Canny Bites: Attract, Retain, Grow your team to grow your business by Safaraz Ali • Attract – How do I recruit the right people for my business? • Retain – How do I create a high-performance culture that people are engaged with? How do I keep and engage the right people? • Grow - How do I develop and grow the right people, and in turn, grow my business?

1. Safaraz Ali
your team to
grow your
business

2. Canny Bites
Attract, retain and grow your
team to grow your business
Safaraz Ali
More from Canny Bites
52 Bites of business wisdom for
leaders and entrepreneurs
Another 52 Bites of wisdom for
leaders and entrepreneurs
Find them at www.cannybites.co.uk
32

3. Author’s Note
Thank you for taking the time to pick up this book - the third one in the
Canny Bites series. This book is aimed at business owners and leaders who
need to develop and nurture a team of people. The truth is that’s likely to be
the majority of businesses. Building a business these days, or even sustaining
one, is nigh on impossible without building a team.
Every success story that I have been involved with or have been told about
happened because of the ‘people’ who created it. Whatever their role in
the business, people are at the heart of success, and that’s largely why I felt
compelled to write this book. The book is split into three areas, although there
is considerable overlap across the components:
• Attract – How do I recruit the right people for my business?
• Retain – How do I create a high-performance culture that people are
engaged with? How do I keep and engage the right people?
• Grow - How do I develop and grow the right people, and in turn,
grow my business?
Working with people can be stressful, complicated and frustrating, and often
it’s the number one issue for businesses. How often have you heard someone
say ‘they can’t get the staff’, or that their team don’t have the knowledge,
skills, behaviours and attitudes desired by the business? These issues can
often stem from business owners’ desire to go too fast. They can end up very
knee-jerk in their approach to people and their business, meaning they might
miss and overlook things which create problems that they end up spending
all their time dealing with. It’s often hard for business owners and leaders, and
I can speak from personal experience here, but make haste slowly and raise
your consciousness of the process.
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4. then build a lead team to succeed in that new world,” says Adena Friedman,
President and Chief Operating Officer of Nasdaq.
Business models are adjusting not just because of technology but also
because of people. The traditional relationship between employees and
employers is under strain. People want to feel a sense of purpose, they want
to make a difference, have impact, and be valued and heard. They want to
feel like they’re part of something. People are moving towards businesses
that have made it a priority to promote their purpose and mission. This will
be essential for businesses to attract, retain and grow the best talent to
deliver the best work and results.
At the same time as belonging and being part of something, the workforce
of now and the future is mobile, adaptable and flexible. Short-term on-
demand talent is in high demand, and the ‘gig economy’ and freelancer
sectors are growing.
People are attracted to teams of people and their brands as much as the
employer brand. There is movement away from conventional employment; at
times, out of necessity, and other times, out of choice. There are many middle
level managers working for traditional employers, including public sector, that
would find it difficult to find a similar role. There has been a boom in freelance,
interim and gig employment and this continues to reshape the market for
people. This is driven in part by peoples’ desire for more variety and flexibility.
Freelancers are not hired by start-ups and small-sized businesses alone;
major multi-national businesses with thousands of regular full-time team
members engage the service of expert freelancers for specific projects
and tasks.
Some of my personal observations that I would like to explore and get you
thinking about are:
• No one forgets what it feels like to be part of a winning,
high-performance team. But how do you build one?
• What is driving the why? Why do good people not stay?
• Why are our teams working in silos?
• It’s not about knowing everything; command and control does
not work anymore.
• Diversity isn’t a programme; diversity is really a culture. Diversity
is a priority and fundamental to our competitive success.
• Embrace unity, not uniformity.
• Value individuality, unconventional points of view and original thinkers.
• Build a culture of openness and don’t forget the words of Peter Drucker,
the Management Guru, - “Culture eats strategy for breakfast”.
My aim is to be different in my approach to this book. Most business books
are written in a style that promotes the background and the expertise of the
author, with anecdotes and stories which are simply about promoting him or
her. This is why business books can often be unnecessarily long and repetitive,
and I would therefore like to cut to the chase to deliver some impact. So, let’s
get going.
A desire to belong & the gig economy
The world of business is being disrupted. “As a CEO, you have to recognise
that your business will be radically different in the next 5 to 10 years, and
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5. The global reality is that many employers are losing the control they once had
over the labour market. According to a PwC report, the ‘desire for autonomy
is strongest in China, especially amongst young people, indicating a
generational shift towards greater freedom, entrepreneurship, and specialist
skills in this rapidly evolving economy’.
According to indeed, an online recruitment platform, ‘interest in flexible work
increased by 42 per cent from 2013 to 2015 in nine of the largest economies
in the world’.
It’s unlikely there will be a slowdown in this area; flexibility continues to be an
important factor for people, who are looking for ways to work on their own
terms and control their schedules.
For businesses, the technological infrastructure that supports independent
work continues to make it easy for them to seek service from skilled workers
outside the business. Businesses are becoming more comfortable engaging
with freelancers, even with the changes with taxation and contractual aspects.
The costs for business to hire, train and retain a team continue to rise, and
of course, businesses are continually finding ways to be agile and flexible
in the future.
Building and maintaining culture
To not just survive but to thrive in the modern world of work, businesses need
to adapt their business culture to attract and work with the smartest minds.
The workforce of now expects employers and clients to embrace business
tools that make work efficient and collaboration amongst people in different
locations easier.
It is becoming a viable alternative to the traditional nine-to-five and despite
some negativity in the press, it’s not actually all bad.
Millions of people and thousands of businesses have already benefited from
this approach to work. The gig economy empowers people, both skilled
and unskilled, to manage their time, work and how much they earn without
committing to traditional long-term contracts.
The growth of the big gig economy has been largely influenced by technology,
and the changing work culture across the world. Contractors, freelancers and
part-time workers from all industries are choosing to work for themselves.
Work processes are changing to support the agile, flexible and mobile
workforce.
A growing number of new businesses that can’t afford to hire full-time team
members rely on gig workers for business administrative support. This has
created an on-demand workforce for an on-demand world. It’s increasingly
popular with both businesses and workers.
Online talent platforms have amplified the many benefits of flexible work
through their larger scale, quick matches and simple coordination of work
amongst gig workers and their clients.
Gig work is not just limited to platforms such as TaskRabbit and UpWork.
Not all independent work roles are based around a technology platform, and
contract workers can work for traditional companies without using online
applications. In fact, technology giants like Amazon have embraced flexible
workers.
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6. the patterns of associations in the files of our brain that have been set up to
interpret the events and others we encounter.
These can impede us, limit our view, and blind us to alternative options,
leading to unhelpful behaviours and decisions, which can be costly to
business.
For example, there is an inherent gender bias in some job adverts. Research
has shown that women consistently underestimate their abilities and, when
it comes to new opportunities, can focus more on what they cannot do
than on what they can offer an employer. So, presented with a list of duties
and responsibilities, and a list of essential criteria, which are studded with
stereotypically masculine traits like ‘competitive’ and ‘ambitious’, women can
be turned off. Whereas a male candidate will look at that list and often think:
“It’ll be all right on the night.”
From experience, I know that businesses that are more tuned into this have
reduced the emphasis on personal character attributes in their adverts, and
now focus more on the day-to-day duties and tasks of the role, alongside the
values and behaviours of the business. So, if you want a more gender diverse
field of applicants – do it differently.
Much of the bias that we see in too many workplaces is unconscious. Much
of the time, it exists simply because the existing workforce and management
have never actually needed to think about certain issues. This can be as simple
as the womens’ toilets being an afterthought, on a different floor to the mens’
toilets or in a less accessible place.
Or it can be there being no quiet, private space being available in which a
religious observer would be able to pray.
When it comes to retention, this isn’t just about retaining and engaging your
team within the business. For me, retention is also about retaining the culture
of the business and ensuring the culture isn’t disrupted. This is where the
phrase ‘one bad apple spoils a barrel’ is true!
Before you introduce someone into your team, think:
• Will this person ‘care’ about this role and go the ‘extra mile’?
• Will they fit into the culture of the organisation and move it
forward positively?
• Is the person coachable and can they also coach others?
• Can they take ownership, and accept accountability and responsibility,
or is this person more about making excuses and blaming others, or
worse still, in denial?
Despite our best efforts, certain bad apples will get through the net. One bad
apple will quickly spoil an entire box of apples. In every business, there is a
person, or sometimes several individuals, who damage the business. At times,
it’s not completely obvious as they may be initially unseen and unrecognised
as the bad apples. This can be fatal if recognised too late. This person may
have originally been seen as charismatic, and admired as talented and
successful. One of their talents is in self-promotion, bolstered by an ability to
lie with practiced ease. This is not about scaremongering, but it’s important to
protect the culture of the business and exit them as soon as possible to retain
the culture of growth within the business.
Another challenge often grappled with within businesses, at both an
organisational and individual level, is bias. Biases are simply another term for
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7. These unwritten rules are created in a number of ways – people watch what
gets noticed, people watch what doesn’t get noticed, and people watch for
any differences in terms of what people say and what they actually do.
Transparency is key and is often the most difficult thing for some businesses
to embrace. Transparent businesses encourage the business-wide flow of
communication and information, which can range from simple team feedback
to sharing profit and loss statements. Greater transparency brings together
individuals and teams, putting everyone on the same page in taking forward
the business’s mission and vision. This is a proven strategy for enhancing
performance and retaining talented teams.
However, what I have often found is that instead of transparency, in many
businesses there is a closed approach to sharing and and even intentional
deceit with team members. In addition, instead of measurement and playing
by equal rules, there is performance assessment based on subjective
interpretation and therefore bias again creeps in.
The traditional signs of good culture are the core values of the business,
the mission and vision statements, as well the customer service standards.
Where possible, a business’s values and priorities should be so well engrained
that each team member can name them and be prepared to adapt them,
if necessary.
A business is not a business without customers. Making the customer your top
priority seems like common sense, and many managers assume that everyone
knows that and works with the customer in mind. Actually, doing the things
necessary to prioritise the customer within your business, day after day, is
not so easy. Problems and issues get in the way. Failing to anticipate all the
ways in which business communications and service interactions bear on the
customer experience can cripple the effort to satisfy clients.
Perhaps the manager’s office is upstairs, which makes accessing it
impossible for a less physically able team member.
Those with strong, determined personalities will, perhaps, look at obstacles
like these and think: “I will not be put off by this.”
And in the vast majority of cases, employers will want to accommodate
and will be all too happy to change things like this. In the case of disability, it
is the law that employers must make a reasonable adjustment to account for
an individual’s disability. Good employers will readily make any changes which
are suggested by their team. They want them to feel happy and valued,
after all.
But it can often be dependent on someone speaking out…
From stated culture to unwritten rules
When it comes down to it, culture is the foundation of business success. A
business culture is the combination of vision statements and values, combined
with the harder-to-see norms, behaviours, languages, beliefs and systems –
often referred to as the business’s unwritten rules.
Unwritten business rules are people’s perception of ‘this is the way we do
things here’. They drive peoples’ behaviour yet they are rarely openly
talked about.
These unwritten rules can be positive or negative. Positive rules underpin
teams that are positive, lean and agile. On the other hand, if a team is not
functioning well and there is a great deal of internal conflict, there is no doubt
that negative unwritten rules will be in place.
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8. Another issue often can be camps or groups within groups. This tribe-like
mechanism leads to protectionism and individuals desperate to protect their
turf for no real reason apart from controlling a power base. These subcultures
in organisations occur and can be quite effective. However, when the
overarching culture is not defined, subcultures take over, and generally not
in the interest of the business as a whole.
When you ‘connect the dots’ on attracting, retaining and growing your
people, then your chances of business growth improve considerably.
Getting the most out of Canny Bites
Before we go any further, it would be unrealistic for me to say that I will
provide all of the answers to every business challenge involving people. I
think that’s pretty much impossible to do so with certainty. This book
is, however, a carefully planned collection of techniques, strategies and
approaches that you can use to attract, retain and grow your people, and
thereby grow your business.
I do hope that you read and come back to the book as a source of reference
and ideas. As with most books, you will take the most from the Bites that you
have the most connection with or need, so certain topics are bound to grab
your attention more than others. However you choose to read it, I wish you
the best on your journey.
Safaraz Ali
Safaraz Ali
Open and inclusive communication is the final shared foundation of good
business cultures - both ‘top down’ and ‘bottom up’. Many businesses overlook
the need for feedback from team members, either because management
presumes they are doing everything right, or because if they are not, they
don’t want to hear about it. Keeping lines of communication open between
your team and senior management is not about laying blame but has
twofold value.
When culture goes wrong
So, what are some signs of destructive business culture? Well, it’s all in
the results. The result of damaged communication lines and obstructive
work environments cause high staff turnover rates. Note that some
businesses naturally have high turnover for other reasons, such as seasonality,
competitiveness in a specialised field, or dangerous work conditions. Some
workers change jobs for personal reasons. This type of job turnover is termed
‘voluntary’ and it occurs less frequently than the ‘non-voluntary’ incidence of
team members leaving their positions.
One big motivation-killer for the average team member to do their job, and to
keep doing it, is a controlled work environment. Businesses that start out with
too many control measures on team members may see them leave in higher
than typical numbers. The more rules, often the more issues, which results
in a negative, energy-sapping environment that drains the wellbeing of the
business and limits what the business can achieve.
Businesses with good culture find ways to empower team members to
make correct decisions themselves, rather than having to be reined in by
management. One of the best examples of this is Netflix with their ‘act in
Netflix’s best interests’ statement.
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9. Contents
attract18
1. The culture club 20
2. Fishing for talent 24
3. The interview dilemma 28
4. How diverse are you? 32
5. The A-Team 36
6. Win, win, win 40
7. Credibility vs visibility 44
8. Let the search begin 48
retain52
9. The 90 day plan 54
10. Stay on track - how to be pitstop ready 58
11. Working 9 to 5 - is it a way to make a living? 62
12. Sowing the seeds of growth 66
13. See it, say it, reward it 72
14. Empower, enrich, engage 76
15. Are we on the same page? 80
16. Practise what you preach 84
17. From a microwave to a laptop 88
grow92
18. The learning cycle 94
19. Tailor Your Coaching - One size doesn’t fit all 98
20. Are you SMART enough? 102
21. We’re all in this together 106
22. Ready, set, grow 110
23. Rock sponge 114
24. Team work makes the dream work 118
25. The Power of Networking 122
About the author 127
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10. The people in your business are the driving force
behind your success, so getting the right people in place
is one of the most important tasks you could be faced
with. Recruitment can be a minefield, and getting the
right people doesn’t usually happen by chance. The best
methods are deliberately designed and intentionally built.
This chapter will cover everything from what you should
be looking for, to where you should be looking, and how
you can maximise your potential and be a people magnet.
19
1. The culture club 20
2. Fishing for talent 24
3. The interview dilemma 28
4. How diverse are you? 32
5. The A-Team 36
6. Win, win, win 40
7. Credibility vs visibility 44
8. Let the search begin 48
1918

11. The job market is saturated by businesses doing the same things you do, so
how do you stand out? Getting people into your business is about more than
just the job role and salary on offer.
More and more people are looking to join businesses that have a favourable
culture, and quite often, will be willing to take a pay cut in order to work
somewhere with a culture that’s appealing to them, as well as somewhere
they feel they have purpose and can make a difference.
So, how do you define your own business culture and what does that
mean in real terms?
What is a business culture?
Culture is the foundation of business success. A business culture is the
combination of vision statements and values, combined with the harder-to-
see norms; behaviours, languages, beliefs and systems, often referred to as
the business’s unwritten rules. It’s what the business stands for and what
makes each business different.
Defining your culture and understanding
what you want that to be will help ensure
you’re attracting the type of people to
your team that fit
within the culture
you’ve created.
What elements define your business culture?
Purpose
What are your main business aims? What do you want to achieve? Think
about creating a mission statement or elevator pitch for your business that
every team member can buy into. If you already have one, make sure you’re
reviewing it regularly to ensure it’s still fit for purpose.
Values
What are your business values and what do they say about the way you
want people to work? Codifying your values allows potential team members
to see at-a-glance exactly what’s important to you. Think about how you
work with customers, how you work with each other, and how you want to
improve. If you already have values, are they still relevant and are they being
lived every day?
Environment
It’s easy to let this pass you by, but your team members spend more time at
work than they do anywhere else. Creating the right environment can make
1. The culture club
Task Write a list of what matters most to you for
your business and then try and separate these
into your key values. Ask yourself: “Is this
the culture I want in my business? ”
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12. How does your business culture
make you stand out in a crowd?
Chew on this:
people happier, and work more effectively. So, think about your workspaces
and ask yourself some crucial questions. How do you want to decorate your
space? Could you implement your branding into the space? Is it important
that people can personalise their workspaces?
Working structure
Remote working and flexible hours are attractive to people when looking for
a new job. Allowing and encouraging your team members to work where and
when they perform best creates a culture of trust and openness. We’ll talk
more about flexible working in Bite 7, but for now, start to think about how it
could work for your business.
Management communication
What’s your management style? Are business decisions made behind closed
doors or do you involve your team in these decisions? Defining this, and how
you communicate, will determine much of your business culture.
Celebrating success
What’s your reaction when someone does a good job? To foster a culture
of positivity and motivation, it’s really important to recognise and celebrate
successes. It may be a simple ‘well done’ or a bigger gesture, such as a bonus.
Think about ways you can make celebrating success a part of your culture,
such as an awards scheme which recognises team members’ achievements.
Developing skills
People are rarely content to stay in the same role with no room for growth.
Developing people not only improves their skills but adds value to your
business. Defining exactly how you plan to develop your team members
fosters an environment where they feel valued and increases retention rates.
Team relationships
Of course, you want people to work hard, but do you want them to play hard
too? A team that enjoys each other’s company will work more effectively and
harmoniously than a team opposed to each other. Think about how you’re
going to foster these relationships. Are you going to have regular team socials
outside of work? How about team away days?
So now you have re-evaluated and thought more about who you are and what
you want your business to be, what do you want that to look like on a day-
to-day basis? And how do you make sure the culture doesn’t drift from what
you’ve defined?
If you keep your values at the forefront of everything you and your team do,
your culture shouldn’t shift.
On first glance it might appear less effective if your team sit chatting when
they get to work, but these conversations may foster more effective working
through the rest of the day. If this is how you want people to behave, make
it part of how you act.
People now look for more than just a job; they want purpose in their work
and have a desire to make a difference, and progress and grow. The right
culture is critical to your business success. Give people the opportunity to
talk, to contribute, and to grow!
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13. We’ve already spoken a little bit about the importance of having business
values. It helps you shape and focus your activity, but more than that, having a
key set of defined values will give you the tools to make sure you’re recruiting
people who are the best fit for your business.
Traditional recruiting looks at the skills and knowledge of the candidates, and
while someone might look perfect on paper, none of that tells you how they’ll
fit within your business.
By putting your values front and centre in your initial job advertisements, you
are displaying to potential team members more than simply the skills required
for the role. You’re asking the question:
Would you fit within my business?
Before you’ve even had a CV in your inbox, being clear on the sort of person
you want in your team, as well as what they can do, will refine just who clicks
that apply button.
Is what’s important to you important to your candidates?
If the answer to this is no, then would this candidate fit within
your business?
Review, review, review - read all about it!
Today we live in a review economy; from restaurants, to hotels, to our
taxi drivers! Workplaces are no different. With websites such as Glassdoor,
current and past team members can review their workplaces. Potential team
members will likely check these services to see how attractive your business
might be to them.
Hooking in the right people from the start
So, you know you want people to match with your values, you want them to
fit with your culture, but what’s the best way to go about this?
Start right at the beginning and think about what you want to put in your job
advertisement. Obviously, you’ll want to explain what the role will entail, and
list key skills, but what about listing key personal attributes?
Another challenge often grappled with within businesses, particularly when
recruiting, is bias. For example, there is an inherent gender bias in some job
adverts. Research has shown that women consistently underestimate their
abilities and, when it comes to new opportunities, can focus more on what
they cannot do than on what they can offer an employer.
From experience, I know that businesses that are more tuned into this have
lifted the emphasis in their adverts. They focus less on the day-to-day duties
and tasks. Try and construct your job advertisements around your values, talk
2. Fishing for talent
Think about what you might like people to say
about you. Does this represent your values? If
a potential new team member read a review
of your business, would it be reflective of your
values? If not, why not?
Task
“ “
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14. Values based recruitment isn’t new. Plenty of organisations are already
using frameworks to make sure they are recruiting on values. The NHS, the
UK’s largest employer, which employs over 1.6 million people, have their
own values framework they call VBR (values-based recruitment). Using
this framework, the NHS maps out the entire journey. Key steps in their
process include:
How do you know that the
values you find attractive
are the right ones?
They might seem right for
you but are they right for your
team? The Institute of Business
Ethics is a charity put together
to help answer these questions.
They offer e-learning courses,
training tools, and advice to
keep your business on an
ethical track: www.ibe.org.uk
More
Reading:
about the attitudes and behaviours you want people to have, and not just
their skills. Are you asking people if they can do a job, or how they’d do it? You
probably want a bit of both.
I’ll talk more in the next Bite about the interview process itself, but think about
the questions you might want to ask. What sort of things do you want to learn
about people and how will you get the best answers?
• Defining values
• Ensuring values fit with the
bigger NHS picture. If you run
your business over more than
one site, how are you making
sure you’re keeping this in line?
Case Study
• Defining desirable
behaviours amongst staff.
• Including these key
behaviours as part of the
whole recruitment process.
What are the key
behaviours you
want from your
team members?
Chew on this:
Values
2726

15. The interview is a thing that brings fear to the hearts of many, and not
surprisingly so! It can be nerve-wracking to sit in front of people and try
and win them over. But the interview is an undeniably important stage in the
recruitment process, and getting it wrong can result in poor recruitment that
will not only cost your business heavily in money, but in time.
But with a little thought in advance, you can avoid the usual pitfalls. Let’s go
over some of the most important elements of the interview process, and
some questions you need to ask yourself long before anyone steps over
your doorstep.
Technique
How do you interview people? Do you have a set list of questions you want to
ask? Do you interview one-to-one or as a panel? These are all important things
to define before you even get someone to the interview stage.
Don’t think of the interview as separate from your usual activities. Match your
behaviours and your style to that which you adopt every day. Remember, an
interview is as much for the candidate to assess the business, as it is for you to
assess them, so showing them who you are and exactly who you want to work
with should be a key part of the process.
If your business culture is casual, is it right to be overly stiff and over-
professional during the interview? Or would it be better to start now with
the language and conversations you’d expect to have with a team member?
Adopting the same style also has the benefit of seeing straight away how the
candidate behaves under those circumstances.
How can you expect to try and understand how a candidate would
behave within your business if you aren’t creating that environment during
the interview?
How, who, where, when, why?
Putting some thought behind the details of how you’ll conduct the
interview can be key to making sure you get it right. So, what matters
here? The first thing that comes to mind is, of course, who is going to hold
the interview. Often this is a line manager, and perhaps someone from HR.
But consider including other people, such as a HR consultant, or someone
from the same team as the role you are recruiting for who has a good
insight into the day-to-day of the position.
Widening the pool for who you include in the interview process can
benefit in several ways, not only giving a different insight, but a clearer
view on team fit. If two people don’t get on in an interview, how are they
going to work together every day?
You also have the benefit of developing your existing team by giving
them the opportunity to be a part of the process. Just be careful you
aren’t putting too many people on the panel. Remember, it’s an interview
and not an interrogation! You want your candidate to feel comfortable.
Where are you going to hold your interviews? It might be as
straightforward as booking a meeting room, but don’t forget first
impressions mean a lot. Plan in advance where you’re going to hold
your meeting, and think about if you want it to be within the workplace
or elsewhere.
3. The interview dilemma
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16. What does the term ‘successful
interview’ mean to you?
Chew on this:
What are the best conditions for you to make the meeting as productive
as possible?
It’s important to ask yourself why you’ve made the decisions you have
for how you’ll carry out your interview. Is it just because that’s how you
think is should be done, or have you had a conscious thought to make it
that way?
Preparation
One of the worst things you could do is come along to an interview without
being prepared. Sounds like advice for a candidate, right? But it’s just as
important for you. Now I know you might have a pile of CVs on your desk and
it can be difficult to find time to fully understand the candidate in front of you,
but it’s really important to prepare so you can make sure you’re asking the
right questions. Don’t step into that interview room without at least having
read the CV and gathered your thoughts about it.
What to ask?
The sort of questions you ask people is key. Having a list of generic questions
won’t tell you if the candidate can do the job you’re advertising, or if they’d fit
well within the team. Use open ended questions that give the candidate the
chance to think critically and come up with real world answers that will apply
to the role you’re recruiting for.
You only have a certain amount of time to ask the questions you need, and
the last thing you want is to come away thinking you’ve missed something.
So, make sure all your questions give you the answers you need. This isn’t
just about the initial questions you ask; the follow-up questions you ask can
be just as, or even more, important. Are you clear on what you will ask when
presented with certain types of answers?
Testing testing, 1, 2, 3
The interview doesn’t have to be all about the there and then. Think
about giving the candidate a task in advance that they can prepare to go
over at the interview. This is a brilliant way of seeing how they would handle a
practical task that would be part of their everyday role.
Remember, whatever role you are recruiting for, preparation is key. Good
preparation will help avoid poor recruitment, saving you both time and money
in the long run. Consider my video on strengths-based recruitment and
interviews: bit.ly/strengths-based-recruitment
313030

17. What even is diversity? No doubt it’s a word you’ve heard a lot, and you
probably have something of an understanding of what it means. But going
beyond that, how do you put it into practice in your workplace?
Having a diverse workplace shows that you value each individual, and not
only that, it adds value to your business, by having a range of views and ideas
that people from different backgrounds can bring.
What does having a diverse workforce say about you and your business?
Candidates are drawn towards diverse businesses as it’s clear to see they
don’t discriminate on the grounds of any particular category. It’s important
to people to know they’ll be treated fairly, no matter their circumstances.
Let’s break it down a little so it’s easier to digest…
Age - more than just a number
It’d be easy to fall into the trap of recruiting people that are all fresh
from university, or deciding you need a set amount of how many years of
experience someone has. But what is that going to make your team look like,
and does that give you the right amount of skills and experience that will
benefit your business?
People are staying in work longer than they once did. The ‘Office of National
Statistics’ reports that since records began in 1991, the number of people in
work over the age of 65 or over has more than doubled, and as of June 2019
11.4% of the workforce is currently 65 or over.
4. How diverse are you?
Older people have been in the workforce longer, and as such their skills and
experience will be wider and more varied than those of someone fresh from
university. Think about how some of these skills could be put to use.
It will also often be the case that the older generation will have more out-of-
work requirements, such as looking after family members. In these instances,
the possibility of flexible working becomes more and more important, but I’ll
talk about that in more detail later on.
Background
What sort of background do your
team have? Did everyone go to the same
sort of school? What about university?
Are you restricting potential
team members by stating the
necessity for a degree?
As with anything in life, having
a wider field of vision, allows for
more to be seen. That’s true of a
more diverse workplace. Bringing
together people from different
environments, not only gives
people the chance to grow where
they otherwise might not have,
it opens up the possibility for
conversation that may not have
been there before.
3332

18. Adaptation
To make it possible for some people to work alongside you, you may need
to consider how you’ll adapt the working environment. For people with
disabilities this could be anything from making an office wheelchair accessible,
to installing a hearing loop, to having screen reading software. Think about the
adaptations you could make now to make your business ready. Remember, it
is the law that employers must make a reasonable adjustment to account for
an individual’s disability.
To make sure your recruitment is inclusive, there are some key questions
you need to ask yourself. Let’s have a look…
• Where are you advertising?
Are you using websites designed for recent graduates? What
about more traditional methods of job searching, such as local
newspapers and the job centre? Think about the different places
people look for jobs.
• What language are you using?
Are your job advertisements inclusive and not exclusive? Do they
demand qualifications that could easily be exchanged with experience?
Think about the audience you want to attract - do the words you’re
using speak to them?
How do you attract a
diverse workforce?
What benefit do you think hiring
someone long-term unemployed
could have on your business?
Chew on this:
As mentioned earlier, there is often an inherent gender bias in some job
adverts. Research has shown that women consistently underestimate
their abilities and, when it comes to new opportunities, can focus more
on what they cannot do than on what they can offer an employer. So,
presented with a list of duties and responsibilities, and a list of essential
criteria, which are studded with stereotypically masculine traits like
‘competitive’ and ‘ambitious’, women can be turned off. Consider this
when writing your job advertisements.
• Who do you want to attract?
Where are the gaps in your workforce? What voices do you want heard
that you think you currently have missing? If you know the answer to
this before you plan your recruitment activity, you’ll find it much easier
for the rest to fall into place.
You may have heard the phrase: ‘Diversity is being invited to the party;
inclusion is being asked to dance.’ I think true inclusivity is getting to choose
the music and dancing. So, is your business diverse? If not, what actions are
you going to take to make sure your future recruitment is inclusive?
3534

19. Millions of people and thousands of businesses have already benefited
from the ‘gig economy’. The ‘gig economy’ does not have one final agreed
definition, however the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial
Strategy (BEIS) and the Institute for Employment Studies have defined it as:
Involving the exchange of labour for money between
individuals or companies via digital platforms that
actively facilitate matching between providers and
customers, on a short-term and payment by task basis.
The term is therefore suggestive to each piece of work being an individual
‘gig’, used by companies such as Uber, Deliveroo and AirBnb. However, the
gig economy goes much further, with a market full of IT experts, computer
programmers, graphic designers, and many more all looking for the benefits
that come with being a gig worker such as flexibility, and the ability to select
projects that interest them.
The gig economy empowers people to manage their time, work and how
much they earn, without committing to traditional long-term contracts. The
growth of the big gig economy has been largely influenced by technology,
and the changing work culture across the world. Work processes are changing
to support the agile, flexible and mobile workforce.
5. The A-Team
So, how can your business benefit from the gig economy?
With new technology constantly emerging, new opportunities have arisen for
millennials, minorities and those living in developing countries - which means
more talent for you to choose from!
The digital age has increased the ability for people to work remotely, and
it is no surprise to find out that in a study carried out with UpWork, 92% of
millennials said that they would want to work in remote locations. Additionally,
millennials no longer want to
work the standard nine to five
workday, with 87% of them
wanting to work according
to their own schedule. If your
business structures itself to
embrace the gig economy, you
can allow yourself to appeal
to millennials and younger
generations, and make use of
their fresh talent.
With a call to Asia being
of the same quality as
a local call these days,
why not choose the
best talent from a global
pool, as opposed to in
your region? The gig
economy allows you to
“
TALENT
“
3736

20. How could gig workers
impact your business?
Chew on this:
bring people in on particular projects where their knowledge and therefore
contribution would increase your competitiveness in your industry and help
you stand out.
The time taken to hire a gig worker is considerably shorter than the time
taken to hire a traditional team member, and in addition, often you are
paying on results and can define payment terms and deliverables!
There are many steps involved with recruiting the correct person to join your
team. Starting from the recruitment stage, you not only need to find someone
with great talent, but someone that will fit in with your workplace culture, and
the rest of your team, in order to be productive.
Once they have officially been hired, the process doesn’t stop there. They then
have to go through an induction process to get fully accustomed to the way
you do things in your business, as well as undertake training from fellow team
members or even yourself in order to get to grips with IT systems, such as the
software used for certain tasks.
This will come as no surprise, but with a gig worker, you will be able to have
them working on a project in the time it would take you to recruit the perfect
fit for your team. As an interim, freelancer or consultant, they will get to know
the workplace culture and team, so should you wish to employ them at a later
stage, this process will be a lot simpler.
On top of labour costs you can save on overall costs with gig workers
bringing their own equipment to use, as opposed to you providing them
with equipment. A great examples of this is a taxi company, such as Uber, not
actually owning any of the vehicles used to transport passengers, saving them
a large amount of startup costs. Another example is AirBnb not owning any
real estate, but instead relying on their ‘gig’ workers to provide them with their
own properties to rent out.
To sum up, you have the ability to create a power team! Utilising the market
available to you allows you to pick the best people to work on projects in
order to get the best results possible. From freelancers, consultants, interim
and part-time workers, more people are at your disposal. It is the way to
go for businesses that are all about forward thinking. So, what are you
waiting for?
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21. How is it good for you?:
• Engaging with young people
helps build skills for the future,
strengthening the team you’ll
need in years to come.
• There’s no cost to your
business to host a student on
work experience.
• Short-term placements offer the
potential for growth within your
existing team via mentorship.
• Bringing young people into your
working environment offers a
fresh perspective and a chance
to pep things up!
• You never know, you might just
find that gem you want to hold
onto and offer an internship or
apprenticeship whilst they study!
How is it good for them?:
• Helps young people understand
the working environment.
• Gives young people an
understanding of if the work
they think they want to do is the
work they really want to do.
• Teaches essential skills.
• Experience can be added to their
CV which will be invaluable when
looking for work in the future.
Getting it right:
Make sure you have a plan in
place for the duration of the
placement; don’t leave people idle
with nothing to do. Engage with
them - feedback works both ways!
The traditional model of recruiting permanent staff is outdated.
Forward-thinking businesses are becoming more comfortable engaging with
other alternatives to gain from opportunities to take on people in an agile and
flexible manner. but also to ‘give back’ and support people on their career
journey.
Only looking for people with years of experience will not only cost you more
in salaries, but won’t open you up to new ideas and ways of thinking that the
younger generation have in droves. To not just survive, but to thrive, in the
modern world of work, businesses need to adapt their culture to attract and
work with the smartest minds.
Rather than exhausting your existing workforce or looking for more full-time
team members, think about creative ways to expand your team in a way that
will benefit both you and others. It’s a win all round!
So, who and what is out there?
6. Win, win, win
Work Experience
Placements
ApprenticeshipsInternships
Work Experience
What is it?: Short placements (think 1 or
2 weeks) where young people (usually in
school or college) get to experience the
work environment in their chosen sector.
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22. How is it good for you?:
• You’ll get people with fresh new
ideas, willing to learn and share.
What could an intern teach your
existing team?
• No long-term commitment.
Rather than taking on a full-time
team member, an internship
would be for a fixed period.
• Lower costs - interns can
be employed at national
minimum wage.
• Finding that future team
member. Many interns go on
to work within the organisation
as a full team member, and a
previous intern won’t require as
much training as someone new
to the business.
How is it good for you?:
• By using an approved
apprenticeship scheme, it takes
the hassle away from you having
to organise the placement. They
can find the candidates, and
arrange their training.
• The government will fund up to
95% of the apprentice’s training.
• Lower costs - apprentices can
be employed at national
minimum wage.
• You’re helping shape the future -
embedding essential skills in your
future team.
• Potential for future employment
- is the apprentice a good fit
for your business? Consider
employing them full-time after
their placement.
How is it good for them?:
• Putting into practice knowledge
learned at university in a real-
world working environment.
• Gaining essential skills.
• The ability to earn money whilst
still studying.
• Experience to add to a CV.
How is it good for them?:
• Earn while you learn.
• Learning essential workplace
skills that can’t be developed
in the classroom.
• Becoming qualified for the future
- coming away with more than
simply work experience.
• A long-term commitment -
the length of an apprenticeship
provides stability.
Internships
What is it?: Work placements usually
held by those in university to gain workplace
skills to supplement their studies. Often held
over summer breaks, and spanning an average
of 2-3 months.
What is it?: A programme where a candidate
will work alongside external study to earn
a qualification, with government supported
funding for education. Apprenticeships last a
minimum of 1 year but can last up to 5 years.
Apprenticeships
Getting it right:
Know exactly what you expect the
intern to achieve over the duration
of their placement. Consider plans for
progression and retention after. Don’t
let a good person go!
Getting it right:
Make sure you’re working with the
right apprenticeship scheme to get
the best candidates from the start.
Engage with the apprentice through
their placement and make sure
they’re on track with their studies.
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23. Start by asking yourself these two questions:
How credible is my business?
How visible is my business?
Why?
The key to attracting people to join your business consists of a perfect mix of
credibility and visibility. It is no longer only about who knows you, but instead,
it is about what you are known for.
Credibility
How do you prove credibility? One way is through reviews. These can be
on social networks such as LinkedIn or online platforms such as Glassdoor.
These are the first places the majority of the talent you will be looking to
attract will be searching before applying to work for your business. So why
not ask your clients and team to review your work, people and business? The
more reviews you have, the more these can be shared around to help increase
your credibility.
7. Credibility vs visibility
We all know the phrase, ‘It’s not what you know, it’s who you know’. But more
importantly, consider who knows you and what do they know you for?
If you worked on a successful creative campaign, your business will be known
for creativity and innovation, making your business attractive to those that
want to work in a success driven environment in the creative industry. Reviews
will give you a slight edge over other businesses that offer the same services
and will also help potential team members to gain an insight into the type
of projects they will be working on and the overall culture.
It sounds obvious, but another way to build crediblity is by being successful.
If you are good at what you do, and have been on a winning streak, you are
more likely to have more success come your way because of your business
mentality. When you are identifying and positioning yourself as a winner, you
automatically enter the winning zone and attract a team that want to be a
part of this, enabling you to attract the right people to help you grow and
develop further.
Visibility
How do you get your name out there? There are so many different methods
to choose from; social media marketing, Google advertising, sponsoring
events, networking, public relations, and many more. Therefore, instead the
question here should be ‘when you get your name out there, what does that
mean to people?’
Are you known for being an expert in your field? Are people within your
business well-known in the industry? Are your team seen as influencers that
“
7) Credibility Vs Visibility
Getting the gears turning
24) Teamwork makes the dre
“
4544

24. outside talent would want to work with or learn from? With success attracting
success, if you answered yes to all of the above questions, you are on track to
attracting the right talent to join your business and help it grow.
If people within your business are
thought leaders in your specialised field,
you will get asked to speak at public
events, webinars and tutorials to share
your insights, which is great publicity
for your business. Big corporations,
such as law firm Pinsent Mason, use this
opportunity to go to universities and
law schools to not only get their name
out there, but to begin their recruitment
process, attracting talented individuals at
source. This is a great lesson that we can
take away from large corporations.
What is the first thing people think
of when your business is mentioned?
Chew on this:
With all of your new knowledge, let’s revamp
the original two questions:
• How can you increase the
credibility of your business?
• How can you increase the
visibility of your business?
Task
What gives you a slight edge?
When your business is mentioned, you can choose what it is that is said
next. Use this edge to attract the right talent to help you achieve your vision
and goal.
15,000
What’s so great about
your business then?
Like Reply 75
4746

25. Knowing you need to expand your team is just the start of things, but with so
many different ways of attracting people now, it can seem a bit of a minefield.
I’ve talked about recruiting on values, rather than a position, but what about
where you should be looking for your new team members?
Let’s have a look at some
of the most common ways
of advertising roles and
discuss the pros and cons
for each of them.
8. Let the search begin
Direct
Posting the job listing on your own website, cross posting to your
own social media and fielding the applications yourself.
Pro
You get to control the
conversations you’re having
with people, get first impressions
for yourself, and there’s no
upfront cost.
Con
You may have to filter through
a lot of noise before you find
what you’re looking for. It could
also be quite a time-consuming
exercise. If you’re advertising
on your own site, how are you
making sure the right people
see it?
LinkedIn
The social network for business. Online networking that started
life as a job board but now is considerably more.
Pro
Has over 303 million active users,
meaning a lot of the people you’re
looking to attract might already
be here. The job advertising
platform is comprehensive. On
LinkedIn, you can build a strong
presence for potential applicants
to interact with.
Con
Posting jobs on LinkedIn
comes with a cost. The
ease in which they can
apply could lead to non-
relevant applicants.
Online Job Boards
Websites such as CV-Library, Monster, Jobsite, Total Jobs and indeed all
allow for job adverts to be posted and applications are submitted online.
Pro
A good way of reaching a wide
audience with job postings and
also for searching CV databases
for non-active and speculative
talent hunting.
Con
There are a lot of jobs
posted which can make it
hard to stand out. There’s also
cost associated with using
these websites.
the dream work
of growth
8) Let the search begin
4948

26. In addition, other solutions might also be suitable such as Job Centre Plus,
Welfare to Work providers, promoting within universities and colleges, as well
as adverts in magazines and newspapers and promoting within your own
network and contacts
So, what works best for you? It might be one of the above, or a mix of one or
two. In truth, there’s no right answer as different things will work for different
businesses and different requirements at any one time. Try using one or two
methods as a test, see how it works and try another next time.
Be a people magnet
There is, of course, an important way of recruiting that I haven’t listed above,
and that’s getting people to come to you. Wouldn’t it be great to have an
inbox full of emails from people desperate to work for your business?
But how do you go about being a people magnet?
Recruitment agencices
Companies that work to fill positions and place the right people
with the right businesses.
Pro
Takes the pressure off you having
to do the legwork yourself. Might
open you up to people you’d have
never accessed otherwise.
Con
Can have a high cost
associated, and taking so
much of the process away
from yourself may lead to
a drift from objectives or
goals and stop you controlling
the message.
It all goes back to how you market yourself and the ideas you’ll read
throughout this book. Positioning yourself as a leader and an expert in your
field, and having your name known in your industry will in turn get people to
notice you, and once those people hear just how great your ideas and ways
of working are, they will want to come and work with you.
Not only is that great because it saves you a lot of legwork and cost when
you might be looking for new people, but it shows that the people you’re
attracting already have a passion for your business that money couldn’t
possibly buy.
If you were looking for a new opportunity,
where would you look, and what would
make a business stand out to you?
Chew on this:
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27. Getting the right people on board is only the first part
of the story. High growth businesses obsess about their
people and find ways for them to have transformational
experiences. In this chapter we’ll talk about the common
pitfalls in having your inclusive and growth focused culture
disrupted that could lead to your valuable team members
moving on to pastures new. We will discuss the techniques
required to stop that happening and the tactics you need
to make sure you’re getting the most out of your team,
and give you the answer to the question What will make
our people empowered and connected?
9. The 90 day plan 54
10. Stay on track - how to be pitstop ready 58
11. Working 9 to 5 - is it a way to make a living? 62
12. Sowing the seeds of growth 66
13. See it, say it, reward it 72
14. Empower, enrich, engage 76
15. Are we on the same page? 80
16. Practise what you preach 84
17. From a microwave to a laptop 88
535352

28. So, you’ve got a new team member of staff! Hooray! But where do you go
from here?
The first few weeks of a new role can inform the rest of a team member’s
time with you, so it’s key to instill the right ideas and not allow bad habits to
set in place. How are you going to make sure this happens?
It’s important to have a plan in place, both for the onboarding and initial
induction process. It might be vastly different from person to person, but
putting a framework in place ensures consistency and makes sure you
can see progress against key goals.
What should that induction look like?
It will help to break it down into
chunks. Let’s take a look at it over
30, 60, and 90 days, and what you
want to achieve in that period.
9. The 90 day plan
• Onboarding
Does the team member have
all the tools they need to
complete their job? Put
together a checklist and make
sure they have everything from
day one, including technical
equipment and login details.
You want to make the best
impression you can, and having
people sit around waiting won’t
achieve that.
• Introductions
Make sure the team member
has met everyone they need
to meet, both internally
and externally. Give proper
introductions and make sure
they know exactly who they’ll
be dealing with on a day-to-
day basis. Note: Don’t forget
to introduce clients to the new
team member too!
• How we work
Give the new team member a
full understanding of how things
are done within your business.
How do you hold meetings?
Are there rules around phone
conversations or booking
time off? What about the way
conversations are held between
team members? These are all
important things to make sure
the team member feels welcome
and has a strong understanding
of business practices.
• Learning goals
What do you want the team
member to have learnt by
the end of the first 30 days?
Where are the gaps in the team
member’s knowledge and what
are their key requirements for
development? Put a training
plan in place to make sure
these key milestones will be hit.
30 Days
Induction
First Week
Team Lunch
Skills Matrix
5554

29. • Goal-setting
Get the team member to
think about how they want
to progress within the role. I’ll
go into this further later on
when I talk about Personal
Development Planning (PDP),
but it’s important you get the
framework in place early on to
make sure you’re progressing
team members in a way that’s
valuable to both them and
your business.
Giving your team member
the freedom to create their own
development plan, allows them
to ask themselves where they’d
like to grow, and how they’d like
to achieve it.
• Progress reviewing
Having regular meetings to
check on progress will make
sure you’re on track, and
will identify any key training
requirements or concerns.
• Learning goals
What do you want the
team member to have
learnt by the end of the
first 60 days? Think about
how you can develop them
further into the role, and
make sure this is in line
with any set PDP.
• Expanding knowledge
After two months into the
role, is it time to expand the
responsibilities of the team
member? Think about cross-
business training, or further
functions they could take
on. Does this fit with any
agreed PDP?
• Progress reviewing
Continue those check-ins
to see how they’re progressing,
keep on track and identify
those key training requirements
or concerns.
• Learning goals
What do you want the team
member to have learnt by the
end of the first 90 days? Is the
team member on track for the
knowledge they should have?
How can you now stretch that
to make sure they are not only
achieving, but growing?
60 Days 90 Days
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30. You’ve probably heard a lot about mindfulness, but what can it do for your
business, and how can it help your team perform to their best abilities?
It’s a well-established fact that people who are stressed don’t perform as
effectively, so it’s in your best interest to make sure your team are as healthy
and happy as possible. In fact, evidence suggests that 12.7% of all sickness
absence days in the UK can be attributed to mental health conditions.
So how can your business support the health (both mental and physical) and
wellbeing of your team? And how can you spot in advance when action might
need to be taken?
Mental health shouldn’t be a taboo subject, and an environment where people
feel they can’t speak openly and honestly about such things only seeks to
make the problem worse.
Fostering an environment where your team feel comfortable
enough to discuss how they are feeling, and one where they
feel valued and understood will, in some cases, alleviate the
problem before it begins.
Let’s consider
some options:
10. Stay on track -
how to be pitstop ready
Workplace training
Do you or your line managers know what to do if a team member comes to
you with a mental health problem? Or do you know how to spot the signs of
one if they aren’t presenting it to you? If the answer to this is no, then think
about what you can put in place to make sure you’re as educated as possible.
Consider management training, to give your line managers the tools they need
to adequately, and accurately provide the best assistance needed.
The UK spend £10.6bn a year on staff being out of work due to sickness, as
well as £21.2bn in reduced productivity. Investing in workplace training could
give you a large saving in the long run.
Assessments
There are many companies that, alongside training, will provide assessments
for your current team. Using questionnaires and activities can help you
ascertain any current issues that might be affecting your team, and
address them.
Promote a healthy environment
Mental health in the workplace begins with you. By embedding mental
wellness as a key part of your culture you’re empowering people to take
control of their own mental wellbeing, and feel open about discussing issues
when they may arise.
STOP
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31. Think About
• Work / life balance
Are you making sure
your team are striking
the right balance? Make
sure they’re switching off
when they should be and
feel empowered enough
to focus on what is most
important to them in any
given moment.
• Keeping time
Are people leaving on time
or regularly staying late?
Staying late should be the
exception not the norm.
• Workload
Do people have the right
amount of work? Are you
seeing them struggle to
complete all their tasks?
• Team activities
Do you plan activities
for your team outside of
work? Think about holding
activities such as games,
outings, and fun days.
Is there anyone in your business
who could lead on and promote the
wellbeing agenda in your business?
Chew on this:
1 in 6
people experience
mental health issues.
of all sickness absence
days in the UK are attributed
to mental health conditions.
12.7%
of managers
receive any sort
of training on
team wellbeing.
Only 22%
of managers
agree what they
do affects the
wellbeing of
their team.
91%
3 in 5
people experience
mental health issues
due to work.
Less
than half
of people state
they would feel
comfortable talking to
their manager about
mental health issues.
6160

32. After spending time and resources
attracting the best team to your business,
your next mission is to retain them.
Retention can save you a lot of money
in the long term, with big firms such as
Deloitte saving $41.5m in team retention
turnover costs by retaining team
members who would have otherwise
left if flexible work arrangements were
not made available to them.
The current job market is full of a
workforce that no longer wants to stay in
one job for more than two years. So, how
do you retain them?
Offer them flexibility. In return, they will
be engaged and productive, both of
which are beneficial for your business.
With a change of structure, instead of
wanting to move, they will be offered the
flexibility they need right at their doorstep
– from flexible working hours to flexible
working arrangements.
So, how else can flexibility help not only
your team, but your business overall?
11. Working 9 to 5 - is it a
way to make a living?
Increased productivity
If a team member is constantly trying to hurry out of work to avoid rush
hour traffic, they have already lost ten to twenty minutes of productivity.
With flexibility at your workplace, your team are in control of their time,
empowering them with the choice to leave before or after rush hour,
enabling them to not waste time, and not rush their last email or report.
Your business benefits from this too as you can be sure that you will be
consistently delivering excellent results for your clients and customers. With
time management being in the hands of your team, you allow them to choose
their most productive schedule as opposed to a standard nine to five job.
Trust
Flexibility makes your team feel trusted; after all, you’re letting them take
charge of a big decision about when and where they work. It is self-motivating
and a reason to want to work, which makes your team more productive in
general, as opposed to just turning up to work because their contract states
for them to do so and sitting in their seat twiddling their thumbs.
It also gives them a sense of comfort and independence to know that you
aren’t constantly watching them when they walk through the door five
minutes late because they missed their bus. They know that as long as they
get their work done to the best of their ability, there is no need to worry. Trust
is built over time, and works both ways. Flexible working is just one way to let
your team know that you have faith in them and the decisions they make.
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33. Creativity
With more flexibility, your team are happy and motivated, which is an
ideal mood to be creative! They are mentally available to offer valuable
contributions and think outside the box, which is extremely helpful for
your business to stay ahead of your competitors.
Flexibility means giving your team the chance to work where they feel most
comfortable for the task they are carrying out. This could be anywhere other
than your offices; from a park, a café, or their own home. If that is where they
feel like they will be able to carry out their work to the best of their ability,
then why make them sit at their office desks where they won’t be able to
give 100%?
Work/life choice
Work/life choice empowers an individual to focus on what is important
to them at any given moment. Giving your team this choice is extremely
important in allowing them to switch off every now and then and relax;
whether it is some time to unwind on their own, or spending time with their
family and friends. Flexibility allows them to do this perfectly, by ensuring
that they get all of their work done to make it in time for the shows, concerts
or flights they plan together. By restricting their ability to spend time
with loved ones, their happiness will slowly decrease and with it, so will
productivity and accuracy.
Reduced stress
Each team member’s mental health is key for them to be able to be
productive at work, and flexible working hours is one way to ensure your team
are looked after. This could be from being able to go for health check-ups, to
working from home while recovering from an injury. Looking after your team
will make them want to stay with you and do their very best to help your
business succeed.
So now you know how flexibility
can help you retain your team, how
flexible is your business? Can you
be more flexible?
Change your structure and see just
how flexible you need to be to see
an increase in productivity flood
through your doors.
I talked in the second Canny
Bites book about ‘work/life
choice’ in Bite 50: ‘It’s not
about work/life balance, it’s
about work/life choice’. I’d
recommend checking this Bite
out, in addition to Stephen
Covey’s ‘The 7 Habits of Highly
Effective People’, where he
shares a great example of
work/life choice.
More
Reading:
How flexible do you need to be to
increase your businesses productivity?
Chew on this:
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34. Your team is in place and performing as they should be. Things are running
smoothly, but what happens next? If you want to grow your business, then
your team needs to grow in their knowledge, skills and expertise.
Team development can seem like a huge investment in both time and money,
but it doesn’t have to be. With the right planning, team development can be,
and should be, part of your day-to-day activities.
Team development starts with the individual. Each member of your team,
whether junior or senior, should have a personal development plan (PDP).
A PDP is a tool to help each member of your team focus on progressing
and improving their skills on an ongoing basis. As a manager, it’s your
responsibility to support each team member in creating a PDP that will
help them move from one specific point to another.
Let’s look at an example.
A junior member of your team has just passed their probation and it’s time
for them to develop their first PDP. To kickstart proceedings, reflect on these
three very simple, but very important, words.
Be. Do. Have.
What does the team member want to ‘have’? This question will help form their
personal goals. Do they want to ‘have’ a new car, for example, or ‘have’ more
time to spend with their family? It’s crucial that a PDP starts with personal
goals as these are the motivators for the individual to develop and get better.
Helping your team to achieve their personal goals and have a positive impact
12. Sowing the
seeds of growth
on their lives will in turn have a positive impact on the business. Looking after
your team will mean they look after business.
Once the team member has established what they want to ‘have’, they will
need to consider what they need to ‘be’ and what they need to ‘do’ in order
to achieve their personal goals. What do they need to ‘be’ and ‘do’ to move
to the next step? How can they help the business so the business can help
them? The team member should identify a ‘headline work goal’ - a measurable
objective for their work performance over the coming year. This is about
identifying a clear, achievable target, which is going to mean that in the next
12 months the team member will have achieved something for the business
which will mean the business can help them achieve their personal goals.
Now, how’s that junior team member’s PDP shaping up? In a year’s time, they
want to have booked a holiday to New York for a week and also buy their first
car so they can finally leave their crowded train commute behind. In order to
‘have’ these things, they’ve identified that they will need a promotion and a
pay rise of at least £2,000 per year.
So far, so good for them. How does helping them go on a holiday of a lifetime
and increasing their salary help your business grow? The next part of the PDP
is crucial. You will now work with the team member to identify SMART work
goals - the things that the team member needs to ‘be’ and ‘do’ to get better
at their job and therefore help the business grow through the addition of new
skills and expertise.
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35. In order to create the SMART work goals, the team member should
consider the following:
• Where are my gaps? What do I need to improve in order to have
an impact on the business and achieve my personal goals?
• What core skill could I work on to help me get better at my job?
• What do I need to do over the next 3 months to help me towards
my headline goal and personal goals?
A 12-month goal can seem daunting and intangible, so it’s key the SMART
goals break the headline goal down into manageable 3-month chunks. What
progress can be made over the next quarter to move towards the overall goal?
As a manager, you should help the team member identify different ways of
improving their skills and expertise.
Part of this is identifying how they learn best. Are they a reader or do they
learn more through watching videos? Would external courses benefit them
or do they learn more through their peers? What are they already doing as
part of their role that fits with their PDP, and could they do more of it in
order to improve?
Following your discussion, the team member should go away and write up
their PDP, before presenting to you for sign-off. Each team member’s PDP
should fill you with confidence that their development is going to have a
positive impact on the business.
Once you and your team member are happy with their PDP, the team member
should book in time with you every six weeks or so to check in on progress.
It’s important to schedule these regular check-ins to ensure everything is
moving in the direction you expect it to.
Helping your people grow is a surefire way to help your business grow. By
creating a PDP for each team member, you’re demonstrating that you see
them developing within your business and you feel they are an integral part
of the team.
Can your business really grow if your
team aren’t always getting better?
Chew on this:
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36. PDP Framework
3-5 Personal Goals
• What do I want to achieve personally?
• What will I need to achieve these goals?
• Why are these goals important to me?
The structure should look like this:
My Gap
• Action for improvement
• Action for improvement
• Action for improvement
These goals may look further to the future (i.e. in the next 3 years, I will…)
but should all be goals that you can have an impact on now. As with any other
goals we set, they need to be SMART. Consider elements such as the impact
they will have on your finances, your time, your relationships etc.
Buy a car by December 2020. In order to
do this, I will need to increase my wages by
xx per month so I can save xx per month.
This is important to me because...
Example
Be promoted to xx and be managing xx
of revenue per month by xx.
Example
The bulk of your PDP will centre around 3-5 Focuses that will help
you towards your headline goal and personal goals. Ask yourself
the following…
• Where are my gaps? What do I need to improve in order to
have an impact on the business and achieve my personal goals?
• What core skill could I work on to help me get better at my job?
• What do I need to do over the next 3 months to help me
towards my headline goal and personal goals?
Over the next 3 months, I will…
• SMART goal
• SMART goal
• SMART goal
To create your Headline Goal, you then need to ask yourself
the following…
• What do I need to be and what do I need to do over the
next 6-12 months to have an impact on the business?
• What impact do I need to have on the business to help me
achieve my personal goals?
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37. We all want to be rewarded and recognised, but what are the drivers for this
and more importantly what are the long-term benefits for your business?
At the heart of it, noticing, appreciating and rewarding your team helps
keep them happy, and a happy team member works more effectively, more
creatively, and is much more likely to stay long-term within your business.
If you have good people, you want to nurture them, you want them to grow,
and part of that comes with recognising achievements and celebrating them.
But you’re busy, right? Too busy to celebrate ‘people just doing their jobs’.
This doesn’t have to be the case.
Without recognising achievement, both small and large, your team members
will soon start to feel undervalued and taken for granted, and nobody wants
to feel that way. It won’t be too long before they start changing their attitudes
and behaviours towards you and the business, and eventually start looking for
opportunities somewhere they will feel more valued and appreciated.
So, how are you going to recognise achievement, and what are you going
to put in place to make sure it’s rewarded?
Constant recognition and valued feedback
What makes you feel like there’s a job well done? Is it just knowing you’ve
achieved a personal goal, or is it when other people recognise it too? And
what does that recognition do to fuel your enthusiasm for your next piece
of work?
13. See it, say it, reward it
It’s really easy to let constant
recognition be something that we
just forget to do. People just get on
with their jobs, but that core work is
as important, if not more important,
than anything else your team could
be doing, so why aren’t you valuing
strengthening and celebrating that?
It’s undeniably difficult to work out
how you’re going to reward everyday
success, but it’s also undeniably
important. Recognition and feedback
will go a long way towards effectiveness.
So, what can you do?
Shout about it! - Do you have regular team
meetings, newsletters or email roundups? Think
about adding a section to them where you celebrate
the success stories of your team members. Has someone
gone above and beyond? Are figures looking good and you’ve
been making great sales? Whatever your business is, you can
make this work for you.
You could even take this a little further and consider
an award. Things like ‘team member of the month’
aren’t new ideas, but they have been around
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38. Write a list of 5 ways you’d like to be
rewarded, and then see how they fit your
business. Can you reward people in ways that
will have minimal cost to your business?
Task
for a long time because they work, and make people feel valued. That isn’t
to say you have to do the same old thing, but think about making the same
idea more current and something that fits with your workplace culture.
Give valued feedback! - When people are doing well at work, but never
get any positive reinforcement, they often feel less encouraged to achieve.
This can set people off into a cycle of not only not striving for better, but
eventually underperforming. But this doesn’t need to be too alarming, and
it’s something you can easily combat by making sure you’re giving feedback
when required. This sort of recognition isn’t always about cheering for good
work, but rather about the importance of open and honest communication to
make sure your team feel they are valued, and their voice is heard.
If someone is doing a good job, tell them! If you aren’t telling them, why not?
Reward
Everyone loves a reward, but it’s something that can come in many guises.
Have a look and see what you think might fit with your business. Don’t forget
that often it’s the simple stuff that can have more impact, rather than always
trying to think of really creative rewards. The key here is understanding the
drivers involved.
Bonuses
Nights out
Gifts
What does it mean to you to
be recognised for good work?
Chew on this:
Team
lunches
Away
days
Time off or
leaving early
Team
awards
Casual
days
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39. Engagement within a workplace is often confused with fun and activities.
It is therefore often perceived by the number of social gatherings you go
on, or the number of enjoyable activities that take place within your work
environment, such as whether you have a ping pong table or a drinks trolley
on Friday afternoons. Now, although these are all great ways for your team
to get to know one another, and encourage creativity within the team, it
is important to understand that there are other ways of making your team
engage more at work.
So, how else can you engage your team members?
The key aspect to remember here is that an engaged team are ready to go
the extra mile, and won’t wait to be told to do something. They will instead do
something because they genuinely want to - such as staying late to finish a
project, or going above and beyond their job responsibilities.
14. Empower,
enrich, engage
Strong connections
Team members that feel a sense of connection to an aspect of your business,
such as their manager, a fellow team member, or the overall business vision
and culture, are more likely to want to be engaged in the day-to-day activity
of the business. The connection can be made through showing that you care
for your team. Something as simple as encouraging them to take breaks, for
example, would show that you want what is best for their overall health in
the long-term, as opposed to burning them out for a quick profit.
Make their opinion matter
Feedback. The one word that can change team engagement within a
workplace. From small questions such as ‘What does the team want to
order for lunch?’ to bigger decisions such as, ‘What office design concept
do you think will look best?’. By asking for their involvement on these matters,
you can demonstrate to your team that their opinion matters. If your team
feel they aren’t being listened to, they may feel trapped - reducing creativity,
productivity, and essentially, overall revenue.
Inclusion
This ties in with how included they feel within the business. If the business has
a win, do all members of your team feel like they have contributed to that win?
If not, it may not be because they do not care about the success, but instead
because they are not aware of the importance it brings to the business. If you
bring on a new client, for example, are you sharing how much the monthly
revenue will be, or simply stating that a new client will be starting with you
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40. How will you make sure all of
your team are equally engaged?
Chew on this:
next month? How can your team be excited and celebrate a new client if
they do not know the benefits this new client will bring the business?
By making each member of your team feel personally included, you are
making them want to be a part of the successes and allowing them to strive
to be celebrated themselves. Whether this is by hitting targets or bringing in
new clients, either way it will benefit your business in a positive manner.
Career growth
What are you doing to ensure that you are bringing people along in your
business? No one wants to be left behind their colleagues, and this correlates
with engagement. If you have two team members at the same level fighting to
prove themselves, they are automatically engaged with winning, making them
inclined to be more productive. However, on the other side of the spectrum,
there may be a team member with no competition, and therefore no ambition
to grow, to train or to efficiently complete their tasks. They are effectively
less engaged. How do you turn this around without the need to hire another
person to compete with them? Find out what it is that drove them to be
where they are in their career, see where they want to be in five years’ time
and help them achieve that. Make them excited to come to work, to be able to
learn and accomplish their overall goals, which consequently will assist your
business in achieving its goals.
Clarifying goals
Over time, each team member’s career goals may become unclear, or may
steer off course. It is therefore important to clarify these goals with each team
member regularly, by checking in to offer any assistance or guidance they may
need. If a team member feels that their goals are no longer achievable, you will
more often than not find them less engaged with their work and the overall
success of the business. Boosting your team’s morale by helping them achieve
their goals will increase their productivity levels and their overall engagement
within the business.
Can engagement
be measured?
Engagement is hard
to measure directly. It is
instead correlated with the
satisfaction of your team at
work, and how motivated
they are to come to work
each day. Ask yourself this
- what motivates your team
to come to work each day,
and how can you improve
this further?
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41. People leave managers, not companies.
Marcus Buckingham - motivational speaker business consultant.
Ask most people why they left their previous jobs and what do you expect the
answer would be? Is it a lack of progression? Wanting more money? Or is it
that they just didn’t get on with the business itself?
More often than not, people leave one job and go on to do the same job for a
different business. It clearly isn’t the job itself that’s the problem, so why did
their previous business lose them?
You don’t have to speak to many people to hear a horror story about a
former manager, with complaints ranging from people who didn’t listen, to
micromanaging, and lack of appreciation. It isn’t hard to see what the biggest
factor is that leads people to leave jobs, and what the trigger is to make
people start looking for new jobs in the first place.
It’s people.
People leave people. Not jobs.
You’re at work more than any other place in your life. You spend more
time with your colleagues and managers than you do with your partner or
friends. So, it’s key to make sure those relationships don’t turn sour. The most
important of these relationships are the ones we have with our managers and
direct reports.
15. Are we on
the same page?
The way people are treated by their line managers has a huge direct impact
on productivity. This not only massively impacts the day-to-day effectiveness
of team members, but their life cycle within a business.
How do you maintain a healthy relationship with the people you manage? And
how do you plan to work as effectively as possible? Let’s have a look at some
common triggers and tools you might want to consider using.
Communication
Poor communication is one of
the biggest causes of workplace
stress. It isn’t just what is
communicated that needs to
be considered, but how we
communicate the messages
we’re trying to get across.
Good communication can
make or break any situation.
It can stop potential conflict
before it begins. It’s not a
crime to disagree with people,
but the way in which those
disagreements are handled
could prevent conflict.
Consider how you like to be
communicated with. Does this
match how your direct reports
“ “
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42. How would you react if a team
member came to you with a problem
they have with their manager?
Chew on this:
effective, but takes you away from more important work you should be doing.
If you’re doing their job, what’s their role?
I talk a little more about recognition in Bite 13: See it, say it, reward it, but think
too about how you are recognising your team’s achievements. Are they feeling
appreciated? Do they feel listened to? If your team don’t feel you are receptive
to their issues, then they might not come to you with them at all.
Do you know what’s going on in your workplace?
DISC
Assessment
would want to be communicated with, and is there a chance for potential
conflict where those methods might clash? By considering not only how we
deliver information, but how people want to receive it, we can adopt
a much more empathetic and effective way of communication.
But how can you know how people want information delivered? What steps
can you take to understand how best to communicate?
The DISC behavioural assessment tool is based on the DISC theory of
psychologist, William Moulton Marston. This theory is based on categorising
into four personality traits: Dominance (D), Influence (I), Steadiness (S), and
Conscientiousness (C). Using multiple choice questions, a DISC assessment
can create a personal profile which can be used to ascertain personality types.
Using a DISC assessment, team members can not only understand how their
personality affects the way they work, but how the personality of those they
work with affects how communication is best delivered. By gaining a better
understanding of those around you, and having a more empathetic approach,
the seeds of potential discontent can be stopped before they start to grow.
What’s my style?
What does it mean to you to manage people? Have you thought about what
your style is? How would you like to be managed? It’s important that you have
trust in your team. Micromanagement not only leads to your team being less
Management Style
Trust
Consciousness Awareness
Empathy
Listening Consideration
Showing appreciation
8382

43. Do as I say, not as I do!
- Frankly, it’s a recipe for disaster.
One of the easiest ways to lose people
is by not practising what you preach. If
you’ve read previous Canny Bites books,
you’ll have seen me talk a little about
businesses saying what they do and
then not doing what they say before.
See Canny Bites Book 1, Bite 41: How
to walk the talk.
Customers feel secure when they
believe a business will do as it says,
and it’s reassuring to be able to
understand what a business is and
does without having to spend time
investigating the truth behind the
fancy words.
The same thing goes for team members.
16. Practise what
you preach
Living by your values
Having a defined set of values is all well and good as long as you live by them.
But if you don’t embed your values into your everyday behaviours, then they
aren’t worth the paper they are printed on.
You set your values because they are the key defining behaviours that you
believe matter most to you and your business. Have a good, strong set of
values and it shouldn’t be too difficult to get your team living by them too.
But drift away from one of your values, and you’ll soon have your team drifting
too, and like a snowball effect, one thing will follow the other and you’ll find
people working in complete opposition to the ideals you want them to uphold.
If there’s a value you’ve stopped living by, stop and think why. Is it because
it no longer fits your business? And if so, maybe you need to re-evaluate the
values you have in place. Or maybe it’s because you’re cutting corners and
not working as you would expect others to. If that’s the case, how could you
expect your team to live to a standard you aren’t even living to yourself?
Maintaining culture
Holding onto the culture you want for your business can be a difficult thing.
The more you grow, the more people you’ll add and the less of a grip you’ll
have on the overall culture of your business. It sounds a bit frightening, I
know, but it doesn’t have to be.
Remember, culture is something that you should live and breathe. It should be
continuously cultivated and protected., and should be present in the people
you hire and the way you work.
“
Things you need in
“
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44. How much trust would you have
in a business that fails to live by
its values?
Chew on this:
The way you behave is your culture, no matter what you say it is. Remember,
the majority of culture rules are unwritten
Do you walk the walk or just talk the talk?
The last thing you want is for your team to feel that they’ve been deceived.
You don’t want people to join your business based on your values or an
outward impression you give of the things that matter to you, and your ways
of working, only to find that in truth they’re little more than ideals. It wouldn’t
be hard to see why those people might feel they’ve had the rug pulled from
beneath them.
Before you think about making big statements of what you can do for
your team, and the way you’ll work, think about if these are realistic for your
business. If they aren’t things you think you could stick to, then you shouldn’t
be saying you will.
Be what you want to see
If you want people to perform tasks a certain way, behave a certain way, or
work to a certain standard, the easiest way to get people adopting those
practices is for them to see it in others. Behaviours should be lived from the
top down, and that starts with you, your directors, and your line managers.
Have a look at your current behaviours and see
if they match what you set them out to be. Did
you tell people they can work flexibly but in
truth expect them to be in the office 9-5?
What needs to change?
Task
Values Award
A good way of both making sure your team stay true to your values (and
that includes you), and making sure you celebrate what people do, would
be to have a Values Award. This is something you could award weekly or
monthly to the member of your team that has most demonstrated living by
your values. Awards like this help people feel recognised, and also lead them
to consider if their actions are representing the business’s values.
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45. We know you want to have the most effective workplace with the most
effective people. So, it’s important to recognise the hurdles and pitfalls that
could get in the way of your team working to their best abilities, or dread the
thought, working at all!
One of the largest stressors in the workplace is not having the right equipment
to do the job. It’s a problem that spans just about every working environment,
from warehouses to retail to offices. Every job will have certain tools needed
to make sure tasks can be done both correctly and effectively.
Using the right tools might sound obvious, but what does it mean to you? It
isn’t just about the things we can see like computers or tills, but the things we
use all the time without thinking about it. Software programmes and online
tools can be just as important.
The basics
Before you start thinking about exactly what you need, think about your
environment. The Government has guidelines on everything from ideal
temperatures, to lighting, to toilet and kitchen provisions. By making your
workplace a comfortable environment with the necessary amenities, you’ll
give your team a more satisfying place to work, which in turn will make them
both happier and more effective.
17. From a microwave
to a laptop
Equipment
Before any work takes place, you need to consider if people have the right
equipment to do the job. In an office, it could be whether they have the right
type of computer with enough memory for the task they need. Do your team
work remotely or hot desk? Then maybe they’ll need a laptop instead of a
desktop. Ensuring they have the right equipment is one of the biggest
hurdles to cross.
You can find out more about workplace
guidelines at Worksmart online here -
bit.ly/health-and-safety-regulations
Find
out more
Remember, anyone regularly using a
display screen should be undertaking a DSE
assessment, and provided regular eye tests by
their employer. More information is available
at the HSE www.hse.gov.uk/msd/dse/
Find
out more
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46. What tools do you need to do
your job? How difficult would it
be if those tools were removed?
Chew on this:
Software
The software we use can have a massive impact on the work we do, and
having the wrong or outdated software can be a big stressor in the workplace.
But equally, using the right software can be one of the easiest and quickest
ways to increase productivity and performance.
It’s also no longer just about the things you install on a computer or system.
There are online tools that cover just about every task you could think of;
from CRM systems, to HR and accounting tools, project and file management.
There are constantly new tools being made available to us, and it can be a bit
of a minefield knowing what to try and what not to. Whatever you need to
do, there’s something out there to do it. It may take some trial and error to
make sure you’re using the best tools for the job, but trying new avenues and
ways to constantly improve effectiveness can give your business more time to
spend on generating further revenue.
Imagine you own a busy restaurant and you use traditional pads and pens to
take orders and get them to the kitchens. This method might be cheap, but is
it effective? Relying on people writing everything down can lead to mistakes
being made, tickets being lost, and extra time needed to make sure the tickets
get to the kitchen.
Now, let’s look at a way technology could help. By using an effective point of
sale system, you could take electronic orders at the table, have those orders
go directly to the kitchen, and even have it automatically produce a bill that
could connect with your accounting software.
Using a tool like this will have an initial cost outlay, but it’ll save you time,
save you money, and make your team both happier and more effective.
Getting it right
Take a look at your workplace and the tools you
have in place. Are they still fit for purpose? Are
you using too many things to perform one task
when one could be more efficient?
Task:
Audit
• Environment
Is your workplace
comfortable and safe?
Have risk assessments
been carried out
where necessary?
Are electricals tested
and do amenities
meet guidelines?
• Equipment
What are you using?
Is it up to date? Does
anything need servicing
or improving? Do
your team have what
they need?
• Software
What software are
you using? Make a list
of every item you use or
invest in. Are they right
for your business?
Could you find
something more
appropriate? 9190

47. Every successful organisation wants to grow, but what
strategies do you have in place to make sure you thrive?
A lack of growth will leave you stagnant as the world
moves on around you and you’re left behind. This chapter
will dig into how to make sure you embed a growth
mindset into your business. Using goal-setting and skill
development, you can nurture both your team and your
business and set yourself on the path to success.
18. The learning cycle 94
19. Tailor Your Coaching - One size doesn’t fit all 98
20. Are you SMART enough? 102
21. We’re all in this together 106
22. Ready, set, grow 110
23. Rock sponge 114
24. Team work makes the dream work 118
25. The Power of Networking 122
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