Struggle to recruit good team members?

So one thing that many business owners, and accounting firm owners struggle with is people. Attracting the right talent, and when you do get the right talent in, retaining your high performers, and maximizing everyone's potential. It's one of those top three challenges that I hear time and time again from accounting firm owners, that we just can't find the right people, and when we do, they end up leaving after we train them.

So what is the secret source with regards to attracting the best talent and keeping them, and keeping people motivated? Well, a couple of things that I've learned over the years from people like, Simon Sinek, is that there are two things, which if we get right as the leaders, as the business owners in our organization, then that will go a long way towards building the high performance team that we all want. And those two things are trust and empathy.

The more we trust our people, the more we give them that autonomy to work independently, to be able to use their own common sense, and their experience and their expertise to manage client relationships, to get things done without constant micromanagement, the trust to be able to work when, where and how they want, that goes a long way towards keeping people motivated, interested, attaching themselves to your higher purpose.

And the other is empathy. Now this empathy is big, and it's been lacking in many corporate organizations since the heydays of the eighties when the gurus came up with the concept of a company being to maximize shareholder value, which kind of put profit before purpose and before people. When actually, if we say that our people are the most important asset in our organization, then we need to give them that empathy. We need to treat them like family. Simon Sinek uses the analogy, or the example, that he got from the Marines, that when he talks to the Marines as to why the Marines go into battle knowing that they're potentially entering a suicide mission, the answer that he gets back when he speaks to them, is that, because they would have done it for me. So that concept of safety and belonging, that your colleague has your back, the fact that your team member would do something for you, and that's why you are going out of your way for them.

So creating that culture where you create that sense of belonging, that attachment to each other, where everybody has each other's back, that is powerful. That is what makes high performing teams. That is what makes your good people stick with you for longer.

You treat people like a family that you might not always like your family members, your children, but you will always love them. And so far as love is there and trust is there, and empathy is there, then you will be able to build a high performing team, and attract the best talent and retain your high performers together with maximizing everyone's potential.