by Beth | Sep 4, 2024 | Selecting Good Candidates
I have been conducting this impromptu, unofficial survey of how people like their margaritas. The answers have been so vast and have sparked some interesting debates! For example: 1) alcohol or non-alcohol 2) salt or no salt 3) lime or no lime 4) lime or strawberry (Is strawberry even a margarita?? one purist questioned) 5) frozen, on -the-rocks 6) mix or coin style.
If that isn’t enough, what are your tequila choices? White, gold, reposado, or anejo. What are your mix choices? Pre-mix? Just lime juice? How about orange flavor? Triple sec? Gran Gala? Grand Marnier? Any other secret ingredients? Quite literally, the combinations are endless.
As the consumer, you CAN leave the choices to someone else, and just order the house margarita… you may like it, or you may not. Or you can spend time, energy and money trying to figure out what you like and create your own special recipe.
Just. Like. Hiring.
You can take any ole resume that comes along with very mixed results. Or, you can spend the time, energy and effort to figure out what you want before you hire someone. This exercise is called the Ideal List, and it is the first step in the A-list Interviews Hiring Process. What type of person are you searching for? What attributes do you want? What values must this person have in order to fit in with your company culture? What skill sets will make them successful?
If you are okay with taking big chances, pull a resume out of the pile and hire them. But if you are like most business-people I know, you need to find the right person the first time. That means, you have to do the work before you hire someone. You deserve an employee that is unique to you and your business.
And for your information, I am not a huge margarita fan. I like Anejo tequila with no lime, no salt, at room temperature. Ole!
POWER THOUGHT: Don’t take big risks with your hires. Or your margaritas.
by Beth | Aug 10, 2022 | Company Culture
“I hired a Cultural Terrorist,” my client announced to me last week.
“A cultural terrorist?” I repeated.
“Yes,” my client lamented. “She was our top salesperson by a lot of money, but we simply couldn’t keep her anymore. She made everyone’s life here miserable, including mine. I lost a few key performers over her. So finally, I fired her. “
“What happened next?” I asked, wide-eyed.
“You wouldn’t believe it! First of all, just the energy around here is lighter. People laugh more. There is more talking in the bullpen. But also, the second layer of salespeople have totally stepped up and in the 6 weeks since I fired her, the next four salespeople have almost made up the difference,” she said. “It’s as if everyone knew what a trainwreck she was, and the awful stories that I am hearing about her… well, it was the right thing to do, and I should have done it months ago.”
Like my client, when you hire an employee like this, it has a few effects. They only care about themselves. They use up resources. They are nasty to other employees. This is called a cultural terrorist. That ONE employee can ruin your business, your reputation with your clients, and your ability to keep your people working for you. They aren’t worth the money that they make for you, and it is time to let them go.
POWER THOUGHT: Don’t sacrifice the whole staff for ONE cultural terrorist. Cut bait and move on.
by Beth | Aug 28, 2019 | Employee Hiring, Selecting Good Candidates
Last week I had a client call me in a panic. He was about to lose a large government contract, because he hadn’t hired a much-needed engineer. We were in the process of filling the position, but we weren’t moving fast enough for the government. Now I have heard it all!
If you know me and my hiring philosophy at ALL, you know that I am not an advocate for fast hires. I believe very strongly that hiring fast means you will hire wrong. It is so easy to make mistakes when you move too quickly, and as Robert Plotkin states in his book Preventing Internal Theft, “It’s better to operate short-staffed for a period of time and rely on your existing staff than hiring someone unqualified or inappropriate for the establishment.”
However, no rule is correct or applicable 100% of the time. When you are in the situation my client found himself in, and you are faced with losing a few million dollars in government contracts, you need to hire fast. My advice for this situation was hire someone quickly, get the position filled, AND continue to look for the right fit. If the quick-hire person works out, (and it does about 1/3 of the time) then wonderful. Everyone is happy. If they don’t work out, remember this was a short-term solution, and be grateful for that.
Hire fast when absolutely necessary. Hire right for long-term success.
by Beth | Apr 18, 2018 | Company Culture, Good Management, Leadership
My daughter, Katy, starts cheerleading practice soon. As the lead cheerleader, she wants to wear a great outfit on the first day. She looked high and low for her favorite pair of cheer shorts, but to no avail. Bitterly disappointed, she bought another pair, but still, she wanted to find her favorites.
Then, it struck her. They might be in the trunk of her car. “My trunk is the new junk drawer,” she exclaimed! “I throw everything back there.” Sure enough, upon searching her trunk, there were her beloved shorts along with 2 blankets, a shirt that had also she “lost”, a curling iron, a pair of shoes, and some Valentine’s Day wrapping paper that she doesn’t remember buying.
Katy took a few hours to get everything back to where it was supposed to be, and life appears to have calmed for my teenage daughter.
Does Katy’s struggle sound familiar? Often, we spend an immense amount of time looking for things we already have, only to repurchase and rediscover the item along with a series of other things you had forgotten about. The same can be true for your office, talent pool and business processes.
You know when it is time to clean up when EVERY little task takes way more time than it should. You look for a document but can’t easily find it due to an unorganized filling system. You look for a colleague’s phone number, but it was not entered into your contact database. All these little tasks end up taking an inordinate amount of time; time that could be spent on business activities.
This time of year, I encourage you to shake out the rugs in your business departments, clean up job descriptions, re-organize the filing cabinets, create new habits to prevent the loss of information and start the spring with a new, ruthlessly organized…trunk. You will be glad that you did.
by Beth | Apr 4, 2018 | Company Culture, Employee Retention
My daughter, Katy was just selected to participate in a Chem-a-thon, a chemistry marathon through her high school. It is a very high honor… sort of.
For those students who are selected, they “get” to drive on a bus for 1 ½ hours to go take a 4-hour standardized test, then drive back to school for another 1 ½ hours in the middle of the hardest year and the most challenging time of year in high school. In addition, they are still held accountable for other tests, papers and group projects that are due before the end of the year. As Katy so eloquently put it, “You want to be chosen. You just don’t want to DO it. AND, I even have to BUY my own t-shirt!”
So, is this reward really a reward?
While I was at a clients’ office this past week, I overheard some employees complaining about being “rewarded” for being chosen to sit on an advisory committee for their boss. Same thing. They wanted to be chosen, but there were so many extra projects that were required, with no extra time to complete them and no extra resources to get the projects completed. One employee sighed “Working all weekend is NOT a reward!”
Rewarding your employees can be so satisfying for both parties. It can dramatically improve morale and it is a great way to create a culture that all parties love. Just make sure that the reward is actually a reward.
And, please, please PLEASE don’t make them buy their own t-shirts!
