This past weekend was homecoming for my daughter Katy, a Junior in High School. She is also a cheerleader, and somehow she is now responsible for doing everyone’s hair on the squad before the game.
Katy’s role as squad hairdresser started last year, when she created a beautiful complicated braid for her own hair. Then, all of the other girls wanted that hair style as well. Katy googled hairstyles, watched Youtube videos, and practiced on her hair (and everyone else’s) in order to be promoted to Head Hair Stylist for the Cardinal Cheer Squad.
I asked her “What are they going to do when you graduate?!”
She shot right back “Oh, I am training Jordan to do this job when I graduate.” Of course she is.
This process of having people hire and train their own replacement when they advance is exactly how successful companies grow, develop their staff and how innovation occurs. Those people who are on the front lines do research, they learn, they improve the company’s processes and they teach the next generation to do the same. I would imagine that the Cardinal Cheer Squad will have the best hair styles for years to come, thanks to Katy!
So, when you have an employee who wants to learn something new and take on a new task, let them. After all…
Today, September 6th, marks my 20th wedding anniversary. My husband Randy and I celebrated the milestone last weekend by going to the restaurants where we dated. It was an epic way to celebrate!
But 10 years ago, we woke up on the morning of September 7th – a day late – both realizing at the same time that we had forgotten our anniversary… our 10-year wedding anniversary! Holy moly! Though it turned out to be a funny story that we can look back on and laugh about, we also realized how close we came to that funny story being a painful memory: How would we each have felt had I forgotten our anniversary but Randy didn’t… or vice versa?
For the past several weeks, I have asked employees of various companies how long they have been in their current position and when they started. Do you know that most of the people I surveyed can tell me the exact date that they started at their current position? However, when I ask their supervisors to tell me when their valued employees started at their job, most can’t give the correct answer.
Remembering someone else’s work anniversary might not seem like a big deal to you, but it might be a big deal to them. At the very least, it’s a missed opportunity to recognize a milestone and boost the morale of one of the people who make your organization what it is. What’s more, it as easy as setting a reminder in your calendar, and the recognition can be as simple as a card, a gift certificate for a coffee shop or a box of donuts. This is an easy and inexpensive way to let your employee know how much you value them, and a little recognition goes a long way.
And, if you forgot an anniversary like Randy and I did, make sure that the next one has an EPIC celebration attached to it.
Last week, I interviewed a woman who had previously been an Office Manager for a thriving company. She understood that her job was one with wide-ranging responsibilities that required many and various tasks. When I asked what prompted her to resign, she replied, “When I had to sell the owners’ roosters on Craigslist.”
Had this woman’s job had been at a farm working with animals, this request might not have seemed so egregious. Once again, she was working in an office setting with many other employees, so a request like this was quite a bit outside the normal boundaries of the job and she felt taken advantage of.
This is just one example of the importance of having an accurate job description for every position. The job description helps the employee know what is expected of them, and gives them guidelines on how to be successful in the role. When an employee is asked to do something far outside the boundaries of the job, they can feel uncomfortable, uneasy, and unsure on how to proceed. This is not the way to build a productive and satisfying relationship with your employee.
I know, I know… writing a job description is boring, boring, boring! My clients tell me this regularly, and it is usually coupled with an eye roll. However, having a document that accurately describes the job can benefit both the employer and the prospective employee by laying out the tasks, responsibilities and expectations beforehand, in black and white. So if you don’t own a farm and aren’t in the animal husbandry industry, don’t ask your employee to sell your roosters (unless you write it in the job description!)
Then when the rooster crows, everyone knows what to expect.
My daughter, Katy, will be 17 this fall. Recently, she was sitting around with her two BFF’s when one girl asked, “Katy, how many boyfriends do you have?” The other girl jumped in with a reply: “I know! She has 3 full-time and 2 part-time boyfriends!”
When the first girl looked puzzled, Katy replied, “Well, I get different things from each of them!” She explained that boyfriend #1 provides freedom and challenges her intellectually, boyfriend #2 brings flowers and is fiercely loyal, and boyfriend #3 is the perfect group date as his best friends are dating Katy’s best friends. As for the other two, part-time boyfriend #1 provides companionship and reliability, while part-time boyfriend #2: is convenient as she sees him every day.
My husband Randy (Katy’s father) said to her, “Katy, do not settle for someone who doesn’t meet ALL of your criteria. You shouldn’t settle, because you deserve the best of the best.”
In hiring, we often see similar situations with candidates. One will possess the experience the employer feels is vital, another will be a proven team player, yet another exudes enthusiasm. Just this past week, one of my clients exclaimed, “Beth, if we could just combine these two candidates, we’d have the perfect employee!”
Since combining two people into one is only possible in science fiction (and those stories almost always end up badly anyway), many people in this position will try to convince themselves to hire Candidate A because he or she is a BETTER fit than any of the other candidates. This path almost always ends up badly as well, except the result isn’t fiction – it’s your business reality.
If you find yourself in this situation, the better plan of action is to re-read your vision for the ideal candidate, redouble your efforts and hold out for the right fit! Remember what Randy said to Katy: “You shouldn’t settle, because you deserve the best of the best.”
This past weekend was homecoming for my daughter Katy, a Junior in High School. She is also a cheerleader, and somehow she is now responsible for doing everyone’s hair on the squad before the game.
