At some point during the next few days, life will turn from frenetic holiday chaos to moments of family, friends and reflection.
Take a deep breath and exhale completely. The stress will melt away.
It is almost time to rest and renew.
Gather those around you and wish them well. Smile at yourself for you have accomplished much this year. -TF
It’s not the thought that counts. It’s the hug, the squeezed hand, the warm smile, sharing a cup of coffee, dropping by, saying hello, listening.
It’s the card from a friend with a special note, calling to talk about things more important than the weather.
It’s sitting with a family member through a tough time, standing up for someone in their proudest moment.
Sometimes it’s just showing up and being fully present. -TF
“Tell me about your boring meetings,” I asked. Megan and I had been talking about why her meetings were real sleepers.
“Every week, on Monday, we get together and I go over the production runs for the week with all my supervisors. I talk about the problems I know about, like if materials are going to be late or whatever. It takes about 20-30 minutes, but it seems like a real waste of time. It doesn’t prevent any problems and we almost always miss our production goals for the week.”
“Megan, when do you know what your production runs should be?” She looked surprised at the question.
“Well, I know, almost a month in advance from the sales forecast. Sometimes we have last minute special orders, but those are usually small, no big deal.”
“I want you to rearrange your meeting like this. All your supervisors use email, right?” She nodded. “Friday, before the Monday meeting, I want you to email out the total production required for each of the products you have to run. In the email, tell your supervisors to come, on Monday, prepared to report to the rest of the team how they have scheduled their department to meet that production. Tell your purchasing guy to show up and explain what materials will arrive and when. Tell your inventory guy to show up with his list of materials on-hand.
“Tell the team, they have 30 minutes to sort things out, then go around the table asking for short one minute reports. You might have to go around the table more than once. Other than calling on your supervisors to report, you don’t say a thing.”
It was a very different meeting. -TF
“I hate meetings,” said Megan. Her tone was sharp. “They waste so much time and nothing ever gets done. Sometimes, I think my team uses meetings just to catch up on their sleep.”
I nodded. Many people do not see meetings as an important management skill. “Megan, when you work at your desk, do you get one hour’s productivity for every hour you work?”
Megan bit her lip. She was thinking this was a trick question. “I hope so,” she finally replied.
“So, if you work diligently each day for eight hours, you should get eight hours of productivity?”
“Yes,” said Megan.
“Great. Now, here is the problem. To be a successful Manager, each day, in eight hours, you need to produce somewhere between 25-80 hours of productivity.” Megan’s eyes became wide and she sat back in her chair.
“Megan, you have to leverage your time. You cannot afford to get a one-to-one ratio for your time. You have to multiply your efforts. And meetings are one of your most powerful ways to get that leverage.” -TF
This question “Where do you see yourself in five years?” seems to be drawing a lot of fire this week. Susan posted a comment:
Rather than assume that Joann lost control of the interview, look at the approach she was taking. It seems she took the nondirective approach to the interview which allows the candidate to have control. The question asked is justifiable, however, the reliability and validity of the answer is minimal.
Quick recap. I sat in on an interview where the interviewer lost control simply by asking the 5 year question. Susan is suggesting that the question might be appropriate if the interviewer is choosing a nondirective approach to the interview.
The sole purpose of the interview is to capture data (facts) so the interviewer can make a hiring decision. Anything that detracts from that purpose should be seriously questioned and likely discarded from the interview process.
Right now, you are reading this so you can make better hiring decisions. I will guarantee you that, right now, candidates are reading articles to defeat you. Candidates are being coached by headhunters to take control of the interview, so they can tell you only those things that are to their advantage.
Allowing the candidate to take control of the interview is a dramatic waste of your time and pulls you away from your purpose of gathering facts so you can make a better hiring decision. Candidates are being trained to specifically derail you from this process. -TF
“But what about a question looking to the future? Could this reveal their goals and help us understand how to motivate them?” asks Bob in response to yesterdays post. For the past two days, we have been looking at the question –Where do you see yourself in 5 years?-
In our Hiring Talent Workshop, we spend a great deal of time looking at ineffective questions and the 5 year question is at the top of the list. So what about Bob’s interest in learning how to motivate a prospective candidate who is about to become a new hire?
Is motivation a critical issue? Absolutely! So, Bob brings up an important subject.
The problem with the 5 year question is that it calls for speculation. Any question about the future invites the candidate to make stuff up or outright lie. Now, I know that no candidates you interview ever inflate the truth, but I have run across a few that have.
But if motivation is critical, and it is, then I am keenly interested. And if past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior, that will be my focus. And if all motivation springs from interest and passion, here is what my questions sound like.
Tell me about a time when your manager struck gold with you, and tapped into a particular interest that got you revved up on a project. What was the project? What was your interest? What were you passionate about? How did your manager know about your passion for this project? What was the result of the project?
If goals are of interest in the hiring interview, here are my questions.
Tell me about a time when goal-setting played a critical role in the success of a project. What was the project? How were the goals set? Were these personal goals or goals for the team? How often did you review the goals with your manager? What was the result of the project?
These are critical issues, interest, passion and goals. Future questions simply invite candidates to make stuff up. Focus on the past. Past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior . -TF
Joann’s agitation turned into confusion, predictably. “But, every interview I have ever been in, that question was asked.” We had been talking about my reasons for not asking the question -Where do you see yourself in 5 years-.
“Joann, what is the purpose of the interview process?”
“It’s to find out if this is the right person for the job,” she replied.
“Good answer. The purpose of the interview is for you to predict the future behavior of the candidate when they come to work for you. Tell me, what is the best predictor of future behavior?”
Joann thought for a long minute. “Well, we sometimes use a personality assessment.”
“Those are okay, but the best predictor of future behavior, statistically, is past behavior. If you want to know how someone is going to behave when they come to work for you, all you have to do is find out how they have behaved in similar situations in the past. The purpose of the interview is to collect facts about the person’s past behavior.
“The problem with your question about 5 years from now, is that it calls for speculation on the part of the candidate, has nothing to do with facts and is not verifiable. But here is the biggest problem. If you ask that question, you will get a response that you can do nothing with. All it can do is confuse you as an interviewer. In the midst of your fact based data collection, you get this speculative response that has nothing to do past behavior and it actually confuses the interviewer.” -TF
I quietly sat through the interview as an observer. During the debrief after, I fielded the following question, “Well, what did you think?”
I did have a number of thoughts. “At what point did you think you lost control of the interview?”
Joann looked puzzled, “Lost control?” I was silent. “What do you mean, lost control?”
“I was just curious if you noticed. At what point did the candidate begin to ramble and make stuff up?”
“Do you think he was making things up?” Joann asked.
“Oh, without a doubt I said. About two minutes into the interview, you asked him a question, and that is when it started. In fact, the manufactured stories continued through most of the interview.” I could see that Joann was beginning to fume, thinking the candidate had put one over on her. But I continued. “And all this fabrication was at your invitation. Do you remember the question you asked?”
“No.” Joann was definitely agitated.
“You asked him where he thought he would be, professionally, in five years. Anytime you ask a question about the future, you invite the candidate to speculate, fabricate and invent stories that you have no way to verify. It provides you with no useful information.”
I sat quietly. I knew this would take some time to sink in. -TF
“What is the purpose of this interview,” I asked. Morgan struggled for a moment, but some clarity managed to pierce the fog.
“The purpose of the interview is to help me make the right hiring decision.”
“Good,” I continued. “In a sense, you are in the role of the fortune teller. It is your job as a Manager to predict the future. How will this candidate behave when they come to work in your company? So, Morgan, the best predictor of future behavior is what?”
“Past behavior,” blurted Morgan.
“Exactly, the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. All you have to do in the interview is find out about their past job behaviors. If they have a pattern of a behavior in the past, there is a high likelihood they will repeat that behavior when they come to work for you.
“First, determine what behaviors will be necessary for the position you are hiring. Then find out, if that is what they have done before. Once they report for work, you will NOT be able to change their behavior; it already has to be a part of them, their patterns. You are not in the behavior modification business. You are in the behavior selection business.” -TF
From the Ask Tom mailbox.
Question
I was recently promoted to one of our higher volume locations as a supervisor. At first I was excited to show my skills to my new manager. However, I am doing less work and feel I am going backwards instead of forward. My new manager hasn’t had the time to train me and I don’t think I am being taken seriously. My question is, should I move on to another job or just be more patient.
Response
Why are you waiting for your manager to train you? You have to take some initiative here.
Are you responsible for scheduling?
Are you responsible for other associates performance?
Are you responsible for newbie training?
Are you responsible for inventory control – any aspect?
Are you responsible for drawer cash outs?
If your manager is like most managers, they are very busy with what is in front of their face at any given moment, especially during this holiday season. You cannot afford to wait. You may have to learn those skills from another person, from a book, from another manager, mentor or friend at the store. Ask to come in on your own time to sit in with another to learn scheduling or whatever the skill. Show genuine interest in learning. Sure, you may end up “volunteering†three or four hours of your own time, off the clock, but that investment will pay big dividends down the road. You will get those hours back one hundred times over. -TF