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Better Business, Better Life – Issue 118
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I’m writing this as I sit in the airport lounge in Brisbane, waiting for my connecting flight to Cairns. It turns out you can’t fly direct to Cairns on a Monday & as I wanted to be home on Sunday with the family & in Cairns before Tuesday for the Family Business Conference; I am now in the lounge, waiting for my delayed flight!
The good news is that I took the spare time to book a last-minute diving day on the Great Barrier Reef, and I am very excited about it. This is super special for me as this is where I did my first introductory dive many years ago. This led to my first PADI certification a few years later.
Now that I have my PADI Advanced Open Water Divers Licence, and of course, I’ve just spent two afternoons diving in Cebu last week, it will be interesting to see how I find revisiting the Barrier.
I’ll probably be attending the Family Business Conference opening event with salty, curly hair, but it’s worth it to squeeze this in.
It also means I have time to write this a few days early, so Jen, my VA, will be happy too!
This week, I want to share with you some real-life stories about people overcomplicating job descriptions, job adverts, etc & how you can simplify this & make it easy & more fun for you & your employees.
BUSINESS TOOLS & REAL-LIFE LESSONS
I don’t know why we do this, but we tend to overcomplicate job descriptions & we design the most boring job adverts.
The amount of times that clients have come to me & said, “We just don’t know where to start with our job descriptions”, or they present me with a 4 page boring as batshit job description that doesn’t come close to the culture I know exists in their business, is scary!
From experience, I have found that the more you put into a job description, the more likely you’ll have issues down the track. KISS!
And let’s not get started on job adverts. Why do people start with the key skills that you need? I believe that you can teach anyone anything if they have the right attitude. But more importantly, you want people who share your core values so that they ‘fit’ into your business.
Your job advert should be designed to show off your personality & your culture & it should be written in a way to scare the wrong people off as much as it is to attract the right people.
So, just like everything else in EOS, you want to simplify things & have some fun with it.
If you’re using EOS, then you’ve already written most of the job description & job advert on your Accountability Chart, your V/TO & your Scorecard, so why reinvent the wheel?
The best JD should be no more than 2 pages & contains these key things:
- Your company core values & core focus / niche (from your V/TO)
- Your Target Market clients that you work with (from your V/TO)
- The accountabilities of the role – no more than 5-6 bullet points (from the Accountability chart)
- The processes they’ll need to love (from your Core Processes)
- The measurables that they will be measured on (from the Scorecard)
- Something about how you embrace EOS & what that means for them. (NOTE: This can just be copied from Sara’s article & add your own flavour to it – then just rinse & repeat for all future JDs)
The first article below by my colleague Sara B Stern is my favourite on how to put the job description together. Read the full article here.
As Sara says, “No word salad, no lost weekends agonizing over meaningless details. Regain hours (or weeks!) of productivity working on the most important tasks to move your business forward.”
And take a look at this advert for a possibly considered ‘boring’ SEO job to see how they use their values (without spelling them out) in their job advert to repel the wrong people & attract the right people. Check it here.
Thanks to my friend, Richard Conway, who shared this with me years ago!
I took a similar approach when I was employing an assistant earlier last year. Check here.
You’ll either read it & say, “Hell yeah, I want to work there,” or “Not for me”… Remember, it is either a Hell Yeah or a Hell No – there is no in-between in life, so either way is good!
My desperate plea to you (using a Gino Wickman-ism) is not to actually use the exact core values in the job description. You’ll find that people will prepare canned answers to tell you how much they love the core values & how well they fit & they’re likely all BS.
I think it’s better to allude to the Culture & then ask them some tough questions in the interview to see if they genuinely live & breath the core values.
I’ll cover off more on this next time, as it’s another of the things I get passionate about!
Getting the Right People in the Right Seats starts at job advert, interview & job description time, so go out there & start attracting the Right People 💖
PS: If you’ve got this far, I’d love you to reply to me & tell me how you feel about me adding back in some of my own stories each fortnight. I took it out on the advice of someone but I’ve had a few emails saying that you missed it, so I’m trialling adding it back in. I am happy to go with whatever works for you but I don’t know if you don’t tell me… Plus I like talking to my newsletter readers!
LINKS TO USEFUL STUFF
This section gives you quick access to 9 links - to articles, blogs, podcasts & stuff that will help you to create a better business & lead a better life.
Better Business Articles
Create Job Roles with Your Accountability Chart
Discover how accountability charts streamline JDs.
Review Your Job Roles Daily to get best results
Enhance productivity with daily assessments.
Podcasts to Listen to
Keep it Simple with Shelley Woodrow
Simplify and optimise your life with EOS to cut through complexity.
The Missing Piece to Work-Life Balance
Unlock a simple life through strategic organisational development.
Beyond Burnout with Suzi McAlpine
Master essential leadership tools for effective role management.
Better Life Articles
MEET OUR TEAM
In this section, I introduce the team & our Trusted Partners.
This week, I’m thrilled to talk about Justine Parsons, one of our long-term Trusted Partners. She’s the brains behind Your VA, a Kiwi business that’s been around for over 24 years!
Your VA delivers top-notch support for entrepreneurs through her team of NZ-based VAs & VBMs. That’s Virtual Assistants & Virtual Business Managers who specialise in supporting businesses, especially those that run on EOS.
We share a common desire to help entrepreneurs & as it turns out, a common love of horses!
How do you help people?
We help business owners and their teams spend more time working in their zone of genius by doing those tasks they can’t do, don’t do, and shouldn’t do.
Why did you get into what you are doing?
I was made redundant while on maternity leave 25 years ago and wanted to be my own boss. Little did I know that I would be the bossiest boss I’d ever worked for!Looking for business ideas I came across the concept of a virtual assistant, just starting to get traction in the States. Bing!It ticked my boxes of working from home, serving others, and it played to my strengths. So, Your Virtual Assistant was born.
What do you love about it?
Absolutely everything. From the team I’m so proud to work with to the clients we’re able to make a difference for. Seeing the transformation from that initial discovery call with an overwhelmed, buried in the weeds, business owner to a client who feels supported and passionate about what they’re now able to work on.
What do you do in your spare time, pursuing other passions?
My passion is recycling glass (bottles, sea glass) into pendants with the help of my trusty Dremel. We live by the beach so a non-negotiable for me is starting my day walking Bayley, our German shepherd, along the shore looking for treasures and laughing at his antics.
Tell us something that very few people know about you?
I left home at 15 to work on a thoroughbred stud farm in Te Kauwhata. Horses were a passion, so this was a natural transition from pony club. I worked there for a few years before moving to Takanini to work in stables. I still remember riding track work with frozen fingers stuck to the reins … but I loved it.
FIND OF THE WEEK
I do a lot of travel with my work & I don’t always have the luxury of travelling business class.
It’s my own choice – my business rules that I set for myself say that unless I’m travelling more than 5 hours, then I won’t pay for business class – economy has to do it!
This means that getting some relaxation can be difficult in those tiny, non-reclining seats.
And even if you do get upgraded, it’s still nice to have a decent neck cushion for long flights.
On my most recent trip to Cebu, I bought one of these Cabeau neck pillows.
I love that it folds up into its own carry case, which then clips to your baggage.
And I can report that it is super comfy.
I slept for over 8 hours on the way home by combining this with my Bose noise-cancelling headphones. I got these at a bargain price on one of my other trips & love them.
So, it is not the cheapest neck pillow, but it is definitely a good investment & no, I don’t get any kickbacks for my Find of the Week! Check here.
We are here to help you live a better life by creating a better business. We are real-life business owners with years of experience & a strong desire to make a huge difference to the lives of entrepreneurs.
If anything here resonates with you or you would like our help, then please get in contact. Just reply to this newsletter & let us know who you would like to speak to…. Or visit our webpage & contact any of our team from their own pages.
If you know someone who would benefit from reading this, then please forward it onto them. 💖
NEED HELP?
If you’d like to learn more about any of these tools or would like to find out how I can help you achieve a better life through creating a better business, then book a free Discovery Call with me.
We’ll talk about what you want to get from your business & your life & come up with a plan to do that!
Debra Chantry-Taylor
Certified EOS Implementer | Accredited Family Business Advisor | Entrepreneurial Leadership & Business Coach | Speaker & Workshop Facilitator