This is the third and final article in our Trust series. In case you missed the first two, I’d recommend starting with them first! In article one, we talked about The Key to Building Trust as a Leader and in article two, we explored 3 Powerful Ways to Develop Self-trust for Leading a Team.

Hiring your first employee can bring up lots of questions, concerns, and emotions. You wonder where to start and who to hire first. You worry about whether you can actually afford to hire an employee and if you have what it takes to be a good leader.

The most common worries I hear from business owners who are growing and leading teams center around trust: How to hire someone you can trust and how to trust someone after you hire them. 

While trust almost always makes an appearance at some point during our work together, it often shows up in slight variations.

Here are a few ways our clients have shared their fears around trust with me:

• “I’ve hired contractors to help with admin work before, but never someone who will be handling client work and this worries me.”

• “I’m not sure that anyone else can do what I do.”

• “I wish people could read my mind and just do things the way I would have done them.”

• “I’m scared of handing things off and them not getting done.”

• “I want to be able to trust my team to get things done and that nothing is falling through the cracks.”

Which all boils down to TRUST.

If you’re like our wonderful clients at SproutHR, you’ve worked hard to build your business and your reputation. Your own clients expect the highest level of service and best quality products, not to mention an exceptional experience.

Since you strive for excellence in all you do, the thought of bringing people into your business who don’t have a similar work ethic or aren’t as passionate as you are about what you do is terrifying.

You may feel like you’ll never be able to fully trust others in your business, but I assure you that you can and I can help you – starting right here, right now!

Trust + Hiring

The first, and most important, place to start when building a team you can trust is during the hiring process.

As you’re dreaming about the perfect team member, think about the qualities or characteristics they need to have that will help you build trust quickly with them, such as being:

• On time

• Consistent

• Gracious

• Respectful

• Compassionate

• Coachable

• Humble

What’s most important to you? Sometimes, I find that it’s easier for my clients to think about what’s most frustrating to them to help uncover what’s important. For example, consider the following questions:

• Does it make you seethe with anger when someone is late? —> Then, you value someone who is punctual / on time.

• Are you turned off by a haughty, know-it-all personality? —> Then, you value someone who is humble.

• Do you find it frustrating when others aren’t willing to learn new things? —> Then, you value someone who is coachable. 

During the hiring process, you can build these qualities into your job description and ask questions that will help you identify whether or not a candidate has the traits you are looking for. 

When a candidate more closely matches your needs, it will be much easier to place your trust in them and know they’ll do a good job.

But this is just the first step! You still need to bring this person onto your team and entrust them to do the job you’ve hired them for. This next step is for you!

Delegation: A Key Skill

Hiring employees is an exercise in letting go. 

Letting go is a requirement of effective delegation.

Delegation is a key skill you need when you have a team.

But letting go and delegating can often make you feel dizzy with unease – even if you know the person you hired is a great fit. What you were once solely responsible for now belongs on someone else’s to-do list and that alone can bring up feelings of anxiety, stress, and worry.

Yet, in order to grow and lead a truly productive, successful, and happy team, you must learn how to delegate and let go. No one likes a micromanager, right? Which means you need to be able to trust your team. Bit of a catch-22 situation.

So, what are you supposed to do? 

I’ve found that many people have an unhealthy relationship with delegation due in part to how they define delegation and what they make it mean.

Take a minute to pause and consider what comes to mind when you think about delegation:

• What feelings come to mind?

• What worries rise to the surface?

• What fears do you have?

Working with leaders for the past 15 years has shown me that the most common fear or feeling around delegation is that of “losing control,” which feels scary.

Let’s take a look at what delegation actually means:

Delegation is the act of empowering another to act on your behalf.

Doesn’t that feel more exciting and less stressy? 

Delegation is simply the next progression in designing a business that supports the kind of life you want to live and the impact you want to have in this world. And you can’t build a business and life you love if you’re burnt out and running on fumes. This is why I know you’re really going to love this next reframe!

Delegation as Self-Care

I believe that delegation is the ultimate form of self-care.

Women face unrealistic expectations from society to be perfect daughters and sisters, wives and mothers, professionals and business owners, housekeepers and cooks, and so much more.

This immense pressure has led to a self-care movement the past several years, with an emphasis on things like bubble baths, face masks, massages, scented candles, and more.

While I love all these wonderful things just as much as the next person, I think that self-care goes much deeper than just treating or pampering yourself.

Oxford Languages defines self-care as: “The practice of taking an active role in protecting one's own well-being and happiness, in particular during periods of stress.”

Self-care as a concept itself is much deeper than bubble baths and popping bubbly. We can expand this concept outside of what we typically see when searching “self-care” on Pinterest.

Delegating is something you get to do for your physical health and your mental well-being that’s going to support you long after the bathwater has cooled. ;)

It’s not about what you’re losing, but rather what you’re gaining! It’s about actively creating more space and time in your business and life to do the things that matter the most. 

With delegation comes the chance to work on new opportunities to create an even greater impact in the world through your work, as well as spending more time with your family, exploring a new hobby, or simply resting.

Let me ask you this: 

• When was the last time you took time off from your business? 

• What was the last fun thing you did, just for yourself? 

• What are you missing out on because of your never-ending to-do list?

That’s why I think delegation is arguably the BEST form of self-care.

Practice Letting Go

Hiring a stranger and being expected to trust them implicitly with the business you’ve worked so hard to build is unreasonable and something I would never ask you to do.

While delegation does require you to trust another person, it does not require you to trust them blindly or start by delegating the most important task in your business right from the start.

You don’t have to give away the keys to your Queendom. 

When a new employee joins your team, they’ll need to be trained on how your business runs and what their role will be. This is the perfect time to practice delegating by wading into the waters of trust. 

Choose a few simple tasks to start with first that aren’t going to make or break your business – or your heart. The key here is to start small and build up to bigger tasks.

You have to give the person you hired a chance to do the job first before assuming they can’t do it right or be trusted.

It’s going to take time and practice, but I know you can do it. And you’ll be so much happier and less stressed when you do.

Authored by Ashley Cox, PHR, SHRM-CP