If I had a dime for every time someone said they were afraid of hiring because they don’t want to mess up, I could have already retired!

All kidding aside, this is one of the most common concerns I hear from folks who are just getting started growing their team.

Some of the worry stems from not wanting to destroy something you’ve built from scratch and poured your heart and soul into (which is 1000% relatable).

And some of it comes from being really good at a lot of things in your business, because you’ve had to figure a lot of stuff out along the way. And it’s hard to be new again.

But that’s exactly what you’re experiencing – being new.

New to the idea of hiring and growing your team. 

New to the skill of finding and hiring the right people. 

New to being a leader and having people look to you for guidance and inspiration. 

New to handling the challenges and obstacles that come with leading others. 

New at it all.

Being new can be scary and overwhelming. 

We have a desire to master new things quickly in order to get through the discomfort that comes with not knowing what we’re doing.

But being new isn’t a bad thing. In fact, being new and making mistakes is exactly how adults learn best. So it’s best to dive right in!

In today’s episode, we’re talking all about being new and it’s absolutely the pep talk you need if hiring and leading a team is on your future plans! 

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• A simple mantra to inspire you on your hiring and leadership journey

• Four principles of adult learning and how they relate to growing your team

• Stories and examples of being new – and what you can learn from them 

Mentioned in This Episode: 

•  Transform Your Stories (book)

Transcription for Episode 12: We're All Beginners in the Beginning

Ashley Cox  0:04  

Welcome to Episode 12 of the impact ripple podcast your go to source for hiring and leadership made simple, doable, and fun for visionary female business owners. I'm your host, Ashley Cox, author, certified HR expert and founder of sprout HR. And I believe that you don't have to change who you are to be a great leader because you already are one Join me as we kiss uncertainty and overwhelm goodbye and say hello to the tools and support you need to grow a profit, profitable, sustainable, impactful team with more confidence and ease. 

Ashley Cox  0:43  

On today's episode, which is the last one of our first season, we're talking about the mindset behind being new to something. And specifically here on the impact ripple, new to the idea of hiring and growing a team new to the skill of finding and hiring the right people. New to being a leader and having people look to you for guidance and inspiration, and new to handling the challenges and obstacles that come with leading others. 

Ashley Cox  1:16  

Let's get started with a little story. A couple of years ago, I received this beautiful spiral bound, step by step guide to hand lettering for beginners as a gift for Christmas. And while I'm not brand new to the art of calligraphy, my experience has been more in the traditional style, aka old school, rather than today's more modern learning style. And the techniques used today are similar, but they're not exactly the same. So it kind of felt like I was starting from scratch. As I cracked open the cover of this beautiful book and started flipping through the pages, I came across a quote in the introduction that perfectly set the tone for what was ahead. It read, we are all beginners in the beginning. 

Ashley Cox  2:09  

Over the past couple of years, I've continued to come back to and think about this quote often and use it in my business. Because it doesn't just apply to a hand lettering practice. But it also applies to hiring and leading a team, you might be getting ready to embark on hiring for the first time, and you're a true beginner. Or maybe you have some experience hiring contractors. But you know that hiring employees is different. It's one that feels like a much bigger deal. Or maybe you just hired your first employee, and you're embarking on this leadership journey for the very first time. 

Ashley Cox  2:53  

Whatever the case, hiring and leading a team can bring up a lot of doubt, fears and worry. And loads of questions like is hiring an employee really right for me? Who should I hire first? And when I have no idea where to even start or what to do? What if I hire the wrong person? What if I can't afford to pay my employee for the long term? What if I'm not cut out to lead? What if I let my team down and they hate me? 

Ashley Cox  3:32  

We've addressed many of these questions throughout our time together on the impact rubble in season one. And I know and understand these questions, because I've had similar thoughts and fears throughout the years, both when working in corporate leadership and HR positions, as well as when hiring for my own business. I've also help business owners navigate these questions and more every day in their own growing businesses over the past several years. 

Ashley Cox  4:04  

Listen, I've been hiring and leading employees for over 16 years now. And I can still clearly remember those early days when my palms were sweaty, and my heart was racing, how I was scared to death to make a mistake. Yet in the beginning, I made plenty of mistakes. I missed red flags. I didn't trust my gut instinct when I should have and yes, I hired the wrong people. And while I didn't know this particular quote about being a beginner back then I knew that there was a learning curve and I had mentors who lovingly reminded me of this along the way, kinda like what I'm doing for you today. 

Ashley Cox  4:49  

So I kept going, kept learning kept making mistakes and kept improving and you know what? I got better. And then I got really good And then I became what people called an expert. And the same can be true for you, maybe you don't necessarily want to be an expert at hiring and teach other people how to hire like what I do. But you can become really, really good at doing this in your business. I've personally watched it happen over and over with our clients, things kind of start off rocky with the first and second hires. But as their confidence grows, they start to get the hang of it, they start to learn what they need and don't need what's important, what really doesn't matter. And they start hiring better, and better and better. 

Ashley Cox  5:42  

We don't start off as experts on day one with anything, including hiring and leading a team. But I think sometimes we forget that, especially when we see or hear other people online saying how easy it is and how quick you can hire and lead your team and how everything's magically better. And while that can be true, there is a little bit of a learning curve. And things can be a little rocky and bumpy in the beginning. But we all have the ability to learn and grow, day by day, month by month, and year by year. 

Ashley Cox  6:21  

Leadership truly is a learning experience. Sometimes you have to go through it in order to understand how to grow, how to improve how to become a better leader. And this is true for every part of our business journey, right? From figuring out what our business structure needs to be to deciding on the services we want to offer. Pricing those services, implementing sales and marketing strategies that make sense and feel good and get the results we want, and so much more. It's all a learning process. 

Ashley Cox  7:01  

And as much as you might want to scour the internet, reading every article on hiring available, reading every leadership book ever written, the learning isn't really going to stick until you start getting hands on mistake making and all. So something that I thought would be helpful for us to talk about today is how adults learn. Because that's what we're doing when we hire and lead a team. We're learning and we're practicing and we're growing every single day. So let me tell you about Malcolm Knowles. This is a gentleman who came up with an adult learning approach sometime in the late 60s, which he liked to describe as the art and science of helping adults learn. And there are four main principles to his approach that explain why it's so important to get hands on experience. When learning something new, like hiring and leading employees. 

Ashley Cox  8:03  

As an adult. It's really helpful that we understand how we learn so that we can embrace that and embrace that beginner's mindset to solidify that learning even more. So we're going to walk through these four principles together. 

Ashley Cox  8:24  

Number one, adults learn better from experience, even and especially when we make mistakes. I always tell our clients at Sprout HR that when you inevitably hire the wrong person, because spoiler alert, you will hire the wrong person someday. And that's totally okay. It provides you with better data to learn from so that you can hire better the next time. And the time after that. 

Ashley Cox  8:54  

For example, we had a client who felt like she had a really good grasp on what she needed for her new employee to be doing and the qualities that would help this person to be successful. However, eight months into working with this person, she realized that she hadn't been as clear as she thought she had, and the person in the role really wasn't a great fit. As we dissected what went well and where she could improve. She learned a lot not only about the role, but about herself, and the kind of team members she needed to support her in this role. I always say that hiring and leading a team will help us learn more about ourselves than just about anything else in business. It's really great for for pulling up that mirror and reflecting back to us. 

Ashley Cox  9:44  

Everything that we're excited to see and even the stuff we're not so excited to see. But we have to be willing to get hands on and figure out the whole process by being engaged in In the process, and every experience when we're hiring and leading a team is a valuable lesson. But you can't learn those lessons until you start. 

Ashley Cox  10:12  

The second principle is adults must be able to apply learning to solve a specific problem. Which is why getting hands on with hiring and leadership is how you learn, we can read all of the best leadership books in the world. And while we can absolutely take away some great lessons, the learning doesn't really stick or won't be as meaningful as when you put them into practice. That's why when I wrote my book, transform your stories, I made it an experiential learning process, complete with journaling prompts and activities to help you get hands on during the reading of the book so that the lessons do stick. 

Ashley Cox  10:56  

So let's take a look at a couple of examples. It's like when astronauts are training for space. There's a reason why NASA has sophisticated simulators for practice and training. They try to create real life scenarios so that the astronauts get as much hands on experience and practice as possible before they blast them off into space. Good idea, right? I think so. And while it's not exactly the same as being in the space shuttle, and you know, at whatever destination, they're going to, it's pretty darn close. And it's the best option that they have. 

Ashley Cox  11:37  

Another great example is like learning to drive a car. If you took Driver's Ed, then you know that you learned all about how the car works, the rules of the road and what you should do in various situations. But that learning didn't really sink in until you hit the road. accelerating and braking could be a little bit sketch, right? I remember riding with this one girl in Driver's Ed, who had zero driving experience prior to taking the class, lucky us. And that ride made me so nauseous. But that's how we learned. You can't teach someone smooth driving techniques sitting in a classroom. It takes hands on experience, it takes rough starts and stops. It takes practice, it takes time. And before long, she did a great job driving. But that first lesson was rough. 

Ashley Cox  12:35  

And that's the same way that can be with hiring and leading a team, there are going to be times where you're like, oh my gosh, this ride is making me nauseous. And every single day, you're learning and you're growing and you're improving. You can read all the books in the world, watch all of the trainings, listen to all of the podcast episodes. But the real learning begins when you actually take steps to hire and lead your first employee. 

Ashley Cox  13:08  

Principle number three adults are most interested in learning things that have immediate relevance. It's hard to learn all about hiring and leading a team. Unless you're actually ready to hire and lead a team. The work that we do here at Sprout HR, and that we talk about on the impact rubble isn't relevant to someone who's just starting out, who's figuring out how to set up their first payment plan or process. And it isn't relevant to someone who's not interested in hiring a team at all. This is a very select group of folks, right. That's why we focus on talking to you, you who are thinking about growing your team and planning for the future, you who are learning the intricacies of hiring so that you can get it right, and you who's leading for the first time and dealing with new challenges. And of course, embracing the excitement and joy of all of this too. Because while it is and can be challenging in new and interesting ways. Hiring and leading a team can be one of the most rewarding parts of your business journey. 

Ashley Cox  14:19  

And finally, principle number four adults need to be involved in the planning and evaluation of their instruction. This is something that's been really important to me when working with our clients at Sprout HR, making sure that they have a say in how we go about the education and implementation part of hiring and leading their teams. Each client is different. And while we do have some standard structures and frameworks, it's not a one size fits all. We create experiences that meet you where you are on your hiring and leadership journey so that you get exactly what you need when you need it the most. so that it's meaningful so that it sticks and so that it creates impact in your life and your business. 

Ashley Cox  15:08  

So there are Malcolm Knowles's four main principles for adult learning. Let's recap those quickly. Number one, adults learn better from experience, especially when they're making mistakes. Number two adults must be able to apply learning to solve a specific problem. Number three, adults are most interested in learning things that have immediate relevance. And number four, adults need to be involved in the planning and evaluation of their instruction. 

Ashley Cox  15:40  

Whether you have some experience or no experience at all, when it comes to hiring and leading a team, I want you to remember that quote, I mentioned at the start of our episode, that we are all beginners in the beginning, the fastest way to become great at doing something is to start doing the thing you want to be great at. And that absolutely goes for hiring and leading a team as well. Before you embark on your hiring and leadership journey, whether that's this month, this year, or sometime in the future, know that hiring is a skill. And remember, we are all beginners in the beginning. Be patient, be kind, and be gentle with yourself in this process. 

Ashley Cox  16:31  

And if you're just getting started my book transform your stories is the perfect jumping off point to stepping into your leadership role. I help you identify and overcome the toxic stories that might be holding you back so that you can step more fully into your role with confidence and courage and create the kind of impact that you truly desire to have in this world. You can grab a free sample of transform your stories at Sprout hr.co forward slash transform, and we'll also put that in the show notes for you. 

Ashley Cox  17:06  

As we wrap up episode 12 and conclude season one today. It's time for our final segment. One last time. Imagine the impact where we get to envision what it could look like for you to take action today. If you've been thinking about growing your team, but fear has held you back, fear of messing up getting it wrong failing. Remember, we are all beginners in the beginning. And the best way to get great at hiring and leading a team is to get started. Imagine the impact that embracing fear and imperfection and hiring and leading your dream team could have on your business, your community and the world. 

Ashley Cox  17:57  

If you found this episode helpful, we'd love for you to leave us a rating and or review on your favorite podcast app. This helps our show get in front of more women who need to hear the message that it's okay to be new, and hiring and leading and to do it anyway. Thanks so much for joining me for the very first season of the impact ripple podcast. It's been an honor to be here with and for you on your leadership journey and I can't wait to see you again in season two. Until then, take care!