Quick notes to help you find new business in less time with less effort. . . sometime next week.
In this issue:
- Thoughts on Interviewing
- Being Human – Hiring process
- Random Stuff
- Back In The Day
Thoughts on Interviewing
- One feature of effective people is they catch on quickly. In your next interviews with a new candidate, jump from one subject to the next. If they can keep up with you, that's a good sign.
- Another tactic to test: don't be so serious. Research is showing that humor keeps people loose and aids productivity. If you want that in your people, start during interviews by keeping it light and laughing at yourself.
- At the conclusion of an interview, make notes of any topics you only lightly touched on. Another good sign of effective candidates is the number of those topics they revisit in future interviews.
- In most hiring processes, determining whether or not a new hire candidate's behaviors are going to work for you is tough. To help, think of the process extending beyond the offer into the first 60 days of work. Turning a probationary period from a formality into a test is revealing. And effective.
Being Human – A special hiring process
“People are not your most important asset. The right people are. . ." – Jim Collins
How do you handle hiring for positions you rarely fill, like leadership roles?
The person asking sits on multiple boards and runs his own small kingdom. Years ago we installed a hiring process for a high turnover position for one of his companies. We built a process that extended the timeframe we considered "hiring" and set metrics he and the managers use to track progress. It works. Turnover is down. Not just using the new definition of turnover, but in the old one too. The only time they get sideways now is when the process is modified. When they get back to the process, the results return.
So, he asked, what do you do when the position is low turnover, the candidates are incredibly talented, and the pay scale is generous? "The last guy we hired we probably should have separated from in sixty days. But he took so long to find, and has such a strong background, we kept giving him more chances. A year later we're out a lot of money, short on time, and the staff is unhappy," he said.
"Same process," I said. "It needs to be modified since he interacts with leadership, but not by a lot." My lunch date is looking at me mid-bite. He doesn't believe me. Over the rest of lunch I explain how the nature of high-end leadership positions makes the same process even more powerful.
The hiring process I'm referring to is based on the idea that when someone is hired, they aren't fully "hired." The full commitment doesn't happen until you can see how they work outside of an interview. Even if you're using the latest behavior based hiring techniques, nothing beats seeing someone at work. Part of this is because of the candidate's skill at interviewing. But the most significant part of a mismatch comes when new hires bump into your company's culture.
You've heard culture eats strategy for breakfast, right? Well culture eats new candidates too. You and the candidate need to experience how they do in the real culture. The faster you both figure it out, the better.
How, you ask? For starters, prepare to make the first month of the job as hard or harder than the real work they're going to do.
It's more than that, of course, but that's the gist. Everyone wants the new hire to succeed. Looking for a job sucks. Hiring for an open position sucks. Thinking through a successful vs. unsuccessful hire is a great place to start.
Random Stuff
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The creatures are stirring. I saw a big fat woodchuck waddle across the backyard. Birds are everywhere. Spring flowers popped up overnight.
We may be emerging on the other side of the deep freeze. The quiet of winter giving away to a noisy spring. We're probably less than a month away from Wilson the ABC finding a rabbit nest and flushing some of "nature's popcorn" into the world.
Last year about this time, I was out early one morning and the bird's morning song was going strong. I recorded it.
I'm guessing the neighborhood's Ring surveillance system has a recording of me, recording the birds. Standing in the dark next to my trash cans, in my slippers, holding a phone aloft for 3o seconds.
I read an article about scientists using AI to learn what critters say to one another. Interpreting whale songs or something like that.
I'm pretty sure the birds were saying something like, "false alarm! false alarm! that's not the bird seed lady! sing louder! wake her up!"
The critters love her.
Back in the Day
What was on my mind last year, five years ago, and ten years ago.
- Last Year: Right FIT #479 – Last year this time I was in Los Angeles. I booked the smallest room in the city and got called out for being cheap. Still stings.
- Five Years Ago: Right FIT #270 – A confusing bit on helping prospects make good decisions by focusing on how they'll measure "Return" on Investment. I haven't mastered this by any means, but it's easy to spot when it has not been uncovered properly. Avoid future problems by getting good at hearing how they'll determine the R in ROI.
- Ten Years Ago: Right FIT #8 – Thoughts on curiosity, one of life's secret skills. Wondering what comes next seems to be the essence of a life well lived.
