going to make your business more functional and more organized.

Free Up Your Time to Grow Your Company Faster

In turn you'll be able to grow faster and more predictably. Then after you do that, you put names in each box. My guess is that when you get to this point, some names including yours will probably show up in a whole lot more than just one box.

So you need to ask yourself, what box can I take my name out of that will free up my time to grow the company better and faster. But also ask yourself what box can I take my name out of that I can fill with somebody else who could do that job better or maybe bring relationships that can be a game changer for us.

Remember, those boxes don't all need to be employees. They could be filled with vendors or independent contractors who fill vital roles inside your company. When you go through that exercise, which might take you all of maybe an hour to do, you'll know exactly who your next best hire is and you won't make poor hiring decisions ever again.

Related Reading How to Be a Better Leader and Develop a Leadership Team → Related Reading Mike Dillard Talks With Chris Guerriero About Starting a Board →
Common Questions

Frequently Asked
Questions

How do you figure out how to hire good employees for a small business without making costly mistakes?

Build a process org chart for where you want to be in 8 to 12 months, not where you are today. Put every key role in a box, add the most important tasks for each role as bullet points, then look at which boxes still have your name in them. That one exercise shows you exactly who to hire next and eliminates guesswork from every hiring decision going forward.

Does everyone in a growing company need to be a full-time employee?

No. One company in Club 28 grew from 5 million to around 35 million in under 14 months with only one employee. Everyone else was a vendor or independent contractor. The model matters less than the leadership qualities of the people in those roles. You can build real leaders out of vendors and contractors, as long as you develop them and treat them the right way.

What is a process org chart and how is it different from a regular org chart?

A regular org chart shows who reports to whom. A process org chart shows what needs to get done to hit your next growth target. You build it for where you want to be in 8 to 12 months, not five years out. Each box has the most important tasks listed inside it, not just a job title. That distinction is what makes it actually useful for making hiring decisions.

What question should you ask yourself once your process org chart is built?

Ask yourself: what box can I take my name out of that will free up my time to grow the company better and faster? Then also ask: what box can I take my name out of that I could fill with someone who could do it better, or bring relationships that would be a game changer? Those two questions reveal your next hire and your next growth move at the same time.

How do you motivate good hires to stay and perform at a high level long term?

Learn their big reason why they come to work. Then connect that directly to your company targets. People who understand why their work matters to their own goals become self-driven. They find new ways to reach company goals without being pushed. That kind of motivation cannot be manufactured with bonuses alone. It comes from genuine alignment between what they want and where the company is going.

Here’s How To Make This Your Best Year…

Club 28

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