Management Skills Blog

Greetings from Sacramento.

From the Ask Tom mailbag –

Question:
What do you feel are truly the most effective skills that I need to think about as a new manager?

Response:
Hiring and firing, top of the list. The most important skill for any manager is the ability to select the right team members. This makes all other management skills seem like a walk in the park.

The manager who selects the wrong team members will forever spend time trying to fix the problems that come from hiring mis-steps. And that time spent trying to motivate, coach and correct behavior will be frustrating, life will be miserable.

Take a sports team and put them up against any other team. To pick the team who will win the game, you only have to know the answer to one simple question.

Who is on the team?

Pick the right players and your life as a manager will be wonderful. Hiring and firing, top of the list.

My apologies to Michael Cardus for immediately using a sports analogy after his post yesterday, Sports Teams are not Work Teams. Quite good. Take a look.

Winging my way to Sacramento today, for a workshop tomorrow on the research of Elliott Jaques. Working with Lonnie Martin’s Vistage group.

Our 2012 edition of Hiring Talent kicks off today. This online program is now self-paced, on demand. For more information, follow the Sign-Up link.

This didn’t come from the mailbag, just a real conversation.

Question:
We’re glad that you’re here. We have a candidate down the hall. Our interview team has talked to him and everybody likes him. Can you spend a few minutes and see if you like him, too?

Response:
Sounds like an innocent question. But, no. Whether or not I like a candidate, makes no difference in the selection process. If you want to sit down with a role description and determine what capability, what skills, values and behaviors we need in that role, then you and I can have a conversation. Our conversation will help to craft 50-60 questions to ask the candidate.

But, in the end, I am not accountable for the performance of the selected candidate, it’s the hiring manager. I get to go home, the hiring manager is accountable for the output of the team. Part of that accountability is for the selection of team members.

Doesn’t matter if I like the candidate.

“But, I am not the Hiring Manager. I don’t want to undercut the authority of the other people on the team,” Rene explained.

“I didn’t ask you undercut authority. I asked how you, as a senior manager in the company could bring value to this hiring process, even if you were only asked to be an observer. You observed an ineffective process. In what way could you have improved it?”

“I guess I could have insisted on a Role Description,” Rene replied.

“Exactly, as a member of the hiring team, even an observer, you can insist that a process be followed. How could you possibly be of assistance in a hiring process without an up-to-date Role Description?”

“Okay,” Rene hesitated, “but I am not the Hiring Manager driving this process. I am not even a member of this department.”

“Look, the hiring team thought enough of you to ask for your participation. I am often in the same boat, as an outsider. I have no authority inside the company, but I get invited to help. The best help you can provide is to insist in a defined process and that elements, like writing Role Descriptions, don’t get shortcut.”

“I know you were asked to sit in on the hiring decision, and that you felt you were just an observer in this process, but you still feel responsible for what may turn out to be a poor hiring decision. What could you have done differently?”

Rene searched the corner of the room for an answer. “By the time we got into the interview room, I felt powerless to step in. I was not the prime interviewer, not the Hiring Manager.”

“You are right,” I insisted. “Your role, as an observer could have been much more powerful, much more effective in this process, but only if you had started earlier. Where do you think you should have dug in?”

“Well, I mean, I don’t even think they had a Role Description. How could I have helped, if they didn’t even do the basic groundwork?”

“Indeed,” I smiled. “How could you have helped? What groundwork could you have insisted on? Don’t think that just because you are an observer, you can’t have influence on the quality of this process. What groundwork could you have insisted on?”

Rene was frustrated. “I was asked to sit in on this hiring committee,” she began. “I am not the Hiring Manager, not even the Manager-Once-Removed, but I was asked to be a member of the Hiring Team. We sit with the first candidate, asking questions for about ten minutes, then the Hiring Manager spends 25 minutes talking about what a great company this is.”

“And?” I prompted.

“And the candidate walked out, the Hiring Manager turned to me, said he kind of liked the guy, and wanted to know what I think. I don’t know what to think.”

“You didn’t ask any questions during the interview?”

“No,” Rene replied, gathering her thoughts. “I was just asked to sit in on the decision. I thought I was playing the role of the observer.”

“And what do you think will happen?”

“I think we are going to hire this candidate and we don’t know anything about him.”

“Yet, even though you were the observer, you feel responsible for what may turn out to be a poor hiring decision?”

“Yes!” she responded, shaking her head.

“What could you have done differently, as an observer?”