Welcome to episode six today's topic is who should I hire. And typically people will talk about wanting to hire a specific job. And I want to talk to you about two different options of how you can think about this. So often people will say, I want to hire a graduate engineer. Or I want to hire a virtual assistant.
And these focus on a predesigned set of tasks that that person will do. And I want to show you two alternatives that focus on using a strengths based approach. If you're not familiar with strengths, you should go back to. Episode two, where I talk about how you can utilize your strengths. To. I have a better outcome for yourself and for your team.
So when people are working in the areas that they love and it's their genius zone. They are more fulfilled in what they do and get more enjoyment. So you'll get more out your team doing it this way. So let's look at alternative number one, and this focuses on a skill and will matrix. So if you imagine getting an X and Y axis and you put skill on one and will on the other.
And you then get four boxes. So have a think about the tasks that you do and where they fit in. Your skill and a will factors. So let's say high skill and high will is the top right hand corner of this four box. And for me, what hit fits into a high. Skill and a high will is my leadership coaching is something that I love doing. I'm very competent at it. So I have a high skill. And I have a big desire for it. So a high willingness. That is a job that would always fit within. What I am doing because it is in that sweet spot of high skill and high, will, will, can also be thought of as motivation.
For something that is a high skill for me. Is also writing. I'm quite a good writer, but I can tell you, I have a very low willingness or very low motivation for it. So I'm not so great at doing case studies or writing blogs I'm much better at talking, which is why this is a podcast that is automatically transcribed rather than actually writing. But that fits in the bottom right-hand corner, high skill low will. So this is something that over time I have actually outsourced. But I'll get to that in a second. Let's think about low skill and high willingness. For me, it's something I'm not very good at. But I really enjoy his design. I love hopping into Canva so you can see I'm not a highly skilled design person, because I didn't say I'm a Photoshop or something like that. But I love hopping into Canva and designing workbooks and slides because it helps me think. Now, because that is a low skill but a high willingness, it's something that I can delegate over time. Or if I'm in a pinch because I know someone else would do a very good job at it. But when there is time and it's something that I can develop I do like to do that. Now the dark zone, which is the bottom left hand corner, which is low skill and low motivation low willingness. That is the area. When you're looking at who you. I should hire. You should look at that area first. So for. To me, that is things like podcast editing. It is social media. It's something that I am not good at. And I have no motivation for, so in that bottom left hand corner.
When you're thinking about who you should hire work at your skills and your willingness and then start in that bottom left-hand corner of who you should hire to join your team. So, for example, if you were thinking, if you're we're working in engineering, something that might fit into that category. You might not be great at writing reports. It might be something that you have a low skill or a low motivation for, or you might be something that you are highly skilled at, but you have low motivation for, so when it fits in that category, it's also something you consider when you are looking to hire.
What you might find if you are more senior engineered that you love working with clients. And you love that initial discovery phase. It could be high skill high will you want to keep that in your particular role.
The second alternative to hiring a specific role. Is to think about the idea of an ideal day.
What goes goes into a day that makes it a great day for you. You can map this out and thinking, well, is it talking with clients? Is it designing reports? Is it pulling together. Data, like, is it a research role and designing what your ideal day would look like, because once you have a look at that, you can then see, well, what's not in there? I know for a lot of people, the idea of bookkeeping is not in their ideal day. So that is something that when you're looking at hiring you. Might want to outsource that, or you might want to bring someone into the team that does that as a role. I would say accounting is actually something I am quite good at. And. I have a surprising motivation for it. And I suppose I studied it throughout university. As part of my business degree. So it's not something that I delegate. I have someone that does my tax accounting. That is something I am not skilled and I don't have motivation for but my day-to-day accounting I do myself. So there are two ways you can think about who you should hire. The skill will matrix and that ideal day. As I said, jump back to episode two about strengths. If you'd like to understand this particular approach. And if you have a small business and you want to understand better about who you should go about hiring. There is a free mini course that goes through five questions to ask yourself prior to hiring your first or next team member. And there's a five minute video in these five different questions that they can help you map out. Well, Am I ready to hire and who should I hire.