Imagine walking into an office to help them with their hiring process. You encounter a woman, who obviously runs the show, and her name is Joyce. She has a beehive hair-do that is hiding no less than three pencils, and it is held high by 3 layers of AquaNet. She peers at you over her cat eye glasses that are attached to a gold chain around her neck, and she asks “Can I help you?”
You explain to her that you are here to hire some support for her, and she hands you a manual form to fill out in triplicate: the pink slip goes to HR, the yellow goes to Finance, and the original goes to the hiring manager. You then find out that Joyce is the head of HR, the Director of Finance and the hiring manager.
I can’t tell you how many offices I have walked into in my career that are literally just like this one.
Here is the thing: this business has been in business for generations. They have been through numerous downturns and several booms. They have remained steady and sure through all kinds of economic uncertainty, so the last thing I want to do is mess that up.
And.
The owner (probably second or third generation) can’t sleep at night, because what if something happens to Joyce? Plus, Joyce ran off the last person we hired to help her. What do we do?
First: Acknowledge Joyce for the great work that she has done keeping it all together.
Second: Have Joyce write down 2 lists: a) all the parts of her job that she loves and b) on a separate sheet, write down all the parts that she hates.
Third: Create a job for all of the job duties that Joyce hates and then hire the person to do the job that Joyce hates. You will get less pushback from Joyce.
Finally, there have been a few times (not many) where the Joyce person needed to retire. By going through this process, that person was able to retire and know the company would be fine in her absence.
Joyce was flexible and nimble in her job. She took on all the things that no one else would do, and we need to celebrate her. Simultaneously, the company must move forward.
POWER THOUGHT: Rejoice the Joyce. Also, rejoice the transformed Joyce.
*** Thanks to Jason Phillips from Impact by Insight for the idea!