substantiallyOne dreary Monday morning, a friend of mine dragged himself into his weekly staff meeting. Sighing deeply, he prayed that his enormous coffee would somehow get him through the worst time of the week… the weekly staff meeting. BORING!!!
This week, however, his manager came in and dumped a huge bucket of Legos on the table. He grabbed the flat green stand, attached three Legos to it, and turned to the employee sitting to his right and said “Take 3 Legos, add it to mine, then pass it to the next person. Let’s see what we can create.” Then, the manager went on with the regular staff meeting. Same format, same information, but the atmosphere had dramatically changed. What the team created was an unnamable, indescribable Lego blob, and a whole lot of laughter on a dreary Monday morning. My friend bounced back to his desk with a spring in his step that had nothing to do with his huge cup of coffee.
What transpired after that was mind blowing. The team got closer, created more, cooperated more, and laughed at inside jokes around the Lego disasters that came out of those meetings. Then, it became the responsibility for other team members to bring an activity to the staff meeting. What really mattered was that manager got his team out of the rut they were in, and suddenly there was a huge shift in energy and innovation.
If you are the manager of a team and you dread your own meetings, then certainly your employees do as well. Take a moment to figure out how to get yourself out of the rut and then provide a cure for the interminable dreaded staff meeting. A little play time does wonders.
(Dedicated to Alex Deison, Logan Deison, Logan Gilbert, Alex Gilbert and Josh Gilbert: the men in my family who are true Lego connoisseurs.)
While vacationing recently, I took long walks on the beach. The wind in my hair, the sun on my face, the sand under my toes… pure bliss. After a few days, I began to look around at the other folks enjoying their time on the beach as well. What I noticed was shocking… not a single person was on their phone. I didn’t see a soul on an iPad. I didn’t even see a Kindle. What I did see was people talking to each other. I saw people playing games together and building sand castles with their kids. I saw people napping, eating, reading and working. Yes, I did say working….
After sitting on the beach for a while, your mind wanders. You look around to see the surroundings and, lo and behold, inspiration strikes. People made some of the most beautiful sand castles, wrote inspirational messages in the sand, collected sea shells and created art work. They were working. The word “work” means “an activity involving mental or physical effort done in order to achieve a purpose or result”. And at the end of the day, people were satisfied.
Work has literally become a 4 letter word… something that we have to endure in order to live. I think work is a beach. When we are inspired by our work, we create and innovate. We are more willing to try new things, and we sometimes make mistakes. We are learning!
So, if you are thinking to yourself “Work is a bi*%h”, then I encourage you to visit a beach… stat!
Imagine being in an interview for a job that you really want. The interview team is a panel of people not talking, asking you pretty hard questions, and you are concentrating solely on impressing them. All of the sudden, one of those people points out that you have a spider crawling on your shirt. What would you do? Would you scream? Jump up and run? Brush that spider off and then kill it DEAD?
This actually happened to a poor candidate that we interviewed this past week, and he calmly brushed the spider off his shirt and continued his interview gracefully. Then, he joked about being Peter Parker.
We all laughed uproariously. He followed up later that day with a thank you email for the opportunity to interview, expressed his desire to come back for the final round as he really wanted this job, and he signed his email: “Your friendly neighborhood spider man. “
I have spent hours talking to my clients about what to look for in candidates, and the ability to handle difficult situations is invariably one of the top qualities that my clients want. An employee who can laugh at themselves and the situation, handle it gracefully and leave you impressed in an awkward set of circumstances is someone you have to hire.
And as for Spiderman? He comes in this week for his final interview for… you guessed it, a web developer.
I recently got a new/used car, and at the end of a long day of interviewing, I got in it to go home. It has one of those keyless buttons that you press to make it start (this is new technology to me). I pushed the button and… nothing. I began to try everything I could think of to get the vehicle to start. I discovered the “key” in the key fob where I turned the car off, then on again. I opened and shut all the doors. Nothing happened.
One of the employees who was leaving at the same time offered, “Beth, do you need some jumper cables? I don’t have any, but I could call somebody!” I gracefully declined. Even if she had jumper cables, I would not have known what to do with them; regardless, I was pretty sure the issue with the car was user error, not engine failure.
As I continued my discovery process (which really involved me sitting in the front seat staring out the window in amazement, hoping a solution would just present itself), my client walked by and said “Is the car in park?” The car was in reverse. I put the car in park and it started right up at the push of the button. Boy, did I feel like an idiot, and I can guarantee you that I have not heard the end of this from my client, beloved husband and friends (nor will I EVER)! It was such a simple fix!
“What is the point?” you may be asking yourself. Last week, an article came out about a tech company failing to attract female candidates. After some conversations, they realized that the job title they’d used for years (“hacker”) was not perceived as inclusive by potential candidates. Once they changed their verbiage from “hacker” to “developer”, they began to attract many more female candidates. Sometimes a very simple change (in this case, of one word) can make all the difference in the world. Read the article here.
The next time you find yourself not attracting the types of candidates that you want (or when your new/used car will not start), take a second look. Put your process (and car) in park. Take a second to review your job ad to ensure that the language you are using directly reflects the message you want to portray. Then, press the button and GO!
Meanwhile, I will be reading the manual for my car…
I love the salad bar at Whole Foods! I mean, I LOVE it! It is a luxury that I rarely allow myself, but I will eat vegetables there that I would NEVER eat at home. I love having the ability to choose which high quality ingredients go into my salad, and my mouth just waters. I get excited just by thinking about it, because I know that it will be the BEST salad I have had in a long time.
What would it be like if you could choose your next employee that way? What if you could hand pick the qualities of your potential candidate like you can the vegetables at a salad bar? What if you walked around the bar and were able to choose the qualities in a great employee that got you excited? For example, pick up the tongs over the “Loves Coming to Work” container, or pass over the “Can’t See The Big Picture” container. After all, if you don’t like mushrooms, don’t put them in your salad! It will just ruin your experience.
In essence, it really is that easy if you have a strategic interviewing process in place. You begin with the Ideal Candidate List (step one in the A-list Interview process). Make a list of all the qualities that make up your Ideal Candidate and post that list on your wall. Look at it every day, and continue interviewing until you find that person. Then your new employee experience will be just like going to Whole Foods and walking around the salad bar: exciting, full of anticipation and a wholly satisfying, memorable experience.
One dreary Monday morning, a friend of mine dragged himself into his weekly staff meeting. Sighing deeply, he prayed that his enormous coffee would somehow get him through the worst time of the week… the weekly staff meeting. BORING!!!
I love the salad bar at Whole Foods! I mean, I LOVE it! It is a luxury that I rarely allow myself, but I will eat vegetables there that I would NEVER eat at home. I love having the ability to choose which high quality ingredients go into my salad, and my mouth just waters. I get excited just by thinking about it, because I know that it will be the BEST salad I have had in a long time.