Leadership Excellence

Get the right driver on the bus

The advice of "Get the right people on the bus" has resonated thourghtout board rooms and recruiting blogs.  Such sage advice.. plus get the wrong people off the bus..  This advice has created a new paradigm  in American business especially as the downturn continues and companies are cutting into the core of their employee roles.

Following the bus metaphor, what happens if we consider the role of the bus driver.   The "right driver" with a well grounded map knowing where s/he is going . Who knows the shortcuts... the safety features: the paved and unpaid roads to success.  Ahh and compare this with the wrong driver who has a vague idea ofwhere to go: how to get there: who controls the heat and air to fit his internal temperature gauge without regard to the passengers(employees) and who favors sapped over safety.

Of course, the metaphors are many.  But the concept of substituting plant managers, division  vice presidents, chief  financial officers etc etc for the bus driver are endless.  It is possible to have the right people on the bus with the wrong driver.  And the results are similar to the bus being driven into a ravine... calamitous.

Focusing on the hiring and training of leaders (bus drivers) is indeed worth considering as we retool and again grow our companies.

Screening In Quality Employment Candidates via Telephone Interviewing

Employment screening is successful when both the employer and candidate merge on common ground. How does this happen?  The basis for in depth candidate evaluation is the positive, I want to get to know you attitude of the recruiter.  Yes, positive approach...

Candidate evaluation is about getting to know the 360 view... Their skilss, interests, history, personna, etc... Those factors relevant to al star performance on the job.

Evaluation is not about "  gotchas". This is not a contest, no a police type interrogation to satisfy the psychic needs of a recruiter who wants to ferret out the dirt.

Look at the questions being asked... How many of them are genuine, behavioral questions attempting to identify areas of agreement?  I recently reviewed a client's telephone interview list.  Of the 30 questions, 23 were negative. The negativity took the place of sincere "peel the onion" questions.

Want a listing of interview questions? contact me at info@rlhassociates.com

Good is not Good Enough

Every so often the contents of a book resonates: indeed opens ones eyes to a divergent point of view.  Manfred Kets de Vries in his " The Leader on the Couch" takes a clinical approach to changing people and organizations.  He slices, dices, moves the pieces of the human psychological puzzle around in delineating how leaders come to be.

In addition, de Vries closes "  with a call for authentizotic ( how's that for a new word) organizations where leaders walk the talk, people feel alive and all are called to give their very best.

Ah yes, my current mantra -- " Good is not good enough"...

Civic Leadership Run Amuck

News reports coming from the reputable print and TV media in Milwuakeee indicate the schools system ( MPS _ or MY POOR STUDENTS) averages 61 calls for police assistance each day. Yes, folks that comes to over 11.000 calls per year. 

So where is the leadership.  Teachers are intimidated by thugs in the schools as well as school regulations barring physical contact in disciplineing a student: expulsions are minimal: fights now regulary involve outsiders invading the schools ( contacted by students using cell phones) etc etc.

So where is the leadership?  The current response is to assign 2 policemen to specific schools on a trial basis .

As a consequence: the drop out rate exceeds 50%.... violent crime in the city is up 20% from last year: students are not learning.... and flight to the suburbs gains momentum.

I ask again: where is the leadership?

Interviewing-- What Interviewers Avoid

The specter of Government Investigations, EEO sleuths, legal claims, etc. has chilled the air in interviewing offices.  Clients tell us they are so afraid of asking "inappropriate questions" that they avoid and all subjects beyond discusiing technical issues ( computer software, engineeering calculations, accounting procedures, etc).   

The amazing comundrum relates to " why do you interview'?  Responses generally are something like" we want to know if the candidate is a good fit:",,,we need to learn if they will fit into our culture.

I asked a candidate last week if HE had ever worked in an office where he was the only guy? The aspiring employee groaned, went through facial contortions, and nearly jumped out of his seat. Oh NO! he exclaimed, I couldn't do that ...( the initial part of a personal catharsis which included tales of anger management, the need to have ribald chats with the good old boys in the lunch room etc etc)... Upon recovery, the candidate realized the interview was over.

It is appropraite to ask candidates questions which are job related....not those that you might find interesting but are not relevant.  But let's not be totally afraid...otherewise we don't know who we are hiring....

Take Less -- To Survive

Hiring managers today ( let's forget about the myth of the growing economy) receive significant numbers of resumes from "overqualifed candidates". Individuals who have been downsized, laid off, had their jobs outsourced, etc... in other words they have bills to pay, families to feed, and no income.  They are, in a word, desperated.

Conventional wisdom held that these individuals would take a new job and then leave when a position opened that more closely matched their skill base.  Therefore, recruiters put the resumes on the " see you later" pile. Sometimes, interviews took place... again, employers deferred, not taking a risk with "overqualified" managers and executives who pleaded for a job in sales, or a 2nd-3rd tier position in manufacturing management.

Outsourcing has increased. Here in the upper midwest major layoffs occur as companies relocated to warmer, non union environments. The upshot is many jobs will never reappear. Housing prices are unstable: families have been in the area for generations with deep roots. The result -- a surplus of overly skilled workers.

What would you do if you were an employment manager?

Hiring- I'm too Busy

A familiar refrain --I'm too busy to take training courses: I''ll do it later .

This being the busiest season for many retailers, the hiring of seasonal and part time employees is at its highest.  Cashiers, stock persons, sales staff, customer service assistants, the list of hires is a long one. A strange thing happened on the way to the forum.... hiring managers tell us they are too busy to assess candidates for honesty, work ethic, substance abuse attitudes --- " we do background checks on full time hires --these seasonal people are here only 6-8 weeks- what harm can they do??????

Gee: how about negligent hiring claims: people with their hands in the tills who have an arrest for theft: or even more troublesome- what about those strangers you work in the toy department: or in clothing etc?

Slow down: take a look at who you are hiring. A $30 investment in a tool such as the Step One Surey ( see our website www.rlhassociates.com) could save you both embarrassment and money.

Boundaries in Employment Interviewing

A general rule of thumb -- the employment interviewer can ask, and expect a response, to any reasonable job related question. One of the snags in this definition is the "reasonable" criteria.

In attempting to "peel the onion" of a candidate who is reluctant to describe her life outside of work related questions,  the interviewer asked -- "Tell Me About Your Friends"..... stymied as to the relevance of the question --- the candidate replied -- What does that have to do with my qualifications for this position??  In the end -- the interviewer judged the candidate to be uncooperative, assertive, protectionist, and not a team player.  Is he correct? Oh yes - the open position was a financial analyst in the securities industry.

Perhaps the interviewer could have introduced the question -- creating a sense of context. The candidate could also have claimed introversion --not hving any friends. 

I'm not always sure what is reasonable and what isn't in an interview.  What I do know is that an interview needs to be a conversation --as compared with an interrogation. Be thorough while retaining the dignity of the candidate.

Are you a leader when you interview -- or do you see yourself as a stand in for a character on CSI?

Interviewing the Successful

Calm, cool, collected, self assured.  Earning well in 6 figures at 31... he exuded self confidence. We had identified project behavioral areas of concern  based on the Profile XT.  The canidate parried and danced, showing the elegant footwork of the successful leader and sales person.

Then it happened... he volunteered being a voracious reader. What are the last 3 books you've read... he listed them --and indicated John Grisham's works are too low caliber.  Hmmm... why did you choose to read those you've identified.... Well, he said, they are all written after early American, you know just before the Beatles, the 60's etc.  Suprised --I inquired as to what he meant by early America - the 50's he replied: America began in the 1950's.... I must admit at being caught off guard by this MBA, highly read candidate from the West Coast.  He went on to say his choices are in line with his beliefs... progay rights, pro anti gun, pro abortion, pro liberal causes, pro socialist.  And all this went he knows he is applying for a sales poisition in a firm which is super conservative.

Ok-- I asked - tell me about who you are.... flushed, nervous in his chair, he talked about his dogs, his college grades, his drive for money..... There are times in an interview when what a candidate doesn't tell you is more relevant than what he/she says. When a candidate talks about his dogs but not his personal history or his family.... when this obviously very bright candidate cannot describe a "feeling"....

Lots of questions remain.  A leader moves others through transparent values, modeling, and giving something of themselves.  Where does this ego driven fit in?

Performance Appraisals and Time Mangement

" Our comapny doesn't do performance appraisals because we are too busy". Would you believe it... the 2nd most cited reason for not doing performance appraisals was .." too busy". I almost lost my cool.  An employee spends more than 2000 hours at the workplace and supervisors can't allocate 1/2 hour a year to discussing the individuals on the job performance.

WHAT A MESSAGE - Don't tell me how terrific your company is: how you care for employees, how you need to change the firm's culture.... Your employee's are just chattel: names on a board to be moved about as you see fit.  They are not worthy of recognition.. Oh yes, the comeback is that they are only motivated by money--not self worth or recognition or praise.

Get off my back -- I concluded the seminar by asking " When was the last time you had a formal performance appraisal" -- eyes lowered in the audience -- Then I asked -- And how do you feel being ignored .... there is silence. Just what kind of a leader are you?