Category Archives: Hiring Talent

Full Speed Off the Cliff

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From the Ask Tom mailbag –

Question:
I just joined the HR team here, working on a project to identify the complexity of mental processing of our team members. I just wanted to know, is there any effective tool/test available to identify the 4 types of mental processes. Can you please suggest other techniques apart from interviews to identify the 4 processes. I would be required to use this for recruiting and to assess the (CMP) of current employees.

Response:
STOP! You are headed in the wrong direction off a cliff.

I know you think you want to get inside the heads of your employees and have some support for a number (1-4) that you think will be helpful in selecting talent. DON’T PLAY AMATEUR PSYCHOLOGIST! You didn’t take courses in psychology, you don’t have a degree, much less an advanced degree in psychology, you are not certified by your state to practice psychoanalysis. Don’t play amateur psychologist.

Play to your strengths as a manager.

The four states of mental processing (Declarative, Cumulative, Serial, Parallel) can easily be used to determine the Level of Work. That focus will put you on solid ground. What’s the Level of Work? Look at your Role Description. In each Key Result Area (KRA), what’s the Level of Work? What are the decisions to be made in the role? What are the problems to be solved in the role? What are the accountabilities in each KRA? Write those elements into your Role Description.

With the Role Description in hand, create a bank of written interview questions, ten questions for each KRA that will reveal the candidates real experience making those decisions and solving those problems. I know this looks like work, it is. This is managerial work. Don’t play amateur psychologist, play to your strengths, as a manager. It’s all about the work. It’s all about the Levels of Work.

MOR on the Hook

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From the Ask Tom mailbag –

Question:
We are a small organization and most of our production work is technical, defined at Stratum III. Because we are small, and I am the Hiring Manager, in a Stratum IV role, not sure how to implement the Manager-Once-Removed (MOR) in the hiring process?

Response:
The Manager Once Removed in the hiring process is a critical role.

  • Brings perspective and experience to defining the requirements of the role.
  • Truly understands the Level of Work required for success in the role.
  • Will not allow unqualified candidates into the process.
  • Will not allow the Hiring Manager to short-cut elements of the hiring process.
  • Is accountable for the quality of the hiring decision of the Hiring Manager.

Most MORs don’t take this accountability seriously, but this accountability is dead serious. I hold the MOR accountable for the quality of the decision of the Hiring Manager. This changes a number of things. The MOR is ON the hook.

But, where the Hiring Manager is playing a role in the highest layer of the company, who is the Manager Once Removed?

It’s not an insider, look around, there isn’t anyone. In this case, the answer is outside.

Every player needs a coach, including the person playing the role at the top. It’s either a mentor or most likely, a peer group. Most readers are somehow connected to a peer group organization called Vistage/TEC, when I present workshops to those groups, I say “Look to your right, look to your left, the MOR is sitting in this room.”

The dynamic is different. Outsiders cannot be held accountable for decisions made on the inside. But if there is NO ONE in the role on the inside, my next move is to personal mentor or peer group.

It’s a Cakewalk

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From the Ask Tom mailbag –

Question:
I just read your latest newsletter regarding team interviewing. I am a lousy interviewer but trying to get better. I am intrigued by the 50-60 interview questions that need to be prepared as I have a tendency to just wing it.

Do you have a source or listing of that many questions? I’m having a hard time envisioning what a comprehensive list might look like.

Response:
When I first introduce this concept of 50-60 written prepared questions, most interviewers freak out. Looks like a lot of work. No idea where to start? Can I short-cut the work and find the questions online?

The answer is, there is no short-cut. I do NOT have a list you can copy. But, here is the source of the questions.

The template I use to create a Role Description is organized around Key Result Areas (KRAs). When you look at any role, there are tasks that go together, typically related to a single goal or objective. In any role, there are typically 5-8 major goals or objectives, with related tasks in each goal area.

Looks like this –

Role Description
KRA #1
Tasks/Activities
_____________________
_____________________
_____________________
Accountability
_____________________
KRA #2
Tasks/Activities
_____________________
_____________________
_____________________
Accountability
_____________________
KRA #3
Tasks/Activities
_____________________
_____________________
_____________________
Accountability
_____________________
and so on…

Use the Role Description to craft ten questions in each KRA. If you have six KRAs, you will have 60 written prepared questions. It’s a cakewalk.

If you have more questions, register for our Hiring Talent program, next Orientation is Apr 23, 2012. For more information, follow this link.

Benefits of Team Interviewing

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“We have been using a Team approach to hiring,” Byron floated. “What do you think of having Team interviews?”

“How do you find that helpful?” I asked.

“Sometimes a single interview might miss something important. If there is another Hiring Team member in the room, they might catch it,” Byron replied.

“I am all for Interview Teams. But I don’t want to gang up on candidates. Here is the way I like to use Teams.

“Let’s say we put three people on the Interview Team. We have a meeting to decide on what areas we intend to cover during the interview. Some areas will overlap and that’s fine. These will be separate interviews and I would like to know if the candidate tells the same story to similar questions.

“And some of the areas will be different, depending on the Interview Team member. They have different areas of expertise and follow different lines of questions.

“But the most significant reason to work with an Interview Team is to put together the list of 50-60 questions that create the base line for the interview.”

Byron looked a little surprised. We had talked about this number of questions before, but I couldn’t tell if he was a believer. “Fifty or sixty prepared questions?”

“Yes, and that’s only the beginning.”

It’s Not Micro-Management

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“As the Manager Once Removed, what else am I responsible for in this hiring process?” Byron asked.

“Since this hire is two Strata below, and since you are the manager of the Hiring Manager, you are the coach,” I replied.

“Coach?” Byron questioned.

“Yes, coach. How good is Ron at hiring?”

“Well, he doesn’t have that much experience with it, but he has hired people before. I don’t want to micro-manage him.”

“It is not micro-management to sit down with Ron and hammer out the job description. I mean a real job description, one that you can interview from. It’s not micro-management to sit down with Ron and create a list of 50-60 critical questions that need to be asked during the interview. You are the coach. This is your process to drive.”

MOR Drives the Hiring Process

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“So, just exactly what do I do?” asked Byron. He had hired people before, but he had never looked at hiring in exactly this way.

“Your department has an opening two Strata below you. As the Manager Once Removed, it is your responsibility to create the Talent Pool from which the Hiring Manager will select. Creating the Talent Pool means that you drive this process. Every morning, when you are fresh, I expect you to come in and spend a half hour to forty five minutes reviewing resumes. I expect that each day, you will find two or three that you will find an interest in. I expect you to make two or three screening phone calls every day. Once or twice a week, I expect you will actually run across a candidate. If you find only one per week, that is fifty people per year that you might bring in to interview for a supervisor level position.”

“But we have never had fifty people that qualified,” Byron continued to push back.

“Have you ever walked in the woods, stepped over a log that had a snake under it, that you didn’t know about?” I asked.

Byron was one of the sharp light bulbs in the box. “Trick question?” he asked.

“Trick question.”

A Manager’s Most Important Decision

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“But I am busy,” protested Byron. “How am I going to find time to read resumes?”

“Schedule it. You need to be thinking, each and every day about your team and what would happen if any of them needed to make a change. Your most important function as a manager is personnel and recruiting. In fact, if that is all you ever did, was to build a high performance team, and then walked in front of a bus, at your funeral, I would describe you as one of our greatest managers. Because you left behind, a high performing team that could carry on.”

“It’s that important?” Byron tested.

“Top priority. The most important decision every manager makes, whether it’s recruiting or delegating, is ‘who?’ All other decisions are secondary.”
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I call this catch up week. Our current online program, Hiring Talent, kicked off Orientation last week. Still time to catch up. Find out more here.

Time Span is Not Magic

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From the Ask Tom Mailbag –

Question:
Can you give me an example of how you would incorporate Time Span in a Role Description?

Response:
This is not magic. Don’t think of Time Span as something extra in the Role Description. Time Span is simply a part of every description of task assignments and defined goals.

Level of Work
Time Span helps us calibrate the Level of Work, so we can more specifically describe the task assignments and embedded goals. What is the difference between these two descriptions –

  • Project Manager – candidate will be managing all project elements, people, materials, equipment, supplies and supporting vendors for projects three months in length.
  • Project Manager – candidate will be managing all project elements, people, materials, equipment, supplies and supporting vendors for projects eighteen months in length.

The Level of Work in the first description would be Stratum II. This would be a coordinating role, likely assembling project elements from known checklists of personnel, materials, equipment and approved vendors.

The Level of Work in the second description would be Stratum III. This coordination will require the manager to deal with many unknown elements one and half years into the future. There will likely be personnel changes during that time, along with changes in scope, materials with lead times, vendors going out of business, equipment that becomes obsolete, changes in materials pricing. The complexity goes way up and will require a higher level of capability.

Time Span is simply the “by when” of every task assignment or embedded goal. The language we use to communicate task assignments doesn’t change, we just, now, understand the significance of time related to the Level of Work.

Poof, You’re a Manager

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From the Ask Tom Mailbag –

Question:
Hey Tom, I want your opinion on something…Why do the wrong people end up in management/leadership positions? What are the first three reasons that come to mind?

Response:
While it’s fun to poke at dysfunction, especially in managerial positions (just read Dilbert, my favorite), there are shining examples of high performing managers in most organizations. But there are a few stinky ones out there.

Next-in-line – Most teams will eventually lose their manager, either to a promotion, to another company or to trout fishing in Montana. In many cases, that team will end up with the next-in-line. This person may have been a competent assistant, been on the team the longest or simply showed up for work early on the wrong day. Poof – you’re a manager.

Mis-selection – Companies recruiting from the outside often make a poor hiring decision. For the most part, they have no clue about what it takes to be an effective manager. Clueless, they fumble through a stack of resumes, ask the wrong questions during interviews and end up with an empty suit. Poof – you’re a manager.

Skill-set – Many people are perfectly capable to be effective in a managerial role, but have never been trained in specific skills. Being a manager has a great deal to do with “who” you are, yet there are several leadership skills (yes, trainable skills) that must be learned and practiced. Most companies don’t have internal capabilities to teach or coach those skills. Poof – you’re a manager. Good luck.
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This is Orientation week for our online program Hiring Talent. If you want to get in on the fun, please follow this link.

What’s Important in the Interview?

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“Tell me about a time when accuracy was very important. How did you make sure you balanced to the penny? -That’s the question,” I recited. “When you ask that question in an interview, what will you find out related to values?”

Sara was thoughtful. “First, I would learn how the candidate decides that accuracy is important. Accuracy is a nice thing to say, but it’s not an absolute on every project. I could ask – What was it, about that project, that tipped you off, that accuracy was important?”

“And what else would you learn in their response?”

“I could have the person step me through their methods that ensure accuracy. If it’s an inventory count, or a price estimate, their response would tell me what they did, to make sure the numbers were right.”

“How would you make sure they aren’t giving you some memorized textbook answer?” I prodded.

“Because I would ask them for real examples,” Sara insisted. “And more than one. They may have one story cooked up, but when I press for a second and third example, the truth always comes out.”
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We are still in Orientation Week for Hiring Talent. For more information or registration, follow this link.