This Is Courtney Underwood, CEO of Kassar Consulting

Courtney Underwood knows that a good, healthy, and effective team of employees is the solid foundation of any good business. To this end, she founded Kassar Consulting to help out emerging entrepeneurs who want to build this exact foundation.

At Kassar Consulting, Courtney Underwood brings her trademark “systems, tools, and resources” to assist entrepreneurs and business leaders who may face challenges in assembling, deploying, and managing a successful team that should increase their bottom line and grow their brand.

Courtney Underwood has spent more than 15 years in Human Resources and Talent Management. This experience has shaped her understanding of the various challenges faced by companies when assessing, hiring, and managing talent. All companies need talented workers to prosper. With Kassar Consulting, Courtney Underwood wants her clients to understand that building an effective team will contribute to their businesses’ health, in terms of achieving sustainable profitability.

How do Courtney Underwood and Kassar Consulting help out their clients? The company delivers “practical tools and resources” that would help solo entrepreneurs and small business owners improve their human resources operations.

If you’re a premium B2B partner, you’ll even workplace visits from Courtney Underwood herself. She will assess your team structure, diagnoses performance problems, devises a team plan for your office, and then guides you in making the changes so that you’ll have a “streamlined, structured and successful team” to work with.

Courtney Underwood also uses her signature system called Start Smart, Grow Strong that helps entrepreneurs build a team they can rely on, and then manage the members effectively. With this system, business owners can scale their business, improve service, and grow their revenue.

Check out more conversations with industry veterans here.

Jerome Knyszewski: What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

Courtney Underwood: Kassar Consulting stands out because we approach HR and Leadership Development from a very unique perspective. Not only do I have close to 20 years of experience in the industry, but I am also an entrepreneur myself. Therefore, I am keenly aware of the challenges that leaders face when building their companies from the ground up. I have walked in their shoes and I lead with that knowledge to get my clients to see that transformation is possible. My signature course, Put Down The Cape, speaks to this mindset shift directly.

Jerome Knyszewski: Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?

Courtney Underwood: To avoid burnout, I would recommend the following three tips:

1. Audit your day. Over the course of a week, take an inventory to figure out where your time is going. Are you stuck in social media posts? Responding to customers? Learning Quickbooks? By paying attention to patterns, you will be able to make the shift from busy to productive.
2. Set boundaries. An alarming number of entrepreneurs and leaders work long nights and weekends in the name of building their businesses. After a while, they find themselves deeply unsatisfied with the lives that they’ve built, even after becoming profitable. If you don’t set boundaries early on, chasing your vision will feel like a burden instead of a passion.
3. Pay attention to the warning signs. Missed deadlines, poor quality products or services, and stagnant business are all warning signs that burnout is approaching. Responding proactively instead of reactively can stop a problem from growing into a costly mistake.

Jerome Knyszewski: None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?

Courtney Underwood: The first person that comes to mind is my Consultant and Launch Strategist, Jessica Brown. Not only have her insight and expertise helped grow Kassar Consulting to where it is today, she’s also phenomenal at keeping me accountable for practicing what I preach. Jessica was the first to tell me when it was time to hire a team of my own, and I can directly attribute my success to her vision and foresight. She does of all this gracefully and with compassion, pushing my limits while making sure I don’t lose myself in the process. Her support and wisdom are absolutely essential, and I’m grateful that we’re connected.

Jerome Knyszewski: Ok thank you for all that. Now let’s shift to the main focus of this interview. Delegating effectively is a challenge for many leaders. Let’s put first things first. Can you help articulate to our readers a few reasons why delegating is such an important skill for a leader or a business owner to develop?

Courtney Underwood: In today’s society, entrepreneurs are consistently told that they have to stretch themselves beyond measure in order to be successful. They have to be everything to everyone, wear every hat in their business, and still find time to eat, sleep and live. Many buy into this narrative without questioning the logic behind it.

Actually, the opposite is true. The key to success is doing less with more focus. Delegating tasks and building a team is the only way to scale your business effectively. Otherwise, your growth will be limited by your capacity. Buying into the toxic “hustle” mentality will stifle both your business and your quality of life. Mastering the art of delegation is a critical leadership skill.

Jerome Knyszewski: Can you help articulate a few of the reasons why delegating is such a challenge for so many people?

Courtney Underwood: Delegating is a challenge for many people for three reasons:

1. Deception. People tend to think that they already know how to communicate effectively, when the truth is that good leaders and good managers are not the same thing. Management is a skill that has to be studied and applied like anything else.
2. Mindset. Most people haven’t made the proper mindset shift to truly let tasks go. They may ask a team member to complete a task or project, but haven’t overcome the mental roadblocks that stand in the way of handing it over to someone else entirely.
3. Comfort. If someone is used to doing everything themselves, delegation can be intimidating.

Jerome Knyszewski: In your opinion, what pivots need to be made, either in perspective or in work habits, to help alleviate some of the challenges you mentioned?

Courtney Underwood: People need to honestly acknowledge and conquer their trust and control issues that are standing in the way of the growth of their business. Whether they acknowledge it or not, a lot of people tend to see their business as their “baby” and usually put up a ton of resistance to handing over tasks for fear of being disappointed.

Jerome Knyszewski: Thank you for all of that. We are nearly done. You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

Courtney Underwood: The movement that I would start is exactly the one that I’m working on: “Hire for attitude, train for aptitude”. Hiring good people that are willing and quick learners will lead to greater success when compared with hiring applicants that have the required technical skills but not the right attitude. You can train someone on the requirements for the role, but you cannot train them to be a good person. At Kassar Consulting, we teach our clients this fundamental hiring principle, resulting in increased productivity, profits and peace.

Jerome Knyszewski: How can our readers further follow you online?

You can find me at www.kassarconsulting.com where I share further details on how to work with me, articles to support leadership development, and resources to thrive in these newly challenging times.

You can also follow me on Facebook or Instagram at @kassarconsulting where I share regular live broadcasts, Q & A sessions and content on effective hiring best practices.

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this!