Our sales team was thoroughly impressed with the assessment instrument and the personal consultation Eric provided.
Posts tagged A-Players
Stop Making Bad Hires: 8 Steps for Improving Any Interview Process
I first realized how unscientific the hiring process was in most companies when I worked as a recruiter in the financial arena. I was placing CFOs, Controllers, and other financial personnel with some highly regarded companies. My clients were very successful senior executives. Yet there hiring process was unstructured and ineffective. They were, of course, very busy people. They would emerge from a meeting and head to the conference room where they were to interview a candidate. Often, they would read the resume as they walked to the interview! Once with the candidate, they would often spend too much time talking and not enough time asking questions and listening. After the interview was completed, they would stop by the office of someone else who had interviewed the person and ask that perennial question: so, what did you think about that guy?
This is no way to run an interview. If you are falling into some of these traps, then consider adding some or all of the steps below to reduce hiring mistakes:
1. Determine an A-Player Profile. In my new book How to Hire A-Players, I ask the question: would you know an A-player if you met one? How so? What would tell you that an individual you currently employee or that someone you are interviewing is an A-player? I know this sounds obvious, but you would be surprised at the lack of clarity within companies about the profile of an ideal candidate. If you don’t know exactly who you are looking for, you and your team will be slow to agree upon and actively pursue the right people.
2. Look for overall patterns of accomplishment. The best way to reduce hiring mistakes in an interview is to get a very clear picture of someone’s overall pattern of accomplishments in their life and career. Then, compare that pattern to your A-Player Profile for the role. Unlike mutual funds, with people past performance is the best indicator of future results.
3. Ask initial screening questions to weed out unqualified people. For example, some roles require that applicants have certain software expertise or industry experience. If you can’t determine this from the resume, ask about these abilities early in a phone screen. If someone does not meet these minimum criteria, they are eliminated and the phone interview is over.
4. Starting with their most recent role, confirm their dates of employment, including both the month and the year. People often fudge these dates – you want to verify them.
5. For each role, ask questions specifically designed to dig into their accomplishments. The best overall question to ask is: Please tell me briefly about the top accomplishments for which you were personally responsible while employed in this role?
6. Ask follow-up questions that keep the candidate talking. These questions include: How did you do that? Why so? Please tell me how you made that happen? What were the most important steps you took to make that happen? Such open-ended questions dig beneath a candidate’s initial, pre-planned answers and programmed responses to find out what he or she really did.
7. Take verbatim notes: I have found that jotting down the word-for-word responses that people provide during interviews is helpful. When you go back and look at your notes, those verbatim quotes will help you to recall the person’s strengths and weaknesses.
8. Score each candidate: Create a scorecard for yourself using the A-Player Profile that you created. Give candidate’s a score for each key area in the profile as well as an overall score. This helps you to objectively compare and contrast the strengths and weaknesses of all the people you interview.
In the end, it is your job as an interviewer to gain a complete picture of the accomplishments, failures, strengths and weaknesses of each person you interview. Then, you compare that picture to your A-player profile for the job. By taking this approach, you uncover more about job candidates than your typical interview and determine the person who best fits the role. The end result will be fewer hiring mistakes and more A-players hired.
Eric Herrenkohl is the author of How to Hire A-Players www.howtohireaplayers.com , being published by John Wiley & Sons April 12, 2010.
Check out Auren Hoffman, Summation, on A-players
Auren Hoffman writes the blog Summation. Take a look at one of his not-so-distant posts on A-players: http://blog.summation.net/2009/10/common-traits-of-aplayers.html
He makes a number of good points, including:
The A-player janitor: As Auren points out, you don’t need a Harvard MBA to qualify as an A-player, and every role in your organization can be filled with a superior performer. So, I would ask you: what is the A-player profile for a janitor? If you were going to hire a truly superior person to fill that role,what results would demonstrate superior performance and A-player status?
Relentlessly resourceful: A-players in general know how to get things done. They don’t settle for results that are easily obtainable with current resources. They leverage what they have and find new ways to achieve results that go beyond what most other people are achieving.
Getting back to people: I think this is a great point – many highly effective people are incredible at following up and following through. They “close the loop” with people. They write a note to say thank you. They get back to others quickly. I wonder if this is not in part driven by the fact that very successful people often recognize that it is relationships and relational capital as much more than technical expertise that creates success.
More good points in this article, worth your time to take a look.
Know Your A-Player Profile
Earl Weaver, former manager of the Baltimore Orioles, has nothing but contempt for modern day baseball philosophy that emphasizes statistical analysis to manage games. Weaver’s philosophy (minus the expletives) is simple: get the strongest players you can and have them hit the ball out of the park. You can read the article from Sports Illustrated, July 13, 2009, here http://bit.ly/7Y5qdI
I recently talked to the president of a marketing business who told me that he wants to double the number of “homerun hitters” that he has in his organization. He wants people who can anticipate problems, see opportunities, and create solutions that serve customers. Another way of saying this is that the most valuable people in his business are those who know how to create solutions for customers and who can lead other employees to be a part of that process.
If you want to increase the number of strong leaders and performers in your company, here are two points to consider:
Every position has a combination of technical skills and behavioral skills required to qualify as an A-Player. What is the A-Player profile for key roles in your company? Don’t assume that people “will know an A-Player when they meet one.” They won’t. Or, worse, every person involved in the hiring process will have a different picture of what it means to be an A-player. Get everyone on the same page regarding this A-Player Profile so you can put on a big push to find and hire the best people.
In addition, not all employees are created equally. You should be investing your time with the A-players you already employ. Keep track of how much time you spend with your A players versus your problem children employees. Don’t spend too much time trying to solve problems for your average to poor performers while neglecting your best people. Your best employees don’t need their hands held. They do need you to provide them with the training and resources necessary to be successful. When you spend your time putting out fires for weaker performers, you do exactly that – spend your time. The only return you get is a resolved problem that should have been taken care of by someone else. However, when you invest your time with A-players, you give your best people the time and attention they need to do their jobs better. They take on even more responsibility and you fulfill one of your priorities – building an organization that has greater capacity to create value for customers and generate strong financial results in the process.
A-Players Want to Have an Impact
A-Players want to make money, yes, but typically they want to do more – they want to leave their mark and have an impact on an organization. They have good ideas. They don’t just want their ideas heard. They want the resources and the freedom to implement those ideas and make a difference.
The New York Times ran an article about a year ago where this dynamic was discussed. People move from Google to Facebook and from Facebook to the “next big thing” because they want to hit it big financially, but also because the vibrant, flexible company they joined has become so huge that they can’t have (or at least don’t think they can have) the impact they once did.
What’s the implication for your business? You have to both be and perceived to be a place where great people can make their mark. A-players don’t want to hide behind bureaucracy. They want direct access to people who can “green light” their projects. They want to be included in your inner circle. They want freedom to try new things.
The time to think about assembling your dream team is now, before the economy heats up. Who are the handful of individuals you want to attract and hire to your business? How can you provide them with the environment they want to give them the money they need and the chance to make a big IMPACT?
See “Another Difficulty for a Microsoft-Yahoo Marriage: Recruiting,” Published: February 4, 2008
Domino’s Pizza and Building a Team of A-Players
Last January, the New York Times ran a great article about building a business by creating a team of A-players (For a Franchise, Success is in the Hiring; January 6, 2008). The article introduces Dave Melton, who owns 5 Domino’s Pizza stores in NYC with total sales of $5 million, has 100 employees – and experiences essentially zero turnover.
This retention rate would be impressive in any business, but the average turnover rate for “limited service restaurants” is 51%. In other words, a similar franchise owner is losing 50 employees every year while Dave Melton loses 1 or 2. How did he do it? Here are some points that I pulled out of this article that are relevant to any business when it comes to finding, hiring, leading, and keeping A-players.
He knows his A-player profile. In my upcoming book How to Hire A-Players, I talk about the importance of understanding the A-player profile for key roles in your business. You can tell Dave Melton understands his A-player profile. He says in this article that he looks for people who “can work quickly and have nice personalities.” My guess is that there are few other things he looks for as well, but don’t dismiss this basic profile. A lot of people have bubbly personalities but can’t get things done. Some people can get things done but are surly. He is looking for the combination.
Focuses on creating a great customer experience. Melton lists the bad behaviors that got some of his early, bad hires fired. They include “arguing with customers, refusing to wear uniforms in the correct way, visiting friends en route to delivering pizza, and failing to show up for work. What do all of these have in common? They all create a bad experience for customers. Let’s face it, the average retail experience in the United States is not impressive. If you can put a staff together that creates a good customer experience (much less an exceptional one), that is going to show up in your customer retention. It’s pretty easy to connect the dots between an exceptional retail staff and customer retention.
Creates an Internal Talent Incubator. You wouldn’t think that a Domino’s Pizza franchise could be a talent incubator, but read this article and you realize that Melton has accomplished it. He starts all his employees as hourly workers who make minimum wage + tips delivering pizzas by bicycle. But they can end up as Store Managers making $70,000 annually.
Shows People a Career Path. Again, you don’t associate the concept of Career Path with working at a place like Domino’s, but Melton realizes that you don’t have to send someone to Wharton to provide them with a career path. Melton and his wife Angie (who helps to run the franchise) encouraged one of their employees to take a New York City food safety certification course to “enhance her credentials.” The employee’s initial reaction? “I was a little skeptical. I don’t like tests. But I took it and I passed. I did well. I got a raise and I got a bonus for passing the test.” (She also got promoted to assistant manager).
Promotes Internally. Melton promotes from within when he has a job opening. When a company can promote good people from its ranks into leadership roles, you know they are doing a great job of hiring the right people, developing them, and keeping them around.
Taps into undervalued pools of talent. The article quotes Zia Shah, 35, a native of Pakistan with a degree in business who came to New York at age 26 looking for more opportunity. He started delivering pizzas for Mr. Melton’s Domino’s franchise and today is a manager of one of his 5 stores. Here is a very sharp, educated guy who was “overeducated” for his initial role but hung on because of the opportunity that was ahead of him. I am sure he was a lot hungrier for opportunity than many of his 26-year-old American peers. Sometimes finding and hiring A-players is like being a value investor in stocks. You have to find people who have been undervalued by the market and give them a chance.
Gets entry-level hires from employee referrals. Today, this Domino’s franchise gets most of its employees from employee referrals. I make the point in How to Hire A-Players that recruiting is just marketing and sales in different garb. We all know that positive word-of-mouth is critical in marketing and sales. The same thing is true in creating a team of A-players. If you hire great people and give them opportunities to succeed and win, they are going to tell their friends! Your job is to get your employees engaged in this A-Player mindset.
Grew his business organically. Melton grew his business from 3 stores to 5 in part because he already had groomed the talent to do so. Show me your business plan for growth over the next 3-5 years, and I will ask you if you are developing the talent today to fuel that growth.
You can find the New York Times article For a Franchise, Success is in the Hiring here:
Do your new salespeople need to have industry experience?
In a down economy, everyone wants to hire perfect candidates: great sales skills, industry experience, and a book of business. If you find that person and can afford them, hire them. Beyond that scenario, keep in mind that you are typically better off hiring someone with great sales skills who does not know your industry vs. hiring someone who has been in your industry but has a weak sales track record. Or, target companies that sell products related to but not competitive with yours. You will attract strong salespeople if they see you and your company as a step up in money, prestige, and opportunity. Figure out how to be the next rung on the career ladder for a pool of strong salespeople, and your recruiting results will improve dramatically.
How an Individual Star Can Become a Powerful Coach
A Boeing executive recently told me about one of the best hires he ever made. Among other things, this individual is a terrific coach. As his boss described, “he knows the right answer 95 percent of the time but spends a majority of his time asking questions, not providing answers. This helps everyone else get engaged in the project and in turn create and contribute their own valuable ideas.”
Performance Principle: The best coaches know most of the answers but focus their time on asking questions. In this economic environment, we need our strongest people to help everyone else on the team produce better results. If your company is like others with which I work, you have several people who could dramatically increase their value if they learned to be better coaches. How does someone with strong individual ability become an effective coach? Here are some steps:
1. You don’t have anything to prove. In your specialty, you are an expert and everyone knows it. Stop trying to impress people with what you know. We are already impressed with you. Use your credibility to be a great coach. People want to learn from you because you’re an expert; take advantage of the opportunity.
2. Ask more questions. The best executives help others to think for themselves. Ask good questions that help people figure out the answers for themselves. If you will start doing more of this, there is no telling how much of a positive impact you will have around your company.
3. Do not be patronizing. If others perceive that you look down on them because you know the answers and they do not, you are dead as a coach. If others sense that you respect their intelligence and ability to work out problems for themselves, they will follow you anywhere. You decide which person you want to be.
4. Document and share your knowledge. The most valuable people in an organization share their knowledge. If you are willing to put some simple explanations and checklists together on key issues and share them with others, you will be a hero around your place.
5. Ask for goals and commitments. Spend the last 15 to 20 minutes of every meeting having people commit to their next actions and completion dates. If you teach people what to do but do not help them set clear deadlines for doing it, you are lecturing not coaching.
6. Follow Up. Please do not believe that one terrific coaching session is enough to improve results. 80% of great coaching is in the follow up. Do not end a coaching session without setting a date and time for your next session. Only follow this step if you want to see people produce better results.
7. Reject reverse delegation. If you follow the points above, do not allow your people to delegate their work back to you. If people have incomplete or flawed work, point out the mistakes and ask them to fix them themselves.
If you follow these steps, you will help everyone around you to become more effective. That is what I call increasing your value.
Simple Steps for Coaching A-Players
Here are three simple steps you can take to retain your A-player employees and get the best results from them:
1. Take time to discuss individual goals. Employees, particularly younger employees, are hungry for mentoring. Taking the time to have lunch with a high-value employee and listen to their goals can help that person feel valued. Make an effort to help that person achieve his or her goals. I have seen this make a big difference in the attitude and morale of key people on a staff.
2. Make people feel like insiders. The best bosses will often call someone into their office to share important information. They make their best employees feel important by sharing important information with them in an appropriate way.
3. Beware trying to be your employees’ buddy. One of the ways to ruin the morale of your staff is to attempt to be their buddy vs. being their boss. People want their boss to act like an adult and take responsibility. If you refuse to do so, your people end up feeling like no one is in charge – and that will always hurt morale.
A-Players are Attracted by High Standards
An executive recently interviewed for and accepted a leadership role with a new company. As part of the interview process, the company required him to go through multiple interviews and a series of leadership and management assessments. The human resource person apologized to this man for how much time the whole process took – she was embarrassed that he had to take most of the day to complete the assessment process. The man’s reply was telling. He said, “Please don’t apologize, I think this assessment process is terrific. It communicates that you are serious about hiring the best leaders you can find for this company.” Far from being put-off by the demanding standards of this company, he was attracted by them and took the job.
If your current process for interviewing and hiring new employees is less than rigorous, you may be concerned that an in-depth, time-consuming interview process will scare off good people. I have found just the opposite to be true. A-players are attracted by high standards. They want to work with other strong, effective people. When you take them through a challenging interview process, they figure that your current employees must be pretty good – otherwise they would never have made it through the process.
Here are five steps for taking your job interview process to the next level:
1. Benchmark the job. When I help companies to improve their interview process, we start by defining success for the position and being specific about the talents and experiences people must have to be successful. If you haven’t defined these factors, you can’t ask good questions in the interview.
2. Create an interview scorecard. Judge every candidate according to the same performance-related criteria. This helps you to avoid the tendency to “fall in love” with a candidate who interviews well but can’t or won’t perform. It also helps you to focus on candidates who may start out the interview process slowly, but in the end have all the characteristics of an A-player.
3. Use multiple interviewers. You will make better hiring decisions if you have the same group of informed people interview every candidate. Include all the interviewers in creating the job benchmark – it will keep you all on the same page when you are making your final hiring decision.
4. Do a post-game analysis. Immediately after an interview, each interviewer should individually score the candidate using the scorecard. Then, the interviewers discuss their scores and come to agreement on the strengths and weaknesses of each candidate. It never fails that one interviewer catches an important point that everyone else missed.
5. Use multiple visits. Have candidates come back for at least a second interview. This gives you an opportunity to see how each person follows up and follows through.
6. Use validated assessment instruments. Good assessments give you insight into people that you will never get from an interview. Incorporate them early enough into the interview process that you can follow up on the results in a second interview.
There is no downside to following these steps every time you need to fill a position. Not only do they help you to avoid hiring mistakes – they help to attract the best people to your company!
I work with companies across the country on implementing this process – if you want more information, just drop me an email or give me a call. I would love to talk with you.
