Pre-Interview Actions

• Develop a “candidate profile.” This must go beyond the duties and responsibilities for the position. It must include a profile of the type of person which you seek.
• Establish a hiring team. This could be a group of 2 or 3 other people that interview the candidate and make recommendations. These could be senior managers, coworkers or other team members that the candidate will work with.

Rules to follow when hiring

1. Do the right preparation “before” beginning the interview process.
2. Most employers ask questions that focus on skills and knowledge when they interview. They believe if they can hire the person with the best capability or the most experience than they will make a good hire. This is only a small part of the story.
3. When selecting employees, put as much or more emphasis on the applicants’ values, beliefs, and interests as on competencies and credentials. These are the elements that drive employees to learn skills and knowledge. Values, beliefs, interests, and attitudes are vastly more difficult to change as opposed to skills and knowledge.
4. Providing the employee with a “why” for staying is more important than financial compensation when interviewing. Financial incentives do not motivate or build employee loyalty. Discuss theirs future prospects with the organization.
5. Perform the right “post interview’ procedures to ensure that you have is fact sleeted the best candidate.

During The Interview

1. Ask a series of “base-line” questions to all candidates for consistency purposes. Often times, employers ask divergent questions with each candidate thereby skewing the results of the interview. This creates a validated method to assess the two qualification areas leading to a hire; 1.) ability to do the job and 2.) willingness to do the job.
2. Here’s a great way to plan the “base-line” questions:
   • Ability to do the job – match required job skills (i.e., technical knowledge, problem-solving ability, writing ability, etc.) with demonstrated candidate skills and experience.
   • Willingness to do the job – match required performance characteristics with demonstrated candidate performance skills and behavior. – (planning and prioritizing tasks, assisting customers, working with a team, meeting deadlines, etc.)
3. I like to begin the interview with base-line questions that first focus on the ability to do the jobs. For example I’ll ask a few open-ended questions like:
   • Take me through your job history. This allows me to observe the candidate as they explain their history.
   • What are you doing now?
   • How is it important to the company, client, team?
   • Why are you leaving?
   • What could they do to get you to stay?
   • What kind of company are you looking for? Why?
4. The single best predictor of a candidate’s future job performance is his or her past job behavior. Interviews that probe for past job behavior have been found to be more reliable than ones that focus on personality traits, such as “I’m dependable,” or “I’m hardworking.” Ask questions that allow you to discover how the candidate handled previously difficult circumstances.
   • “Think of a time when you had to …… Tell me how you handled this.”
   • “Can you give me an example of a situation that required you to …..,” “Explain what you did to resolve this situation.”
5. Get specific examples of past job behaviors that relate to abilities to perform the job. Examples of behavior based questions are structured like:
   • Tell me about an example of how you demonstrated “dependability” to your company, client or co-worker.
6. Ask value-based hiring questions
   • What is most important in your life?
   • If you had all the money that you needed how world you spend most of your time?
   • What makes you “worth” what you are, in terms of compensation?
   • Who has been the biggest influence in your life? What did they do to earn that?
7. Create scenarios and try to discover how the candidate makes decisions. Give the candidate a challenging yet realistic circumstance to resolve. Example:
   • Tell me how you would handle this situation: “A client that you call is angry because they found out you have given a lower price to their neighbor.”
8. This is not so much to test “what” they say but rather the process they use. Pay careful attention to “how” they are communicating. Do they become easily agitated, are they fearful of being rejected, do they display a lack of confidence, is their body language congruent with whet they are saying, do they look away at times?
9. I often hear that passion is important in the work environment. This is. certainly true, yet how do we evaluate passion? Asking someone what they are passionate about it not enough. Again we may get the rehearsed response. We must ask questions that allow us to discover how passion is manifest in the candidate. One question that I find that allows this to become visible is:
   • “If you only had 5 or 10 minutes to tell a group of school kids why you get a kick out of your work, what would you say?”

Post Interview Actions
Making a new hire can be like buying a car or a house. We tend to “make the purchase” for the wrong reasons. Many employers make an “emotional decision” when hiring. They tend to hire people that they “like” rather than those that would be best for the job. Because of this we recommend performing the following purely pragmatic tasks, after the interview:

1. Conduct “confirmation interviews” prior to employment. Ask specific questions related to the values, beliefs, interests, and attitudes identified as necessary to the role. For each of these characteristics, simply ask the previous employer: “In your opinion, does this individual have interests in X? What did this individual do to give you this opinion?”
2. Perform a background check on all candidates. Be sure of check municipalities related to previous residences. Many employers make the mistake of only checking criminal and DMV status.
3. Obtain authorization to check their credit. This is a clear indication of character. While few may have perfect credit, seeing how the candidate explains their credit history can be very revealing.

On a recent episode of NBC’s Thursday night blockbuster comedy, “The Office”, Jan Levinson’s written performance appraisal of her boyfriend, Michael Scott, is revealed. For those of you not familiar with the show, Michael Scott and Jan Levinson have been an on again/off again office romance with plenty of out of the ordinary relationship issues along the way. On this particular episode Jan is attempting to win a lawsuit against their company, Dunder-Mifflin. In order to do so, she must include a past performance appraisal of her boyfriend Michael Scott in her deposition against the company. As her appraisal is read aloud by her attorney, viewers discover Jan felt that “Michael Scott is not cut out to be a sales manager. His skills will not allow it. I recommend the company move him back to a sales position where he belongs.”

As much as I love the show, the story lines are a bit far fetched and not something we would regularly see in the business world. However, the story line referenced here is tragically one of the most common we see in real life as the organization of the 21st Century is analyzed.

Imagine several high level executives are seated around the boardroom table. One states, “Our sales manager for the Eastern region just resigned. We need to get that seat filled quickly before sales take a turn for the worst in that area. Who should we consider?” Another executive states, “Well how about Mrs. Superstar Salesperson out of the West Region?” The other executives respond, “Well what are her qualifications?” The group resounds together gleefully, “She has the highest individual sales production of course!” Coffee mugs are raised, a toast is made, and bang! The new sales manager is hired.
What this newly appointed sales manager does not yet realize is that the executives have just steered her right into the dead center of the “Gap Trap.” I define the Gap Trap is any place on an organizational chart where person is moved due to exemplary skills in one role, but those skills are completely irrelevant for new role they are now expected to play. The Gap Trap extends well beyond this common example of sales representative versus sales manager and it may be the focus of a series of future articles. So staying on this one example for the moment, the Gap Trap these executives have caused revolves around the fact that the skills needed to be an effective individual sales producer compared to the skills of an effective sales manager are as a different as night and day! In fact, what made an employee a great producer is actually the same ingredient that can make them a horrible sales manager.

The differences needed in skill sets between these two roles are countless and there are far too many to explain in this short article, nevertheless here is a quick example. Our newly appointed sales manager is nearing the end of the fiscal year and she is significantly behind on meeting her region’s quota. As a result, this newly appointed sales manager, (remember this person was once Mrs. Superstar Salesperson) does exactly what she used to do when she was behind on quota as a salesperson. She gets out there herself and attempts to sell more! She says to herself, “If my team can’t hit the number, then by God I will do it for them!” Unfortunately, even if she gets lucky and does make the number on her own, she has just formulated the beginnings of a very bad habit. She is making her team dependent on her to close business, she is loosing time, she is loosing leverage, and she has missed out on an opportunity to challenge and improve the performance of her sales representatives just to name a few of the problems that her knee jerk strategy will cause. As we said, what made this employee a great producer is actually the same ingredient that can make her a horrible sales manager.

If this situation sounds at all familiar, rest assured there are many ways to get out of the Gap Trap. Step 1 is to realize you need to change your habits and skills. Step 2 is to seek out training and development opportunities to make these changes in our performance capabilities. Step 1 begins with you. We can help you with Step 2. So as this holiday weekend continues let’s ask ourselves, “Do I need help out of the Gap Trap?” If we honestly ask ourselves this question and even if we frightfully decide the answer is “yes”, it won’t take an attorney’s reading of our significant other’s appraisal of our performance as a leader to let us know we need some help.

This article was written by one of the SBA Network’s associates, Aaron Kent, of Dale Carnegie Training. He will be the guest on our show today at 4 pm PST. Just tune in tohttp://www.sbanetwork.org at 4 pm to learn more about how you can increase the standard of performance for your sales team.

–Cory Halbardier

14 practical ways to integrate viral strategies into ANY business

Thank you for your loyalty to the Business Update. Although we have been a little inconsistent lately, this blast has gone out several times per month for nearly 10 years. During that time we have addressed a myriad of business improvement topics.One topic that never fails to generate tremendous response has been our “Suicide by Marketing” audio presentations. Literally hundreds of subscribers have asked me to create more content on this topic. This video will give you a good idea of how other companies have implemented viral strategies and how easy it can be for you to do the same in your business. Just click on the link below to play the video.http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8061610737104402005&hl=en
In fact this is one of the topics I will be discussing at our March 15, C-Suite Briefing at the Queen Mary in Long Beach. While the cost of the seminar is $149, if you register now it is absolutely FREE! This includes lunch and a surprise gift for all attendees.More Info on the March 15 Luncheon
I’ve also included a video of my co-presenter at this luncheon, Morrie Shechtman. He will be talking about accountability and how you can create a culture of cooperation among your employees. Just click on the image below to see him discussing the Eight Skills Needed to Succeed in Today’s High Risk World.http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8840432557037414844&hl=en
I hope you enjoy these videos and that you find them valuable in creating positive change for your business. My very best to you.Go to: www.revolutioninandout.com to get more details and register for this event today!

I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.

-Bruce LeeAt the SBA Network we talk a lot about our “Rules of Attraction”, and how to use the attraction mindset to radically improve your business. Rule number 1 is, “Become a Bigger Fish in a Smaller Pond.” Find a small niche in which you can dominate the marketplace and focus all of your efforts on that market. Doing so is often counterintuitive for many business owners and executives, and I was reminded why when flipping channels recently.I stumbled across a new documentary on PBS based on the landmark business book by Jim Collins, Good to Great. The book was based on years of research into the differences between “good” companies and “great” companies. Collins’ research team studied companies that were similar to one another in size, market, and performance, and then one suddenly outperformed the rest. They sought to discover what made this happen.One of the main factors they discovered was having executives that could be classified as “hedgehogs” as opposed to “foxes”. A fox is a crafty animal, focused on many things, and it spreads its attention between them. A hedgehog, however, is very simple, and focuses on one big idea.Personalities of business leaders can be classified into these categories, and that may be why the hedgehogs of the world find it easier to narrow their market to a small niche they dominate. They have the discipline to stick to what they do best, and not branch out into markets that will dilute their focus.This is why Southwest Airlines has been the dominant budget airline since the 70s. They have had many opportunities to add meal service, first class, and other amenities, but resisted the temptation to do so. While they may have increased revenues, they would have also increased their costs and split their focus. Their executive team are hedgehogs through and through.Are you a fox or a hedgehog? Can you learn to ignore your fox tendencies and become more of a hedgehog? Can you become disciplined enough to keep your focus?To watch Jim Collins discuss his ideas, click here to visit a website for a special multimedia version of his book. Click the “Begin Experience” button that shows up, then select “Play” on the left of your screen. I also highly recommend that you check the HD feed of your local PBS station and look for “Good to Great”.

As you know, occasionally we have an associate or partner write an article for the Weekly Business Update. This week, one of our senior consultants, Cory Halbardier, is writing an article on “Employees as Customers.” Enjoy.

-Mark Deo

Do we, as leaders, treat our employees the same way we treat our customers?

This became apparent to me just a few weeks ago when I was with a client. I was observing an interchange between my client and his underperforming employee. The conversation went something like this: “Johnny, do I have to tell you again? Huh? I told you to knock it off. I’M YOUR BOSS! You better listen to me or I’m going to fire you!”

We need to examine the underlying assumptions this manager has. For example: 1) Is the employee really committed to the company? 2) Are they committed to the manager? 3) If the manager creates fear in the employee, will they work harder? 

In order to answer these questions we must first consider these facts: 

1) Employees are not committed to companies like they were 20 years ago. If an employee feels underappreciated for the value they provide, they will move on to another employer who appreciates them. The old business paradigm had employees working for the same employer from college until retirement. That old paradigm is gone. Now a typical younger employee will work with a company only 3-5 years before they move; less time if they feel underappreciated. Who decided if the employee feels underappreciated? They do. 

2) Rapport and trust are key catalysts for respect. Most of us want to work for employers who respect us. Our employees want the same. If your employer demands respect from you, will you provide it? If you are a business owner, then the customer is your boss. If a customer demands respect from you, will you bend over backward to give it? Most of us would look for a new customer. Demanding respect does not work anymore. Today, we must earn it. Earning respect from employees will develop commitment through attraction, where demanding it will push them away. 

3) If a manager uses “scare tactics” to move an employee back on track, it destroys rapport and trust. If this occurs frequently enough, the employee will likely move on. What if they do not move on? This scenario is worse because now you have an employee who lacks self respect and the ability to stand up for themselves (and the company, if necessary.) Do you want an employee who lacks backbone working with your customers? 

How do the best leaders approach employees? Stephen R. Covey, in his timeless book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People said, “Always treat your employees exactly as you want them to treat your best customers.”

Assuming this paradigm, if I was handling a customer problem, I would treat them with respect and maintain clear communication as we worked through the challenge. At the same time, I wouldn’t allow a customer to take advantage of me. Balancing the two is key. Occasionally, this may require parting ways because the arrangement no longer works for the two of us. 

The same is true for employees. It is important to maintain clear communication and treat them with respect because, just like a client, they are directly, or indirectly, bringing you money. All employees have the option of taking their “business” somewhere else. 

If a manager adopts this new paradigm, they can transform the way they manage. 

I will give a step-by-step process for achieving uncommon cooperation and performance from your organization in a seminar called “How to Achieve Uncommon Performance from Your Organization.”

It is a FREE Lunch ‘N Learn hosted by Milestone Risk Management and Insurance Services on Tuesday, July 31st from noon to 1:30 pm in Irvine, CA. It is best suited for company leaders interested in doubling the size of their company. To register, go tohttp://milestonepromise.com/privateregistration.shtml and sign up for Lunch ‘N Learn 4. 

See you in 2 weeks. 

-Cory Halbardier
Care to submit an article or just have a comment? Email me at: cory@sbanetwork.org or Mark at: mark@markdeo.com

Now before you target me for burning in effigy, let me clarify. I’m NOT talking about racial, religious or gender discrimination. I’m talking about exercising discrimination in the way we provide rewards, perks and privilege for our employees and team members.

 If a video doesn’t appear above, click here to view my two minute video on accountability.There is an epidemic of “performance tolerance” among businesses today. It seems that society’s demand for “equality” has been misinterpreted as an effort to strive for “mediocrity.” We cannot build a great business with marginal people and marginal performance. Today many businesses go out of their way top spread the reward across their entire organization rather than simply rewarding those who have gone beyond what is expected. This result not only reinforces mediocre performance but actually “de-incentives” those who are striving for the best. 

In order to counter this type of behavior we must develop a culture of accountability. This sounds nice and most every leader would say they DO practice accountability with their team. Yet I would submit that very FEW leaders really practice accountability. True accountability means being willing to confront marginal performance and dysfunctional behaviors. Let’s be honest, most of us are looking for ways to build agreement and harmony rather than an opportunity to practice confrontation and conflict. Make no mistake: practicing “performance discrimination” in this society is not easy. It means taking risks. It means instigating uncomfortable conversations. It means expecting–and accepting–the occasional emotional outburst. That’s okay. Growth is usually painful. As Morrie Shechtman say in his book, Fifth Wave Leadership, “if you have a company full of conflict avoiders, you’re in trouble. You have to be willing to tell people how you experience them, and you have to be able to hear from them how they experience you. It’s the only route to growth relationships. The foundation of an accountable culture is honest, real-time feedback.

Start taking risks right now, give people honest, critical feedback about how they impact the relationships they’re in. Tell them what the new accountability means and why it’s so critical to their future. The blunt truth is that if you don’t create a discriminating culture of accountability, your company may not be around in ten, five, or even two years. None of us can be transaction artists anymore. You have to find the courage to make the change. And you have to make it right now. Then you will not have to bend to mediocrity.

Also check out the book by Dave Anderson, If You Don’t Make Waves, You’ll Drown.
I hope that this “Business Update” has been helpful in assisting you to improve the performance of your organization. For more information on how the Small Business Advisory Network assists companies in improving their performance, please feel free to contact us at 310-320-8190 or email mark@markdeo.com.  

Have a great week!

Dear Friends,

You all know that I am an enthusiastic guy. But I am SUPER-EXCITED about what I am about to tell you.For the last six years I have studied under and mentored with a person who is one of today’s foremost influencers in the area of corporate leadership. He has authored several bestsellers: Working Without A Net, Fifth Wave Leadership, and Love in the Present Tense. I have given his books to many of you. His name is Morrie Shechtman.I have had the great fortune of working with Morrie and his company, Fifth Wave Leadership, and we have also shared several clients (our company, SBA Network, focusing on the sales and marketing aspects and Fifth Wave focusing on leadership and organizational improvement). Interestingly enough we have found that collectively we were able to bring about massive change within a very short period of time.I am now thrilled to be putting on an event with Morrie on March 15, 2007 at the Queen Mary. It is called “Revolutionizing Your Business” and it is the first in a series of C-Suite Briefings which are seminars designed specifically for senior executives like CEOs, CFOs, CIOs, CMOs and the like.During our C-Suite Briefing we will discuss how changes in our society call for a revolution of both the way businesses develop their workforce, recruit and retain talent, as well as how they articulate their marketing message. When both of these issues are addressed simultaneously the results are phenomenal! We will be giving real-life examples and discussing how to apply these principles to your business regardless of your industry. This event will be co-sponsored by The Employers Group. The Employers Group is a Fortune 50-level, multi-faceted HR consulting firm that provides assistance to its clientele in all matters of human capital growth and development. EG can provide an entire HR function along with Preventative Employment Practices or interim support to an existing HR team with over 110 years of experience in the field of HR and business operations.The fee for this event is $149; however as part of our family of friends we would like to send you two complimentary tickets. Please click on the link below to register and we will send you the tickets, free of charge in the next week or so.Go to www.revolutioninandout.com to register.Again, please register as soon as possible since space is limited. I look forward to seeing you there!-Mark Deo

I recently read an article that talked about a high-school biology class where nearly 25% of the students were caught cheating. Apparently they had plagiarized entire sections of their semester-long reports from various Internet web sites. The teacher had isolated the offenders and had given them a failing grade. The parents of these students protested that the failing grade was “too harsh” a penalty for their cheating children. Unbelievably, the school board agreed!

The article went on to point out that a Rutgers University study found that more than 75% of students cheat. The Internet has made plagiarism quite easy. There are many web sites where students can get ready-made reports for all kinds of topics. Schools also have access to software that allows them to catch plagiarists just as easily. But apparently they often choose NOT to use it. Why? Because they feel that policing plagiarism might hurt a cheater’s self esteem. In fact, many student groups have attacked the use of anti-plagiarism software as a potential violation of student rights!My question is: “What will happen to these students when they have to compete in the real world?” In the real world if you plagiarize, you suffer the consequences. That could mean litigation, retraction and most certainly professional embarrassment.Ok, I know what you’re thinking: “What does all this have to do with business improvement?”
Everything.If we really care for people, then we tell them what they need to hear. If we are too concerned about offending them or hurting them then we are in part responsible for their failures. Think of how much those high school students will be hurt in the future simply because parents, teachers and administrators were unwilling to bruise their fragile egos.Let’s face it many, if not most supervisors are at the very least uncomfortable holding their employees accountable. I am not saying that we should create an environment where perfection is the goal. I rather encourage peak performance rather that perfect performance. But it is critical for business owners, manager and supervisors to distinguish between a “mistake of the heart” or a “mistake of the head.” A “mistake of the heart” is a situation where an employee intentionally did something that was known to be wrong and tried to get away with it. A “mistake of the head” is when an employee is working hard to do the right thing but, for some reason, it does not work out that way. With mistakes of the head, we should be very lenient. With mistakes of the heart we should be quite strict.One way to ensure that we are creating an environment where mistakes of the mind are tolerated and mistakes of the heart are not is to make your expectations crystal clear to your staff. Over the years I have noticed that communicating expectations is paramount in achieving peak performance. The following are areas in which leaders should develop clear expectations for team members:1. Culture – Communicate your company’s culture clearly by modeling the kind of behavior that you want to see. If you are looking for more honesty and integrity then model honesty and integrity. Like it or not, they will do as you do, NOT as you say. This starts at the top. If you are a business owner, don’t expect your managers to accomplish this if you can’t.2. Rewards – When people do well we should congratulate them publicly. This should be done with great fanfare but in a genuine, sincere way. There’s nothing worse than phony flummery or flattery. Give sincere appreciation.3. Chastisement – When we need to provide chastisement or correction it should always be done privately away from any other staff member. We should be forthright in expressing our disappointment with the staff member’s poor behavior NOT anger with them as a person.4. Correction – When correcting make sure that you communicate the methods and procedures expected. This should include deadlines with non-negotiable dates as opposed to dates that can slip as well as priorities. What’s to be done first, second and so on.5. Performance – Paint a picture of the outcome for your staff. Show them a vision of a “good” job versus a “bad” job. Make sure they understand the degree of effort that you expect them to each contribute to the successful solution.6. Measurement – Establish a system to measure performance in small increments as well as a format for consistent communication. This forum will give you the ability to ask the right kind of questions to determine whether they are “on-track.” At this point you can provide feedback and make suggestions on course correction.7. Resources – Make sure that they understand the resources that are available to them. This could include staff, facilities, technology, equipment, outside consultants and so on. Encourage them to use the resources to their best advantage but in a cost effective way in order to achieve their goals.

As leaders it’s our job to foster integrity, honesty and honor. Team members look to us for confidence, guidance, direction and innovation. To whom much is given, much is required. As leaders we must hold ourselves to a higher standard than anyone else in our organization. Does this mean that we need to be perfect in order to achieve peak performance? Not at all. But is does mean that when we are wrong that we, as Dale Carnegie advises us, “admit it quickly and emphatically.”Remember your team members are not just a resource, they are PEOPLE. As I have said many times, we live in an age of relationships. How can you create relationships that go beyond just getting the job done? And how can we do so with integrity and honor?