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.

Monday, spent the day with a brilliant group in San Francisco, hosted by Lance Gimbal of Gimbal’s Fine Candies (Gourmet Jelly Beans). We spent the day talking about the research of Elliott Jaques and sipping cappuccino (pumpkin) in the conference room at Torani headquarters.

Question:
You talked about the role of the Manager Once Removed (MOR) in the recruiting process, that the MOR should play an active role in assembling a qualified candidate pool for the Hiring Manager to choose from. But what if the Hiring Manager doesn’t like any of the candidates assembled by the MOR, instead, insists on hiring a candidate that failed to pass muster by the MOR. Now aren’t we back to a spitting contest? How does the MOR press the Hiring Manager without escalating a power struggle?

Response:
It takes two people to have a power struggle. It is not the role of the MOR to overpower the Hiring Manager by virtue of pecking order. Rather it is the responsibility of the MOR to bring value to the decisions of the Hiring Manager. Working a candidate pool is not a casual conversation. It is not, “here, I talked to a bunch of people, pick one from these five candidates.”

The conversation between the MOR and Hiring Manager starts much earlier as, together, they draft the role description, discuss the hiring criteria, develop intelligent interview questions and create a decision grid.

This is not a power conversation, but the MOR guiding the Hiring Manager, bringing value to the decision process.

On to Seattle. Working with Tom Leonard’s Vistage groups Tuesday and Wednesday.

Overheard in an interview from a reporter related to the government’s job stimulus efforts.

Reporter – “Will the recent government hiring and job placement incentives cause you to hire more employees?”

Response – “You don’t understand, no employer creates a job in response to a government program or incentive. Employers ONLY create jobs when a role becomes necessary for them to meet market demand.”

Posted from Tucson AZ. Working with Gary Hirsch and his Vistage group on the research of Elliott Jaques.

“There must be more,” Alicia repeated. “If it is NOT Joe’s role to motivate his team members, then how is he supposed to make sure production gets done? I understand it is Joe that will be held accountable for the results of his team. It has to be more than who he picks to be on his team?”

“Yes, there’s more, but would you agree that it matters who Joe selects?”

Alicia nodded, “Yes.”

“And as Joe selects his team, with your help, as Joe’s manager, what are the criteria that he must select for?”

“First, he has to look at their skill set.”

“And can we train those skills that are necessary?” I asked.

“It depends, for some things we want general experience, but we would certainly train on our specific methods,” she replied.

“And what else? Remember, if it is NOT Joe’s job to motivate, what must he interview for?”

“Well, then, they have to be interested. I mean, interested in the kind of work that has to be done.”

“Okay,” my turn to nod. “And tell me, Alicia. If Joe is successful in finding a candidate with a high level of interest in the work we do here, how much time will Joe have to spend motivating his team?”

“Of course, we have a clue,” Ethan was getting defensive. “I’ll know it, when I see it. I always get a good feeling in the first few minutes of the interview.”

“So, you make your decision about a candidate in the first few minutes of the interview?” I asked.

“Well, no, I don’t make my decision, but you can tell pretty quick.”

“What can you tell pretty quick, if you haven’t written the role description?” I pressed.

Ethan knew he was getting backed into a corner. “The ad we place, on Craig’s List, it’s pretty detailed. It’s really close to the job description. I really do have a good idea what I am looking for in the candidate.”

“Okay, let’s say I buy your job posting as a role description. And where the posting is ambiguous, you plan to make that up in the interview. So, let me see your list of prepared questions, that you have going in to the interview?”

Ethan was getting edgy. “Look,” he started, “I don’t even have an interview scheduled, yet. I will make up some questions before I get in the room.”

“Ethan, we started this conversation when you said that it was hard to find good people these days. If you can’t find good people, it’s more about you, as a manager, than the quality of your talent pool. It’s a matter of focus.”

“What do you mean, I haven’t focused on it,” Ethan protested. “I spend a lot of time in between projects, thinking about hiring for this position. I have two ads running right now. Believe it, or not, we have had more than 400 responses.”

“Congratulations, on getting responses to your ad,” I replied. “Almost like you are getting email spam?”

“You got that right!”

“Look, it’s easy to get resumes. But focus on hiring talent takes more than a bunch of resumes. Let me see the role description.”

“We haven’t written that, yet,” Ethan squirmed. “We wrote the ad, and we will write the job description before we actually hire the person. We just want to make sure we have a good fit, before we commit too much in writing.”

“Oh, really?”

“Of course. I mean, you never know who we are going to extend the offer to, and who, in the end, will accept the position. If it’s somebody good, we may want to upgrade the job description.”

“So, you have no clue, who you really need in the role, related to skill set, or Time Span capability?”

“It’s really tough to find good people these days,” Ethan said, exasperated. “You would think, with unemployment as high as it is, that the talent pool would be full.”

“What are you finding in the talent pool?” I asked.

“People who don’t really want to work in the first place, but their unemployment benefits ran out.”

“Oh, really,” I smiled. “You have been watching way too much television.”

“Yes,” Ethan replied, “But still, I need a really good supervisor, not just a mediocre somebody to fill a slot. We have a lot of shifting priorities and I need someone who can run a complicated schedule.”

“You know, I hear your complaint a lot, good times and bad times,” I chided. “If you are having trouble finding good people, it’s because you are not really focused on it.”

“What do you mean?” Ethan defended.

“You spend a lot of time on a bunch of different things, managing this, managing that. And you have not really focused on what it takes to successfully onboard talent.”