There are some days when I help my clients with interviewing where we speak to people all day only to find no one qualified to move to the next interview. This can be really discouraging, but when we understand the importance of finding the right person for the job, we also understand that having no one to move forward is inherent to the process.
After a particularly difficult interview day where this exact scenario occurred, my client turned to me and said “I just want to thank you for your hard work and for hanging in there with me. I am really grateful for having you here.” WOW! It is wonderful to work with people that understand we do not always find the right person immediately. I am even more grateful that when this happens, they still see the value of the A-list Interviews process. As I drove home from the session, I had such a warm glow in my heart and it got me thinking…
Do I say “thank you” often enough, even in the face of adversity? I certainly hope so. If you have not heard “thank you” from me recently, I want to express my gratitude now. Some of you on this distribution list are amazing clients; some of you are incredible network partners or even people I have only met once at an event; some of you are people I perhaps have never met. Regardless, I sincerely appreciate your readership, partnership, trust and support over the years for myself and A-list Each and every one of you have contributed to my success in some way.
During the month of November, I find it timely to remind you all of my gratitude: gratitude for my clients, my vendors, my employee, my family and my friends. Quite simply, thank you.
And just as my client reminded me earlier this month that a simple thank you speaks volumes, I now pass it along to you and yours, and please know that I am eternally grateful for you all.
Yesterday I was interviewing with a client who turned to me and said “Beth, I am so sick of interviewing people!” I responded “Well, you better learn to love it.” He looked horrified, and asked “WHY?” I replied, “Because if you are going to grow and evolve as a company, you will be constantly interviewing people.” He looked a little sick from my answer.
This mindset of hating interviewing is common among many of my clients. They HATE interviewing. They HATE spending all day sitting in a room with a steady stream of people coming through the building. They HATE “wasting time” and not being able to do their “real job”.
Here is the truth: when you run a company or department, your job is to create the vision for your area and hire the people to implement that vision. If you approach this valuable activity with any other intention, then you ARE wasting your time. Instead of coming to the table hating the interviewing process, shift to learning how to LOVE finding new employees. Begin by getting in touch with the end goal, which is to find an amazing candidate who comes in and knocks the ball out of the park. THAT person will let you go back to doing the rest of what you love to do. Hiring the very best fit means that you spend some time interviewing candidates to find employees who love what they do. Then you get to spend more time doing things that you love. You cannot find a better way to spend your time than that.
The question that every client invariably will ask me when we begin to develop their interviewing process is, “Why can’t I hire good people?” My poor clients are often doing their full time jobs and the full time jobs of other employees. My clients are tired, burned out, and are starting to hate the work they do because they need good help and are feeling overwhelmed. One client confessed to me that he hated going into the office every day because his direct reports will have put piles of work on his desk that ultimately belonged on their own desks. And his question to me is, “Beth, why can’t I hire good people?”
My answer? Because you don’t need good people. You need good employees. There is a big difference.
Think of it this way: I consider myself a good person. I vote, I recycle, I save dogs, I take good care of my clients. I hold the doors open for people, and I honestly care about our planet. Like I said, a good person. But if you put me in front of a computer for 50 hours a week with a set of headphones doing internet research, I would lose my mind! I would become a lunatic with a road rage problem! A good person, but a terrible employee, because I am in the wrong job. I need to be with people, working with people, talking to people, or I am not happy or productive.
Hiring good employees means that you hire people because they are in the right job. Hiring good people and putting them in a job they hate makes them bad employees. So my advice? Do not hire good people – hire good employees.
Back in the 1950’s, many vacuum cleaners were sold door-to-door; in other words, a salesman would come to the home, be invited in, and he would stage a demonstration of the vacuum’s effectiveness. Usually, that demonstration involved dumping dirt and debris on the carpet and then using the vacuum to remove it.
But what happened if the vacuum didn’t suck up the dirt? The homeowners were left with a mess in the middle of their living room. (And of course, they did not buy the vacuum.)
Surprisingly, people today often use the job interview as an opportunity to dump unwanted “dirt and debris” all over the conference table. Candidates report how awful their past employers were, how horrible their last job was and how impossible the boss was to please. Last week, a candidate complained to me that he had “embellished” his skills when applying for his previous position and was subsequently fired. His exact quote was “if they had just TRAINED me on those skills (that he already told the boss he had), then I could have been successful!”
Just like with non-working vacuums, if there is a big pile of “dirt and debris” sitting on the conference table after an interview, then the candidate isn’t working and you need to keep searching for the right one.
Several weeks ago, my client and I called a candidate to get her scheduled for an interview. She asked for a phone interview at noon on the Friday afternoon that we had available for interviewing. She was very specific about the time. When I asked her if there was a reason for that particular time, and she responded by saying, “Yes. I am in a wedding that day and it starts at 2:00.” Since we schedule phone interviews all the time, I asked her if another day and time might be better, and she said “No. I do NOT want to miss out on this opportunity.”
On the day of her interview, I asked her if she was ready for the wedding, and she said “Yes. We have done our hair and makeup, and I am sitting in a church pew in my Bridesmaid’s dress. This is a first for me.” It was a first for me and the client as well!
The most amazing part about that interview wasn’t the dress or dedication to taking the call, although these were great steps to showing her enthusiasm for the position; it was actually in her preparation. She had done her research on the company. She referred to Yelp reviews. She asked excellent questions and she referred to her “list” of questions several times. She knocked the ball out of the park… all in her bridesmaid dress.
