Re-Interviewing

photo by phineas h

Interviewing is hard enough.

But, last week I had a great meeting with a forward-thinking, culturally aware Corporate Development officer.  He was touting the benefits of re-interviewing.

Put simply, it’s the company taking an active interest in the employee’s career development.

It’s something he does every 4-6 months.  And its purpose is to probe into whether people are getting what they need out of their job.  Whether they are heading in the right direction.  Whether there is anything that is preventing them from fully engaging in their job.

The cynic will say that it’s the company trying to extract more blood from the turnip.  And there is some of that.  But ultimately, the employment relationship is just that…a relationship.  You have to give in order to get.

By inserting himself into the individual’s career management process, he learns what they want out of the job and can help deliver upon that. How else does the company know what buttons to push in order to properly motivate?  (Hint: money isn’t usually it.)

To illustrate he told me the story of someone in the Corporate Development realm (aka HR) who really wanted to be an accountant.  She had been taking classes at night and had recently completed her certification.  While there wasn’t a position open, he was able to get her involved in projects with the AP/AR groups.

She was still expected to fulfill her duties in the HR space, but she eagerly took on the additional work because it was what she really wanted to do and because the company (and one individual in particular) was willing to take the time to understand what she needed to get.

A role may not open up and she may have to leave in six-months in order to find full-time accounting work.  But the alternative was losing her outright now and getting less out of her while she ‘secretly’ sought a new job.

It was an important arrow in his quiver to be able to better understand his team.  And a practice that motivates and engages his team.  If people are a good fit with your company’s values then moving them to a different seat on the bus is a no-brainer.  It builds goodwill and the sense of reciprocity fiercely kicks in.  These people become far more likely to go the extra mile that will make a difference to your business.

He made a few additional points that are worth sharing:

1. Don’t expect miracles the first time out.  You need to build trust with the employees that enables them to be candid.  Because without candor it’s a wasted exercise
2. Set the expectation that both sides come fully prepared.  Give the questions/topics you want to cover and expect them to have thought deeply about them
3. Honor these as you would executive meetings.  Don’t move them, don’t miss them and don’t show up expecting not to be an active participant
4. Be honest about what the company’s needs too.  If you foresee needing to do things differently bring them up now.  Better to understand if doing things differently is going to motivate the person who has to do the things differently

Do you do something similar?  What works/doesn’t?

Deposit: Emotional Capital

photo by mrpattersonsir

Work is draining.  For many, rare are the days when we leave the office feeling energized.

• It drains us to work with people who communicate differently
• It drains us to combat the petty political games
• It drains us to try and adopt the company’s and our manager’s values in order to ‘get ahead’
• It drains us to figure out what is meant rather than what is said
• It drains us to just be told what to do
• It drains us to continually give ourselves pep talks in order to get our heads back in the game
• It drains us to repeatedly convince ourselves that what we’re working on is really important

As a manager you have to recognize that people are going through this.  Chances are you are too.  But change has to start somewhere.

Sure, technically your job is to make sure the ball is being advanced down the field.  But if your team is too exhausted (or detached) to run the plays how far is the ball going to move?

Your real job is to make deposits into the emotional bank so that when the inevitable time comes when the team needs to hunker down and everything has gone sideways that people are present, engaged and have the persistence to get through the rough patches.

From the employees perspective, they have gone out of their way to make the relationship work.  They started in their role excited and ready to roll up their sleeves and make a real difference.  But every slight along the way has made a withdrawal on their emotional involvement with you, the team and with the company.

• Seemingly innocuous statements may have reinforced how little you know them.
• Decisions may have been made that seemingly flew in the face of the stated company values.  That inconsistency gets noticed.
• Ideas may have been squashed prematurely.
• A teammate may have been rewarded ‘unfairly’

It all adds up and you may be responsible for making many of those emotional withdrawals.  If you expect them to dig in then you need to exert the energy to refill that account.

Focus on your people.  Feed them the projects that keep them energized.  Recognize they’re all different and build those relationships accordingly.  People do want to be treated differently.  They’re not all the same and not universally motivated by the same things.

Start today.  Hold one on ones that don’t focus on tasks but rather the individual.  The work will still get done.

Being The Change You Want

photo by keela84

ChangeThis has posted another excellent set of presentations this month.  One that deeply struck a chord is Flow, Flee or Fight.

As always, it’s worth the full read, but for those leading teams and running companies there is a lot to be gleaned by reading between the lines.

1. Engagement is fluid and ever-changing. People are constantly evaluating the level of effort they should exert.  The outputs will typically match the inputs.  When they feel appreciated and when they feel their work is valued and valuable they increase their effort level.  This is not saying people are lazy.  Just that they work by the Golden Rule.
2. People are present, but not there. Most of your workforce shows up every day and does what is expected of them.  But most have a lot more to give.  Your job is to extract that available effort.  To do that you have to remember that effort is like a tap and you’re not in control of when it flows.  You can only make sure that everything is in place for the tap to work.  One place to start is by assigning work that may be just over the head of your employee and make yourself freely available to support.
3. Change and disagreement is good. Often, those who push back are actually engaged.  They push because they care (not always, but give the benefit of the doubt).  So be cognizant of how you handle disagreement.  Create the structure that gives people the ability to push back against the status quo.  It’s your job to listen and figure out what is best for the company.  Sometimes it’ll be necessary to have people move on, but having the value system in place so that people can voice what isn’t working for them is crucial.  As is having the system in place to end the disagreements and get back to work.

Following the golden rule never hurts.  If you start to treat people as you’d like to be treated and start listening to what they say, but also for what their actions are saying then you’ll be in a better position to harness effort and channel the ‘negative’ energy into something positive.

Engagement: Take the First Step

We all want to hire people who are going to make a difference.  Who will drive our businesses forward.

We want people who will remain engaged long after the honeymoon period.

The circle of engagement is pretty clear.  An employee likes her job so she works hard and does well which in turn produces rewards that matter to her so she tries harder still.

But where is the on-ramp?  What fuels this virtuous cycle?

photo by robotography

It’s easy to put the onus on the employee by saying you’re paying well, you have free yoga classes and M&Ms.  But none of those spin the wheel.  Despite what you may think those are only ‘nice to haves’ for most people.  People who are intrinsically motivated to do something amazing.

You’ve spent a lot of time and money to bring the new employee on-board.   So why not suck up your pride and take that first step?  Do everything in your power to ensure the people you hire succeed?

• Give your time liberally. Yes, you’re busy.  But every minute you give to properly on-board someone will give you several in return in the long run.  The new employee will appreciate it even if you don’t hear about it.  You’ll be rewarded with more and more focused effort.  Your team scales, you don’t.
• Praise early initiative. It’s tough for someone to come aboard, figure out how everything works and pay immediate dividends.  Rather than being ‘constructive’ and honing output, focus on input.  Few will be more motivated to put in solid efforts than when making the first impression.  Do your part to encourage that same level of effort in the future.
• Listen. Find out what where they loving pouring their efforts.  Ask for an honest assessment of their strengths and weaknesses.  Their weaknesses will be the areas where they put forth less effort.  Minimize those occasions.  Similarly, find out what they want to get out of a job, what skills they want to pick up and what motivates them.  They may have thought about it, but be persistent.

Engagement is a two-way street.  There is give and take on both sides, but we far too often neglect the new employee and trust them to ‘quickly get up to speed.’

Take the lead in engaging your employees and that lead will be followed.

Return on Brain Waves (ROBW)

We’re all in the same business.

We may produce different things, but that doesn’t change anything.  With off-shoring and 100-years to optimize the process, production is a commodity.  Everyone can tap into efficient, quality production (lead-laden toys notwithstanding).

In fact, we’ve been in this business for a half-century and we aren’t getting any better at it.

We are all in the people business, of course.

Your job is to turn brain waves into cash (hat tip).  If you thought you’d misplaced your competitive advantage, you’ll find it there.

photo by gilles chiroleu

In 1957 the U.S. hit the inflection point whereby we started thinking more than producing.  White-collar workers outnumbered blue-collar workers for the first time.  Since then the spread has only increased, but we haven’t changed our mindset about how we work.

We are still trying to get more from less by using the same approaches we used 100-years ago.  Basically, work longer then work smarter then finally give up and off-shore everything.

But we’re left with an economy and business scenario that is entirely different.  The job today is to optimize people’s thoughts.

Optimizing people is far different than optimizing people operating machines.

A couple starting points to keep in mind to make the transition from acting like a production line manager to a brain wave herder.

1. How, not what. Anyone you’ll consider hiring is going to be smart.  The difference in a few IQ points at the top end of the spectrum isn’t going to make a damn bit of difference in accomplishing your goals.  The difference is how they put those smarts to use, not what they know.  Is it in a way that aligns with how your company does business?  Does it inspire conversation and even more brain waves?
2. People aren’t independent. Our working systems are so intermingled that the lone wolf is indeed an endangered breed.  When assembling your team look at it holistically.  You don’t just need a marketer who has previously hawked your competitors product.  You need a markter who knows how to communicate with the prima donna sales guy and knows how to extract good ideas from the introverted engineer.  You need a marketer that raises the game of everyone on the team.
3. Redefine ‘management.’ You’re job is to take seemingly disconnected thoughts and focus them in a way that a) makes money and b) doesn’t shut down future thinking.  You’re job is actually far harder than you thought.  You have to keep energy high, focus it, be able to recognize great ideas and keep the momentum going when conflict arises.  You’re less a manager than you are a cowboy / cheerleader / psychologist.
4. Rethink your relationship. Stop thinking that people are cogs in the wheel and are easily replaceable.  Though it’s easy in this economy and it could be argued that it’s partially true (see above: there isn’t much difference in knowledge and skill levels between smart people), there is no faster way to shut down the brain waves you need to harness than to not appreciate what one brings to the table.  You may not agree with what they’re bringing, but if you want the spigot of knowledge to continue to flow you don’t gum up the pipes with your archaic, century-old thinking that people a natural resource to continue to be exploited.

I could go on, but then I’d have nothing left to write about.  Please add your own or challenge me on any of these.  My thinking is always a work in process and it’s hard to do alone.