For the past few blogs I have been telling you about my swimming experience. Recently, I had a setback. One day, I began to experience hip pain. The diagnosis is a herniated disc in my back. Much to my dismay, I have had to quit swimming and go into rehabilitation mode to become healthy again. I was at a crossroads and needed to make a decision about my swim lessons. I really did not want to quit working with my coach but swimming was no longer an option with my back issues. So, I decided to meet him for coffee one morning to deliver the bad news. He immediately suggested that a treatment option could be trigger point massage work, and lo and behold, he is a certified myotherapist. He was right. The trigger point along with chiropractic is doing the trick. Our relationship has changed dramatically from when we started working together, and I could never have predicted this amazing outcome.
The job that I originally hired my swim coach for has changed. As a business grows, the positions that you will have within the company will also grow and change. The right hire will grow and change with you and your business. If you can remain flexible, you might be surprised at what other skills your great employee can bring to the table.
The lesson here is that none of us can predict the future. We do not know how our businesses will change, but when you hire the right person, you can travel that journey together.
I just read yet another article talking about how hiring with your gut never works. As a matter of fact, hiring on your gut reaction not only sets your employee up to fail, you will hold on to them longer when you know they are not right for the position, because your gut is involved. So, what exactly does all of this mean?
If you have been around me long enough, you have heard me tell you that your gut does not help you in the interview process, because the candidate is trying to sell to you. They want a job. They are anxious, worried, nervous and scared. They WILL tell you what you want to hear, because they want a job. Remember: an interview is not a normal interaction, so the dynamics are off. Therefore, your gut reaction will be skewed and will not help in making a good hiring decision.
Instead, I want you to go with your ‘but’. The ‘but’ is the potential big problem, the proverbial “pebble in your shoe.” You will talk about your potential employee like this: I like this and this about her, BUT… she doesn’t seem to want the job. I really like XYZ about him, BUT he complained about the commute. If the ‘but” is something that you can live with and will not bug you later on, then you can dismiss it from your hiring criteria. If you ignore it, you will make a bad hiring decision.
Therefore, go with your ‘but’, not your gut. You can do it!!!
For the past few weeks, I have been visiting my clients to get quotes for my upcoming book about the interview process. The success stories have been awesome to hear, like the one from my client Steve. He and I hired his right hand employee a little over 2 years ago. Steve is reporting that he now has the drama- free office environment that he has always wanted. As a matter of fact, he now takes Fridays off and is making more money! To give you an example of just how great it is to be Steve, he faces a bi-annual audit as he is in the financial industry. The audit process has typically taken about 4 hours with the auditor and several weeks of Steve’s time to prepare. This last audit took 45 minutes and Steve’s employee prepared the entire document.
Lesson learned: Great hires = more time and more money.
Sand on the stage, beach balls in the air and Parrot Heads! This was the scene at the Pepsi Center several years ago for a Jimmy Buffett concert I attended. The back-up singers and dancers began rousing the crowd to get into the groove, which reached a feverish frenzy until finally, the man himself stepped out onto the stage to a packed house of screaming fans. If you have never been to a Jimmy Buffett concert, it is hard to describe how the music started, the colors of the lights flashing and just how enamored I was with the entire scene, especially because right before the concert, I was the lucky holder of a backstage pass to meet a legend himself!
Meeting Mr. Buffett was indeed a lifetime experience, and one that I keep living over and over. I relay the story often to my friends, colleagues and now you. However, because you were not there, you probably do not have the same attachment to the story as I do. Shaking his hand, listening to the crowd in the background, and having my photo taken with him was truly amazing. But since you were not there with me, it is not possible for you to have the same relationship with Jimmy that I now have. After all, listening to Margaritaville on your iPod is just not the same.
Now you may be asking how this relates to interviewing for employees. Imagine that you send your very capable team to an interview with a candidate. Then imagine them trying to describe the interaction to you in a manner that encompasses all facets of the interview. It is simply not the same thing as meeting with the candidate face to face. Even when your team takes great notes and really listens to the candidate, they will not be able to fully describe the interview in its entirety. No one can, anymore that you could possibly grasp the full experience of meeting Jimmy Buffett. In order to fully experience a candidate’s interview, you have to be in the room with them. You have to shake their hand and see how they interact with you in order to know if this candidate will be a good fit for your open position. With approximately 2/3 of all hires being mistakes, and the money that those mistakes cost, can you really afford to short change an interview process by not being present?
My daughter, Katy, and I love to make cookies, especially when it is snowing outside and we have a process that we go through to make them. Melt the butter, sneak a few chocolate chips. Add the sugar and eggs, sneak a few chocolate chips. Add vanilla, baking soda, flour, etc. and of course, sneak a few chips. Then, you stir it all together to get the dough, which, you must taste! Sing a little to the song on the radio, do a little dance, put the dough on the pan, and put it in the oven. Dance a little more, try another pinch of dough until the cookies come out of the oven and eat one while it is really hot. It melts all over your hands and face! Giggle some more while you pour a much-needed glass of milk and voila! In addition to feeling a tad sick, you have made cookies and memories all in one day!
One time, however, we put baking powder in the dough instead of baking soda and it was a disaster! Another time, we forgot the eggs; and yet another time, we pulled the cookies out of the oven too late and they were burnt. If you miss a necessary step in baking, you will ruin the final cookie outcome.
The experience is the same when you are trying to hire the right person. There is a recipe for finding the right fit called the 7 Steps to Finding Great Employees: 1) Create your Ideal Candidate in your mind 2) Write the job description 3) Write the job ad 4) Review resumes and schedule candidates 5) First Interview 6) Second Interview and 7) Third Interview. When you miss one of these steps, it is like you burnt your beloved chocolate chip cookies… gut wrenching!
Cultivating your staff begins with hiring the best and you can’t do that if you leave out a part of the recipe. So pay attention, focus and be patient when hiring your next employee. Also, don’t forget to wipe the chocolate off your chin!
Last week, I was conducting some phone interviews with a client. On particular call, the interview was going really well until the candidate surprised me with a request: “Can I put you on hold and take this other call?”
“Uh, sure,” I mumbled. While I waited, listening to really bad background music, I contemplated this question: “Does this candidate really want THIS job?”
The resounding answer came to me. No, he really does not. If he really wanted the job that my client was offering, he would have ignored any and all calls, no matter who is calling him. At this point, nothing else matters; his skills, his experience, his ability to do the job – none of those count, because if he does not WANT the job, he is not going to DO the job.
The last thing that you want to do is hire someone who is not willing talk to you long enough to find out if this is the job for them or hire someone who is not absolutely thrilled to come and work for you.
So, put this job offer on hold, just like the candidate did to me, and wait for the right candidate to come along. They will come to you if you are patient. You will be SO glad that you waited!!!
For the past few blogs I have been telling you about my swimming experience. Recently, I had a setback. One day, I began to experience hip pain. The diagnosis is a herniated disc in my back. Much to my dismay, I have had to quit swimming and go into rehabilitation mode to become healthy again. I was at a crossroads and needed to make a decision about my swim lessons. I really did not want to quit working with my coach but swimming was no longer an option with my back issues. So, I decided to meet him for coffee one morning to deliver the bad news. He immediately suggested that a treatment option could be trigger point massage work, and lo and behold, he is a certified myotherapist. He was right. The trigger point along with chiropractic is doing the trick. Our relationship has changed dramatically from when we started working together, and I could never have predicted this amazing outcome. 
