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Welcome to Jon Michail’s Personal Branding Masterclass. Jon is the founder and CEO of image group international, an award-winning image consulting and personal branding pioneer established in 1989. This podcast will bring you old-school wisdom, inspiring ideas, strategies and hacks for the new tech world. Here you will learn everything about personal branding: the system, the techniques and the right mindset to have a successful personal brand, image and reputation.

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Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of my podcast. As always, thank you for listening to me. Today I will share the importance of choosing effective team members for your business. And the relevance of that is that nothing happens without team members. So here I go. Every year 1000s businesses are created all over the world. And the sad reality is the majority of them will fail. The question is, why do some businesses grow and prosper while the majority fail after a few years? And of course, there could be a myriad of reasons for that, like, you know, lack of resources, understanding the marketplace, their ability to innovate, et cetera, et cetera. But there is so one element that almost all business owners can influence, which may directly affect long-term and certainly a short-term business success. And that's choosing the right team. Because without the right team, obviously, things will not happen. So a typical example would be, how would you do that? There are many ways how to do that. But I'm going to share something today that we use and also have found very effective in choosing team members for some of our clients and increase in the odds of getting that right. By the way, none of these solutions is supposed to work forever, okay, because you got to evolve constantly. But as a starting point, you've got to start with the right team members. Otherwise, you're going to be sort of operating behind the Blackboard. So then what we use is a process system called values index for the CBI, you know, that's like a soft questionnaire, to get a sense of what values the individual brings to an organization, and basically how that would fit in, obviously, with the values of the organization. So to choose the right team member through this, as one example is, first of all, you create an environment where some of these team members might want to operate. And then, of course, choosing the right fit to fit those particular positions and opportunities is the key here. And this is important because there is no point in attracting talent that all have similar skills and similar objectives. Although that's great, you know, you also want a little bit of an eclectic mix. Otherwise, you're not going to have every corner covered. And who are they I would say these are, obviously, when you're looking to hire some of these people, I'm giving you the CVI as the first example is people that value working together towards a common goal, team orientated. And that's essential. You can't have lone wolves. Certainly, if it's team orientated, that's what's required to get the project up and running and, of course, successful in the end. And you need the team, of course, to be working together and the respect that they have for the culture they're joining. So there is again if they don't respect the culture, they join in some people will actually do that, believe it or not, there's a lot of organizations with many people in there that don't respect the culture. They work in. And of course, there are many reasons for that. And, you know, one of the big reasons people hang around is because they need the paycheck to pay the bills at the end of the week. And for me, that's not an exciting way to live your life. So the importance of building a strong team, of course, is essential. So the question is, why? Why do we need a strong team other than the obvious? Well, let's take an example, a sports team. In this case, we'll talk about a soccer team. The team's purpose is like, you know, the same as any other business. And that is the achievement of a common goal. And of course, for teams, it's designed; if you look at a sports team, it's the win. It's the win, you know, draw, come second write that, you know, it's all about the win. And, of course, businesses are very similar because if they don't win, I make profits while they're gonna go broke. And Manchester United is a great example as right now it has one of the oldest players on the planet plane, but at the same time, one of the best players on the planet and that's Cristiano Ronaldo, and of course, even at his age, I think he's 35, 36 he still has it in him. Okay, he is the first player in the team. Bye, At the same time, he is immensely talented as an individual. And of course, I'm sure you know what will make are now though, a problem is if Ronaldo decided that he was the only player in the team. And, you know, he decided that it was all because of him that the team could win. And he tried to play every single position. Of course, that would be a problem because now they could not take on another soccer team alone. And if he did, he'd, of course, lose miserably. So you can imagine that example, in many, many situations and in the workplace, of course, we know that that happens frequently. It also happens in small business entrepreneurial businesses where you're trying to be, you know, a jack of all trades. And that doesn't normally end well because you have certain skills. And if we go back to the soccer team example, you know, those players also have certain skills; they might have multiple skills but can't have all the skills. And this is the key here. So you got to be able to pick the right people, you know, for the seats or the right position. Because you cannot win alone, as are now the of course, as discovered, he comes in alone either, and a business is no different. So the key here is, and through my experience, I've discovered, it's not really that the people in a particular spot are so wrong or bad or anything like that, you know, they obviously, are not congruent to be in a particular position for whatever reason that it's more about the wrong person, wrong position. That's it. So it's about picking the right people for the right position. And as I've mentioned previously, and you would have noticed this, probably, in your own experience, picking the right professionals to build an effective team, especially when there's quite a few members is more important. But having said that, even if there's two of you, is more important and challenging than it looks, and I'm sure you've probably experienced the same, it's not an easy task. But it's an essential one; it's a big responsibility. And of course, it's a risk from the perspective that the people you choose are the biggest factor to determine if your project, in this case, company, etcetera, will be successful because the wrong team members also can take it in the opposite direction. And that's happened many, many times other than, of course, the reputational, and other disasters that would come from that you've got to put in the effort in the right at that moment when you hiring somebody or your team members or hiring is essential here to try to get that to work. It's not an easy task; at times, it's not that effective. Because it becomes a bit like a casino, a bit of a gamble, gamble from the perspective of I really going to fail and they're going to really work isn't going to fit with our culture, et cetera, goes probably large corporations do that more so than small organizations, but it's definitely a service that's available out there. And the more skilled and knowledgeable they are, the team members that you're hoping to bring onto the team, the better odds of your success you would hope so. And in my opinion, in all of that other than, of course, the skills and the knowledge and so on. For me, what matters most is attitude. So as always, I have a few sorts of insights to help you today, and the first one is to look for what I would say is good communicators, and good communicators do not mean specifically that they have to be perfect in the English language from the perspective of getting every syllable, right? And every sentence, right, etc. It's not about good communicators. I mean, he's about, you know, people that can sort of relating, okay, that can actually relate with other people that can build rapport and have no problem as part of a team to share at times, things that might not be going so well from the perspective of the workplace, because this is all about building trust, okay, and you want trustworthy team members. Otherwise, you're gonna have other problems. And my second insight is to seek, you know, well-organized and self-discipline members. Now, this is not always easy. And if you go back to the CBI that I mentioned at the outset, what happens with the CBI is you get a designation. And at the end, everyone joining an organization will be designated either to be a build-up merchant, an innovator, or a banker. That's the full designations, and from that, there are all these spin-offs, and the relevance of that is, for instance, to fit particular people into particular spots, as I mentioned earlier, and well organizing and self-discipline is is part of that and some of these designations might not always have, for instance, well organized as part of the designation some are better organized and self-discipline than others, although personality comes into this and other factors. The next one is third insight is to seek proactive members as I noted earlier, look, it's all about having the initiative, and It's an attitude. And the right attitude, I believe, creates miracles and brings people together. And at the same time, people with great ideas you're always seeking to grow. So that's called proactive; you have to have the opposite of that, people that are not looking for that and not interested. And that's fine as well. But it's, you know, and depending, again, what comes into play the roles here, positions, what sort of things they're going to be doing, etc., maybe if it's a backroom job, and they're going to be working by themselves, yeah, there's, you know, positions like that as well. But obviously, from the point of view of building an entrepreneurial-style business, you need proactive members; you need initiative. Otherwise, it can create all sorts of other problems because they drag their feet. And before you know it, they might have looked like I will be performing and ended up becoming seasoned these. Another good insight is to prioritize skills and knowledge over certifications. And as I mentioned before, attitude comes into play there. And, of course, in my experience, definitely lived experience. Now, of course, the young individuals that just come out of university have all the certifications, but in the end, what does that really mean? Okay, and that's where the attitude comes in. Because obviously, lived experiences on it are limited there. But the attitude is what's going to play the part here. Now, you know, this becomes less in other organizations, but in the entrepreneurial environments, like it's a no-brainer, but definitely other organizations out there might not care so much about attitude; that's another world altogether. And, of course, they operate totally different to the entrepreneurial world. So the next insight, obviously, is to find people that are willing to commit, and commitment is very important with commitment comes responsibility. So the to sort of work in partnership together. So commitment is essential. So if you're willing to commit, that means also you're willing to be responsible and accountable for that commitment. And this is essential there. So to find these people, yes, your core values will help you do that. And it's very important because, you know, it's specifically building the culture; if you run to get this particular right, it can be a serious problem in fragmenting your culture. So get people to commit, and how do you get them to come in? Of course, well, first of all, you can't get anyone to commit to anything; it's going to be from them, right? That's a self, you know, that's, that's a self-motivation that would come specifically from them, but definitely, your culture, your mission, and what you want to do in this world, again, reference with your product, service, etc., will play a big part in that. And when you understand their values, and they understand your values as an organization, business, that of course, you can get the two to work together, you know, so common values are very, very important, no different to, you know, a relationship that you have in your personal life, right? Okay, you know that you're looking for the partner to commit, you're looking at the individual here to commit, and then you're looking at the individuals to commit to the team, and the individuals committing to the team, that same commits, of course, the organization, and that's how you build a culture, if you do that properly, you'll build a world-class iconic culture over time. So that's very important. And finally, a very systematic approach. And it's also part of the core values because not everyone has these skills, is to find the intention here, the target, and find an exceptional project manager. Because the reality is, everything you've got in your organization is a project, and you need somebody to manage that. And it's not easy to find exceptional project managers. But at the same time, if you haven't got somebody doing that particular role, then you're gonna have to do it yourself, or you're gonna have to find somebody else that's maybe better than you actually to do it. Because it's essential because, without the management of the project, it's not going to happen and potentially put it in, it could become a bigger problem than if you hadn't even started the project in the first place. So that's it for today. It's a very important issue. It's something that's going to be very big in the news for the next few years because you've got so much movement happening in the corporate world, in the business world, people are leaving their jobs, people are stressed. I say all of these come into play, but I want to finally say one other thing as well. Okay. Many of the challenges in finding people at times are not just when you're actually looking for somebody; it's not so much also that you're selling your culture. You also basically got, you know, you got to understand also the individual coming to join your company, and this is also for people that are looking for positions is that they are also bringing their full self into that business and That also means if they are stressed, or if they're depressed, or they are all over the place in their personal lives, it's important to take responsibility for that. And don't blame that on the culture you're joining, or the culture you've left important that you face the mirror there. And that's where responsibility comes into play. Because without that disaster sort of follows you to wherever you're going to join as a company. So it's essential that you deal with that. So I trust that this episode was useful for you. As always, I'm currently asking you to write the show on Apple podcast. And once you do, please email us confirmation, and we will send you our ebook, The Real World guide to authentic personal branding. You can find me on social media. My Twitter is Jon_Michail, my LinkedIn is Jon Michail, and you can find me as Image Group International on Facebook.  I want to thank you all, and I look forward to seeing you all next time. 

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Jon Michail’s Personal Branding Masterclass" Podcast is sponsored by Image Group International, a global team of practical, digitally savvy personal brand and image strategists based in Australia, committed to maximizing your impact, influence and authority in the business world. To learn more and apply for your personal coaching, seminars and group workshops, please visit imagegroup.com.au or call 1800 631 311.