Those first months of launching a startup often feel breathless, heady and fast-paced. But Nikita credits her coach Jennifer Mizgata with helping her slow down in her decision making and become a more thoughtful leader. That thoughtfulness helped Nikita examine her current onboarding materials from the perspective of someone with no background or understanding of NRI Nation. This exercise led Nikita to craft a new employee handbook and orientation materials that meet new hires where they are and ground them in NRI Nation’s mission, values and work culture.

Jennifer also helped Nikita develop process workflows so that frequent processes like NRI Nation’s fact-checking methodology are documented for everyone to use. Now, the entire reporting and editing workflow is captured in a document that Nikita can share with new hires to quickly get them up to speed. This saves hours of Nikita’s time and ensures that all new hires receive the same information.

With Jennifer’s help, Nikita also created a feedback process in the Asana documentation and management tool to set quarterly check-ins with her team members to document their progress toward goals and capture any feedback they have on how their work is going.

Successes:

Created employee handbook and “How We Work” document

Employee retention: All 5 contractors still with NRI Nation

Won their first grant from ICFJ