Lose Your Personality and Become a Better Interviewer

When I started out in the search business, it became quickly apparent that most managers weren't great at interviewing. For one thing, I always thought my candidates were great, and they didn't
Part of this difference of opinion was due to a lack of understanding of what the real job entailed, lack of any rigorous assessment process, and a desire for many to take short cuts, waiting for the "perfect" candidate to arrive. In this case, unanimity of perceptions substituted for evidence and logic. In the bargain, many great candidates were excluded for bad reasons.
After studying the problem, I noticed that there were four basic personality styles that seemed to be at the crux of the matter and predicted exactly how the person would come to an incorrect conclusion. From this a simple DISC-like assessment was developed that described how the errors were caused and what could be done to eliminate them. This technique is pictured in the accompanying graphic and described below.

The horizontal axis represents the speed of decision making - fast and instinctive on the right, slow and deliberate on the left. Those on the right prefer to make fast decisions with limited data. Those on the left are more cautious and would rather ponder a bit, collecting as much information as possible before deciding. Plot yourself on this decision-making axis, based on your preferred mix of facts and speed.

The vertical axis represents a focus on people or results. Those who are very people-oriented are less concerned with getting things done on time and on budget. They'll tend to let things slide to ensure that everyone is okay. Those who are extremely results-focused will be less concerned with the needs of the people involved. They'll tend to push for results, even if it upsets some of those involved. Plot yourself on this vertical axis based on whether your emphasis is on people or their performance.

Based on where you've plotted yourself on these two dimensions, you fall clearly into one of the four style quadrants, or more in the middle - the coaching style. Following is a quick summary of these styles and how they affect a person's decision-making process when interviewing and evaluating candidates:

Director Style. These people are the hard-chargers, dominant, and fast-paced. They are less sensitive to the needs of others, with delivering results as their high number one priority. During the interview they over-value their intuition and tend to like people who are assertive, strong communicators, and those who seem to have high potential based on a strong intellect. They'll assess the person's achievements at a high level, but won't spend too much time digging into the person's background to validate their quickly-drawn conclusions. While they hire a lot of hard-charging smart people, many of them aren't great at managing people or delivering results on a consistent basis.

Analytical Style. This group is comprised largely of technical people - detail-oriented, cautious, methodical, and conservative in their decision making. They tend to over-emphasize technical competency and experience when assessing candidates. Their conservative nature protects them from hiring technically weak people, but they overlook the person's potential, ability to collaborate with others, and how they plan and organize their work properly.

Diplomat Style. This group is HR-centric - those who proudly profess to be people-persons. They believe their role during the interview is to judge "fit" and the so-called "soft skills." They emphasize team skills, personal likeability, and look for clues as to whether the person has the flexibility to meet the cultural norms of the company. Unless the person is the hiring manager, their vote is often less valued, since it's based more on feelings, rather than objective evidence regarding team skills. The people they hire get along with everyone, collaborate well, and don't upset the apple cart, but sometimes don't get much done.

Influencer Style. This is the classic sales personality or politico type. This is the group that makes instant judgments in a few minutes based on first impressions. If the candidate looks good, sounds good, is confident and reasonably competent, it's a sure-fire hire. On the other hand, if the candidate is a bit nervous, less than ideally groomed, late, or is slightly maladroit or geeky, it's into the reject pile faster than greased lightning. While the people these types of managers hire are fun at parties, their on-the-job performance is problematic, since the initial hiring decision making was more superficial than substantive.

Coaching Style. This is the person who's pretty much in the middle on both axes. This is also the ideal interviewing style using rational thought, objectivity, and evidence to make the hiring decision. When evaluating candidates, a coaching style manager considers results, past performance, technical competency, team skills, leadership ability, and decision making in proper balance based on the real requirements of the job. The person will objectively consider their first impression, but not be unduly affected by it early on.

Adopting a coaching style, even if temporary, is one way to increase assessment accuracy. The key to achieving this is to overcome your natural style by adopting the best traits of everyone else, especially your polar or diagonal opposite. Here's some specific advice on how to do this:

Directors Becoming Diplomats. You need to slow down, get more facts and details, and focus on the process of achieving results, with special emphasis on collaborating with others. This includes developing and supporting team members, working with other departments, and understanding how the person handles conflict.

Analyticals Becoming Influencers. Speed up your decision making and broaden your selection criteria. Focus more on what a person has accomplished with their technical skills, rather than the absolute level. Consider how the person manages, plans, and organizes work, and whether it gets done consistently on time. Dig deep into team skills, especially how the person collaborates on cross-functional projects.

Diplomats Becoming Directors. Don't worry so much about team skills and personality fit, but rather how the person used these skills to get results. Draw org charts, get names, find out how the person developed others, who was mentored and how, and if the candidate was mentored. Get facts, dates, and specific examples to demonstrate conclusively that the person is a leader and strong collaborator. Be sure to find out the type of work the person has excelled at and what motivated the person to perform at peak levels.

Influencers Becoming Analyticals. This will be very hard for you, but you must delay any yes/no decision for at least 30 minutes. In fact, be sure to measure first impression at the end of the interview. To do this, have a list of prepared questions focusing mainly on performance and results. (Try these to get started.) Go slow and dig deep, step by step, so you understand exactly how the person accomplished the results and how the person made their biggest decisions. This will give you the evidence you need to make an accurate assessment. You'll probably discover that many of the people with great first impressions were marginal performers and some of those with average first impressions are pretty good. You might even hire some.

Of course, making this personality shift is easier said than done. As a recruiter, I had to forcefully intervene to pull most of this off. Here are some of the ideas to help you here:


1. Lead panel interviews with clients. Panel interviews help since the personality of the individual interviewers is defused. A competent leader can also control the types of questions being asked to ensure that everyone on the team obtains the information they need to make an accurate assessment.

2. Train managers to dig deep into accomplishments. This is how the two-question performance-based interview was developed. The questions are based on digging deep into the candidate's accomplishment most directly related to real job needs. This simple tool gives managers something other than intuition to make their assessments.

3. Stop using a yes/no voting system and implement an evidence-based decision-making process instead. Adding up a bunch of yes/no votes accentuates the personality style problem. To minimize this, considering using our evidence-based assessment process based on the 10-Factor Candidate Assessment template. Narrowing each interviewer's focus and requiring that specific evidence by justified and shared, forces the person to adopt a balanced interviewing style.


Of course, there's a bit more to making accurate, better hiring decisions than what's described here. But from what I've seen, if you can't overcome the interviewer's natural error-inducing personality style from the get-go, nothing else will help much.
By Lou Adler, March 4, 2009

Tighter U.S. Oversight Comes to H-1B Visa Program

As federal officers raid alleged abusers, tech employers worry they'll run short of skilled foreign workers, especially in stimulus sectors
By Moira Herbst

As the unemployment rate in the U.S. rises, the federal government is tightening its oversight of a controversial visa program that allows companies to bring in skilled workers from overseas. The crackdown is aimed at reducing alleged abuses of what are known as H-1B visas, but it may also make it more difficult for U.S. companies to hire talented workers from abroad. Tech giants such as Microsoft (MSFT), Oracle (ORCL), and IBM (IBM) have been active participants in the program and have lobbied for its expansion.
The H-1B visa program was originally designed to let American companies fill high-skill positions for which no local workers were available. But critics say the program has had such lax oversight that it has been open to abuse and fraud. In several cases, companies have been charged with underpaying workers they bring to the U.S. In addition, outsourcing firms have become some of the heaviest users of the program, raising concerns that visas are being used to train foreign workers who end up taking American jobs. Late last month the government disclosed that the top four recipients of the work visas in 2008 were all Indian outsourcers—Infosys Technologies (INFY), Wipro (WIT), Satyam (SAY), and Tata Consultancy (TCS.BO). The companies use the visas to bring employees from abroad to work in their U.S. operations, typically for two or three years.
Increased oversight of the program is likely to come on several fronts. The Labor Dept. is tightening its review of applications for the work visas, having staffers process requests manually for the first time. Meanwhile, U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) is more actively investigating companies that receive the visas for potential misuse. Last month, USCIS and the U.S. Attorney's office in Iowa cooperated on a six-state raid of companies allegedly abusing the program. Matthew Whitaker, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Iowa, says the resulting 10-count indictment against a New Jersey-based company called Vision Systems Group is just "the tip of the iceberg." Vision Systems did not return calls seeking comment.
Congress Could Act
Senators Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), two of the program's vocal critics, are pressing for legislative reform as well. They plan to introduce legislation by early April that would require employers to pledge they had attempted to hire American workers before applying for H-1B visas—a step not required under current law. "I want to make sure that every employer searches to make sure there is no American available to do the job," says Grassley.
American tech companies are wary of any reforms. Microsoft, the top U.S. recipient of H-1Bs in 2008, says the Durbin-Grassley plan risks making it more difficult to recruit talented workers to the U.S. and more likely companies will hire abroad. The company says expansion of the program will bring in skilled immigrants who will help the U.S. economy recover. Still, Microsoft says it supports government efforts to crack down on companies misusing the existing program and has met with USCIS to help develop methods to detect fraud. "We are supportive of steps to reform the H-1B visa system to eliminate the potential for abuse," says Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith.
The government will begin accepting applications for this year's H-1Bs on Apr. 1. In recent years, the 65,000 visas permitted annually have been scooped up in days. Robert Hoffman, spokesman for the tech lobbying group Compete America, says it's important the government not clamp down too much because skilled workers will be needed in green tech, health care, and other sectors that are targeted for expansion in the stimulus plan. "We're trying to create industries where none exist," he says. "That may create an added need for workers."
Herbst is a reporter for BusinessWeek in New York.

The Executive Brief

How IT Leaders Can Thrive in Tough Times

How IT Leaders Can Thrive in Tough Times
Slashing IT staff may not be the answer… by Gary Perman

As anxiety and uneasiness continue into Q2 of 2009, companies are looking for ways to trim spending and improve their bottom line. Even though IT often encompasses a small percentage of a companies’ cost expenditures, executives inevitably turn their attention to IT budgets as a target for cost cutting.
According to Gartner analysts, the number one cost-reduction option that IT executives should prepare for involved people, either in the form of hiring freezes, job cuts or eliminating layers of management. Yet, Gartner still expects IT spending to grow by small amounts during 2009. Caution, will likely be the business direction at many companies, affecting IT as well as other departments.
It may seem inevitable to some that staff pay the price during a budget crunch, but the short term dollars saved reducing head count or putting more work on an already overworked staff could ultimately cost an IT department exponentially more.
"People are looking to manage their costs in IT. But the last thing IT departments want to do is lose embedded knowledge. That would be hard to salvage," states Andi Mann, Research Director at Enterprise Management Associates.
During the Dot Com bubble, IT budgets grew rapidly. When the bubble burst, those budgets burst as well. Since that time, CIO’s, and their IT teams have improved the performance of IT departments by streamlining applications, reducing infrastructure costs, improving governance, consolidating vendors, and outsourcing many activities.
Technology now dovetails tightly with operations in ways that weren’t possible a decade ago, for instance; manufacturers use IT to manage supply chains, business operations depend on IT for financial accounting, payroll, asset management, e-commerce, and HR. IT capabilities have fostered new sales channels, defined new customer segments, and even helped create new business models.
These factors make reductions in IT spending more complicated than ever. Simplistic cuts, applied across the board, may endanger critical business priorities from sales support to customer service. That potent message should resonate even among corporate officers anxious to find quick savings.
CIO’s, of course, should continue to make their operations more efficient, especially in areas that show signs of dilation. Reducing pockets of unproductive expenditure now will bring savings that help meet corporate cost targets. Still, except in the direst of circumstances, turning off technology spending or reducing staff during a downturn is counterproductive. When business picks up, you may lack critical capabilities. Besides, many technology investments can improve profitability in the now as well as after a recovery. When business and IT executives jointly take an end-to-end look at business processes, the results can have a tremendous impact on IT cost reduction efforts. With minimal affects to staff.
So what ideas can IT leaders use to manage their costs and thrive?
1. Create opportunities. The trick is to scan for and create opportunities. Smart CIO’s will make sure their teams remain the bloodline to good services and innovations that save money. When the next problem comes up, IT must be ready to handle it swiftly. “Rather than just trying to weather the storm, figure out how to thrive in this environment and the company will do well no matter what the future holds.” Says Wilson Zehr, CEO at Cendix, a SaaS company.
It may also be wise for CIO’s to skip incremental improvements that don't have huge value. Stick close to your budget, and make sure any upgrades are not just tied to IT savings, but to savings across the entire company. The fact that conditions are changing opens up opportunities for resourceful firms to outsmart larger competitors who, during a downturn, carry on business as usual or are unable to adapt quickly -- except to fire employees.
Innovative IT leaders can partner with business development and gain market share by taking it away from competitors unable to adjust to the shifting market conditions.
Now is the time to be aggressive in the marketplace. Actively seek out new business by adding extra service to give you an edge over competition.
Improve customer service internally and externally. Look for ways to become a leaner, more cost-effective and efficient operation, better positioned to do well when the market improves.
Be imaginative. Companies who survive and even prosper during hard times must be able to look beyond the present, to overcome the constraints of tradition, to see the company from a new perspective, and to do business differently.

2. Improve Operating Leverage. CIO’s need to be focusing on only programs, projects, and actions that add value and are taking the business in the right direction. “Employees know when management is being wasteful and when they are focused on the wrong things. Working on the right stuff and being both accountable and transparent is critical” says Gary Smith, Managing Partner at The Consultant's Connection in Hartford, Connecticut.
Assess the moves your competitors will be taking and build a strategy to outflank them. Position products & find the holes... “One of the things that we IT folk rarely look at is our achievements. This can be on projects that made money, or saved money for the company,” says Peter B. Giblett, head of IS Development at The News Group. He continues “There is one area of IT that is currently in boom, which is business intelligence and its associated specialties; Data Warehousing, ETL, and Data Integration. The reason for this is that businesses need to use business intelligence technology to spot their best opportunities in business” Learn how to use industry tools to assess your own product portfolio, remove the lemons, and become more competitive. If you are the one in the IT department facing the challenge of expanding service without increasing the budget - business is still expecting IT to deliver. Business expects this without having extra money to do it, so you have to find creative ways. For instance, SaaS (Software as a Service) will continue to grow in popularity, partly as a result of the economic downturn. The cost savings are huge.
Blair Mandryk, global IT manager at Haworth Inc., a Holland, Michigan based maker of office furniture, had been looking to cut his technology costs long before the recent events began unfolding. Mandryk had already begun using VMware Inc.'s virtualization technology to reduce 450 physical servers down to 100 boxes. “Areas that our IT department won’t want to cut due to the upside profit potentials for the company include storage projects. There also is expected to be continued demand for business intelligence tools, to help users better evaluate every investment and business risk. In addition, IT requirements may grow in ironic ways; for instance, if PC replacements scheduled for next year are put off because of economic concerns, help desk calls from users having problems with their systems likely will increase” he said.
3. Don’t be caught under-staffed. Options include hiring specialists, freelancers, consultants, and part-time employees. Some managers and executives believe the myth that hiring becomes easier during a recession because the talent pools overflow with laid off people. This is far from the truth. The reality is that there are more unqualified employees filling the pool and finding a needle in a haystack becomes more time consuming, difficult and increases delays – all which translate into a very expensive process, rather than a cost savings solution.

Beware of overworking IT employees. Even the most eager go-getter can burn out when faced with an impossible workload. Talk to your team, find out who does what, and make sure your expectations are realistic. Your staff might already be too small. “In lean times, look at the core tasks which have to happen and work out who are the required staff to meet this base requirement. This is no different than planning a project and having the budget cut. You have to sort out what can be done with the new budget. From there you do what you can with the resources you have. Once the core services/tasks have been established to keep this scope as much as possible” conveys Jeff Theunissen, Chief Technology Officer and Infrastructure Specialist at QLD Health.
3. Good customer service cannot be overstressed, especially as internal and external customers’ buying power or willingness to spend is lessened during tough economic times. Studies show that customers’ perception of service is fixed primarily in terms of time in a customer's mind. Three examples
are: waiting time to obtain service; reaction time to deliver service; and length of time of the
service. In banks or stores, or phoning in orders or for information, prospective customers will
walk out or hang up if their time perception is strained. Understaffing will negatively impact customer service.

According to management consultant Donald Blumberg, author of ‘Managing Service as a Strategic Profit Center’, customers will temper their time demands when they see employees busy helping other customers. But they will not be so tolerant when service people are chatting with one another or on the phone while waiting customers are ignored.

4. Increase training. A mistake companies can easily make during a recession is to cut training budgets. Training is best conducted during slack periods -- especially low-cost, on-the-job instruction and broadened skill acquisition. Also, local community colleges offer a number of free classes that teach and upgrade trade and office skills and supervision techniques.
If you can't hire new staff, the best thing you can do is to make your existing team more valuable. Provide opportunities for current employees to train in new skill areas, and encourage them to take them. Your company will reap the benefits, and your employees will appreciate the challenge and the chance to broaden their skills. When good times return, training is also another positive retention strategy that increases succession management as well as build employee loyalty.

5. Get employees involved in tactics and implementation – During lean times people get nervous and worried about the security of their jobs. They need to know what is going on with the business, what they can do to support the operation, and how their contributions are helping. They deserve the truth and will pledge their loyalty to the managers who are open and honest with them.
Rather than face initiating layoffs, Sal Gonzalez, co-owner of R&D Plastics in Hillsboro, Oregon asked for ideas and input from his staff. His entire operations staff agreed to take a fifteen percent salary cut, including the executives. This did two positive things; One, it prevented layoffs and two; employees saw that management was willing to take pay cuts as well, which had a significantly positive affect on employee loyalty and production.
If layoffs or a significant reduction in work hours are unavoidable, let employees take a lead role in designing the program. Shortened hours, job reassignments, job sharing, and other alternatives may surface.
Meet with staff regularly to exchange ideas on boosting productivity and other issues. Create an
incentive for good suggestions and foster a team spirit for survival.
Remember that employees need to feel they are important to your company, and that their work
is challenging them to their fullest capabilities.

Develop a "culture" of doing more with less. Get every person in the company thinking about how to do more with less. If you can maintain this as a core piece of your culture it will also help when things are less lean.
Scott Simmons, VP of Operations at Climax Portable Tools in Newberg, Oregon has been installing Lean thinking and Lean processes among all departments of his company. In order to become successful with Lean, he has had to sell the idea to every level of the company. Training has increased to teach everyone from the janitor to the executive about the cost saving advantages of Lean thinking. The cost savings can be in the millions of dollars as well as preventing layoffs and even increasing staff. I had the opportunity to sit in on one of his mock lean training exercises that his design manager was conducting for their operations. Key staff members from various departments were going through the hands on learning lean process, step by step– including inventory, product development, process improvements, and machine tool changes. The introduction to lean working principles throughout their company has saved them millions of dollars. The introduction to lean as also allowed them to bring work in-house which they used to outsource – thus containing costs and increasing profits. “If your organization is already lean and mean then you can focus on continuous improvement! Lean methodologies, Six Sigma are areas that can guide you to the top! If you must reorganize then you should conduct a complete Value Stream Map of the department or system that you are in charge of. You will be surprised at how many processes and activities that you will find that are: redundant, wasteful, and useless. Systems evolve and procedures that were once key are many times deemed useless due to system changes, technology upgrades, or product reforms.” David Steinhauer, Six Sigma Black Belt, General Mills

6. Communicate. If you’ve noticed, a prominent theme throughout these six ideas is communication. Keep your management team included in all decisions. When possible keep your employees updated to what short and long term plans you are making for them and the company. Bob Nehauser, CEO of NCS Corporation adds “When staff members are listening to the gloom and doom on the news and/or seeing friends and colleagues losing their jobs they can be subject to survivor mentality, which slows down productivity and makes them feel crummy, of course.”

“The single best practice you can use at any time, recession or boom, is communicate with your employees. This includes frequent open and honest communications to large and small groups of employees as well as individual one-on-one communications. One of the most important communications skills a manager can employ is active listening. Engage your employees and actively listen to them... I find that this practice offers inspiration and opportunity to the manager to facilitate positive changes that will lead to increased employee satisfaction, improved team performance, and, ultimately, improved productivity.” adds Darren Sprout, Professional Services Delivery Manager at MicroAge.

While economic downturns are admittedly difficult, and increase the obstacles IT departments face in trying to survive and grow, it is not axiomatic that companies have to slash staffing and resources. Resourceful IT Leaders can seize available situations while creating new opportunities, and take steps during today's hard times to lay the groundwork for tomorrow's prosperity.


Gary Perman is a certified recruiting professional and president of PermanTech, which specializes in recruiting technology executives, managers and engineers. He also hosts a technology management blog.

The Obama Effect: New Job Trends to Watch in 2009

McLean, Va. - Jobfox, the Internet’s fastest-growing career site, predicts the top Obama-inspired new job trends to watch in 2009. The list includes the job sectors and key professions that are most likely to grow as a result of President-elect Barack Obama’s economic stimulus policies.

McLean, Va. - Jobfox, the Internet’s fastest-growing career site, predicts the top Obama-inspired new job trends to watch in 2009. The list includes the job sectors and key professions that are most likely to grow as a result of President-elect Barack Obama’s economic stimulus policies.
major Obama initiatives, will include:

Initiative: Construction of Roads, Bridges, Transit and Rural Broadband

Key Jobs:

1. Construction managers
2. Project managers
3. Civil engineers
4. Computer-aided drafting specialists
5. Telecommunications engineers

Initiative: Greater Oversight of Financial Markets

Key Jobs:

1. Compliance accountants
2. Internal auditors
3. Tax accountants
4. Government regulators

Initiative: Energy Independence

Key Jobs:

1. Electrical engineers
2. Mechanical engineers
3. Power grid managers
4. Biofuels chemists
5. Sales and marketing

Initiative: Healthcare Modernization

Key Jobs:

1. Nurses
2. Information technology specialists
3. Bioinformatics specialists
4. Information security specialists
5. Software developers

Initiative: Volunteerism and Community Involvement

Key Jobs:

1. Social workers
2. Administrators
3. Translators

“Epic changes are ahead throughout the professional landscape,” said Rob McGovern, CEO of Jobfox. “It’s just like 1991, when we didn’t know the Internet was coming. New job titles will emerge, many of which haven’t been invented yet. Savvy professionals will be prepared to take advantage of new opportunities.”


About Rob McGovern
Jobfox is the inspiration of CEO Rob McGovern, one of the nation’s leading career experts. McGovern is the founder and former CEO of CareerBuilder and the author of “Bring Your ‘A’ Game: The 10 Career Secrets of the High Achiever.”

fastest growing occupations in the USA

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, these are the fastest growing occupations in the USA.

1. Network systems and data communications
2. Personal and home care aides
3. Home health aides
4. Computer software engineers, applications
5. Veterinary technologists and technicians
6. Personal financial advisors
7. Makeup artists, theatrical and performance
8. Medical assistants
9. Veterinarians
10. Substance abuse and behavioral disorder
11. Skin care specialists
12. Financial analysts
13. Social and human service assistants
14. Gaming surveillance officers and gaming
15. Physical therapist assistants
16. Pharmacy technicians
17. Forensic science technicians
18. Dental hygienists
19. Mental health counselors
20. Mental health and substance abuse social
21. Marriage and family therapists
22. Dental assistants
23. Computer systems analysts
24. Database administrators
25. Computer software engineers, systems
26. Gaming and sports book writers and runners
27. Environmental science and protection
28. Manicurists and pedicurists
29. Physical therapists
30. Physician assistants

Source: BLS

Questions that Uncover Talent

Research shows that more than 75% of executives today lack any formal interviewing training. The consequences of weak interview skills are lasting and sometimes unrecognizable until it’s too late. The wrong people get hired, or great talent is overlooked. Utilize these 15 questions to your company’s advantage and hire candidates who are truly right for the job.

Here are some great interviewing questions by my friend Russ Riendeau, Ph.D.
Traditional interview questions oriented around performance, duties and responsibility are important, but the answers often obscure a person's commitment or emotional intelligence required for the job. By asking new questions, you’ll be amazed at what you can find out. The findings can help you make better hiring decisions, lower turnover and significantly reduce hiring costs significantly.
Here are behavioral-based, legal, gender-friendly questions designed to flush out the deeper and more complex behaviors and thinking patterns of a candidate for hire.
1. What question do you have for me right away?
2. What would really surprise me about you? What else?
3. What’s your real motivation to change jobs? No, the real reason (test, re-test)
4. What’s your philosophy on goal setting?
5. What reading material would I find on your coffee table?
6. Tell me a story about when you found yourself in an ethical dilemma and what happened?
7. How did you earn money while in college?
8. How far away from home have you traveled? (Have a map on your desk)
9. Draw me a pie chart showing how you spend an eight-hour day.
10. Are you a curious person? If so, show me an example.
11. What’s your favorite success story? What’s your favorite failure story?
12. What should I have asked you that I haven’t?
13. Do you want to be a millionaire? Why? What are you doing to prepare for it?
14. Are you ready to resign from your job in 5 days? What will your employer do when you quit? What do you think they will say about you after you’ve left?
15. Have you ever created a 30, 60, 90-day strategic plan for your job or a future job? (Well, today’s their lucky day)

-Russ Riendeau , PhD has been in the executive search business since 1985.. He’s written five books in the last 12 years and does public speaking and workshops using live music. He is Senior Partner of The East Wing Search Group. He’s also the co-author of a new book, “The CEO’s Guide to Talent Acquisition.” He can be reached at www.eastwingsearchgroup.com, or 847-381-0977

Create Opportunities From Failures

Many times, regardless of how well we plan, some things just fail. Maybe it’s a webinar or meeting presentation that was well prepared, but suffered technical difficulty. Or a disciplined savings plan lost nearly half of its value in today’s recession. These challenging situations define our days, but our response to them determines our future success.
While some curse and yell, others see failures as opportunities. Poet Maya Angelou writes, “I've learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he or she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.” Failures can either destroy or advance our goals; but it’s our response to them that really determines the outcome.
Thomas Edison experienced repeated failures. His true success was not his invention of the light bulb, but rather his tenacity to use failures as a means to gain new information and new perspectives. Our most successful employees are the ones who have the persistence and optimism to learn from difficulty and use what they learn to re-imagine, recreate and re-experiment. They are the ones who have learned to be positive and to constantly hunt for opportunities. As the economy struggles to recover, successful organizations will reinvent their futures by focusing on these opportunities.
Here are some tips on getting things right, when things start off wrong:
1. Create and support a workplace culture that encourages employees to look for the opportunity in every event.While organizations value effort, innovation and intent, they should also celebrate non-conventional and non-conformist perspectives. Occasional failures show that employees are pushing performance to the edge. As management consultant Tom Peters states, “A day without a screw up is a day without enough reach.” After failures, managers should encourage employees to focus on the positive; this creates a culture that is open, free thinking, and believes that “Yes, we can.”
2. Focus on exponential, not incremental, opportunities. Direct your discussions of opportunities toward significant, not average, results. Performance “lite” is unacceptable. Consider opportunities that have the potential to be “game changers.” Successful organizations know nothing lasts forever, and they must continually reinvent themselves.
3. Commit time and effort to help employees learn their strengths and use them to develop opportunity-thinking.Each of your employees has the potential to be great at certain things. Encourage them to use their intrinsic talents and strengths to deliberatively hunt for opportunities in areas in which they have the greatest insight.
4. Actively solicit input from employees. Leaders who ask “big” questions and take the time to listen to responses can discover new perspectives, facts, ideas and dreams from customers, employees and vendors. Try asking questions that begin with: “How about …?” “What if …?” or “Tell me about …” Assess what you hear and then share it with your team to expand the hunt for opportunities.
5. Share success with everyone. While it’s easy to openly share and celebrate successes, companies should also communicate failures in a way that inspires employees to rethink, redefine and reinvent. The more successes are shared with everyone, and failures are seen as a way to improve, the more idea-risks employees will take.
In an intellectual workplace, innovation, inventing and opportunity hunting must be core expectations of all employees.
Some people are discouraged or angered by failure and change. Others see it as an opportunity for greater success. Not only can the hunt for opportunities increase your success, but it may help you invent the next product that makes people’s lives better.
Jay Forte is a speaker, consultant and nationally ranked thought leader. He applies years of research, along with his training as a CPA, working with organizations that want to successfully activate and inspire exceptional employee performance. Jay is author of the forthcoming book “Fire Up Your Employees and Smoke Your Competition.” For information on keynotes, speaking, consulting or to see the daily "BLOGucation," visit: www.humanetricsllc.com or call: 401-338-3505.

Three Technology Leadership Dangers to Avoid During a Recession

Why do some technology management teams survive recessions and others don’t, even while using the same methods?
According to Don Schmincke, author of High Altitude Leadership “ Mountain climbing teams in the “death zone”--that altitude above 26,000 feet where lack of oxygen makes long-term survival impossible--bear a striking resemblance to management teams. These teams live passionately while confronting challenging odds. Some are deeply humble; others are psychotic narcissists. They come with all levels of competence, from naive wannabes to elite athletes. And when put to the test, they react like all of us: sometimes like heroes, other times self-destructively.

At these extreme altitudes, success or failure is easily measured, and mistakes can kill people. In these elements, we’ve discovered that leaders who survive in the face of extreme challenges do something uniquely different than the rest. They succeed by recognizing and surviving specific dangers. Eight clear dangers emerge when an organization moves to higher levels of performance. Here’s an analysis of three of those dangers.

The Danger of Selfishness
At high altitude, selfishness kills people when teamwork is critically needed to handle injuries, equipment malfunction, limited resources, and weather threats. Similarly, selfishness can kill the change initiatives a business needs to survive recessionary times. Selfishness infects cultures when managers and staff:
• Let their career or personal agendas supersede the organization’s mission.
• Think that being right is more important than collaboration and dialogue.
• Take individual credit for achievements, while blaming others for failures.
• Are unwilling to compromise or seek consensus during conflict.
The damage escalates as new projects take too long to implement and staff talk about real issues outside of meetings instead of inside the meetings. Politicking, or maneuvering for personal gain, can bring down the best of companies. It’s often the driver of denial, avoidance, blindness, or cover-ups all of which are unacceptable in recessionary times.
High altitude leaders are driven not by selfishness, but by a zeal for achieving results. These leaders drive needed changes by inspiring others with a passion for what’s needed.

Is your culture driven by a passionate saga for the strategic changes ahead or do these missions end up as empty words on posters and coffee cups?
The Danger of “Tool Seduction”
In mountaineering, tool seduction endangers climbers every time they dress in the latest gear but apply the wrong techniques to the challenge. In their overconfidence (or naiveté) they can end up stranded on a storm-ravaged slope while experienced climbers relax at base camp and have a beer while watching the storm pass.

Similarly, the danger from a parade of expert consultants packing the latest tools can distract leaders from focusing on vital issues. Such tools can include methods for organizational change, leadership development, process improvement, teambuilding, CRM, ERM, TQM, Re-engineering, and other management methods.

Leaders fail to survive recessions when tools become “safe” answers, or worse, weapons to use against other tools. In critical moments, even the best tools break or fail, resources are lost, or circumstances change. The problem isn’t with what tools you need, but how organizations relate to the tools.
Are your leaders using the tools, or are the tools using your leaders?

Tool seduction can suck productivity and morale out of a corporate culture. It’s wiser to focus on changing the actions and decisions which truly drive high-performance results. During times of economic uncertainty, do your tools allow your company to change decisively, or just clog everyone’s shelves with interesting, but irrelevant, information? Do your tools fuel passion for change, or derail it with useless meetings, lingo, and processes?
The Danger of Cowardice
Cowardice stops both mountaineering and corporate teams from challenging the status quo, holding others accountable and exposing weaknesses. This danger happens as soon as your organization fears taking necessary risks or relinquishes core values during times of trouble. And it hinders decisive action by stopping the essential act necessary to survive a recession--telling the truth. Cowardice eats truth and lack of truth eats profit.

Telling the truth can upset people and cause discomfort, but ultimately it drives accountability to new levels. Keeping the truth at unspeakable levels only produces collateral damage, such as:
• Accumulating dead-weight of marginally performing employees
• Avoiding the real issues and thwarting meaningful change
• Sticking with doomed projects far too long
Selflessness, actions that drive performance and bravery are but a few of the survival tips for dealing with the leadership dangers encountered when taking your organization to a higher altitude. They can be especially important during times of economic uncertainty.”
Don Schmincke, Founder of The SAGA Institute, is a dynamic keynote speaker and co-author of High Altitude Leadership with Chris Warner. Visit www.HighAltitudeLeadership.com for a free team assessment exercise, and to view their remarkable strategic, leadership, and organizational change programs

Successful Innovation Even in this Economy

Many smart business leaders are now trying to plan for changes to continue growing.
Darwin wrote, “It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” The companies that will emerge stronger in 2009 are those that adapt to change by identifying internal and external opportunities for innovation.
Cost cutting is not innovation
Circuit City, Bed Bath & Beyond, The Bombay Company and Sharper Image all failed in 2008. Despite their successful histories, all had stopped innovating, preferring instead to focus on cost cutting and supply chain efficiency. They lost track of customer trends, and customers in turn felt no loyalty to these retailers. Instead they went looking for the cheapest competitor that offered the same, or similar, products. Even the low-cost leader in retail, Wal-Mart, grew only 3% in 2008, continuing its decade-long revenue stagnation trend. Despite low prices, Wal-mart customers are indicating they do not intend to remain long-term customers. They are looking for more innovative retailers to emerge with more new products.
Innovation case study
While Domino’s is a large chain, its franchisees compete one restaurant at a time on individual street corners. In late 2008, Domino’s recognized that continuing the price war and “product of the month” practices in its primary pizza business was destroying results. Cost cutting wasn’t enough for its franchisees to succeed. Competitors such as Little Caesar’s had dropped prices to $5 per pizza, while Pizza Hut had offered steep discounts monthly.
Domino’s looked for a new opportunity and decided on toasted sandwiches. Although this wan an entirely new venture, Domino’s franchisees chose to target Subway’s as their new arch competitor.
Domino’s shifted its focus to sandwiches from pizzas to grow revenues. A radical change in focus like this demonstrates a disruption that overturns the traditional core focus in an attempt to embrace change rather than avoid it.
Domino’s created several franchisee “test beds” in which they tried various product combinations, perfecting what they would later sell. These field tests honed a workable growth vehicle to which all stores could evolve.
Barriers to innovation
To begin the innovation process in your company, consider these common barriers to innovation:
1. Lock-in. “Lock-in” describes an organization’s dogged commitment to business models, products, behaviors, processes and perceived benefits. Lock-in is beneficial because its standard operating procedures create efficiency within a company and drives growth as long as the success formula is working. However, when the market changes, rigid adherence to lock-in will stifle innovation and sink a company.
2. Defend and extend management. This is a practice of defending core values, procedures, services, products and customers, and seeking incremental opportunities to grow by extending those cores. Practitioners of defend and extend management view innovations as threats and are often late to adapt to market changes.
The first step to better results is to recognize what we lock into, how we lock-in and why we cling to defensive management practices. Only the disruption of these practices will lead to an effective turn-around.
Polaroid’s locked-in success formula was selling “instant photography.” The company generated double digit growth and high profits from the late ‘50s to early ‘70s. When the value of instant photos declined--initially due to low-cost one-hour photo processing--Polaroid continued looking for ways to defend its business by making smaller, cheaper cameras and film that processed more quickly. Eventually, Polaroid tried to maintain itself by extending into specialized products such as the “big shot” portrait camera designed just for close-up images, and a large-format camera designed to photograph business documents. These defend and extend actions missed the market shift to fast, cheap film processing which eventually made Polaroid obsolete. Polaroid needed to move to digital photography, where it held several patents, but its lock-in to old products and practices kept it from changing.
4 steps to successful innovation
Successful innovation requires that your company promote and adapt to those things the marketplace rewards. Here’s a four-step strategy to drive innovation within your company and industry:
1. Stop defend and extend strategies. Instead of focusing on core products, core services, core markets, core business practices and core technologies, which seems the natural thing to do, focus on future scenarios. Scenario planning can identify innovations and their future value.
Example: Intel was a memory chip company when leadership developed future scenarios showing that memory chips were headed for low margin price wars. Alternative scenarios identified microprocessors as having far better margins and more competitive advantages.
2. Attack competitors’ lock-in. Focusing on competitors’ lock-in shows how to put them at risk, and it also surfaces your own lock-in situation and how to manage it. You can find new innovations and the incentive to develop them by attacking your competitors’ lock-in. Nothing helps to motivate your team like attacking an arch-nemesis with a new plan.
Example: The small Chicago pasta maker Fould’s realized that the giant corporation New World Pasta was taking over grocer shelves. But New World was locked-in to traditional products and retailers. Fould’s identified an opportunity for low carbohydrate and no-gluten products that New World was ignoring. Switching to these initially smaller but faster growing and higher margin products allowed Fould’s to expand distribution and succeed despite the entry of a mega-player into its traditional market.
3. Create Disruptions. When launching an innovation, it’s critical to create internal disruptions which overturn old lock-ins. Disruptions are not problems caused by market changes. Disruptions are internally generated decisions to attack lock-in and reassess the status quo.
Example: When Louis Gutierrez, then chairman of Kellogg’s, announced he was going to convert the company’s oldest manufacturing plant into an R&D center, everyone realized that the company was changing its competitive positioning from low cost cereal manufacturing toward new products. When Gutierrez said people would be measured on dollars, not volume, employees knew they had to change their behavior. Disruptions energized everyone to rethink how they could create a more profitable Kellogg’s.
4. Create and maintain “white space.” Innovators must have their own place/space and mandate to develop new success formulas, aligned with new market requirements. They must have permission to operate outside of and even violate corporate lock-ins. And they need sufficient resources of manpower and money, even if this means taking some of the budget from the traditional business.
Example: Over the last 25 years, Illinois Tool Works has grown several-fold, while maintaining high profitability, in ostensibly low-margin industrial products markets by constantly opening new projects in new markets. Today ITW has over 700 profitable subsidiaries in dozens of vertical markets using dozens of technologies all over the world.
All companies can adapt to today’s changing markets. Although in tough times the gut reaction may be to “protect the core,” it is innovation which leads to long-term sales growth and higher profits. Those who move quickly to adopt innovation, becoming part of the market shift, will come out stronger and more successful.
-Adam Hartung is president of Spark Partners which helps organizations reinvigorate growth, innovation and breakthrough performance. He is author of the book “Create Marketplace Disruption” and he blogs regularly about how to overcome Lock-in and improve performance at http://www.ThePhoenixPrinciple.com