Hire The Best People You CanAs the economic recovery begins to gain traction, employers – both big and small – will be in the hunt for new talent at all of the management levels within their companies, up to and including the executive suite. The question is, will you hire the best person or a future problem?
Trust must be earned.
From my own business experiences and in my role as a motivational business speaker, I have learned that one of the most important tools a leader has at their disposal is trust. Without it, you’re not leading; you’re just going for a walk in the park. Think about it, if your team doesn’t trust you, why would they follow you or even listen to you? When I am in my role as a professional keynote speaker, I explain that without their trust, a team will not respond to even the simplest request from their leader, let alone the hard ones which require extra effort on their part. The fate of a business can be tied to the level of trust a team has in its leader.
“That’s it! You need a Time Out!” This is a common expression that a parent will use when their child has either done something bad or is on the verge of doing something bad. I know…I have heard my son and daughter-in-law use it with our 3 year old grandson. I read on a parent help site the following – “Time out is a very effective discipline technique.” The key word here is discipline or as you will read later on “self-discipline”.
“Time Out” is also an action or tool that sports teams use to either take a breather or discuss where they are at a particular moment in a game; to discuss a possible change in strategy and / or tactics or, slow down the surge or momentum of their opponent. Depending upon the sport, each team has a set amount of time outs they can use during the course of a game. When used correctly and at the right time, it is not unusual to see a shift in the momentum of the game in favor of the team who called the “time out”. (The same holds true with 3 year olds).
That’s right, I said fire yourself! This act alone will probably be the best and most important thing you can do for your business or your career right now – at the start of a new year. In the process of firing yourself, make sure you do an indepth exit interview so that you understand completely the reasons for this harsh and necessary action.
Oh! Don’t forget to throw yourself a “going away” party and buy yourself a gift (not to expensive). You will want to take this occasion (the party) to tell the boss (you) exactly what you think about him…and what you would do if you were in-charge! And, when you’ve done all of these things, figure out what you need to do and who do you have to be to re-hire yourself.
Forget most of the self help books and the “mass produced” seminar peddlers – let me show you how simple it is to realize and maximize your full capabilities and start “Playing Your Game”.
#1 – believe in yourself; you have many gifts- talents and skills that are waiting for you to use. Many rely on hope – but that means you are waiting for something to happen and hope is not a strategy. When you have faith in your abilities, you make things happen. The worst that can happen is you make a mistake. Simple – just fix it. Believe in yourself and not what others tell you about you.
I read a book a while ago entitled “Road Rules” by Andrew Sherman. The book is great and goes into detail about 12 essential rules for navigating the road of life. Chapter 1 is labeled “Be the Truck and Not the Squirrel”. It outlines the reasons that caused the squirrel to end up as road kill. The question becomes – In your professional or business career are you mimicking the traits of the squirrel that caused his sad (and messy) demise?
Chapter 1 describes three basic facts. First – “trucks are durable, strong,…and build on their momentum as they move closer to their destination (goal)…” The second basic fact is that “squirrels are generally happy to eat acorns and mind their own business until one day they end up in the wrong place at the wrong time and WHAM”. The rest is, sad to say, history. The third fact is that “in today’s unpredictable world and economy, it’s more important than ever to position yourself to be the truck.”
Finding yourself in a tough and even scary situation often comes with the territory when you are in a leadership position. During my executive career, I used to describe these situations as being comparable to swimming with a bunch of hungry and unpredictable the sharks. I also learned through my experiences that the one thing you never do is bleed when the sharks are in the water with you. Simple, right? However, in these tough situations, leaders sometimes get bruised and battered and they bleed. Once the sharks sense that there is blood in the water, the intensity of the crisis acclerates and the urge to start a feeding frenzy increases. A feeding frenzy in business terms is when there is a complete lack of discipline within the team; they loose their focus; fear of the unknown becomes the dominating emotion and the overriding purpose shifts from solving the problem to “every man for themselve”. This is when the situation goes from bad to worse, usually at a rapid pace. Right?
Lots of people pride themselves as being expert in dealing with a crisis or being able to “put out fires”. The question is how many of these fires do they actually create due to a lack of a clear and specific vision; goals and planning? They “put out the fire” that they started but how much damage do they cause (and leave behind for others to clean up) in the process? As the saying goes – “show a man (or woman) who excels at putting out fires…and I will show you a pyro-maniac”. What I have also found in my coaching experience is that these folks usually settle for below average results because they are more focused on “putting out their self created fire” and not the impact it has on what they are trying to accomplish or the people they work with. Make no mistake, pyro-maniacs have a devastating effect on their employees.
So, what causes this to occur? Well a couple of things. First, they lack a clear and specific vision. They have no idea where they want to go or how they will get there. Look, running a business or serving in a senior executive role isn’t always clear. But trying to be successful in a “making it up as you go” mode has its very significant challenges, many of which could be avoided with a vision. Your vision is your dream for the future. A business without a vision is directionless. It lacks purpose and heart. It lacks the essential idea from which commitment, growth and the sense of personal achievement emerge. A vision is a clearly-articulated, results-oriented picture of a future you intend to create. It is a dream with direction. So, without a vision you are well positioned to create “fires”.
He was called “The Boss”. He was born to lead and achieve. He was driven to succeed. People only had two reactions to him – they either liked him or disliked him. There was no middle ground. Say what you want, even if you disliked him and disagreed with his approach, one thing was always perfectly clear – you always knew where he stood on an issue (by the way, in my mind this is key for any effective leader). He was George Steinbrenner.
To describe his management style as unique and colorful, would be an understatement. His style worked for him. It may not work for you. Regardless, every “Boss” has a unique style – some work and some don’t. However, Steinbrenner did get results (and made many players very wealthy in the process) by winning 11 penants and 7 championships after he bought the team in 1973. At the end of the day, business results do matter.
Wikipedia tells us that delegation is the assignment of authority and responsibility to another person to carry out specific activities. However the person who delegated the work remains accountable for the outcome of the delegated work. Delegation is supposed to empower a subordinate to make decisions, i.e. it is a shift of decision-making authority from one organizational level to a lower one. Sounds good but at this point you “control freaks” are ready to slit my wrists for sharing this stuff! But, in the face of this danger, I’ve decided to keep going.
Wikipedia goes on to state that delegation, if properly done, is not abdication (ok, control freaks now say with passion”yeah right!”). The opposite of effective delegation is micromanagement, where a manager provides too much input, direction, and review of delegated work (control freaks are now thinking – “Is there any other way?”). In general, delegation is good and can save money and time, help in building skills, and motivate people. Poor delegation, on the other hand, might cause frustration, and confusion to all of the involved parties. Or, to say it another way – when done poorly, “It can be a living hell”!
Connect With Chris