Resources
Posted: Friday July 16, 2010 under Lead Individuals, Tips for Trainers
Conducting good job interviews was a challenging prospect before the economy tanked, before companies stopped hiring and managers stopped interviewing and everyone fell out of practice.
A few years ago (before the global recession), Development Dimensions International (DDI) and Monster (monster.com) asked nearly 4,000 international job seekers what complaints they had of their job interviewers. The top complaints:
- Acting like has no time to talk to me (70%)
- Withholding information about position (57%)
- Turning interview into cross-examination (51%)
- Showing up late (48%)
- Appearing unprepared for interview (47%)
- Asking questions unrelated to job skills (43%)
- Asking personal questions (38%)
- Talking about oneself instead of my qualifications (33%)
These complaints help clarify our challenge: Experienced and practiced or not, many managers are ill-prepared for, and underestimate the importance of, the job interview and their role in it. While job candidates feel tremendous pressure to make a good impression, interviewers, unfortunately, often feel it’s okay to wing it, to come across as aloof, disorganized, or even rude, like the meeting was more of an administrative nuisance than anything else.
Soon enough, when those bright, eager, potential new employees come rushing back in our door, managers will be climbing back in that old (slightly less familiar) interviewer chair. What do we all want from these interviewers … besides selecting the best person for the job? Simple.
- Make every interview a priority on your schedule. Few things you do as a manager are more important or have a greater, lasting impact on your team and your company.
- Prepare for each interview. Really prepare: know the job requirements and desired qualifications, have a game plan for conducting the meeting (start, middle, and various possible endings), review your interview questions, review the candidate’s information, set aside sufficient time, choose a comfortable meeting room with no distractions. Interviewers should prepare as hard, if not harder, than the candidates.
- Ask good questions. You have a short period of time to gather important, job-relevant information about a stranger you’ve just met. To do it, you need to ask the right questions and avoid the many inappropriate and illegal questions that can get you and your company into trouble. For instance, what if a candidate has a clear disability, can you ask about it? Can you ask candidates their age or how many kids they have or if they want kids or if they’ve ever been arrested or where they were born?
- Listen. The 80/20 Rule helps: do 80% of the listening and 20% of the talking. Ask open-ended questions that allow candidates to provide full descriptions and explanations. Focus on their words and behaviors with open eyes and ears … and an open mind.
- Clarify. While it’s good to use prepared questions that are consistent across interviews for a particular job, there’s more to interviewing than running through your scripted questions like a robot: you may need to probe deeper to get a fuller picture. Candidates are on their best behavior, working hard to present whatever they think you want … much like a first date! Good interviewers know how to elicit the information they need to make a solid decision.
- Sell yourself. In the eyes of candidates, you are your company. Project the right image: be polite, personable, and professional. Candidates who don’t become employees may still be valued customers (or hang out with them). And, even if you decide they are perfect for the job, they may decide you’re not quite right for them.
We’ll all start hiring again soon, and a lot of managers will have to learn or relearn one of their most overlooked and vital roles. Best get ready!
0 Comment(s) Author: Dave Neal
Posted: Monday June 21, 2010 under Lead Myself
I spent a month in Europe after college (thanks Dad). I was 22 and had never been out of the country, barely able to speak my own language much less anyone else’s, with little more than a train pass, some traveler’s checks, and some dry shampoo. When I got home, I bragged most about how I’d avoided all the American tourists, how easy they were to spot, how loud they were, how stupidly they dressed, how embarrassing … like I wasn’t one of them. Big difference, of course: they were tourists, and I … I was a traveler.
Historian, Daniel Boorstin, is hip. “The traveler,” he wrote, “was active; he went strenuously in search of people, of adventure, of experience. The tourist is passive; he expects interesting things to happen to him. He goes sightseeing.”
All these years later, having been both an avid tourist and traveler, I still buy Mr. Boostin’s insinuation that travelers are apt to get a bit more out of the whole deal, mostly. And not just in those two weeks a year when we gather up the flip camera and the 3-ounce travel containers. We can be travelers or tourists, too, in how we approach our everyday lives, careers, jobs, and job searches.
So here, with your job (or job search) in mind, are some essential traveler tips.
Get Informed
Tourists aren’t any less curious than travelers, perhaps, but they rely more on tourist guides to take them where they need to go and tell them what they need to know. Travelers get a thrill from discovering things on their own. They learn by doing, by exploring. To be a more active traveler at work, be curious about your job (or prospective job), your company, and your industry. Explore. Show some initiative. Find out what’s going on, what’s most important, and what you can do to best contribute. Any skills and knowledge you gain can be applied throughout your career travels, so learn, know, and grow all you can.
Get Involved
Where tourists mostly hang out in the obvious tourist spots, keeping a safe distance, travelers venture further out. They go deeper. They get to know people and cultures. They delve into a place. Pass a dance in the street and they might join in. We’re more of a tourist at work when we keep to our own obvious spots, limiting our involvement, our investment, as if we’re just passing through. Insert yourself, instead. Interact with people with an open mind. Be an enthusiastic, cooperative force on tasks and projects, inside and outside your group. Look for proactive ways to step up and help. Join the dance.
Get Inspired
Many tourists travel to escape. They want a destination to relax and forget the day-to-day stresses of … their job, probably. Getting to that destination is often seen as a necessary bother. Travelers, on the other hand, travel for the same reason writers write and painters paint: they’re compelled to move. There’s a passion for the process of getting from here to there. If you ever find yourself working solely for a paycheck, keeping a constant eye on the clock, loathing every Monday drive in, you might be getting a bit too touristy in your job. You don’t have to be head-over-heals in love with what you’re doing every minute (traveling is tough and challenging work, even for the most devoted travelers), but it should engage you enough and inspire you enough that you don’t want to pack up and head home the entire time.
Get Inventive
Tourists complain, don’t they? “Oh, it’s not like home.” “Is everything so fattening here?” “Only one bathroom … down the hall?” Travelers, not so much. They’re more self-reliant problem solvers, by necessity: a little creativity, some original thinking, some trial and error. They find a way to fix it, or they adjust. The next time you get frustrated at work and start to moan about … whatever, think about possible solutions, as well. You may just stumble on something that makes a big difference, for you and your fellow travelers.
Get It Done
There’s an ancient Eastern proverb that says, “Every journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Or, there’s our old Southern proverb, “Get off the porch.” Translation: make a move. Don’t sit around waiting for something interesting to happen. Go get the job you want, even it means approaching the job you have a little different.
Tourist or traveler, what really matters is what we experience, what we take away, and what we leave behind (and generous tippers, especially, get good karma).
0 Comment(s) Author: Dave Neal
Posted: Friday May 21, 2010 under Lead Myself
Best-selling author, John Grisham, was a practicing defense lawyer in 1984 when he began writing his first novel, A Time to Kill. Because his job demanded 60 to 70-hour weeks, he came to work several hours early for three years to work on the book. Some mornings it was the last thing he wanted to do, and no one was forcing him (only his wife knew about it). Still, he did it, and three years later he had a book that no one wanted to publish. By that point, though, the habit of writing every morning was so strong that he started his next book, The Firm, the very next day.
Big accomplishments, and the habits that bring them, don’t come quick or easy. But the rewards can be phenomenal. Grisham, for instance, has written 23 bestsellers and sold over 250 million copies worldwide. Here are some firm habit-building (and busting) tips.
Shine a light
Bad habits steal our life; they sneak and tempt and deceive and betray us from the shadows. The best way to bust them is to call them out. Confront them in the full light of day. Be honest with yourself: what actions and thoughts repeatedly, reliably, predictably keep you from going where you want to go, keep you from being who you want to be? Wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, gluttony? Others? They’re safe in the dark, and they know it. Open up. That’s first.
Summon the hero-habit
Are they shaking in their boots yet? Not likely. Our bad habits got us where they want us, don’t they? They’re easy and comfortable and so deeply entrenched in our lives that they know it’s going to take a hell of an effort to wrench them out. Our most powerful weapon is a good habit, a hero-habit, to go toe-to-toe with the villain: like a steely-eyed Clint Eastwood riding into that lawless frontier town. How do we summon such a hero-habit? Heroes fight for a cause, a purpose, a mission, something to fortify the courage and determination they need to defeat the bad guy. We have to be really clear about where we want to go, who we want to be, and we have to really mean it. Bad habits ride roughshod over listless, timid souls with half-hearted goals, and our hero is apt to ride on past.
Beware shortcuts
Now. Which path to take? The mountain pass ahead is shorter, more direct, but it’s risky: you don’t want to get caught up there when the weather turns, which it can do in a second. The longer road around the mountain, through the foothills, that’s probably the better bet. It’s certainly safer; those shortcuts will get you in trouble more times than not (ask Marion Jones and Floyd Landis). Don’t get in too big a hurry. Don’t set an unreasonable pace you can’t maintain. Focus on just a few goals and actions at a time, and keep it simple, honest, straightforward. Plan to do little things every day to build progress, momentum, confidence, and belief in the journey. You’ll be surprised how far you get, before you know it.
Be consistent and persistent
Like Grisham, sometimes building our new, good habit is the last thing we want to do. We tell ourselves, “Just this one lapse won’t matter,” when, in truth, each little slip can slide us back to the bottom of the hill. And recovering from these backslides gets tougher and tougher over time. The key is to make a reasonable plan then do it and do it and do it and do it, and keep doing it. (Little things every day, remember.) Popular wisdom says it takes 21 days to form a good habit, then as much as 10,000 hours to master a significant skill. That’s quite a row to hoe. And we’re going to trip and make mistakes along the way, too. It’s inevitable: we’re exploring, we’re learning. We’re also improving, getting a little better, getting a little closer.
Watch for other wheel-spinning ruts
Perhaps you don’t think all of Grisham’s 23 bestsellers are the model of excellence or that his writing has improved with each new book. Regardless of our literary tastes, I think the author has been relatively pleased with his progress and outcomes, and that’s what really counts, right? But even our great habits need to be looked at occasionally, lest they become not-so-great habits as the world changes, as we change. Stay on your toes. Keep your eyes open. Keep your mind open. Just because it’s the way we did it yesterday doesn’t mean it’s the best way to do it tomorrow. A rut is a rut when we stop moving forward as we’d like.
Happy habiting!
2 Comment(s) Author: Dave Neal
Posted: Sunday April 25, 2010 under Lead Myself
So you’re not more powerful than a locomotive? Who cares?
Just saw the superhero movie, Kick-Ass, and it raised an intriguing question: just because we’re not superhuman, can we lead superheroic lives? I believe the answer is yes, and I believe we can do it in five easy steps! (Okay, they’re not super easy, but anyone can do it.) No rippling muscles, awesome brain power, or fancy gadgets needed.
1. Create a super identity
In the original Superman movie, young Clark Kent’s father tells him, “There’s one thing that I do know, son, and that is, you are here for a reason.” So, Clark might ask himself: Who am I? Why am I here? What good am I doing? That’s our identity. A parent, a friend, a daughter, a student, an employee, a citizen, an artist, a whatever … they’re all part of it.
To create a super identity, just imagine yourself as you want to be … your ideal self. I’m not just a parent, I’m a super parent. What does that look like? I’m not just a friend, I’m a super friend. What does that look like?
That’s not to say we can dip into a phone booth (Do they still exist?) and emerge as Captain Perfect Person. No one’s perfect, not even superheroes. We merely want to take an honest look at who we are and who we aspire to be. Then work at moving from here to there. We don’t have to leap tall buildings in a single bound, either. Just get in the habit of asking ourselves in everyday situations: “How would my superheroic self handle this?” And go from there.
2. Activate our super powers
A cool thing about superheroes: they’re all good at different things. Lot’s and lot’s of diversity. Some are really flexible, some are really fast, some can see things others can’t, some are technical whizzes, some can move things with their mind. It’s the same for us. We all have special talents and passions. We just have to know what they are and develop them.
Try this. List several things you’re especially good at (or things you’d like to be especially good at): math, cooking, computers, comic book trivia, relating to people, making people laugh, making your dog laugh, whatever. We’ll say these are your core super powers. Next, write down what makes each of your core super powers special: why it’s valuable to you and rest of the world. Math, for example is the language of the universe; without it, we wouldn’t even know where the Martian Manhunter comes from. Last, keep your core super powers in mind and look for opportunities to use them and improve them, every day. It’s that simple. Know your strengths. Try to excel at the things you do best and like doing. Make the most of what you got.
3. Get a sidekick or two
Superheroing can be a lonely business. We’re out there all day (or all night), fighting the good fight, taking on all the supervillainous things that threaten our world. And who’s there to help? Who’s got our back? Every superhero in the history of comic books has teamed up with someone else to defeat some monstrous threat they couldn’t handle alone: think Justice League and the Avengers.
We need a support team: one or more trustworthy people who get us, get what we’re trying to do, and will pull us up by the cape when we need it. Diversity, again, is good. Our team members should bring different, constructive perspectives and a variety of super powers to the mix. But we must choose wisely: Blank Slate Man and Eternal Pessimist Girl might need to stay behind.
4. Be brave and bold
Riddle me this: What are the chilliest 12 inches in the world? Cold feet.
Does it take more courage to venture down a dark alley on occasion or to face a life of no ventures at all? Both can be pretty scary. The truth is, our super identity is just a vision … a bold vision. It stays secreted up in the attic until we choose to take it down and make it a reality, which might require us to step into a few dark alleys; that’s the nature of living a superheroic life.
Steve Jobs (whose black mock turtleneck and Levi’s 501s are as iconic as any spandex super-costume out there) offered the following advice: “Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become.” That’s good counsel. He also suggested we check out Marvel Comic’s new iPad app.
5. Live the code
The superhero code is pretty simple, though it trips a lot of us up. It basically tells us to not be bad guys. Superheroes sacrifice to protect others. They use their powers for good. They don’t cheat or lie (maliciously) or steal or take advantage of people. They are good role models, and they do the right things, even when no one is watching.
Again, nobody’s perfect, but our choices in life become far simpler when we set the standards for our own character and engage the daily struggle not to violate them. Gossip about my neighbor? I don’t think so. Let a friend down who’s counting on me? I’d have to have a very good reason. Cheat on my taxes? Of course not. Leave a cat in a tree? (How tall is the tree?) No … wait … heck, no! I’d at least call somebody.
There are, obviously, other superheroic steps we can take, but these are the fantastic five you might start with. Take them out for a spin and see how high you can fly.
1 Comment(s) Author: Dave Neal
Posted: Monday March 22, 2010 under Lead Myself
As we step into spring, I’ve been thinking about people stepping up.
There’s a lot of it going on around us, it seems, positive signs that even in the toughest economic winters people are as resilient as ever. Of course, that’s the nature of “tough times,” isn’t it? We all have a greater opportunity to overcome, perhaps, to dig a little deeper, to find the heroes in ourselves.
A recent example that sticks out to me is a woman in her mid 40s who graduated at the top of her 2009 class from a college in California. She was valedictorian. The remarkable thing was, she was a single, working mother of 13 kids (8 of them adopted), and she had taken in dozens of foster kids over 25 years as a stay-at-home mom. When asked why she did it, she explained that after her divorce she realized she needed a college degree to get a decent job, and she wanted to inspire her kids. When asked how she did it, she said she just did it. She and the kids all helped each other with chores and homework.
She told interviewers, “You know what … if you want to do it. Just do it. Do it afraid and the courage will come later.”
But with every opportunity to step up, like this one, there’s also an opportunity to step off, to find a reason to do nothing or take a less heroic path. We always have an opportunity to blame others, to view ourselves as helpless victims, to rationalize excuses for our low expectations or outcomes, to believe that we can’t make a difference. We might hear some of these common cop-outs in our own head:
- “Everyone else does it.”
- “I’m just one person.”
- “That’s not my job.”
- “No one else cares; why should I?”
- “I did my part; those other people dropped the ball.”
- “She made the mistake.”
- “I don’t get the credit I deserve.”
- “Life isn’t fair.”
Let’s face it; life isn’t always fair. It’s often not very fair at all. We have big challenges and bad breaks to overcome on our journey through it. But, we are ultimately defined by how we respond to what life throws at us (and it’s been throwing a lot at many of us lately).
Stepping out of this cold winter with a mind to step up a little more might just lead us somewhere warmer and brighter.
Small steps…. We might choose to act with integrity during a tempting moment to do otherwise (even when no one else is watching). We might choose to commit a selfless act during a tempting moment to do otherwise. We might choose to dig a little deeper within ourselves, to light a candle rather than curse the darkness, to do it afraid and let the courage come later.
Happy spring, and happy stepping!
0 Comment(s) Author: Dave Neal
Resources Archive
