A couple of years ago I had a series of blog posts from my Filipino staff. I’ve gotten some flak for that because some people think that the posts are biased. They’re my employees, after all. As my employees, they’re terrified of me and they’re just writing stuff they know I want to hear, things they know would please me.
I admit I did ask them to write that guest post. But that part where they’re so terrified of me that they’re written those things just to kiss my ass is just wrong.
My guys and I disagree on a LOT of things. They won’t say bad things about me in public out of loyalty but if you could see some of the emails I exchange with them, you’ll see a lot of:
- I don’t think it’s a good idea
- I don’t think I can do [task]
- I don’t want to do [task]
- I think it would be better is we do this or that…
I know disagreeing with your Filipino staff isn’t something a lot of people would want to hear but this is a good thing. Once you’ve established respect, trust and communication with your team, disagreements are bound to come up. The key is having disagreements about work without letting it affect their work and your business
It all boils down to communication, respect, and trust.
Communicating With Your Filipino Staff
I tell my guys time and time again that they have nothing to fear about their jobs. As long they do their jobs and they act in a professional manner when they do want to talk to me about the things we don’t agree on, they should feel free to talk to me about anything, even have a few disagreements.
I do this until now because it’s important for me that they have a work environment that allows them to be creative and keeps them motivated to work. I want them to be comfortable enough to talk to me about anything, even about problems at work, so we can communicate and work better with one another.
I know that if my guys are afraid of me, most of them would probably just disappear. And those that would stay probably wouldn’t be able to tell me of work challenges until they turn into big problems that could cost me my businesses.
These are people I trust my business with. If they feel like they can’t talk to me, then what’s the point in me outsourcing. If I can’t deal with disagreements and bad news, I might as well do everything myself.
Respecting Your Filipino Staff
They respect the fact that I’m the boss and my final say is what gets done. But I also respect the fact that my Filipino virtual assistants are smart guys. I’ve given them training and until now they go out and continue to learn new things on their own. So if they say something, I listen to them and take their opinions and suggestions seriously.
When running a business, it has to be about the business. Your Filipino virtual assistant isn’t there to stroke your ego. He or she is there to do a job and you have to give them every opportunity to do that job and do that job well.
I know that I don’t know everything. I don’t have the time to study everything and know everything. I don’t want to do that. That’s why I outsource a lot of my business. That’s why they get the training for the things that they do. They’re bound to be better at a lot of things than me. And if they can tell me why their idea is better than mine, I have no problems with conceding to their better judgement.
Trusting You Filipino Virtual Assistant
At some point, when you’re outsourcing, you have to let go of certain fears in order to move on to bigger things. You have to let go of your fear of your VA not working, of them leaving you, of things going wrong when you’re not there to watch over them. If they’ve worked for you for a long time and they’ve proven to be trustworthy, don’t you think it’s about time to really trust them?
Replacemyself.com is all about replacing yourself in your business by having someone you’ve trained enough to do all the work you need to do to run your business. But training is only one aspect. To achieve the 4 hour work week and financial freedom, you have to teach your Filipino VA to make some decisions himself. You have to trust that fact that your VA is looking out for your business, for your welfare.
If you won’t trust your VA, if you can’t trust your VA, you will never experience that kind of freedom. If you keep fixating on the small things, you’ll never see the big picture.
Letting My Filipino VAs Take Care of Me
When you think about it, friends and family fight when because they want what’s best for one another. I’ve seen how dedicated my guys are to my business and I know that we sometimes disagree with one another because we’re just looking for one another. This is why I can afford to work only 17 hours a week, because I can know they’re there in the background watching over my business.