Maker's Schedule, Manager's Schedule

July 2009
One reason programmers dislike meetings so much is that they're on a different type of schedule from other people. Meetings cost them more.

There are two types of schedule, which I'll call the manager's schedule and the maker's schedule. The manager's schedule is for bosses. It's embodied in the traditional appointment book, with each day cut into one hour intervals. You can block off several hours for a single task if you need to, but by default you change what you're doing every hour.

When you use time that way, it's merely a practical problem to meet with someone. Find an open slot in your schedule, book them, and you're done.

Most powerful people are on the manager's schedule. It's the schedule of command. But there's another way of using time that's common among people who make things, like programmers and writers. They generally prefer to use time in units of half a day at least. You can't write or program well in units of an hour. That's barely enough time to get started.

When you're operating on the maker's schedule, meetings are a disaster. A single meeting can blow a whole afternoon, by breaking it into two pieces each too small to do anything hard in. Plus you have to remember to go to the meeting. That's no problem for someone on the manager's schedule. There's always something coming on the next hour; the only question is what. But when someone on the maker's schedule has a meeting, they have to think about it.

For someone on the maker's schedule, having a meeting is like throwing an exception. It doesn't merely cause you to switch from one task to another; it changes the mode in which you work.

I find one meeting can sometimes affect a whole day. A meeting commonly blows at least half a day, by breaking up a morning or afternoon. But in addition there's sometimes a cascading effect. If I know the afternoon is going to be broken up, I'm slightly less likely to start something ambitious in the morning. I know this may sound oversensitive, but if you're a maker, think of your own case. Don't your spirits rise at the thought of having an entire day free to work, with no appointments at all? Well, that means your spirits are correspondingly depressed when you don't. And ambitious projects are by definition close to the limits of your capacity. A small decrease in morale is enough to kill them off.

Each type of schedule works fine by itself. Problems arise when they meet. Since most powerful people operate on the manager's schedule, they're in a position to make everyone resonate at their frequency if they want to. But the smarter ones restrain themselves, if they know that some of the people working for them need long chunks of time to work in.

Our case is an unusual one. Nearly all investors, including all VCs I know, operate on the manager's schedule. But Y Combinator runs on the maker's schedule. Rtm and Trevor and I do because we always have, and Jessica does too, mostly, because she's gotten into sync with us.

I wouldn't be surprised if there start to be more companies like us. I suspect founders may increasingly be able to resist, or at least postpone, turning into managers, just as a few decades ago they started to be able to resist switching from jeans to suits.

How do we manage to advise so many startups on the maker's schedule? By using the classic device for simulating the manager's schedule within the maker's: office hours. Several times a week I set aside a chunk of time to meet founders we've funded. These chunks of time are at the end of my working day, and I wrote a signup program that ensures all the appointments within a given set of office hours are clustered at the end. Because they come at the end of my day these meetings are never an interruption. (Unless their working day ends at the same time as mine, the meeting presumably interrupts theirs, but since they made the appointment it must be worth it to them.) During busy periods, office hours sometimes get long enough that they compress the day, but they never interrupt it.

When we were working on our own startup, back in the 90s, I evolved another trick for partitioning the day. I used to program from dinner till about 3 am every day, because at night no one could interrupt me. Then I'd sleep till about 11 am, and come in and work until dinner on what I called "business stuff." I never thought of it in these terms, but in effect I had two workdays each day, one on the manager's schedule and one on the maker's.

When you're operating on the manager's schedule you can do something you'd never want to do on the maker's: you can have speculative meetings. You can meet someone just to get to know one another. If you have an empty slot in your schedule, why not? Maybe it will turn out you can help one another in some way.

Business people in Silicon Valley (and the whole world, for that matter) have speculative meetings all the time. They're effectively free if you're on the manager's schedule. They're so common that there's distinctive language for proposing them: saying that you want to "grab coffee," for example.

Speculative meetings are terribly costly if you're on the maker's schedule, though. Which puts us in something of a bind. Everyone assumes that, like other investors, we run on the manager's schedule. So they introduce us to someone they think we ought to meet, or send us an email proposing we grab coffee. At this point we have two options, neither of them good: we can meet with them, and lose half a day's work; or we can try to avoid meeting them, and probably offend them.

Till recently we weren't clear in our own minds about the source of the problem. We just took it for granted that we had to either blow our schedules or offend people. But now that I've realized what's going on, perhaps there's a third option: to write something explaining the two types of schedule. Maybe eventually, if the conflict between the manager's schedule and the maker's schedule starts to be more widely understood, it will become less of a problem. Those of us on the maker's schedule are willing to compromise. We know we have to have some number of meetings. All we ask from those on the manager's schedule is that they understand the cost.

Thanks to Sam Altman, Trevor Blackwell, Paul Buchheit, Jessica Livingston, and Robert Morris for reading drafts of this.

http://www.paulgraham.com/makersschedule.html

The One Word That Shouldn't Exist in an Entrepreneur's Vocabulary

No.
The one word the best entrepreneurs never accept.
I said it.
Now let me walk you through a broader story because avoidance of the word in and of itself will seem cliche. Stay with me.
When I was little I had a role model for entrepreneurship - my mom. She was a natural leader. She was president of the UJA in Sacramento. From this I saw civic involvement and leadership first hand.
She was a nurse but was never graduated from a four-year college. Still -- she can do the NY Times crossword puzzle better and faster than I. Even today.
She was a hustler. And a ball buster. And a natural sales person. She was never afraid of the word "no" even to the point of embarrassing me.
My youth was filled with her arguing with vendors if they tried to pull a fast one. As my wife will tell you -- arguing is cultural -- you grow up with it or you don't. I did. It's very Jewish. For better or worse. She's learned to embrace it in me. If a maitre d' tries to seat me at a table in huge traffic flow or a corner she knows not to bother sitting down.
My mom bought our family's first computer and encouraged me to learn it at 13.
She opened two businesses -- a bakery and then a restaurant. I worked in both before leaving to work in a software company at 17. I never knew a world in which you weren't supposed to work and make money. Even though my dad was a doctor and in retrospect I probably didn't need to earn my own money. My mom always taught me it was my responsibility to do so.
When I was younger my mom taught me something I never forgot:

"You don't ask, you don't get."

It's simple. I know. But it amazes me how many people don't really get it.
Here are two stories:
Story one: 
When I lived and worked in London my wonderful assistant was Deborah Halliday, who was raised a very "proper" British young lady. Her brother played rugby for the English rugby team and went to Oxford. That’s kind of like having a brother in the NFL in the US.
If there was any society in which being a hustler was out of step with the norm is was England. Yet I was a foreigner so I got away with being different.
I used to ask Deborah to book my travel plans in France and Germany were I went one to two times a month. There were online tools to book this stuff but the Internet booking sites were early.
I would tell Deborah, "I found this hotel near the Champs Elysees for 170 Euros. But I don't want to pay that much. Tell them I'll stay if they'll give it to me for 120 Euros."
"What? You want … what? Mark, you can't do that! You can’t just name your own price."
Me: "Of course, I can. Tell them you found a hotel down the street for 100 Euros but I prefer to stay at their hotel. Haggle. See what you can do."
Deborah was mortified. Bless her cotton socks. I put her outside of her comfort zone.
Me: "Deborah, you don't ask, you don't get! What’s the worst they can tell you? "No?" If so, we'll call back an hour later and pay 170 Euros. It's not like they're going to tell you 'no' in an hour. You might as well try!"
Classic Mexican Road strategy.
Here's the thing. They NEVER said 'no.' Such were the times. They weren't fully occupied.
She began to love it. It was liberating. I taught her to make it a game. I would challenge her to see how cheap she could get rooms. I can still hear her giggle at how ridiculous it was in her mind's eye. And yet how eye-opening it was that you could have almost anything you wanted. If you just asked.

Story two:
Fast forward. My son Jacob. He's now 10. When he was seven or eight, my wife used to sit down with him to do homework and train him in the importance of getting it done early and well. Luckily I have such a terrific and organized wife. Or Jacob would be screwed.
They sometimes did homework at Le Pain Quotidien. And if Jacob was good, he could get a treat.
Tania once took him up to the counter to pick out a treat. He pointed at a chocolate cake and told Tania he wanted a piece.
"No, honey. That's a whole cake. You can't have a piece. It's not cut. Why don't you find something else?"
Jacob: "Of course I can have a piece. Just ask them!"
Jacob has IJ. He knows to ask for what he wants. He is respectful. But he has an inner compass that instead of saying "O.k." to adversity he says "Why not?"
She had him ask the lady behind the counter directly. She said, "No problem."
My wife smiled and couldn’t wait to tell me the story.
My wife thinks Jacob's an over negotiator but she secretly loves it. I always take it as a compliment.
Both stories have something in common. Not being ashamed to ASK. As I tell people almost weekly, "What's the worst that could happen? That they would say 'no'?"
And I mean it. I promise you that 95 percent of the people I meet are afraid of people telling them no. They are personally embarrassed by it. Or insulted. Or view it as failure.
I'm told "no" all the time because I often ask for more than others do and therefore you need to be willing to hear "no."
I was on a flight last year from DC to LAX. I had a business class seat due to status of flying a lot and my family was in economy. I felt bad and was planning on rotating.
But when I sat down I asked if my family could upgrade since there were three open seats. I assumed the answer would be "no" but I figured I had nothing to lose.
The flight attendant said "O.k., but you’ll have to pay a small upgrade fee and I can't move them until after take-off." But move them she did. And she decided it wasn't really important to make me pay since the seats were unoccupied.
Score!
We had also just been upgraded from London to Baltimore.
Two times in a row--unreal. My wife was a bit incredulous (but grateful). I simply pointed out that our kids learned a more important lesson than the downside consequence of their expecting to always sit in business class (which isn’t going to happen!).
They learned to ask, "Why not?"
You don't ask. You don't get.
And here's the thing about "no."
I know first hand just how chicken people are about hearing it. I've sat through so many meetings where sales reps didn't ask for the order. I've been pitched by hundreds of entrepreneurs who never actually asked me whether I would invest. Very few people do.
Here's an experiment for you.
Hold interviews with tech people, marking people, ops people, finance people -- whatever. They always finish the interview with a "thank you" and barely ask next steps.
Any great sales person will ask you at the end of the meeting, "So, how'd I do? Who else have you spoken with? How do I stack up? What do I need to convince you of to get an offer? What is the next step in the process?"
Great sales people are trained to "ask for the order." If you interview a sales person and they don't ask for the order, be worried.
I like to flip things on their heads. I like to ask in reverse in interviews, "If we did get aligned to offer you this role, do you plan on accepting? What other offers do you have? What do we need to do to win? What steps do you still need before you decide to go with us?"
I want to know. And I have nothing to fear in the answer.
My favorite (not!) is dealing with lawyers (or VCs) who say, "As a firm, we never do a, b, c." Let me tell you now that often this line is BS. But my standard response is, "I don't care what you normally do. I think it's right for our situation. So unless you explain to me logically why it doesn't make sense at our company, my assumption is that it's a good idea."
In summary, I recommend some honesty with yourself. "Asking" is a skill that can be practiced and learned but you need to be self aware.
How comfortable do you feel with asking for the order? How confortable do you feel with asking awkward questions or asking for things that are out of the norm, "Could we have your room for 120 Euros so we don't have to stay down the road?"
If you don't find it within your confort zone - practice in small ways for asking for slightly unreasonable things just to get used to it. It's a skill you're going to need as an entrepreneur.
After all--you don't ask, you don't get.

http://www.inc.com/both-sides-of-the-table/mark-suster/one-word-that-shouldnt-exist-in-an-entrepreneurs-vocabulary.html

The End of the Mexican Road

Negotiations. We all think we’re good at them. Most people aren’t that good.

For many the idea of negotiations is “let’s split the difference 50/50.” In some situations this is the right answer. In many cases it’s not.
I learned many of my negotiation techniques through experience. But I did read a couple of books on the topic that were useful:
1. You Can Negotiation Anything (by Herb Cohen)
2. Getting to Yes
I enjoyed both. And negotiation technique is one of the few areas on my MBA that was truly new information to me by the time I had attended. I learned concepts such as BATNA (Best alternative to a negotiated agreement, which every MBA will remember). We like to short-hand it, as in, “What’s our BATNA?”
As a VC I’m required to negotiate constantly.

• submitting term sheets
• doing pre-emptive follow-on rounds
• agreeing whether or not to top up a founder’s equity
• agreeing annual compensation packages
• negotiating with other VCs over who gets to invest how much
• and so on

As a result I’ve really resisted writing about negotiations. I don’t want everybody with whom I’m currently negotiating thinking, “Ah, you’re just employing technique XYZ.” Each situation is different. Sometimes my, “this is my best & final offer” really is just that. Other times I say it more subtly and have some small negotiating room. Sometimes I even say, “I will change price / terms if I need to. I prefer not to. But I really want to work together so if it’s important to you, let’s discuss things.”
But negotiations are so important that I thought I ought to included a few posts on the topic. This is the first.
I’ll do my second, “Everybody Wants Their Pound of Flesh” soon after. If I forget to write, “Don’t Negotiation Piecemeal” after that then remind me.
The first post is for situations in which you are the BUYER.
The End of the Mexican Road
When I was in college I found myself in Mexico often enough. It was a unique experience for me at that age. No, I’m not talking about the times I was in Tiajuana too late at night. But the times where we took weekend trips further in Baja California or Spring Break week-long trips to Mazatlan.
This was my first real experience with haggling. You walk up to a guy selling you a Mexican blanket (or other trinket you don’t really need) and he says:

Vendor: My friend. You buy my blanket. Only $20
Me: $20? That’s a case of beer! And I’d still have change left! (it was the late 80′s after all) You gotta be kidding!
Vendor: OK, my friend. For you. Today only. $18.
Me: No, thanks.
Vendor: OK. How much you pay? This a high quality blanket, amigo.
Me: (egged on by my friends): 2 dollars. I’ll buy a blanket for $2.
Vendor: Ay. Come on. This is high quality, my friend. I give it to you for $16.
Me: $10. That’s my final offer.
Vendor: No, my friend. It costs me more than that.

And so I started walking away. I didn’t really want or need the blanket. We were in a bazaar – somehow you get frenzied into buying shit.
As I walked down the road the vendor chased me. He had a look of desperation on his face, “My friend, my friend. Please. Ok. You can buy this blanket for $12. I make no money. But for you? 12 dollars.”
I take out my wallet. We’re both happy. I think I got a good deal. He knows he did.
And so I learned an important negotiation lesson in college. Sellers will always chase you down the road if they think you’re walking away from a deal that they want to do.
Your job is to offer a price (or terms) and walk. See if they follow you. If you get to the end of the road and turn right and they’re not following you then you know you offered a price that was too low.
But here’s the thing. As long as you negotiated in good faith and weren’t a jerk, if you turn right and don’t get followed you still have another chance. If you come back around the corner you can always start the negotiation off again. It’s not like they would say, “No, I’m sorry, sir. My offer is no longer valid.”
Imagine in my previous case if I had offered $10 and he hadn’t followed me. In that case my price was too low even for him. I could have easily come back and said, “Ok, how about $14?” or even, “Fine. I’ll buy it for $16.”
In this case I would have learned a bit about his floor. $10 was too low.
I know this all sounds obvious but trust me – in my many years of leading team members through their negotiations I know that people often struggle with finding the true floor or even seeing whether a negotiation is possible. I always busted out my metaphor, “Offer X. Walk to the end of the road. Turn right. If he doesn’t follow you we need to rethink our offer.
Another great example of where I saw this “floor testing” used was in the book, “Swim with the Sharks without Being Eaten Alive.” I read it more than 20 years ago so I can’t say for sure whether it is still relevant or not.  But it had a big impact on me in the late 80′s. The author, Harvey Mackay, talked about his strategy. He would often send other people not related to him in to negotiate a price on a certain product and do much of the haggling in advance of him. They were floor testing. That way when Harvey STARTED his process he came in a lot better informed about price & term sensitivity.
Some real world examples:
1. Executive Recruiters
I have a high degree of respect for high-quality executive recruiters. For the right jobs in your company (usually senior) and for certain types of roles they can be vital.
But their pricing strategy has always driven me bonkers. In booming markets the best firms operate on a 33% basis. They want a third of the total comp package of a senior recruit. Then many ask for 33% of this fee to be paid up front, 33% after one month and 33% after two months. I have never signed a contract on these terms.
Also, they often want to charge you 33% of total comp. So if you hire a senior sales rep with 100% bonus on top of their $150,000 base salary they want to get paid $100,000 (33% of $300,000). WTF. Why should I pay 2x the price to hire a VP of sales as I would pay to hire a VP of Market, Technology or Finance? The work is the exact same amount. And which startup would pay that kind of money anyways???
I don’t want to make this a post about negotiating with executive recruiters, but the leverage points of negotiation are:

• percentage fees (will they go to 25%? 20%? 17%?)
• fixed fees (will they agree a number so that your interests are aligned? After all, you don’t want them talking up comp because they get paid more)
• payment terms (can you make it performance based? 1/3 of fee on short-list of candidates, 1/3 on acceptance by a candidate, 1/3 first month after employee joins)
• replacement search (if candidate leaves or is fired in first X months, what happens? replacement search? part refund? what?)
• non poach (will they sign an agreement not to hire anybody from your company for 3 years? 2 years? 1 year? 5 years?)
• etc

Obviously you can do some homework by asking other entrepreneurs what terms they negotiation with recruiters. Sometimes you have to walk to the end of the Mexican road.

2. Software Packages
The number of times I’ve seen software license agreements where I’ve been told by my colleague trying to purchase it that, “the fee is the fee. My rep told me.” or something similar. The fee is seldom just the fee. Especially near the end of a quarter.

• Can we get a trial period first?
• Can we pay the same amount but extra licenses at the same cost?
• Can we get a “most favored nation” contract? (where if another customer is offered a lower price, they’re legally obliged to offer it to me)
• Can we prepay a year and get a discount?
• You say only prepay a year. We want to buy monthly
• And so on

Negotiating Style
Understanding what terms or price you should pay does not mean you need to take on a power-trip mentality when you’re the buyer. For starters, you should respect the people who are going to provide you with products and services. They’re just doing their job and often their product / service is integral to what you’re trying to achieve.
Also, just because you want to get a sense of what is possible in a purchasing negotiation doesn’t mean that you need to take every last penny of profit out of the deal. For example, if you’re in a down market so you can put the squeeze on a recruiter to do a search uber cheap, you might end up being penny wise, pound foolish. If that person has three gigs on at that time and your is significantly below market and below the others you shouldn’t be surprised if you get a little less time, attention and resources than the others.
In fact, your goal in a negotiation is not always to get the lowest possible terms. Your goal is to understand the needs of your partner and create win/win outcomes where both sides are incentivized to continue to want to work hard together – now and into the future. Sometimes that means you want the absolute best deal you can get. Other times it doesn’t.
Either way, remember that you can make offers with a smile on your face that might seem absurd. And if you’re not insulting in how you offer and if you walk down the road and turn right – you might learn a little bit more about the art of what is possible.

http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2012/02/11/the-end-of-the-mexican-road/

How to Calculate the Lifetime Value of a Customer

Take a look at this infographic explaining  how to calculate the lifetime value of a customer.

Delivering exceptional customer experience directly impacts your bottom line.

http://www.pretiumsolutions.com/how-to-calculate-the-lifetime-value-of-a-customer/

blog.kissmetrics.com/how-to-calculate-lifetime-value/

3 Steps to Handle a Crisis Like a Fighter Pilot

By compartmentalizing and addressing a problem on a triage basis your business can emerge from disaster unscathed.




When I was born in 1970 my father was a flight surgeon with the U.S. Air Force. One of the lessons that has stayed with me from my father's experience in the Air Force is how fighter pilots are taught to deal with crisis. Why? Because it is a lesson that transcends survival in the air and can be used in every aspect of your life and business. When we are presented with a crisis situation, here are the steps that I always use to work my way through the problem.

1. Don't Panic
The first rule is often the most difficult to learn: never panic. This can take years of practice and often involves shifting or muting personality traits. When we panic our mind races. It becomes cloudy and rational decisions are harder to come by. Consequently, poor decisions, or even worse, no decisions at all, may be made. As such, you must teach yourself that with every challenge there either is, or is not, a solution and that you must calmly go through the following two steps to resolve the crisis.

2. Compartmentalize
Once you have identified what the problem is take time to segment out what could be the possible root causes and the potential solutions. Think broadly about everything that could be linked to the problem and have any causal effect on it. Then compartmentalize each one of those potential targets and begin the progression set forth below.

3. Analyze Progressively
Methodically search for a solution by progressively analyzing the potential compartmentalized issues. In short, be it a mental list you have created or a written list, go through each potential cause testing your hypothesis about each until a solution presents itself.

How does this work in application?
In 1972 one of my father's friends in his fighter wing was flying a mission over Northern Vietnam. During his mission his aircraft was severely damaged by enemy fire. As the wing turned and headed back to base his ability to control his aircraft was diminishing by the minute due to damage to his tail and, to make matters worse, one of his two engines was on fire threatening to ignite his main fuel tank thus ending his mission in a very abrupt and permanent fashion. If he ejected over Northern Vietnam he would be captured and sent to a prison camp, not something that was very appealing at the time.

So what did he do? First, per his training, he didn't panic. He could eject, but he hung on to compartmentalize his issues and progressively analyze his options. His goal was clear: get the aircraft to the demilitarized zone, or DMZ, so that when he ejected he could be recovered by friendlies and not by the Northern Vietnamese.

Second, he compartmentalized. His primary issues were 1) a loss of control of the aircraft by and through damage to the primary flight systems, 2) progressive loss of altitude due to the damage to one of his engines, and 3) the risk of the fire reaching his main fuel tank and the aircraft suffering a final and catastrophic failure prior to his being able to eject.

Third, he progressively analyzed his options and set a course of action. He had enough flight control remaining that he could at least nose the jet towards the DMZ. Then, in addressing the other two issues he powered down and cut fuel to the engine on fire in an effort to starve the flames long enough to buy him enough time to get to the DMZ.

Finally, he calculated his altitude loss rate quickly in his head against the distance to the DMZ and his crippled speed to determine that he could make it provided the jet did not erupt in flames prior to his objective bail out point.

So did it work? Fortunately, yes. He piloted the damaged aircraft, losing altitude all of the way, with almost no ability steer the same, to the DMZ. Moments after he crossed the line he pulled the lever on his seat ejecting him out of the cockpit and into the sky over Vietnam. As his parachute deployed and the shock of hitting the air alleviated he watched his plane burst into flames moments before it disappeared into the dense jungle below. He was picked up by friendlies and returned to base by the end of the day.

So how does this apply in business?
Many years ago I was sitting at the desk of one of my first companies. The lights began to flicker on my side of the office. No big deal I thought until the power to all of our computers began shutting down because of these intermittent power issues. To make matters worse, the flickering eventually turned into long blackout periods randomly occurring without warning. For every minute we were without power we were losing money. Eventually the periods became one long period as the lights went out and did not go back on. What could we do?

First, we didn't panic. We had to keep calm and figure out what was going on with an eye on getting power back as soon as possible so the company could function. Second, we compartmentalized our primary issues: 1) How do we get power to our office as quickly as possible? 2) How do we figure out what the problem actually is? 3) How do we solve it?

Next, we went through our progressive analysis to address the situation. We quickly noted that a neighboring floor, and all of the other floors in the building, had power. So while I went and explained the situation to our downstairs neighbors asking for a little help, another team was dispatched to Home Depot to buy numerous long extension cords. Within the hour we had re-powered our floor with temporary power borrowed by our neighbors by simply running the cords throughout the building.

Next, we needed to address the larger issue of figuring out why we had dropped power.  After consulting with three electricians, the power company, as well as the electrical equipment's manufacturers on the issue, the problem was finally discovered and repaired. It was simply a loose connection at the main breaker for our office in the power distribution room.

But by employing these three simple steps we had the power back on in our office within one hour. The larger fix took two weeks. If we would have panicked and lost focus a two-week inability to conduct business would probably have spelled the end of our company. But by compartmentalizing and addressing each issue on a triage basis our business barely missed a beat.

So the next time you have a crisis in your business just think, what would a fighter pilot do?

http://www.inc.com/matthew-swyers/3-steps-to-handle-a-crisis-like-a-fighter-pilot.html

7 Employees You Should Fire Now

It's a crazy competitive world out there--you can't afford to have employees who aren't cutting it.

Some months ago, Apple and Microsoft each parted ways with a high-profile senior executives: iOS software chief Scott Forstall and Windows president Steven Sinofsky.

The moves were just weeks apart and the stories were strangely similar: two remarkably effective and talented executives who were simply unmanageable. They were so chronically abrasive and divisive that they were more trouble than they were worth.

Of course there's more than one side to every story. And while we may not be privy to all the specifics, one thing's for sure. Those decisions were some of the toughest ones the CEOs ever had to make. After all, talent like that doesn't grow on trees. Nevertheless, it had to be done. They had to go.

It takes all kinds to run a company but a few bad apples can definitely spoil organizational effectiveness in a hurry. And these days, companies just can't afford to keep those kinds of people around. The longer you wait, the more damage they do.

Over the years I've worked with just about every type of employee you can think of and, in my experience, there are more or less seven kinds of people you simply have to get rid of, no ifs ands or buts, and sooner rather than later.

1. They're a Troublemaker. With all of our issues and dysfunctions, I sometimes wonder how anything gets done at all. Still, we manage the best we can. And when employees create more problems than they're worth, when the damage they do to the organization weighs more heavily than their achievements, then it's time to cut them loose.

2. They Overpromise and Underdeliver. Some people have such overly inflated self-images that they either think they can do anything or crave the attention they get by making big boastful promises. But when their egos consistently write checks their capabilities can't cash, that's a real problem that's not likely to be resolvable without a good shrink.

3. They Act Out With Customers. I don't care if you have a small business or work at a Fortune 500 company, customers are hard to gain and easy to lose. The one thing you don't need is an employee who works with customers and somehow doesn't get that business is about winning and keeping customers, not him and his bad attitude.

4. They Can't or Won't Do the Job. You hire and pay people to do a job. Your job is to be clear about what that entails and give them the tools and training they need to get the job done. Their job is then to do it. If they either can't or won't after a few chances, then you've probably given them one chance too many.

5. They Flake. Some people look the part but, when push comes to shove, you can't count on them to get the job done or even to show up on a regular basis. Whatever the specifics, you can never tell when they're going to flake and you just can't trust them. Life is too short to have employees like that.

6. They're Entitled. Some people are more thin-skinned, litigious, and entitled than they have any right to be. Half their mind is on the job and the other half is just waiting for someone to slip up so they can whine and complain and maybe even threaten litigation. Don't give in to that kind of behavior. Cut them loose. They might throw a fit and you might get sued, but they can only do it once, and then you're rid of them for good.

7. They Ignore Conduct. Whatever the rules of conduct are for your company and its culture, you've got to uphold them fairly and consistently across the board. Whether an employee was insubordinate to her boss or a top executive lies about something material on his resume, if it happened and it breaks the rules, you should walk them out the door.

People are always complaining about how stressful their job is but, in my experience, there's nothing more stressful than having to deal with employees who aren't cutting it and drag down the whole organization. Quit thinking about it and just get rid of them. You'll sleep better at night--and so will the rest of your team.

http://www.inc.com/steve-tobak/7-employees-you-should-fire-now.html

8 Ways Managers Sabotage Themselves

These management strategies sound smart in theory--but tend to backfire in practice.

It's amusing to watch employees straight out of college (or from particularly large corporations) come to work at my company. They've had these "how to act at the office" lessons drilled into their brains, which may make great sense in theory, but they often backfire in practice.
Here are a few things that I've seen many managers do with the best intentions that can lead to unintended, damaging consequences:

1. Taking ownership
It's great to be responsible and conscientious. But no leader is going to be truly effective if she is stuck doing all the grunt work.  Let go, let go, let go. Delegate and give yourself the time you need to focus on the big picture stuff, like growing your employees and building important relationships.

2. Answering questions
As a leader, it's important to be available for ongoing guidance.  But many bosses do more harm than good by not encouraging a culture where employees self-evaluate and think for themselves. When employees need help, rather than just give them the answer, it's better to ask them to propose solutions. Then try to understand how they came up with those proposals. You'll learn how they think. Pretty soon, with some tweaks along the way, they automatically begin to ask themselves the right questions without feeling the need to come to my office for validation or simply to communicate they're "busy." Train your employees do their own thinking (and give them some leeway).

3. Awarding employees for doing what they're told
It's all too easy to condition your employees to stick to what's asked of them instead of rewarding them for keeping their eyes open to new opportunities and improvements. Reward them for initiative.

4. Striving for harmony
You might think a meeting without debate, where everyone gets along, is better. But let's face it: "yes" men and women are a hindrance to business success. And you know, some CEOs fall in this category too--trying all-too-hard not to rock the boat in the name of employee and board happiness. Teach your team how to connect over tension and how to grow from healthy and vigorous debate; harmony is not necessarily your company's best friend.

5. Using tried and true ROI analysis to judge success
No doubt you have very solid metrics you use to predict and evaluate your business success. But there are many situations that require entirely different ways of thinking. You must learn as you go--also known in business parlance as "discovery-driven growth."
For example, when you grow incrementally and organically, standard ROI and net present value calculations work well. But when you tackle new markets in which information is limited and execution risk is high, it is impossible to have enough data to do those calculations. So instead you must spend frugally, test, and investigate new opportunities, discovering new questions along the way. As these initiatives become more established, you can use more traditional metrics.


6. Providing constructive criticism
I'm adamantly against the "sandwich method" of feedback, where you layer criticisms with praise. I prefer candid feedback sessions focused on what was done well. Why? Picking apart an employee's performance isn't always helpful, no matter how constructive you're trying to be. I'll bet if you ask your employee what she thinks she could have done better, she'll know. Then you can coach.

7. Putting the brakes on a project
Stopping projects in mid-stream is sometimes the best decision you can make when things go off the rails. But so many times leaders make these decisions without telling others involved why or how the organization learned from their efforts and how that knowledge  will be used in other ways or in future projects.  Help your employees realize their work's value, even when a project must be scrapped. If not, you're certain to demoralize and adversely affect their future efforts.

8. Keeping strong employees in their sweet spots
Not allowing employees to move to another department within your company is one of the most destructive things you can do for employee morale and longevity. Just because an employee is an asset where they currently work doesn't mean it's the best seat on the bus for them. You may be strengthening a single department by pigeon-holing strong employees, but why not strengthen your entire company by letting these strong employees flex their skills? If you don't, they're apt to leave anyway.

What behaviors do you witness in your own company that are done with the best intentions but have negative consequences? Do you have any lessons we can learn from you?

http://www.inc.com/jay-steinfeld/8-ways-managers-sabotage-themselves.html

10 Things Every Customer Wants

Surprisingly, the best price and best value is at the bottom of the customer's priority list. See what's at the top.

Why does a customer buy from one vendor rather than another? According to research recently conducted by The Rain Group (detailed report here), customers tend to buy from sellers who are superlative at the following tasks:

1. Bring New Perspectives and Ideas
If customers could diagnose their own problems and come up with workable solutions on their own, they would do so. The reason that they're turning to you and your firm is that they're stuck and need your help. Therefore, you must be able to bring something new to the table.

2. Be Willing to Collaborate
Customers absolutely do NOT want you to sell them something, even something that's wonderful. They want you to work with them to achieve a mutual goal, by being responsive to the customer's concerns and ways of doing business. Ideally, customers want you to become integral to their success.

3. Have Confidence In Your Ability to Achieve Results
Customers will not buy from you if you can't persuade them that you, your firm, and your firms offerings will truly achieve the promised results. It is nearly impossible to persuade a customer to believe in these things unless you yourself believe in them. You must make your confidence contagious.

4. Listen, Really Listen, to the Customer
When they're describing themselves and their needs, customers sense immediately when somebody is just waiting for a break in the conversation in order to launch into a sales pitch. In order to really listen, you must suppress your own inner-voice and forget your goals. It's about the customer, not about you.

5. Understand ALL the Customer's Needs
It's not enough to "connect the dots" between customer needs and your company's offering. You must also connect with the individuals who will be affected by your offering, and understand how buying from you will satisfy their personal needs, like career advancement and job security.

6. Help the Customer Avoid Potential Pitfalls
Here's where many sellers fall flat. Customers know that every business decision entails risk but they also want your help to minimize that risk. They want to know what could go wrong and what has gone wrong in similar situations, and what steps you're taking to make sure these problems won't recur.

7. Craft a Compelling Solution
Solution selling is definitely not dead. Customers want and expect you to have the basic selling skill of defining and proposing a workable solution. What's different now though is that the ability to do this is the "price of entry" and not enough, by itself, to win in a competitive sales situation.

8. Communicate the Purchasing Process
Customers hate it when sellers dance around issues like price, discounts, availability, total cost, add-on options, and so forth. They want you to be able to tell them, in plain and simple language, what's involved in a purchase and how that purchase will take place. No surprises. No last minute upsells.

9. Connect Personally With the Customer
Ultimately, every selling situation involves making a connection between two individuals who like and trust each other. As a great sales guru once said: "All things being equal, most people would rather buy from somebody they like... and that's true even when all things aren't equal."

10. Provide Value That's Superior to Other Options
And here, finally, at the No. 10 spot (below everything else) comes the price and how that price compares to similar offerings. Unless you can prove that buying from you is the right business decision for the customer, the customer can and should buy elsewhere.

http://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/10-things-every-customer-wants.html

The 7 Ways Successful People Approach Their Work

When it comes to work, everyone has their own methods for getting tasks done.

But it turns out that the most successful people tend to have similar habits.
Or, so says Laura Vanderkam, author of a new mini e-book, "What the Most Successful People Do at Work." (The e-book is the third in a series, which also details the habits of successful people in the mornings and on weekends; the series will be published in paperback in September.)
Vanderkam, who wrote 168 Hours, a guide to getting the most out of your time, has, over the years, asked hundreds of people to track how they spend their days. Her analysis of these time logs has provided the fodder for her books, and in her latest examination -- of how successful people approach work -- she’s come up with seven common habits that people who shine in their fields use to accomplish things.
While one of these matters above all others, it is also the one that takes the longest to achieve -- and you'll see why in a minute. Here are the seven commonalities she found.

1. Mind Your Hours.
If you want to give your working hours a makeover, you've got to know how long your activities take. One of the most prolific children's book illustrators interviewed in the e-book can project exactly how much time a drawing will take (and actually measures each by how many Seinfeld reruns will play in the background before she’s finished). Then, she uses that knowledge to set goals for specific time periods — i.e. three illustrations in a day.
To get the same understanding of your own work or productivity, Vanderkam recommends you keep a time log for a full week so you also capture the weekend — that’s when people tend to be less conscious of what they're doing. There's no one way of tracking your time, so just pick something that works for you. As Vanderkam said by phone from her home outside Philadelphia, "The goal is to be helpful, not to make you hate your life." For instance, Vanderkam updates her time log twice a day. Another person might want to do it more frequently, using a computer or smartphone app. Whatever you choose, make it something convenient that will also allow you to faithfully track what you've been doing.
"Time passes whether or not you make a conscious choose about how to use that time," Vanderkam says. "And not being conscious of how you spend your time is also a choice. I can't tell you how many people tell me by the second day, 'I got so sick of saying, "checked Facebook," for the tenth time that I stopped doing it.’”

2. Plan.
The next step to being more conscious with your work time is to plan out your hours. This might seem really obvious, but many harried workers find themselves in triage mode — only answering urgent matters and never taking a moment to strategize about how best to spend their time. As Vanderkam writes, "People lament that they’d love to have strategic-thinking time, but they’re just too busy!"
She recommends having a planning session at least once a week -- or a big one weekly and then smaller ones as projects get finished. She also suggests planning over different time frames. For instance, at the end of the year, you could plan your goals for the year, and then, in your weekly planning sessions, make sure you are steadily working toward those goals.

3. Make Success Possible.
With a new plan, it's easy to start getting excited about your goals, become over-ambitious ... and then fail. But you are more likely to reach your dreams as long as you set discrete, doable tasks for yourself -- and then make sure you're held accountable. First, break down big projects into small steps, and try to limit yourself to tackling three to six a day.
Then, make sure you get to them. Everyone has a different accountability system, says Vanderkam. She personally uses an accountability partner, with whom she has weekly check-ins on Friday. Others might want a more punitive or public approach, such as making a promise on Stickk, a web site in which people can set goals and then promise to do something dreaded, such as donate to an organization they loathe, if they fail.

4. Know What Is Work.
Many of us end up spending inordinate amounts of time answering email. As Vanderkam writes, “According to a 2012 McKinsey Global Institute report on the social economy, knowledge workers spend 28 percent of their time wading through their inboxes.”
But checking email is not the same thing as doing “work” — and by that, Vanderkam means the core of what you’re trying to accomplish. “Email expands to fill in the available time. Give email less time, and it will take less time,” she says. If you’re the kind of person who is worried about leaving your inbox unattended, Vanderkam suggests starting to wean yourself off by being on email for 20 minutes, and then using the next 40 minutes to focus on a task without interruption. Eventually, expand those times between email check-ins.
Another thing that can look like work but isn’t always: meetings. “The reason you have a meeting is that you want something to change in the world by the end of it,” she says. “The problem is that people have meetings to check that everyone is still doing their jobs — but hopefully you hired people good enough where you don’t have to check.”
She also notes that many people schedule meetings as a way of imposing a deadline.  She says that if you’re a supervisor giving an assignment, you should explain that you won’t meet about the work, but you still need the project done by a certain time. In general, she says, “meetings have to earn their place in someone’s life.” For this reason, she recommends shying away from recurring meetings. “Everything you do with an hour should be a conscious decision,” she says.

5. Practice.
Vanderkam points out in her book that while professional musicians or athletes spend time practicing their craft or sport, many people with other jobs don’t. “Yet, if you think about it, your job is likely a performance of sorts, too,” she writes. And that means that you can also consciously practice your job skills with the goal of improving, though you’ll need to ask someone to give you feedback.
“That’s the chunk that’s missing for a lot of people in their work,” Vanderkam says. “We don’t have as much feedback as we need. People do yearly performance reviews, but that’s kind of useless vs. ‘What did you do right in this presentation?’” If you don't get regular feedback, then after you, say, complete a task or give a presentation, ask your supervisor what you can do to improve next time. Or, have a friend in the same profession either look over your work before you send it to your boss or watch you practice giving your presentation before the real thing.

6. Pay in.
Let’s say, God forbid, that you lost your job today. In order to find a new one, you’d have to draw on your career capital, which Vanderkam says is “the sum total of your experiences, your knowledge, your skills, your relationships — and all these things enable you to get a new job if you need one, create new situations for yourself or other people, or even let you take a break without having it ruin your career.” Successful people tend to pay in to their career capital account regularly.
There are three main ways to create career capital. One is to simply improve your skills and adopt new ones important in your line of work. Take professional development classes, or have a mentor help you figure out what you’ll need to learn in order to succeed five, ten or 20 years from now. Another type of career capital deposit is developing a portfolio of your work. “The good thing about writing or illustrating books is that they are then out there in the market, speaking for you and your ideas even when you’re not around,” she writes. And that explains why experts in many fields from medicine to business take up the pen. But writing or publishing isn’t the only way to create this portfolio. Doing work that has any kind of visible, tangible outcome will have the same effect.
The third and final way to build your career capital is to build up a network of people loyal to you. You can do this by introducing colleagues to others you know who could be helpful to them, providing references for people, and also standing by associates when they’re down. “Anyone can have lunch with someone who is successful,” says Vanderkam. “Real career capital comes from having lunch with someone who just lost the job she loves.”

7. Pursue pleasure.
The final commonality Vanderkam found among the successful is that they find joy in their work. While many of our jobs have elements we like less than others, over time, she recommends we try to tweak our time to spend more hours doing the things we love and fewer hours doing the things we don’t.
The other thing she found is that joy, in turn, often comes from feeling a sense of progress in our work. In fact, a feeling of progress brings more joy than encouragement from a boss. For this reason, focusing on the core parts of your work that are measurable and give you the greatest sense of accomplishment will bring you joy, further fueling your desire to work.
So, which of the seven rules does Vanderkam think is most important? Paying into our career capital account, which of course, builds slowly. But, she says, “If you take the long-term view of your career, say, ‘I won’t be with any one organization the whole time, but I will be with me. What can I do to make sure that “me” is a great person to work with?’ If you’re paying into your career capital account every day, it’s hard to see how your career couldn’t soar.”

http://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2013/05/01/the-7-ways-successful-people-approach-their-work/

7 Reasons Why You're Not Getting Promoted

1. You Lack the Skills Necessary to do the Job
“Julie is very efficient and effective in the completion of her daily tasks. The position she was hoping to get, however, requires strong analytical skills she doesn’t have.”
One of the most common misconceptions employees have about promotion decisions is that they’re based solely on performance in their current role. While that’s certainly a consideration, success in one area doesn’t always translate to success in another. For instance, someone who excels at data entry may need additional education or training to become a data analyst, a job that requires strategic thinking and problem solving abilities.
The secret to getting ahead? Become familiar with the requirements of the job you want, and determine what skills you need to improve upon if you’re going to succeed in it. Then, talk to your boss. Let her know you’re interested in moving up, and ask for her advice on how to get there.

2. You Lack the Soft Skills Necessary to do the Job
“Pam is extremely accomplished, technically. Before we can promote her, though, we’d like for her to spend some time developing her leadership and teamwork skills.”
Here’s something else The Powers That Be (TPTB) don’t tell you up front: These skills aren’t always technical. Particularly if you’re moving up to management, you’ll need to have mastered some soft skills—like conflict negotiation, diplomacy, and business communication—and coming up short might very well be a deal breaker.
Develop the soft skills you’ll need to succeed in the job you want, then highlight them through your involvement in programs that are important (and visible) to TBTP. Perhaps you can become an informal mentor to a newer employee, or volunteer to lead a presentation or training. Whichever method you choose, you’ll be signaling to your boss that you’re ready for management.

3. You Don’t Take Feedback
“I’ve really tried to develop Mary, to get her ready for a promotion. But she gets very defensive when I give her constructive feedback. I feel like she spends more time trying to prove me wrong than she does trying to improve.”
I doubt there is a woman among us that hasn’t struggled to keep her composure when receiving “constructive” criticism. But remember—feedback is not always a bad thing. Is it possible that your boss has some valid points? She’s telling you how to improve your performance—and this is good information to have when you’re gunning for a promotion.
When you receive feedback, whether in your review or in the hallway, resist the urge to defend yourself. Try to take it in and see what you can learn from it, instead.

4. You Lack Professionalism
“What frustrates me more than anything else is employees who are consistently negative about the company. What they don’t understand is, the things they say—they get back to us. Why would we promote anyone who behaves like that?”
It’s not unreasonable to expect that, as you move up the career ladder, you’ll begin to conduct yourself more professionally—and not just when the boss is looking. This came up several times in different contexts—from an inability to maintain confidentiality to participation in office gossip—and was identified by executives as the most difficult challenge for employees to overcome.
This may seem obvious, but how you behave in the company of co-workers is just as important, if not more so, as how you behave around management. For example, you can and should identify problems within your department and company, but you should not pontificate about those problems in the break room—which gives the impression that you’re looking for an audience, instead of a solution.

5. You Don’t Take Initiative
“Jennifer is quick to recognize areas that could use improvement, but we can’t get her to go beyond lodging the complaint. We’d really like to see her take the initiative to come up with solutions, not just expect everything to be fixed by management.”
Becoming a problem solver shows that you care—not only about your own career, but about the long-term health of the business as well. Don’t just document the problems you see, analyze the issues and find ways to get involved in developing the solutions. Collaborating with others to create positive change will identify you as a leader in your organization. Remember, anyone can drop a complaint into the suggestion box.

6. You Think Like an Employee—Not a Manager
“Craig is good at his job, but it seems like he’s more committed to getting on the freeway by 10 ’til than he is to the success of his department.”
Remember, TPTB are anointing future leaders here. If you’re giving them the impression you’re only showing up for a paycheck, it’s not likely that you’ll be high on their list of candidates. No, you don’t have to become a workaholic or start hanging out long past five or six just to “be seen,” but it’s a good idea to express interest in the things that happen when the meter isn’t running.

7. You Expect It
“Sean has made it clear that he expects to be promoted. The problem is, I feel like he expects to be promoted based on only his length of service. There are others on his team that are more focused on their career development, and even though they’ve not been here as long, it’s likely that they will be promoted before him.”
Lastly, recognize that in today’s environment, tenure is no longer the primary factor in promotion decisions, and is best left out of any arguments you might make on your own behalf. These days, it doesn’t matter whether you’ve been there six months or six years—it’s all about your contribution.
Being passed over for a promotion doesn’t need to be the end of the world. In fact, it can be a huge learning opportunity—and sometimes, it can also be just the kick in the pants you need to get you started down the right path. So take these lessons, learn from the past, and keep that promotion in your sights.

http://www.businessinsider.com/7-reasons-why-youre-not-getting-promoted-2013-5

Turn a Good Worker Into a Great Manager: 6 Steps

It's noble to promote from within, but irresponsible if it's without preparation. Here's what you should do.


I'm sure this is familiar. You have a great employee, who does strong work, and is ready for more responsibility. So you make him or her a supervisor, manager, or leader of others, and you're happy you did. "Congratulations, you're now a manager," you say, with all sincerity.

But then, you live to regret it. And you realize, it wasn't that the individual did something wrong. You're the one who forgot something: to help lay the foundation for that newly-crowned supervisor to succeed. You didn't train him or her to become a manager.

I remember a number of years ago when my team and I were looking for supervisors for Beryl's call center. Naturally, I thought, we found people who had been great at answering phones and handling customers, and so we promoted them into the new advisor positions. A couple of years later, when productivity was suffering, I heard a common refrain from senior leaders: the problem lay in the call-center supervisors. They thought I should get rid of the existing group, and start fresh.

While a new group sure sounded good, I knew that wasn't the answer. The supervisors weren't the problem; it was me. I failed to give those promoted employees the tools and training they needed to be successful. Rather than looking at them, I needed to look in the mirror, and so did the whole senior leadership team. So I challenged leadership to invest the necessary time and energy to give the call-center supervisors the training they needed--and we got great results.

It's noble to try to "promote from within," but irresponsible to promote without preparation. In some cases, you may not have the resources available to train your next leaders, and when that happens, it may of course be necessary to look outside. Or maybe you hire someone who can train your next generation of leaders.

If you're going to commit to advancing the careers of your best workers, and one of those opportunities moves them into a leadership position for the first time, always do the following:

• Give them a mentor for a period of time.
• Invest in either internal or external training.
• Guide them in how to be an example to others.
• Teach the difference between management and leadership.
• Check in often to help them with  new issues they'll deal with.
• Make sure they enjoy the new role.

Remember middle managers or supervisors have tremendous influence, and you can't underestimate the importance of their roles. Equip and empower the employees you promote, and it will pay big dividends down the road.

http://www.inc.com/paul-spiegelman/turn-good-workers-into-great-managers.html

The Three Best Predictors of On-the-Job Success

I’ve been interviewing candidates for 30+ years and tracking their subsequent performance for just as long.

I’ve found that ability to do the work, fit with the actual situation, and motivation to do the actual work to be the best predictors of subsequent success.

However, unless you define the actual work you can’t measure any of these factors accurately. For example, consider a top-notch person who is highly motivated to work 24/7 on tough technical problems for a supportive manager in an even-paced, mature organization. Change any factor – the manager, the type or number of problems, the company culture, the pressure to perform, or the level of support – and it’s problematic if this same person will as successful or motivated.

It seems obvious that if you don’t define the work ahead of time the assessment will be flawed. Yet somehow the obvious is lost on those doing the assessing. Here’s a quick solution whether you’re interviewing or being interviewed:

1. Define the work first as a series of 5-6 performance objectives (more). It’s better to say “upgrade the customer billing and reporting system” rather than have a BS in Accounting, 2-3 years Accounts Receivable (AR) experience with in-depth exposure to Great Plains billing software.” (If you’re a candidate ask the interviewer to describe the critical performance objectives for the job. Don’t be surprised if most interviewers don’t know these, including the hiring manager, but this is a great way to demonstrate your insight and switch the conversation to performance and potential rather than skills and experience.)
2. Define the situational fit factors. These include the manager’s leadership style, the company culture, and any unusual aspects of the job including the pace, the need for flexibility, resource limitations, and the quality of the team. For example, for the Accounts Receivable position it would be important to note if the manager is a control freak or totally uninvolved, or if the project is six months behind schedule, or if the department is understaffed. All of these will affect performance. (Job-seekers should always ask about these situational fit factors during the interview since they could be a setup for failure.)
3. Conduct a Performance-based Interview (more). Assessing ability and fit involves having candidates describe their most significant comparable accomplishment (MSA) for each of the 5-6 critical performance objectives defining the work. This is the Most Important Interview Question of All Time I’ve written about previously. Done properly, this one question uncovers talent, fit and motivation. (Candidates need to answer this by describing a major equivalent accomplishment providing lots of specific details. To get ready for the interview, prepare a half-page write-up for each of your top 5-6 accomplishments with every detail you can remember.)
4. Peel the onion for each MSA question looking for patterns of success. To uncover the underlying drivers motivating the candidate to excel, ask about the manager’s style, the environment, the resources, the team, how projects were organized and how challenges were overcome. Even if you correctly assess talent, few people excel in all situations, that’s why measuring fit is so important. After 3-4 MSA questions patterns of consistent behavior will emerge. These factors tend to involve the quality of the manager, the types of work the candidate finds motivating, the degree of job structure, and the types of people the candidate works with. (Job-seekers should know this about themselves as they compare opportunities. In the long run, they’re far more important than the money and the location.)
5. Find the source of motivation, not just the level of it. The three drivers of success, ability, fit and motivation are interdependent, unfortunately most interviewers measure them individually, or not at all. For each accomplishment ask the candidate to provide three examples of initiative or going the extra mile. Most people can come up with one or two. Only the truly self-motivated can describe three. Soon you’ll have multiple examples of initiative in different situations. Collectively they’ll reveal the underlying source of the candidate’s drive. Make sure your job is comparable on this score, since the difference between a talented person and an all-star is motivation.

Predicting hiring success involves assessing a candidate’s ability to do the work, his or her fit with the actual circumstances of the job, and the person’s underlying motivation to do the actual work required. Few would dispute this. Yet most managers over emphasize raw talent or generic motivation, without proper consideration for the actual job and situation. This seems foolhardy, since the manager will be clarifying expectations once the new hire is on the job, so doing it before the person is hired takes no additional effort. Even better, the manager might discover that the best candidate is not the one who makes the best first impression, but the one who is actually the best performer.

http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130422022109-15454-the-three-best-predictors-of-on-the-job-success

Using Performance Profiles to Improve Recruiter Effectiveness

It is my contention that the only way to systematically hire superior people is to clearly define superior performance before beginning any new job search. Using a performance profile instead of a job description is an effective means to accomplish this. The benefits of using a performance profile include more accurate assessments, a bigger pool of top candidates to choose from, significant reductions in time to hire, and – by clarifying expectations upfront – a more highly motivated and competent workforce.

Over the last 25 years, I’ve come to the conclusion that every job has six to eight key performance objectives that determine on-the-job success. This is what separates the best, highly motivated employees from the average employees. While the hiring manager needs to take responsibility for determining what these are, the recruiter can play an important role in facilitating the preparation of these performance profiles.

Following is a shortened example of a performance profile for a software developer. As you can see, it differs from a typical job description by listing what the person taking the job must do to be successful, not what skills and experiences the person must have. In this way it defines the job, not the person. This fundamental difference has a domino effect in the way candidates are sourced, assessed, hired, and subsequently managed.

Performance Profile for Software Developer, Quick Version

1. Complete software design, writing high-quality, efficient code to meet project deadlines.
2. Quickly understand project scope (one week) and prepare detailed design layout.
3. Prepare and organize activities to meet a tight, time-phased software development plan.
4. Work with team of other developers in meeting aggressive project deadlines.
5. Effectively work with users to develop specs and implement programs during first month.
6. Overcome critical technical challenges specifically (describe).
7. Lead project from post design to final implementation.
8. Effectively utilize configuration management system to track changes.

Once completed, a performance profile lists the key results required in priority order, the critical processes or steps used to achieve these results, and an understanding of the company environment. Candidate competency and motivation is then determined by obtaining detailed examples of how a candidate has achieved similar objectives.

Recruiters who take a lead role in preparing these performance profiles are much more influential throughout the hiring process. Hiring managers and candidates alike see recruiters who have this type of understanding of job needs more as advisors and consultants rather than just head-hunters.

Described below are the three basic ways to prepare performance profiles.

1. The Big Picture Approach
Ignore the job description and just ask, “What does the person taking this job need to do to be considered successful?” Start off by getting the top two to three objectives, and then determine the two or three most important things needed to achieve these objectives. Also ask what the person needs to do in the first 30 days, first 90 days, and first six months.
As part of the major objectives, consider projects, problems, and improvements needed. Include some technical, team, and organization objectives to obtain a true understanding of all job needs. Here’s an example: “By Q2, complete the assessment of all marketing needs and competitive products to support the fall launch of the XYZ product line.” The Big Picture Approach works best when the job has specific projects, tasks, or assignments that need to be completed.

2. Benchmarking the Best
For jobs that are more process-focused (e.g., call center, retail, non-exempt), performance objectives can be determined by observing what the best employees do differently than average employees. At the YMCA, we discovered that the best camp counsellors proactively engage with their kids in daily activities. At a major fast-food restaurant, the best counter staff went out of their way to clean up the store during their shift. At a large call-center, the best reps were able to complete the processing of orders with all team members in a very positive manner, even at the end of a long day.

3. Convert “Having” to “Doing”
Just convert each “must have” skill or factor on the traditional job description into an activity or outcome. For example, if the job description indicates the salesperson must have five years of industry sales experience, ask the hiring manager what the person needs to do with that five years of industry sales experience. A typical response might be, “Conduct a thorough needs analysis and present the product as a solution.”

Here’s another example for the oft-stated “good interpersonal skills.” Ask the hiring manager what good interpersonal skills look like on the job. You’ll probably get a response like, “Work with other departments in completing the launch of the new system.”

Using the above techniques, collectively or individually, usually results in a list of 10 to 15 objectives. The top 6 to 8 are usually all that are needed to assess candidate competency and interest. It’s best to pare the complete list down to a more manageable number, and then put these in priority order. During the interview, you’ll look for candidates who are both qualified and highly motivated to achieve these top objectives.

I suggest to my clients that they make each of the performance objectives as “SMARTe” as possible. SMARTe objectives are Specific, Measurable, Action-oriented, Results-driven, Time-bound, and include a description of the environment. The example in Step 1 above is a pretty good example of a SMARTe objective.

The SMARTe acronym is also useful for interviewing candidates and digging deep into their accomplishments. For example, ask candidates how long the project took to complete, what the environment was like, what actions they actually took, and what specific results were obtained. The key to this assessment approach is to first obtain a list of SMARTe performance objectives, then ask the candidate SMARTe questions, and don’t stop until you obtain complete SMARTe answers.

Performance profiles are a practical way to assess competencies, skills, behaviors, and motivation. It’s what a person does with these attributes that really matters, not the attributes themselves. During the fact-finding questioning, you’re evaluating how these attributes really come together to achieve measurable results. These results – and how they are achieved – can then easily be compared to the objectives described in the performance profile.

Another key point: Candidates like this form of interviewing for a number of reasons. First, it lets them talk about their accomplishments. This builds their egos, and is a subtle but powerful recruiting technique. Second, they learn what they’ll really be doing once on the job. This is the key determinant that the best candidates use to accept or turn down an offer.

Interviewing is only one aspect of a complete interviewing and recruiting process. Too many recruiters and managers wait till the end of the process to “sell” the candidate. By then, it’s too late. Recruiting must start at the beginning. If you describe a compelling job and then challenge the candidate to earn it, they’ll sell you. If you want to hire superior people, start by defining superior performance. Then get everyone with a vote to agree. Once you know what you’re looking for, it’s much easier to find it.

http://louadlergroup.com/using-performance-profiles-to-improve-recruiter-effectiveness/

The Complete 2-Question Interview

Before I got into the training of recruiters and hiring managers and writing books about the trials and tribulations of all this, I was a full-time executive recruiter, for 25 years. Part of this was becoming a better interviewer than my hiring manager clients to ensure good candidates didn’t get blown away for bad reasons. These were the two questions that leveled the playing field:

The First Question: Can you describe your Most Significant Accomplishment (MSA)

I recently wrote a related post on this topic titled the Most Important Interview Question of All Time. You might want to try to answer the question for yourself to see why it’s so important. As you’ll see it involves asking candidates to describe their most significant business accomplishments in great detail. While it’s only one question, it’s repeated multiple times to ensure you’re covering all aspects of expected performance. Most jobs can be better defined as a series of performance objectives like “redesign the inventory management system to track returns” rather than a list of skills, e.g., “3-5 years of supply chain management experience and a BS.” I refer to these performance-based job descriptions as performance profiles.

Getting the full answer to the MSA question requires a great deal of fact-finding on the part of the interviewer. One way to do this is to ask SMARTe questions. After the candidate provides the typical 1-2 minute overview of the comparable accomplishment, ask the following:

• Specific task: Can you please describe the task, challenge, project, or problem?
• Measurable: What actually changed, or can you measure your performance somehow?
• Action: What did you actually do and what was your specific role?
• Result: What was the actual result achieved and/or what was the deliverable?
• Timeframe: When did this take place and how long did it take?
• environment: What was the environment like in terms of pace, resources, level of sophistication, the people involved, and your manager?

While this only covers a small portion of the fact-finding possibilities, using just this short list will give you a deeper sense of the accomplishment and how it compares to the performance profile. If you’re into behavioral questions, ask STAR questions, too, but make sure you ask these as a sub-set of the accomplishment under discussion. (STAR: Situation, Task, Action, Result.) It typically takes 10-15 minutes “peeling the onion” this way to totally understand the accomplishment. A trend line of performance will quickly reveal itself when this same question is asked for different accomplishments.

The Second Question: How would you solve this problem? (PSQ)
The MSA questions represent the candidate’s best examples of comparable past performance in relation to actual job requirements. The second question uncovers another dimension of performance, including job-related problem-solving skills, creativity, planning, strategic and multi-functional thinking, and potential. Using the above inventory management objective, the form of this question would be, “If you were to get this job, how you go about tracking returns into our ERP system?” Based on the person’s response, get into a back-and-forth dialogue asking about how he/she would figure out the problem and implement a solution.

After trying this question out a few times, you’ll discover that the best people quickly obtain a clear understanding of the project or problem, and as part of this, they ask logical questions to obtain a clearer understanding of the problem. Based on this, you’ll be able to ascertain if the person can put together a reasonable go-forward plan of action. In fact, giving a detailed response without consideration of the differences at your company, including the resources available, the culture, and the challenges involved should raise the bright red caution flag.

The Anchor and Visualize Pattern
As long as it’s job-related, the problem-solving question (PSQ) is a great means to understand critical thinking skills in comparison to real job needs, but caution is urged using this type of question. While being able to visualize a solution to the problem or task at hand is a critical component of exceptional performance, it’s only part of the solution. Accomplishing the task successfully is the other part.

So after the candidate finishes answering the PSQ, ask something like, “Can you now tell me about something you’ve actually accomplished or implemented that’s most comparable to how you’ve suggested we handle this problem?” This is just a more specific form of the MSA question. Following up the problem-solving question by asking the person to describe a comparable major significant accomplishment (MSA) is called an Anchor. Collectively, the MSA and PSQ are called the Anchor and Visualize questioning pattern. The order doesn’t matter. What does matter is that for the critical performance objectives you ask the candidates what they’ve accomplished that’s most similar and how they would figure out and solve the problem if they were to get the job.

The ability to visualize a problem and offer alternative solutions in combination with a track record of successful comparable past performance in a similar environment is a strong predictor of on-the-job success. One without the other is a sure path for making a bad hiring decision.

http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130228212434-15454-the-complete-2-question-interview

Job-seekers: How to Answer “The Most Important Interview Question of All Time” – Part 3

About 95% of the 325,000 people who read “The Most Important Interview Question of All Time” (MIQ) agreed. Here’s why I believe it:

1) As an outside recruiter, I never vote on who should be hired. However, by presenting concrete evidence versus fact-less claims, i.e. "not technically strong enough," or “the person just wouldn’t fit,” I’m in a better position to ensure my candidates are assessed objectively.

2) Asking a series of MIQ-like questions to determine the candidate’s trend of performance over time demonstrates consistency of performance in a variety of situations. This is far superior than asking a bunch of random behavioral interview questions.

3) The candidate’s answers to these MIQs need to be compared to a performance-based job description to accurately assess competency, motivation and fit with the actual job requirements. Without some type of performance benchmark like this, most interviewers default to their built-in biases: technical, intuitive or emotional.

4) Top candidates aren’t interested in lateral transfers and don’t want to work for managers who seem like weak leaders. Asking the MIQ demonstrates that the company has high selection standards and that the hiring manager knows exactly how to asses, hire and develop strong people.

As more interviewers use this style of performance-based interviewing, it’s important that job-seekers become fully prepared. Here’s how:

• Read the Most Important Interview Question of All Time and answer every follow-up question completely for your most significant career accomplishment. Write these down. Although it will take some time to do this properly, you’ll be more confident during the actual interview.
• For each of your past jobs summarize your other big accomplishments. Pick 3-4 and describe these in two or three sentences each, include dates, facts, and specific performance details. Use the list of follow-up questions in the MIQ for ideas of what’s important.
• Based on these accomplishments pull out your big strengths (4-5) and a few weaknesses. Tie each one to a specific accomplishment writing down a few extra details. Use a specific example from one of the accomplishmentrs to demonstrate each strength. For each weakness, describe how you overcame it, and how you’re dealing with it today. Describing weaknesses this way demonstrates that you're a person who can be coached and wants to become better. Saying you don't have any weaknesses means you can't become better.
• For practice, have someone ask you to describe each of the major accomplishments. Spend 1-2 minutes providing a good summary of each one. It’s critical that you talk at least one minute, and no longer than three. Short answers are too vague, and long answers are too boring.
• Practice describing each strength with the example. These should each be about one minute each. The examples are what interviewers remember, not general statements.
• Don’t try to fake this stuff. Everything must tie together. Writing everything down and practicing it is essential. Don’t take any shortcuts.
• If the interviewer doesn’t ask you the right questions, ask the person to describe some of the critical challenges involved in the job. Ask for details like those in the sub-questions to the MIQ. Then give your best comparable accomplishment.

For more on how to prepare properly, check out my post on how to Use Solution Selling to Ace the Interview. Caution: doing this as described will not help you get a job you don’t deserve, but it will help you get one you do. Good Luck!

http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130128185005-15454-job-seekers-how-to-answer-the-most-important-interview-question-of-all-time-part-3

The ANSWER to "The Most Important Interview Question of All Time" Part 2

In a lively blog post last week, I suggested that the following was the most important interview question (MIQ) of all time:

What single project or task would you consider the most significant accomplishment in your career, so far?

So far over 300,000 people attempted to answer the question following the set of follow-up questions provided. It takes about 15 minutes to fully understand the accomplishment. When you try it out, you'll be amazed at how much you've revealed about yourself and your abilities. You'll also discover the answers can't be faked, unless you take a shortcut.

From a practical strandpoint, without knowing what job is being filled, there's really no correct answer to this MIQ. To get part of the correct answer, you need to ask the hiring manager this first: What's the most important project or task this person needs to handle in order to be considered successful?

You need specific details to fully understand the scope of the job, but at least now you can compare the person's biggest accomplishment to this benchmark to determine if the person is too heavy, too light, or a possible fit. Now we're getting close to the correct answer. You can then dig deeper with those who are possible hires by asking the candidate the same MIQ question for 3-4 different accomplishments spaced out over the past 3-10 years. This reveals the person's long term trend line of growth and performance.

Repeating the MIQ is why it's the MIQ of all time.
A full assessment is made by comparing the scope and consistency of these accomplishments to the complete set of performance objectives for the job. As part of this consideration must be given to the hiring manager’s leadership style, the company culture, the local environment, and any unusual job circumstances, like lack of resources, a tight schedule, or some critical technical need.

The objective I had when I started this whole process was to find a practical way to counter hiring managers who made incorrect assessments based on a narrow set of technical requirements, overvaling first impressions, lack of insight regarding real job needs, or those who put too much trust in their gut. It turned out that the tangible evidence gained from the MIQ and the trend line was all that was needed. From this I discovered that "out-facting" a hiring manager was far more effective than bullheadedness.

As many readers commented, the form of the MIQ is a bit different for entry-level and less-experienced candidates. In this case I ask where they went the extra mile or have them describe smaller projects or tasks that they were excited about, received formal recognition for, or about work that made them proud. Talented youngsters have a bunch of things to brag about, so this is a good way to pull this out. As examples, we helped the YMCA hire a 100,000 15-16 year old camp counselors one summer using this question, and worked with a well-known hamburger chain using a similar process. The big benefit: the kids were hired because of their work-ethic and sense of responsibilty, not on their appearance or affability. The same technique works for non-kids, too.

Bottom line: there's more to determining if a candidate is a good fit for a job than the MIQ, but this is a critical part of it. The bigger part is first defining real job requirements in the form of 5-6 critical performance objectives. Collectively, this will help minimize the most common of all hiring mistakes – hiring a great person for the wrong job, or not hiring the right one.

http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130121233555-15454-the-short-answer-to-the-most-important-interview-question-of-all-time

The Most Important Interview Question of All Time - Part 1

(NOTE - this is not the ONLY question, just the most important. Make sure you check out THE ANSWER (Part 2) post. Part 3 is for job-seekers on how to prepare for the interview.)

Over the past 30+ years as a recruiter, I can confirm that at least two-thirds of my hiring manager clients weren’t very good at interviewing. Yet, over 90% thought they were. To overcome this situation, it was critical that I became a better interviewer than them, to prove with evidence that the candidate was competent and motivated to do the work required. This led me on a quest for the single best interview question that would allow me to overcome any incorrect assessment with actual evidence.

It took about 10 years of trial and error. Then I finally hit upon one question that did it all.
Here’s it is:

What single project or task would you consider the most significant accomplishment in your career so far?

To see why this simple question is so powerful, imagine you’re the candidate and I’ve just asked you this question. What accomplishment would you select? Then imagine over the course of the next 15-20 minutes I dug deeper and asked you about the following. How would you respond?

• Can you give me a detailed overview of the accomplishment?
• Tell me about the company, your title, your position, your role, and the team involved.
• What were the actual results achieved?
• When did it take place and how long did the project take.
• Why you were chosen?
• What were the 3-4 biggest challenges you faced and how did you deal with them?
• Where did you go the extra mile or take the initiative?
• Walk me through the plan, how you managed to it, and if it was successful.
• Describe the environment and resources.
• Describe your manager’s style and whether you liked it or not.
• Describe the technical skills needed to accomplish the objective and how they were used.
• Some of the biggest mistakes you made.
• Aspects of the project you truly enjoyed.
• Aspects you didn’t especially care about and how you handled them.
• How you managed and influenced others, with lots of examples.
• How you were managed, coached, and influenced by others, with lots of examples.
• How you changed and grew as a person.
• What you would do differently if you could do it again.
• What type of formal recognition did you receive?

If the accomplishment was comparable to a real job requirement, and if the answer was detailed enough to take 15-20 minutes to complete, consider how much an interviewer would know about your ability to handle the job. The insight gained from this type of question would be remarkable. But the real issue is not the question, this is just a setup. The details underlying the accomplishment are what's most important. This is what real interviewing is about – getting into the details and comparing what the candidate has accomplished in comparison to what needs to be accomplished. Don’t waste time asking a lot of clever questions during the interview, or box checking their skills and experiences: spend time learning to get the answer to just this one question.

As you’ll discover you’ll then have all of the information to prove to other interviewers that their assessments were biased, superficial, emotional, too technical, intuitive or based on whether they liked the candidate or not. Getting the answer to this one question is all it takes.

http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130117183637-15454-the-most-important-interview-question-of-all-time