How to Turn a Great Hire Into an Even Better Team Member (Part 4) | IP 207

You did it.

You figured out what kind of help you needed. You found the right person. You interviewed them, tested the fit, made your choice — and finally got to say those two beautiful words:

You’re hired.

But then Monday morning rolls around. Your shiny new team member is sitting there in your office or in your inbox – ready to go and waiting for instructions… 

And that’s when it hits you. 

Ohhhhhhh. Now I have to TEACH them how to do all of this. 😳

Ruh-roh, Scooby Doo. 

That’s where the final stage of the CAST Method™ comes in: TRUST.

Because hiring someone is an act of hope. Onboarding them well is how you turn that hope into trust.

In this fourth and final episode of my series on hiring in your private practice, I’m walking you through the first 90 days with your new hire, and the five stages that will help both of you build a working relationship that lasts.

In this episode, you’ll discover:

• Why hiring doesn’t really end when someone says YES. 🎯 
• The two-way nature of trust — and what your new hire is trying to figure out about you.
• The five stages of effective onboarding, and how to navigate each. ⭐
• Why being more specific than you think you need to be, sets a new hire up for success.
• How to step back so your new team member can take ownership of the role. 🙌

The goal here isn’t to hover over their shoulder.

It’s to teach well, stay close long enough for both of you to learn, and then gradually get out of the way.

So that eventually, you’ll trust your new hire to do what you hired them to do — and they will trust that they made the right decision when they said yes. :) 

And when that happens?

You’ve moved past hiring help to save your sanity… Now you’re building a culture. A strategic partnership. 

Now you’re building a team.

Congrats!

~Wendy

P.S. There are a LOT of moving pieces to keep track of during those first few months, so I’ve created something to make this easier for you! Grab your free CAST Method™ 90-Day Onboarding Checklist at wendypittsreeves.com/onboarding. It will walk you through the practical details you’ll want to think about from Day One through that first 90-day review.

____________________

LET’s CONNECT:

• Quick Start Consult: If you’re ready to grow and need some help, this 1:1 coaching work session could make all the difference. Learn more here → www.wendypittsreeves.com/consult.
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Transcript

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Wendy Pitts Reeves 0:00

You're listening to Ideal Practice, episode number 207. And today, guys, we are wrapping up my four-part series on hiring in your private practice with the fourth and final stage of what I call the cast method. Today we're talking about trust. Because finding the right person and getting them to say yes is only the beginning, y'all. So today I'm going to walk you through how to onboard, how to train your new hire during those first critical 90 days, the first quarter that you work together. I want to teach you this so that you can learn to trust them to do what you've hired them to do, first of all, and so that they can learn to trust that they've joined the right team. Because that's a win-win for everybody. And stick around to the end, too, because I have created a really cool tool, a 90-day onboarding checklist that's going to help you put everything we're talking about today into practice. So stay tuned. Hi, I'm Wendy Pitts Reeves, and with over two decades of experience in the private practice world, I've built my six-figure business while learning a lot of lessons the hard way. This is the first podcast that shows you how to apply the principles of energy, alignment, and strategy to build a practice that is profit-centered, but people forward. This is the Ideal Practice Podcast. Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of the Ideal Practice Podcast. This is Wendy, Wendy Pitts Reeves, your host. And as always, I'm so excited to be hanging out with you today. Thank you so much for being here. I'm really excited because we have made it. We've made it. I feel like going ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. We have made it to part four. The final part of this little series I've been putting together for you on how to hire for your private practice. This little series, which, to be honest, has turned out not to be quite as little as I thought it would be when I started. Yeah, totally a quick start moment for from yours truly. Yep, that's what this is. And in fact, if you have been following along, then you know that what I've really done, you all, over the last few weeks is I have given you actually a full in-depth training. This is the kind of content that I teach in my courses and the kind of thing that I do for my coaching clients. And this is really concrete practical stuff that you can use. I am teaching you a system that works. Speaking from experience, it works and it works well. Over the past few weeks, I have been walking you through what I call the cast method for hiring in your private practice. The cast method for hiring and hiring well. And if you've been following along, then you know that cast stands for C, which is clarity, that is knowing exactly who you need for what role and why. A is for attraction, that is attracting the right people, that is those who are truly best suited for the position, while weeding out those who aren't. I'm teaching you how to do all that. S is for selection, that is how to choose, how to select wisely your final candidate. And then finally, T is for trust. That is how to empower a relationship now between you and your new hire so that both of you can do your best work. Just a little recap, just a little recap, you all. In part one, we talked about taking stock of what was actually happening inside your practice, what you're doing, what only you can do, and what might be time to hand off to someone else. In part two, under attraction, we talked about how to use that clarity, that newfound clarity, if you did it the way I taught you to, to create a position profile that is designed to attract the right people and encourage the wrong ones to just keep on scrolling, okay? Because you don't want to waste your time or theirs unless they are a very likely good fit from the beginning. And then last week in part three, we walked through the selection process. I taught you how to sort out the applications, how to interview candidates. We talked about how to use an assessment when appropriate, how to conduct a working audition, which I'm a big believer in, and ultimately how to make your actual, your final choice. And that brings us to today. Because at some point, you all, after all of that work, and y'all to be fair, it's mostly work on your side at this point. After all of that work, you finally get to say those beautiful words. You're it, you're hired. I want you. Please come. Please say yes. Yeah. But then what? Is that all there is? Because, like now you just hand them the keys to the metaphorical office door and turn them loose and go, Thanks. I'm so glad you're here. Good luck. No, no, of course not. For this to work, and after all that you have put into it, you want it to work. For this to be as successful as you want it to be. There's a little bit more to it than that. And that's what we're going to talk about today. So, without further ado, let's get into it. All right. So, let me set the stage for you. First of all, imagine this. You've done all the things I've been teaching you throughout this series. You figured out what kind of help you really need, what made the most sense to hire for. You wrote the position profile the way I showed you how to do it. You posted it. You sorted through all those excellent applications that came in. You conducted the interviews. Maybe you did an assessment or two, maybe not. Hopefully, you gave your finalist a real-world project or an audition to try. You thought carefully about what you saw, and finally, you closed your eyes, made a wish, and you chose someone. You made a decision, like the CEO that you are. You extended the offer, and they said yes. Woo-hoo, right? Woo-hoo, yeah. Yeah, I have to stop myself because I get really excited at that point. Because this is where you're probably feeling both an enormous sense of relief and hope, right? Yay, I think I found somebody and I think they're going to really make a difference. So you're probably excited too. Hopefully, excited, relieved. Because praise the Lord, you finally have some help. Finally. And then Monday morning rolls around and it's time to get started. And that shiny new team member is just sitting there in your office or parked in your inbox or on your text, ready to go, just waiting for instructions. And that might be when a whole new level of uh-oh hits. Because that's when you suddenly realize, oh, yeah, now I have to teach them how to do all of this. Yep. This is where, guys, if you're not careful, a lot of you could get into trouble because when you're already overwhelmed, which is probably at least a part of why you hired someone in the first place, if you are anything like me and if you're anything, if you are human, it is incredibly tempting to just hand over a pile of work, give them a few quick instructions, and think, okay, go help me, please. And yay, because yeah, hiring someone is an act of hope, absolutely. But onboarding, bringing them on board, onto your team, into your work in the best way, that's how you turn that hope into trust. That's how you turn that hope into the kind of relationship that's going to take your practice where you want it to go. See, it's easy, I know. It's easy to think that the hiring process ends when somebody accepts the job. And y'all, I'm talking about W-2s or 1099s. Now, for myself, if you're in the U.S., that's language between if you're hiring a full-blown employee versus hiring an independent contractor. There are some differences between those two. There's some important ones I have not gone into here because that's not really the primary point of this series. I myself am mostly thinking about contractors because that's who I tend to hire, okay? But what I'm teaching you applies in both cases. It doesn't really matter. So whether they are accepting a contracted position with you, like a virtual assistant, or whether they are a W2, they're a therapist you're hiring in your practice. Either way, it's easy to think that that hiring process ends when somebody says yes, when they accept the job, when they accept the contract. But I don't see it that way. In fact, I would argue that what happens after you're hired, after I want you, after please come, I would argue that what happens after that may matter every bit as much as what you did to get there. Because guys, you can do an absolutely beautiful job of choosing the right person and still set them up to fail if you don't train them well, if you don't make sure that they get what they need to thrive in this new position. Guys, they can't read your mind. They're not gonna automatically know how you like to have things done. They're not gonna know where information lives in your system, in your business, how to find what they need. They may know which systems you use, but that doesn't mean they know how to use them or how you like them to be used. They're not gonna automatically know how and when you want them to communicate with you. They're not gonna know what you want them to handle on their own, decide on their own, and when you want them to come to you, when you want them to get your approval or your input or your guidance. They may not even know what finished even means, because that can be kind of a gray area from one business to the next. More than anything, they may not have an idea. They may not know what excellence looks like in your eyes, in your practice. They may have their own ideas about that based on their own values, their own principles, or their own previous experience, but that doesn't mean they automatically know what it looks like for you. And when we don't take the time to make those things clear, a pretty predictable cycle can begin. It starts with something simple. We hand something off. It seems kind of easy, it seems pretty obvious. Anybody would know how to do it, but they don't do it quite the way we would, even though we thought it was obvious how it should be done. They do it a little differently. It's not quite the way we wanted. We get a little frustrated. Maybe we say something, maybe we don't. That starts to happen a little bit more. We correct it, or worse, we go behind them and we redo it ourselves. And if you're the parent of a preschooler, I might be talking to you. Just saying. Yeah. It's funny how often I think hiring and leadership and management is so much like parenting. There's a lot of similarities. Over time, as that dynamic continues, they start to get nervous. They'll start checking with you about everything. And before you know it, you find yourself thinking, good grief, why can't you handle this? Isn't that what I hired you for? And then I swear this is taking more time. I've just done it myself. And before you know it, everybody is frustrated. That's why the final stage of the cast method is about trust, about building trust. And I want you to notice I don't mean blind trust. I don't mean you hire somebody on Friday and you turn over the keys to the kingdom on Monday. I mean trust is something that builds slowly over time with experience with experience, like it does in any relationship. It's built through clarity, through consistency, through good communication. It's built through thoughtful teaching and clear, consistent feedback. Trust is built through giving somebody a chance to show you what they can actually do. And if we hold on too hot, too tightly, we might not let that happen. Like there's so many things that go into this. But there's another part of this that you may not be as aware of that I think we tend to overlook. And that is that there are actually two of you building trust in this first quarter that you're working together, these first 90 days. On your part, you are learning. Can I trust this person to do what I hired them to do and do it right, do it well? Are they who I hope they are? Who I think they are? Can this can this really be what I really, really, really, really, really, really hope it can be? Because I got big hopes. That's what you're learning to do. But they are learning something too. They are learning. Can I trust this person to be straight with me, to be clear, to be honest? Is it okay if I don't understand something? If I mess something up, can I fix it? Can I ask questions? Are they cool with that? Will she let me know if I'm doing something wrong so I can fix it? Or is she just gonna leave me out here to stumble through it? Even better. Will you tell me when I'm doing something right? Because I need to know that too. Are you gonna give me the information and the tools that I need to succeed here? I hope so. And most of all, have I made the right decision in coming here? Did I join the right team? Was it a good choice for me to say yes? Yeah, you're both asking yourself that, right? That's what we're building during onboarding. It's a relationship, y'all. It's a relationship designed around business strategy, solid business strategy that rests on the energy of shared responsibility and eventually trust. And yes, it goes both ways. But gosh, when it is good, when you do this well, eventually both of you can trust the work you're doing together to help take your private practice, your business to where it needs to go next. That's really, really cool when that happens. And I have experienced that many, many times. That's what I want for you. Now, before I get too far into this, I do have a little bit of good news for you that I mentioned in the opening. There are lots of moving pieces involved in onboarding somebody well. I know. But don't worry, Boo, I've got your back. I have created a tool to help you keep track of it all. It's called the CAST 90-day onboarding checklist. With that tool, I'm going to help you remember all the things that you want to think about before your new hire begins, during those critical first few days and weeks, which are super important, and after that initial exciting phase, all the way through that important first quarter, your first 90 days together when so many things are getting solidified. Things like payment and communication expectations, things like access to systems, training materials, first assignments, regular check-ins, and your 90-day review. In short, this little tool is going to walk you through the five stages I'm about to teach you. And I'll tell you exactly how to get your free copy in a moment, okay? But first, I want to teach you this. I want to share this with you. If you just go get that before you listen to this, you may not understand it. So let me walk you through it first. Okay? Okay. All right. So once you have made your hire, here's what I recommend. I recommend treating those first, that first quarter, the first 90 days together as a very deliberate training and trust building period. A lot of people call it a training period or an orientation period or a trial period. I think it's training and trust. And there are five things I want you to do during that time. Okay, and here's here what here's what they are, and then I'm going to go through them. They are, I want you to orient them clearly. I want you to teach them well. I want you to support them for success. Then I want you to release them to let them do what you've hired them to do. And then I want you to review with them how things are going and figure out where to go next. Okay, so let's talk through each of those individually. The first part, first part is to orient. Okay, first I want you to orient them. Now, what is that? That's kind of obvious. Before you start throwing assignments at this poor person, before you start digging into the good stuff, I want you to make sure that the basic working relationship is clear. And let's start with some of the practical stuff. They're going to want to know right off the bat how do they get paid. So I already talked about, I mentioned a moment ago, there is a difference, y'all, between W-2 employees in the U.S. and what we call 1099s, which are contract employees, or not employees, contractors, independent contractors of the U.S. A W-2 has to do things a certain way because they are your employee. You set more direction with them. A 1099 is an independent contractor. That means that within certain parameters and certain criteria, they kind of decide how they how they do things as long as they are meeting the the requirements of the contract. That in itself is a separate conversation that I'm not going to go into here. But I I as I talk through this, yes, I tend to think about 1099s, but you could apply this either way. So think about things about payment. Like how are they getting paid? Do they get paid by the hour, by the week, by the month, by the project? Do they get paid every two weeks? Do they get paid every Friday? Do they get paid when they finish a certain thing? How are you paying them? How much? Is it so much per hour, so much per week, whatever? How much? And how often? How do they report their time to you if that's relevant? If it if billable hours are important, I encourage you to have a very clear system for that. The people I have hired have systems for that where I can see almost to the minute what they do, how long it takes them, and what I'm paying for. And literally, like literally, how do they get paid? How are you going to get the money to them? Are you sending them a check? Is it by Venmo or PayPal or Stripe or some other online system? Physically, literally, how do they get their money? And guys, if you do, if they are a debut too, if you are hiring them as an employee inside your practice, this will be a good time to talk about any standardized process you have for things like performance reviews, pay raises. You can talk about that here. You may offer benefits, paid time off, vacation, sick pay, those kinds of things. If you retirement benefits, any of that kind of stuff. If you have things like that that are important to the position, this would be the time to make sure that they understand that. Going over that clearly is part of the orientation process. Communication is another biggie. So pay is the first one because that's what everybody's thinking about. Communication is a piece that I think we often overlook. What are your communication expectations? This is really important. And I want you to get it out of your head and into the relationship, y'all. I want you to be crystal clear. First of all, do you want them to text you? Do you want them to email? How do you want them to communicate with you? Do you want them to pick up the phone and call you? Are they next door down the hall? They just walk in the walk in the room. If it's texting, what app do you want them to use? Boxer or WhatsApp or something else? How do you want them to do that? Are you using a project management tool like Asana or Monday or ClickUp? And if you are, do you want them to communicate through that or something else? How do you want them to communicate to you? Secondly, once they do, how quickly, if you or how you communicate with them, how quickly do you expect a response? So if you if you send them a text or an email, how quickly do you expect them to respond to you during the week, during business hours? Do you expect a response on the weekends, after hours? If you are in very different time zones, this can be a critical factor to talk about. And how quickly can they expect a response from you? Notice what I did there? This goes both ways. So for example, one of the things that I've had to work on with my team, they are spread around the world. I've got people literally all over the world. Some of them are six hours ahead of me, some six hours behind me, some 12 hours ahead of me. I am mindful of that, that when I send them a request for something or a question about something, if it's my Friday morning, it could be their Friday night or their Saturday morning. I do not want them to respond to me over the weekend. And in fact, I've had team members who do, and I will say, this can wait to your Monday. Your Monday, not mine, your Monday. I don't care how you do that, but make sure you are crystal clear about what you expect there. And another piece of this is what kind of things do you want them to handle themselves? And when do you want them to check with you first? Now that may not be crystal clear up front during the orientation phase of this. That may be something that develops over time, but do give it some thought and to whatever extent you can define that up front. I encoura encourage you to do so. Hours. When do you expect them to be available? And is it on your time or theirs? Again, taking time zone differences into account. What happens if they're sick or they're going on vacation or they're at, you know, they're they've got a meeting with their kids' teacher? What level, how important is all that to you? In some cases, that can be very critical. In some cases, it doesn't matter at all. Make sure you are clear about that yourself and that you communicate that to them. And then I want you to think about systems. This is like this initial phase. This is the practical stuff where you're just kind of getting them set up. Get them set up inside whatever systems they need to use and whatever you personally need to use to manage. So you might want to create specific folders. For example, I went in, I have an admin folder in Dropbox and in Drive. I use Drive and Dropbox for two very specific things. And when I have an admin folder in there where I have specific things that I track for my team members. But for the work that they're doing, we do all of that inside ClickUp. So I had to, I had to go through the jump through various hoops to make sure they had access to what they need to get inside of all that. So you want to make sure that people know what tools you use, that they have access to those tools. That might mean creating passwords or, you know, whatever the digital process is you have to go through to give them access. If they're creating something for you, say you're creating, you're if you're hiring somebody to do social media or marketing content or work on your website, you might want to give them your brand guide if you have one. And if you don't, I hope you will get one at some point. So that they, whatever they do, they could, they are, they are in line with your branding. What they need is going to be very specific to the role. But those are some of the kinds of things I'm thinking about where systems are concerned. If you have other team members, part of this initial orienting phase would be to introduce them to those team members. You might have a either an in-office meeting or an online meeting where everybody gets to meet everybody. In other words, before you teach them anything about the actual work that they're going to be doing, I want you to orient them to the world in which the job happens. Your online world, if it's a physical office, and I've done it, I've had both. If they are physically in a building with you in your practice, you know, show them how that works too. Tell them what your lockup procedures are. Tell them how to put in a request when they need supplies. Like whatever the very things are that matter for there. Okay? All right. That's the orient phase of onboarding. Okay, part two, where I want you to go once you've got past that initial section, and all of that can be templated, y'all. All of that can be part of a checklist that you work through. The next part is I want you to teach. Teach. And this is really important. And here, I love this. Here is where all that work you did way back in the clarity phase, the first step. This is where that's gonna pay off. Remember, remember how I asked you, I really pushed you on this, I challenged you to map out the actual process for the work that you wanted to hand off. Remember that? Now's the time to pull that back out because you're gonna use it. If you haven't already done so, I would encourage you to create some simple SOPs, standard operating procedures. This is like a recipe. Here's what we do for this process: step one, step two, step three, step four. I would invite you to create a couple of simple SOPs that lay out your process for your new hire. This can be a PDF, a work doc, a word doc that's do that you turn into a PDF. It can be a short training video that you can do on Loom or on Zoom. It can be both. There is a tool, I think it's called Scribe Now. I want to say, don't quote me on that because I really kind of need to go look that up. I think that's what it's called. It's something like that. I want to say scribe now, where you are literally doing something on your computer, and that that tool tracks what you're doing, like where you click and what you do, and then it it spits all that out as a bullet list or a step-by-step process. So it basically kind of helps you create those those uh SOPs. Spend a little time doing that because that's going to help you help them. Give them some examples of completed work. Show them what done and done well actually looks like by your standards, in alignment with your values and your preferences in a way that suits your brand. And guys, I will just a little side note this is where your leadership comes into play. When I was running a group practice, I did not always do a great job of this. I was a little bit too open to whatever they wanted to do with it. And I kind of sometimes I wish there were times when I should have, if I had done a better job of this, I would have saved myself some headaches. So this is where you are creating kind of the expectations and you're documenting it in a way that will be easy for them to follow. And another side note, personally, there's nothing like having somebody who needs this to be the motivator you need to create it. I know it's a pain. It's you it'd be so much easier if they just knew. But listen, if you do that, I want you to think about what you're doing as a template. You are creating something that you can modify and repeat in the future because you will do this more than once. Trust me. So it's worth your time too. It also will force you to get clear as the owner, as the leader of your practice. There's nothing like trying to teach somebody else how to do something to make you pay attention. Well, how do I do that? How do I do that? So it's a good exercise for you and for them. So I want you to do that. I want you to prepare that for them. And hopefully you've done that before, you've hired them. But if not, you might be doing it on the fly because that's how I do things. But prepare that for them and then start slowly. Just give them one or two real assignments. Not 15. Maybe it's a week's worth of social media content. Maybe it's you have them return three intake and referral calls. Maybe it's you have them write up an email marketing campaign for one lead magnet. Maybe it's having them design a lead magnet or what I call a valuable free offer, a VFO. I don't know what it is. But whatever that is, give them one or two real assignments, not a whole bunch. And in the beginning, guys, please, for their sake and for yours, be more specific than you think you need to be. There is no room for assumption here. Assume they know nothing. Talk to them like they're in in kindergarten. No, it is not an insult, it is clarity, and that serves everybody. Tell them what you want, tell them when you need it, tell them how much time you expect it to take. Tell them where they can find what they need to do the job. Tell them where and how to submit it, how to return it to you. Tell them what success looks like when they're finished. Okay? Clarity is king and it serves everybody. One of the mistakes that it's tempting to make that I have seen business owners do before is they delegate and they turn delegation into dumping. That's not what this is. Delegation is not dumping. You are not dumping your problems on them to solve. This does not abdicate your responsibility as a CEO. You don't just throw work over the wall and hope somebody catches it. You are transferring knowledge and eventually ownership. That's where we want this to go. But you are transferring your knowledge and expertise and preferences from you to another person. That takes a little time, but it's worth every single step. So good. It's so good when it works. I just can't tell you what a difference it makes. Okay. The third aspect of onboarding. So we've oriented them. Now you've started to teach them how to do the job. They are doing bits and pieces of it. They are learning, they're testing, they are evolving. Now, as they learn, your job is to support them. We orient, we teach, now we support. Especially in the beginning. And we can how you define the beginning varies. But in the beginning, I want you all to stay closer than you think you need to be. The beginning could be the first 60 days, 30 days. I think it's for the whole first quarter. Personally, I meet with my new hires for one hour a week for at least the first month. And sometimes, depending upon how complex the role is, I might keep that going through the whole first 90 days. Because I want to be hands-on. I want to see what they're doing. I want to watch their face. I want to, I want to get a sense of their energy, their feelings about things. I want to catch problems before they turn into something bigger. I want to celebrate the wins. Now, those meetings, I so I I I'm a big believer in weekly meetings, especially at least for the first month, y'all, if not longer. Four to six weeks, let's say that. Those meetings don't have to be long, but they do need to be structured, predictable, consistent. And I encourage you to sort of think in advance how you want to run them. So you can ask them things like, what's going well? What are you feeling good about? Tell me how bad. What how's it going? Where are you stuck? What questions are coming up as you begin to work your way through the process? Because sometimes, y'all, we find out that we are not as clear as we think we have been. And something that to us comes intuitively, we have to say out loud to somebody else, okay? So what questions are coming up? What do you need from me to make this even better? Like, how can I make this better for you? How can I make this easier for you? Is there anything I haven't explained clearly enough? Is there anything that I thought I said clearly, but maybe I didn't? And what are you noticing about this process now that I've handed it off to you that maybe it would be good for me to know about? Because you've got fresh eyes. You're going to see things I don't see. So I need some feedback. And y'all, there's a key point I want. So you see what I'm doing here. I'm just sort of like having a back and forth about how it's going, but with some detail. And there's a key point I want to make here. I don't want you to train and support only by correcting their mistakes. Yes, that's important. But when they do something really well, tell them. When they handle something exactly the way you hoped they would, celebrate that and point it out. I want you to praise excellence and be specific. Because in doing so, you are teaching them what excellence looks like in your eyes. Hey, so-and-so, I really love the way you handled that with that client. I like the fact that you called them this fast. I love the tone of voice that you use. I love the fact that you suggested that resource to them. That was brilliant. That was a that was a great call. I love the way you documented it, and I'm so glad you told me about it later so that I could follow up if I needed to. Hey, so-and-so, the social media that you wrote last week for Instagram, that was better than I expected because you brought out some points that I hadn't even realized and that I needed to celebrate in my practice, much less tell people about. So I really love that you did that, that you sort of noticed these little nuggets. Thank you for highlighting that. And so thank you. Just thank you. I needed, I needed that as a practice owner. See what I'm doing, I want you to be specific. Like don't just say, hey, you're doing a great job. You're doing a great job this way, this because of this. Okay. And then when something does go wrong, because it will address it early. Don't let a little irritation turn into a big resentment. Don't ignore things. Go, hey, when you did that, that was great. Here's one little thing I'd like you to do a little bit differently next time. Here's a little thing where maybe I wasn't quite clear enough. I want to make sure you understood this part. Here's where I saw that you went and tried this thing. That was fine, but I think I would feel better if you did it this way. Like whatever it is, address it early on. That also is one of my blind spots. I have to be careful about. So I want you to teach, celebrate, correct, clarify. Teach, celebrate, correct, clarify. Okay? And then I want you to give them another chance to get it right, because remember, this is a training period. We don't expect them to have it all figured out. I expect them to stumble through. In fact, if they're not making a few mistakes, then I'm worried that they're not taking enough chances. And I kind of want them to take a few chances because that's the kind of person I'm looking for. All right, the fourth part of onboarding, now that we're sort of working our way through these phases, right? So we had orienting them to all the practical aspects of what it means to be in this world. Then we had teaching them literally how to do the job the way you want it done. That's important. Then we had supporting them while they practice and learned and figured things out. Now, over time, we're gonna move into release. That is, this part matters. As their performance strengthens, as their comfort level increases, as you see them getting the hang of things, release them. Release them. If you do the first three stages well, you're gradually gonna be less involved over time, right? I mean, that's kind of the whole point. That's that's why we're doing all this. And guys, there is a happy medium between micromanaging and turning them loose completely. Either one of those is not healthy. So over the course of this first 90 days together in this new relationship, that's the spot you're aiming for. Where is that happy middle ground? That's what we want. So as they demonstrate competence, of course, give them more responsibility. Stop checking all the little details. Let them make a few more decisions. Trust them a little bit more. Let them solve a few problems before bringing them to you. Or when they do bring them to you, say, you know what, I trust you to figure that out. Why don't you come up with some solutions and let me know where you land? However, you want to handle it, give them a little bit more of the reins, okay? Let them develop their own rhythm, their own style inside the role. If you've done what we've talked about and you have clearly communicated the expectations, the boundaries, the criteria around the role, now it's and you've taught them well and you've supported them. Now it's time to sort of let them go a little bit more, a little bit more, a little bit more, and let them start to own it. Ah, I love this part. I love this. Because if you hire, y'all, if you hire a capable person, you will get to the point where you trust them to do the job. If you expect them to run every single decision past you forever, that's not going to help you at all. You basically have just created another job for yourself and a prison for them, honestly. That's not good for anybody. Okay. So are you seeing how this kind of flows, right? Good onboarding does not just throw them in the deep end and hope they swim. It doesn't do that. It does, in a gradual and methodical, structured, loving, and respectful way, bring them on board. And good onboarding will gradually make you less necessary. This is where trust starts to be visible. You can see it. You trusted them with a little thing and they handled it well. So now you trust them with something bigger and they handle that well. And over time you start to think, oh, I've got this and they've got that. That's a sweet moment, y'all. That is a sweet moment for a business owner. Not even kidding. Oh, I just love it. It is the best feeling in the world when you have gone through what I've taught you and you've got somebody on board and you've worked through this process and they are rocking it. Just rocking it. It's just the best thing ever. Yeah. Okay, so before I get ahead of myself, then we're going to move into the fifth and final aspect or phase of this initial 90-day onboarding process. And that is at the end of those first 90 days, I want you to review. Ideally, guys, you're going to do this on a regular basis anyway. Every 90 days, every six months, once a year, however, your business seems to support it. But for somebody who's new, I definitely want you to structure this as kind of an anchor point 90 days into this new relationship. So when you hire them, when you go through the, you know, you sort of check things off, they sign the papers, you start the payment, whatever. I want you from the very beginning to put this meeting date on the calendar at the start and tell them about it. Tell them, okay, you're starting on September 1st. On December 1st, September, October, November. December 1st, you and I are going to meet together. We're going to do a 90-day review at that point. I'll tell you more about it later. So don't wait till day 87 and then suddenly remember you're supposed to do this. For your sake and for their sake, it's better to have this already out there. So it's kind of like a point that you're aiming for. And personally, I recommend making a list of questions you want to ask and things you want to cover. Do that before you meet and get organized, y'all. Like have a have a theme, have an agenda, be organized. And I would ask them to do the same. Hopefully, you have been taking notes along the way in your weekly meetings. You've been catching, you've been sort of like sort of capturing the things they've done well, uh, the places where they need a little extra help, the things where, whatever. Like you've been capturing stuff along the way. I want you to go to come to this review meeting ready to share that kind of information. And I want them to do the same. And then the two of you sit down together and take stock. So, what's working? What isn't? Where have they done particularly well, better than you've expected? Where do they still need a little extra training or support? What's going to take a little bit longer? How could you provide that extra training and support? More importantly, I love this. Like, think about this. What have you learned about how to work with them? This might be a great place to provide that kind of feedback about what you are learning as a leader. And what have they learned about working with you? That might also be good for you to hear. See how this is two-way. Yeah. So, some sample questions. You could ask them, what would make this role work better? What systems are we using here in the practice that maybe you could you think could be improved? Are there any bottlenecks? Are there places where things are getting stuck that you've noticed in our overall flow here in the practice? Are there things that you're seeing, dear hire, now that you've been with us for a while? Are there things that you're seeing in the business that maybe I can't even see anymore? Do you have what ideas do you have? This is important because this new hire will see opportunities for improvement that you probably cannot see. You've been there too long. So let them bring the fresh eyes. Doesn't mean they're right, doesn't mean you have to agree with it. Even if it's a great idea, doesn't mean you have to do it. But this is super helpful for you. This is one of the ways that I see CEOs get into trouble is that they can easily think that their point of view is the only one that matters, and it isn't, because we all have blind spots, y'all. And there's nothing like having competent, outstanding team members to help you see what you can't see. So remember the review goes both ways. So you are asking, do I want to keep working with this person? If, you know, if if they're not working out, this might be a time you you make a different choice, right? But hopefully they are working out. They're also asking, do I want to keep working here? You know, it's kind of like, I like you, do you like me? Are we still dating? Yeah, I think we are. Ideally, at the end of those first 90 days, the answer on both sides is not just, yeah, I think it's working out, but yes, I love it here. Yes, I am thrilled to have you on this team. You have been a tremendous addition, and I'm so glad you're here. This has been the best. I'm just so excited to be a part of your company. Whatever, that's where we want this to go. Make sense? All right, so let me bring us back as we start to pull this together. I want to bring us back for a moment and remember where we started this whole series. Because if you remember, we we didn't start with a job ad, y'all. You didn't just sketch some things out and throw them up on Indeed. We didn't start with an interview. We started with you. We started with your workload, we started with your struggles, we started with your vision, we started with your systems, we started with the things that only you can do, and the things that you've been doing that somebody else could and probably should be doing instead. But we started by asking what kind of help do I really need that makes the most sense? That's where we began. And look how far you've come from there. Yeah. I'm kind of proud of you. But clarity helped you know who you needed, who made the most sense to to go find, and most importantly, why. Attraction helped you magnetize those people to you, help the people who are best suited to show up. Selection helped you make a wise choice. And now building trust in this careful and mutually respectful way is what is allowing that person to become more than somebody you just hired. It allows them to become part of the team. And I hopefully for the long haul. Yeah, because a healthy and complete hiring process, like I said, it's not finished just because somebody says yes. I would argue that hiring is healthy and complete. When the person you have chosen can succeed in their role without needing you every hour, when you can trust them to do what you hired them to do and do it the way you want it done, do it well. And when they can trust that they're in the right place, that they're working with people they admire and respect, when they know they have joined the right team, when they know they are valued, and they are thrilled to be there too. When both of you can trust the work that you're doing together, then both of you, and by extension, anybody else on your team can help you take your private practice to the exciting, beautiful, awesome place you want it to go next. Because I know you you got ideas, big ones. That's what you're building. These folks that you're bringing on board, they are not just a team of helpers to help you save your sanity. No, it's so much more than that, y'all. You are building a cast of characters who will help you bring your vision to life. Those who can help your business do its best work in the world. And that, my friend, that's what it's all about. That's why I call it the cast method for hiring and hiring well. And I'm so happy, I'm so happy to finally be able to share all of this with you. I've wanted to do this forever, and I'm so happy to finally be doing it. So now, before I go, I promise you, I promise you I would tell you how to get that tool. I promised, okay? It's the Cast 90 Day Onboarding Checklist. You can get it for free on my website. Just go to Wendy Pitts Reeves. Remember there's an S in Pitts. WendyPittsReves.com forward slash onboarding. All one word. Wendypitzreeves.com forward slash onboarding. It will give you a practical roadmap for those first 90 days so you don't have to remember all of this on your own, okay? And guys, if you're not in a position to hire now, but you think you will someday, I encourage you to save these episodes so you can come back to them. Because it's going to be hard for you to find this level of detail anywhere else that is suited for a private practice. But if you are actively seeking to grow your team, and if you've missed any of the previous three episodes in this series, please go back. Go back and listen to them in order. It's 206, 204, 205, 206, 207. I'm have to think, what is it? 204, 05, 06, 07. Go back and listen to those two in order so that you have the whole thing. I'll make sure they are linked below. Because together, when you work your way through the process, it will take you from realizing that you need help all the way through building a working relationship that you can trust and lean into. So good. So good. They don't teach you this in grad school, but it's an important skill when you are the CEO of your own show. All right, everybody, thank you for being with me on this journey. Thank you for humoring me. Thank you for letting me help you build your ideal practice. And more than anything, just thank you for listening. I'm really, really, really grateful that you're here. And with that, we are wrapping up this series. I hope you've enjoyed it. Have a great week, everybody, and I will see you next time, right here on the Ideal Practice Podcast. Bye now. Hey, y'all. If this program has become important to you, if ideal practice matters, it would mean so much to me if you'd be willing to take just a minute to do one or two of the following things. First of all, would you follow or subscribe to the show here at Ideal Practice? Following me helps you because you'll never miss an episode, but it helps me as well for all kinds of reasons. To do that, all you have to do is go to the show page for Ideal Practice on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. There, just click on the plus sign that you'll usually find in the top right hand corner, or click on the word follow that you're going to find somewhere there on that page. Of all the things, this really is the most important thing you can do for the podcast itself. While you're there, it would be extra special if you would be willing to give me a five-star rating. And even better than that, a review with your own words. Your words matter. And when you write what you feel, what you think, you uplift and encourage others. And I love that. If you want to go a step further than that, take your favorite episode or two, one of the ones that has meant a lot to you, and share it with a friend. Could you do one or two of those things for me? I promise I will love you forever. You guys matter to me, and I value your support more than I can possibly say. 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