Today's Guest: Jerri Rosen, Founder & CEO of Working Wardrobes Jerri’s organization helps over 5,000 men, women, veterans and young adults each year re-enter the workforce with career development services and professional wardrobing. Today we are discussing: The hidden gem that is the veteran pool How to find and hire veterans to diversify your talent pool Why Companies don't actively seek to hire veterans? Bias Think they all have ptsd Not knowing the value of the training that vets get in the military Not knowing the true value Too much bad press  Painting with a brush that is very negative Vets fall on hard times because they miss the discipline/brotherhood Why is this important to the company to hire veterans? Intense loyalty, when treated with dignity Absolutely mission driven Path of a veteran Make outstanding employees Can help recruit -underground network How do we find and hire veteran talent? Decide to hire outside your comfort zone Outstanding, dedicated people Finding Vets Active duty national guard or reserves (highly under employed) Vet spouses,  Military connection through working wardrobes, on your own Vetnet team Interviewing & Hiring  Understand a MOS- military status Translate what was done in the military to civilian language Look past the acronyms Look for the passion & talents  Experience & gravity of the work  Look past the stoic demeanor Recognize that task at hand/orders need to shift to a “going above and beyond” mindset Requires a bit of patience  Hire as normal Understand that everything was provided for them in the military Learning to operate in a very different world & culture Different level of expectations  Rick’s Nuggets Dig deeper on what work was done and look for transferable skills to justify  Key Takeaways: Veterans become a much better employee  Veterans also bring a network of additional talent Looking to hire veterans, WW can be the one stop shop. Hidden Talent Pool! Working Wardrobes is Rebuilding Careers, and we’ve teamed up with Hire Power Radio Show & Podcast to support this initiative.The Hire Power Radio team has created limited edition shirts, the proceeds of which benefit Working Wardrobes. Together we can make a small dent in reeducating, coaching and providing resources for our transitioning veterans, professionals and workers affected by the current world landscape. Get yours here: T-shirts Guest Contact: Website: Working Wardrobes Office Number: 714-210-2460  

Hire Power Radio

The Secret Talent Pool of Hiring Veterans with Jerri Rosen

Local hiring market is now gone!  Guess what! Today, your best people will be hired outside your geographical location. Our guest today: Bradley Clark, Co-Founder & Product Strategy of RecTxt Bradley Clark, who is both a recruitment leader and an actual entrepreneur himself. He’s the Co-Founder of Rectxt, a text recruiting platform, and after a long consulting career working with organizations like Samsung R&D, Boeing Labs, Plenty of Fish, Best Buy, he’s now leading recruitment at Article.  Being on both the front line and talking to a number of companies and recruiters, with COVID and Work from anywhere -  he’s seeing this rapidly emerging trend of where top local talent is getting scooped up from outside the market.  Today we are discussing: Why your local talent pool will continue to dry up How to counter this trend and give your company a competitive edge Challenge today? Candidate experience is consumer behavior. People do have a lot of buying power right now. With remote, you are able to buy anywhere right now. Hiring local talent is now more competitive. Remote work will decimate your local hiring market. Already seeing it happen. Organizations say - work anywhere! Precedence to work anywhere led by tech giants. Why is this important to the company? The best people in your local area, are going to be out of your market Transactional market/process will out bid you! Disrupt smaller markets Local discount is over Rick’s Nuggets Work from home has opened the flood gates Adjust your mindset and start adjusting your processes: Focus on growing your own talent Finding ways to build your own people Making them committed to you Rewards & recognition (your cool office, and office based perks are no longer valuable, mental health is important) Focus on Keeping them Engagement  What the work looks like and the meaning of that work Flexibility & shift to output based Interview process as a promoter rather than a bouncer Mindshift change Rather than no… who do I say yes to? Speed & decisiveness Pre-interview process Understanding what the problem really is that they are trying to solve. What skills are needed to solve that problem Define what the person is really needed to do You need to be able to identify the “what and why” Interview process Focus on the “how & when” Selling the problem, how it is good for them Identify people that want to be a Big fish in a small pond Be decisive Communication Improve both the Speed of communication and keeping an open channel of communication. Get off email, this is why we created Rectxt.  Rick’s Nuggets Whats in it for me (not you) needs to be all you are con Key Takeaways: Understand they’re no longer competing locally for top talent, so they’ll have to change to compete (business can’t be the same as always) Interview well with knowing what you want, then be decisive  if/ when possible grow your own talent, then do everything you can to keep them Guest Contact: LinkedIn: Bradley Clark Website: RecTxt  

Your Local Hiring Market is Going to Disappear! Bradley Clark

Why Hiring through the pandemic is a strong Indicator of a innovative business. “We have all been forced to pivot and now we are weathering the storm”  for most businesses. Our guest today: Jay Connor, Founder & CEO of Learning Ovation Recognized as an early thought leader in collective impact, Joseph A. “Jay” Connor, JD/MBA, is the Founder and Chief Executive of Learning Ovations, Inc.  The mission animating Learning Ovations is to have all students reading at or above grade level by the end of third grade. Jay, a C-suite officer for two separate Fortune 500 corporations, has extensive leadership experience in the business, nonprofit, and public policy arenas. Today we are discussing: Why you should be hiring NOW How to evaluate for the business and skate to the puck Challenge today? Is this company able to adapt and respond? Have a future, capacity to respond to change vs. being changed Higher quality people attracted to the company simply because they are hiring People are open to talking. Not hunkering down during pandemic is a sign that the company will thrive post covid Why is this important to the company? Expanding & growing in the face of problems  Approaches & ways of doing things are more attractive to potential businesses. New approaches are welcome and critical to moving forward in the business. Engagement at the strategic level is more accepted today. Requiring employees/people to expand their knowledge base. We are in the second wave now and you can't be on the sidelines anymore! How do we do it? "Skating to where the puck is going to be." - Wayne Gretzky Force yourself to ask “what is the opportunity” What allows me to be active vs passive? What windows are opening up when the doors are closed? What do we need to do to skate to that puck? Something need to change about what your delivering (product) Or way to change about positioning, branding, communication What to change about your team? Evaluate every person. Where will people have to be 6 months from now. Top down assessment Gives the opportunity to expand & refine Decide to grow the workforce with their PPP Highest risk position is the status quo! Ability to minimize the risk by acting Business as usual is NOT viable! Start hiring for new competencies (what are we missing?) and values & mission focus! Rick’s Nuggets Now is the opportunity to double down and be able to attract strong talent People are open to talking because of the uncertainty Key Takeaways: Never too late to pivot. What is the most likely scenario for my business a year from now. Assume that there is not going to be a quick fix. Position for the worst case scenario! Do an honest appraisal of the team… Including yourself! Will the people you have be good for the business a year from now. Change is tough Guest Contact: Website: Learning Ovation Social Media: LinkedIn  Facebook  Twitter

Jay Connor: Hiring Now is a Strong Indicator of an Innovative Business

Thank you for having me back, but you know the unwritten rule of being on a show three times? What's the unwritten rule? The unwritten rule being on the show three times is I get to ask you questions today. So I'm taking the laptop. So Kelly is hijacking the episode. Is that we're doing? I am. I'm hijacking it because I want to be host today. And I want to ask you questions. I want to find out your thoughts on what we can ask or how we can help hiring managers get better? This sprung off the ever and Dean scenario where you're pro job board and I'm not pro job board. Obviously, I'm pro job board because I've built a business that distributed 40 million jobs a year to different job boards around the world, that was Broadbean. And now what we do is we help companies with their strategy and their tactics to get the most value from every cent they spend on- So you're hijacking my show? I'm hijacking your show. And I want to ask you some questions. We often talk about the benefits of job boards versus not job boards. And I know your historically a search business. So why are you more inclined to look for a candidate or to go and find somebody proactively than spend money on an ad? It depends on the scenario. So I'm biased due to the fact that my searches that we do at my firm tend to be executive hires. And it's a very small targeted amount of people that we're going after. So we target, I've found that the sniper approach works much better than the shotgun approach. Even when I was doing contingency search at the engineering level, I've just been far more effective and made better hires when I've gone out and I've found the person and brought them to the table than when I've farmed somebody off the job board and brought them through the process. And have you ever used job boards? Have you ever spent money on them? Okay. Yeah, I have. It's been a long time. I have not probably in the past 10 years, but back when I was doing contingency search, that's when we had all the job boards. Essentially, we'd get a job. We'd pull off anybody from any sources we can get them to. And it's just a race to get those out to the company before they either find it on their own or somebody else gets it over to them. And that's the business. That's what it came out. In your opinion, you search something that's really only for C level executives or can you use it for any position nowadays? No, you can use it for any position. Search is not necessarily scalable when you have 500 roles that are available for any given time. Then it becomes a question of whether or not you have a really strong interview process. No matter what you're hiring for, you should have a really strong interview process. That way, you're bringing people in that essentially fit your culture. They fit into your values, in your organizational structure, and they can provide impact to your company. It doesn't matter where you find them. We both agree that there's four ways to fill a job. Where you run some form of search, whether that's electronic or manual, you can use a job board or some sort of advert. You can hire an agency and pay them a fee, 15%, 20%, 25% percent. Or you can use a referral. Now, there are nuances within those, but there are about your four kind of headline ways that you find people for your company. And one of the things that most line managers don't get much advice on is asking for referrals. What would you suggest that hiring managers do in terms of maximizing their referrals for jobs? The way in which you ask for referrals is more important than asking referrals. Let me explain. When you reach out to your employees or the people that work for you or people in your network who is good at a particular role or skill set or something to that effect, you can't let them present it. You have to be the one who's contacting that person. I've found that when you put it out to somebody, "Hey Kelly, you know so and so over there, can you reach out to them? Let them know we have this role that we're looking to fill." You're going to call them up and you go, "Hey, are you looking for a job right now? Because I got a friend's company or my company is looking for some people, would like to talk to you about it." Well, somebody is engaged in their current work. They're not going to be looking for a job. I'm not even going to get past that screen. It's going to say, "No, not looking." The worst thing you can do is have your employee reach out to that person and ask them if they're looking for a job. Now, if they make an introduction and you can set up a time to talk to them, then you can get past that screen. You can get to a point where you can talk about what's happening in their current role and see if there's any problems that you can solve for that person in their career, that you might be able to enhance or make better for them at your company. I want to ask you a couple of questions, but since I'm hijacking this show, let's just take a moment. This is Kelly Robinson of Hire Power radio. Just a quick 60 seconds from our sponsors. Sorry about taking over your show here, but I'm having fun here. No, I like how you just turned the tide on me. Just enjoying as we go. Okay. You've been in this business for a long time. Tell me, what is the worst opening line you've heard? You looking for a job? Come on. You must have heard worse than that. No. Normally, I hear, "I have a job..." Yes. "... That I think you'll be perfect for. I found you on LinkedIn and I want to talk to you about it." It's riddled with me, me, me, me, me, I, I, I. The worst openers or anything that they hear a hundred times from everybody else throughout the day. I hear a lot through recruiting groups and pages where people come up with the same version of the, "Hey, I have this. I'm interested in talking to you." Me, me, me, me, me, as opposed to, "What about you?" Everything is a variation of that really bad opener. And you're putting people in a mindset where they're automatically tuning you out. It's automatically negative because you don't give a shit about that person. You just care about filling your job. That's what is perceived. I agree. I think recruiters historically are overworked and undertrained. And they forget the core principle of what we work to. Our job, I think, is to explain to people why they should quit their job and work for our client. And there needs to be a reason why they're working for our client. And it's not because you have a job. But take it even a step further. You have to find out first if somebody has a pain point. You have to understand the person. I say it all the time. You need to have conversations with people. And you almost need to play the role of a bartender or a therapist in the very beginning to understand what the motivations of that person are. Now, if somebody's completely satisfied in their role and they love their company, don't try and recruit them. It's going to be a waste of your time and their time. Don't try and get them to come talk to you, but you can build a relationship. There's going to be a time when they're going to hit their end of their juncture at that company, where they're going to be open to hearing about something that's going to help them enhance their career. And you want to be the first person they think of when that happens. Absolutely. You don't want to put yourself in a position where you're pitching a job and it's just another version of the same thing that they've heard 50 times prior. Let's pick the top three worst openers you're seeing. I can almost say this verbatim. And I've had conversations with people that I've talked to. They're like, "Thank you so much for not pitching your job." It's always, "Hey, I found you on LinkedIn. I think you're perfect for this job that I have at my company. And I'd like to talk to you about this opportunity." Perfect. So whoever's listening, take notes, write that down, and start using that rather than saying- No, don't use it. I said don't ever use it. Well, or use it. You just made my job easier. I'm happy that everybody uses the same version of that. Don't pitch your job, don't pitch your company, and don't pitch yourself. See, I heard you say pitch opportunity. And I'm a big believer that you should pitch opportunity to type. You have to pitch the opportunity, but you need to know where that opportunity lies for that individual. Everybody's different. You can kind of guess for most people that are working in a role, the main complaints tend to be growth. So they're kind of stuck. They can't go any further. Somebody needs to die above them in order for them to move up. Their leadership might have made a change. If you have any of this knowledge of, "Hey, CEO just left this company and they're taking it in a whole new direction," you can guess that there's probably some people over there that aren't really super happy with their leadership. You can craft your message in and around those pain points, so to speak. And then the last one is the content of the work. People get bored with what they're doing. They're not learning anymore. If you can get them to engage with you based on those three criteria, that's a good starting point. But ultimately, I wanted to get you to talk to me about what's happening with you. Then I know how to position my opportunity for you specifically. So what I'm hearing from that is trying to avoid what everybody else is currently doing, which is a LinkedIn message that starts with, "I have a job." Focus on the opportunity, answer the question why somebody should quit their job and work for that organization. But actually, what is the growth opportunity when you get there? So not just, "Here is a position," or "Here is an opportunity to do X, but X can lead to this role." Yeah. You're connecting the dots for people. Okay. They may not even be aware of the fact that they're stuck too. So you're giving them a path to go down. You're not giving anybody a path to go down when you say, "Hey, I found you on LinkedIn. I have a job you're perfect for. I'd like to talk to you about it." And then you start going into inquisition mode where you start really asking questions where you're asking screening questions. Again, I don't think there's anything that turns a person off more than, "Wait, you called me." You start throwing up your own hurdles so that people start pushing you away. And then they're looking for a way to get out of the conversation with you. Yeah, I think that is such a valuable point there. And it also goes to my belief that when you write a job ad, we've had this debate many times, I think job advertising is a really pure form of digital recruitment, but you have to write a job advert and not share a job description. And I think it's exactly the same as what you're talking about is your explaining to people the opportunity, the benefits of working for that business, not just sending out the HR job spec that's been in the system for 10 years. And so if people were to take more time right in their adverts, they'd probably get more relevant response, less of it, but more relevant. And it's exactly the same as what you're suggesting when you present to somebody. Last time we did an episode, a few episodes back, you said, what if you just flip everything upside down, start at the top and then work your way down? Do that with your job description. So your job descriptions, you should completely flip upside down. The normal requirements and all these sections that you have in there, a lot of them are in there for compliance reasons and so you don't get sued. But they're 100% not attractive to really anybody, which is why you get so many people that just go, "Oh, that, okay. I like that title." Click. "I'll just submit my resume." When you actually create a document that's a marketing related document. You're going to get much, much, much better results and higher quality people. So therein lies another coaching point for people listening to this is understand the job description. Ask the questions. What are the opportunity? Where can this person step up? Where can they grow in this role? Questions that just generally don't get asked. We receive a job description, we get one from a line manager, we just take it as read, we don't question it. Ask questions like, "Well, the last person that's in this job, where did they go? What did they do? Did they get promoted? Did they leave? Why did they leave?" Understanding a little bit more so you could match the opportunity to the company to the person. Well, the other thing, too, is that job descriptions don't ever give you an idea of "How will I know I'm going to be successful in this role in three, six, nine, 12 months?" Building performance metrics into the job description for a minimum of three months is ultra critical. Because then you have accountability tool. You agreed you're going to do this, this, and this. And if somebody is not performing what they sign on to to perform, then it becomes a very easy transition out or a very easy reason to keep them. And there's not a lot of thought that's put into that at all. At all. I want to round up me hijacking your show today with one question, because I find this funny, because you've told me about this before. So I'm going to put you on the spot run. Explain to everybody your little car technique. Oh gosh. Unknown secrets are coming out now, folks. As a point of reference, and by the way, I didn't make this up. I think I got this from some training or a mentor that I had years ago. But when you hire people and you want people who are pretty organized, or run a tight ship, you do this little trick. There's lots of little techniques that you go out to lunch with people. So we had always set it up when you come back for your final interview, "Let's go out to lunch." I might say, "Hey, you know what? Would you mind driving?" And so I have the person drive. Well, I'm going to get a really good view of if everything meshes up on what they told me in the interview, based on their automobile. If I'm looking at somebody who is an organized sales person, who's claiming to be super tight and everything else, I can look at their car. And now, if their car is clean in immaculate, maybe it has a couple of things, they're going to run their desk the way they run their car. A clean car means you're going to have a tidy desk, and that person, I've walked into offices and I've looked at desks and I go, "This is the most productive person in here." And they go, "You're right." Just by looking at their desk. The ones who have all stacks all over the place, there are anomalies if they're super productive. But usually, if you're organized, you're going to be more productive than other people. It's quite funny you should say that because my car is immaculate inside and my friends will often make comments about I'm obsessed with keeping my car spotlessly clean. But also my desk has got a set of rules and on my desk, if it's not a right angle, it's absolutely a wrong angle. So everything needs to be at right angles. Everything is [inaudible 00:13:01] same as my car. So I don't know where that puts me on the spectrum, but it will work for me. Thank you for letting me hijack your show. I'm going to give you back your laptop, sir.

Kelly Robinson Hijacks The Show! Worst Messages, Job Descriptions & Accountability

What's your story?  "Well, we are funded by Greylock and we are disrupting a $30 Billion dollar industry. What else do you need to know?"   This is good information to know but it is not your story. I quickly became a very bored audience with this CEO. Ultimately your story is what draws people in and invites us to work with you. When communicating with the people you are needing to hire it is critical that your story inspire them to join.  Our guest today: Stepahanie Paul, Founder & Head of Training & Development of The Executive Storyteller Academy Stephanie takes great pride in coaching developing executives, sales teams, TEDx speakers, Women in leadership and experts of all kinds, to become master communicators.     In fact, her proven approach, "Powerful Emotional Engaging Presentations," draws upon her  years of rich and diverse entertainment experience as well as she is a certified trainer using 5 science based assessments for  behavior and communication using Psychology and Neuroscience.   Today we are discussing: Why communicating your story is so critical from your hiring process through tenure A 3 step method maximizing your communication Communicating effectively during an interview is riddled with assumptions, bias and shallow content. Rarely is communication deliberate and with purpose.  Challenge companies face today? Developing a person to be in more of and executive leadership role Understanding your True Values because your values whether you know them or not depict your behavior and your audience define you by your behavior and actions not by what you say. Many are so busy “doing the task” they have no concept of how you show up in the process of the task! Understanding your Stimulus Value  Checking your behavior before you engage what do you want the audience to do, achieve, react in a certain way?  No one wants to tell you how you show up because everyone just wants to keep the boss happy being open to feedback is the key to a growth mindset Developing lifelong learners for value added leadership that build engagement within themselves and their teams rather than dictators who only drive the bottom line and don’t see the wealth in their people. Great leadership is looking at the possibilities not the limitations and not focusing on your “Power” instead using your energy to empower others to ignite the leadership within themselves. The way you deliver is more important than what you say Come up with a  great question to ask yourself on everything - Mine is “How do I make this more fun and engaging for the audience so they will remember?” Being hyper aware of how you show up and listening and reading your audience effectively Audience will always tell you what they need Energy you chose to bring to the table is super important!  Why is this important to the company? Immediate benefits to the team and individuals include better fits for task assignments and fewer, easier resolved conflicts. You will find these communication tools and understanding this type of developed skill set will also help you grow in your work and as a member of your field as well. The concepts we are talking about here can help you get a better understanding of yourself and your clients’ communication styles and motivations, which will help you more effectively respond to their needs. And because these are cutting edge concepts in the market space, will give you the opportunity to continue to grow as leaders in your industry. How do we do it? Y: In the first component we use a series of assessments to build understanding around stimulus value and the areas of strength and opportunities for growth in the recipient. We then teach successful behavior, memorization and delivery techniques for connecting with an audience O: The overall objective is to teach the recipient effective ways (established in science) to build storytelling, supportive images, stimulating slide decks, and content that is dynamic and influential. U: The last component of “The Y.O.U Method” and the most important is the audience. We work with the recipient of the training to guide them through  effective techniques to read and work with an audience so they develop deep engaging presentations based in our biology and how that works. Rick’s Nuggets Yourself: must be your corporate values The person you are hiring is your audience Key Takeaways: Always check in with where you are at, how you show up is a choice not a reaction to what just happened to you. Make sure that before you start communicating with your audience of 1 or 1001 you are emotionally and energetically where you need to be to achieve the results you want to achieve.. Self leadership is just as important as leading others. Learn to read the behavior or your audience, know how to check in and deeply listen to what they are communicating, research, prepare and listen to their needs and be value added. Make sure that your content supports your message (result)  with powerful emotional images, stories and delivery. Make sure your accessories support you and make you shine rather than become a distraction. Stephanie's resources: I would love for you to become a founding member of our newly formed Facebook Group Executive Storytellers and follow us on Instagram @executivestorytellers Instagram: https://vimeo.com/444640964 Facebook Group: https://vimeo.com/445080878 Here is a discount code to Stephanie's e-book that was released in February “The Why Guide To Story Hacking”  use the Code: HACK4U http://executivestoryteller.com/

Stephanie Paul: The Key to Hiring is Knowing Y.O.U. & Your Audience

But we have unlimited time off! Why would anyone not want to join a company with such a progressive time off schedule? Asked founder Sanjeev.  Two reasons, One PTO is a perk not a reason for joining a company. People will join and stay at your company when they believe in your vision and experience professional growth.  And Two, your company is a start up. No one is going to believe that with the aggressive production cycles that they can just take off and take advantage of this policy.  Our guest today: Adam Gordon & Ulises Orozco, Co-Founders of PTO Genius With over 30 years of HR tech experience and a focus on employee benefits and leave management. Adam & Ulises are serial entrepreneurs who founded PTO Genius to help companies increase job satisfaction, attract/retain top talent and lower payroll liability by re-imagining what employees can do with paid time off. Today we discuss: The pros & cons of Paid time off structures How to implement the right structure for your unique company Challenge today with Paid Time Off? Potential liability for the company because it creates an environment where not self managed, managed like a traditional policy. Too dependent on the individual manager approval. Using unlimited as a marketing tool. But there really is no unlimited Creates more legal liability People either don't take time off or too much time off The bedrock to unlimited PTO is good culture. The bedrock of trust which can NOT be managed by managers.  Why is this important to the company? Culture Trust Mutual respect Accountability Unlimited PTO looks desirable to avoid the liability of the employment contract Avoid the management  Payout at the end of employment Rick’s Nuggets PTO is not a reason why people join your organization How PTO is managed/supported is a snapshot of your leadership style (which is the root of why people stay or leave your company) Benefits & perks are icing not the cake. How do we do implement the right PTO policy? Questions to Ask First: Can we trust our employees? Do I want to give managers the authority to manage when people are away? Starts with leadership and how you value the employee Communication- transparency Being Vulnerable as leaders Start with the right culture. Most startups should start with a traditional PTO model Better to keep yourself out of a legal liability.  Can't eat the cost of litigation Employees with unlimited PTO end up taking fewer vacation days than their limited PTO counterparts (13 days versus 15 days).  SHRM source link HERE If you want to implement an unlimited PTO policy Ask yourself if you are really built for it? Don't call it a “unlimited” policy but a “Self Directed” PTO Document the policy Define non starters- set up bumpers Manage that everyone has access to time off Encourage time off Creative time off incentives Assignment & tracking should be no disruption to workflow Set up a calendar where people know when people are off Hand off before someone goes away Rick’s Nuggets Look at your company values and align your PTO policy with that which aligns with your leadership style Key Takeaways: Unlimited policy- do you meet the above criteria. Is it truly self directed? Proactive hand offs Guest Contacts: Website: PTO Genius Email: hello@ptogenius.com LinkedIn: Adam Gordon or Ulises Orozco Twitter: Adam Gordon or Ulises Orozco

Adam Gordon & Ulises Orozco: Unlimited PTO…  The Pretend Time Off

“I want to work with really smart people and here is a list of schools that this person will have graduated from” said Lawrence, the CEO. “I do not want to interview anyone who has not come out of one of these schools”. My gut reaction was to simply say, “no thanks” and exit the meeting. Afterall, this CEO was going to be difficult to work with.  My response back was simply “Confirmation Bias”  We favor information that confirms our world view and this helps us to reduce any cognitive discomfort that discounts our values and realities. As Entrepreneurs, we are more susceptible to this bias because we are so focused on the task at hand. This reduces our ability to objectively make decisions that are best for the business.  Lawrence laughed, grabbed the sheet of paper and threw it in the trash. “Ok find me smart people”!  The truth is the strongest people often surface in the most unexpected ways and your bias clouds your vision of the truth! Our guest today: Bruce Marable, Co-founder & CEO of Employee Cycle, the all-in-one People Dashboard Bruce is a Philly-based serial tech startup founder. When Bruce is not helping HR leaders better use data to make smarter workforce decisions, he is making music playlists on Spotify, taking self-care at the boxing gym, or hunting for the best bread pudding around town.    Today we discuss: Why Bias needs to be eliminated from your hiring process How to deliver an unbiased, evidence based interview Challenge today? According to Wikipedia, Bias is defined as a disproportionate weight in favor of or against an idea or thing, usually in a way that is closed-minded, prejudicial, or unfair. We all have bias. It is important to eliminate it for one simple reason… Your company’s success Why is bias elimination important to the company? More diverse companies succeed More revenue Higher productivity Cannot properly market to diverse groups of people/customers Totally different backgrounds bring different ideas  More diverse individuals create more self awareness, well rounded thought process Disabilities Sexual orientation Ethnicity Ageism Re entering workforce Incarcerated Parenting  Rick’s Nuggets Innate Biases Overconfidence: Subjective confidence in ideas or decisions Illusion of control: overestimate ability to control situation or outcome Anchoring/Adjustment: past experience predicts plans for future Confirmation: preexisting beliefs- devalue contradictory information  Cognitive tunnel vision Curse of Knowledge : experts assume similar content understanding in others Optimism: See the positive outcomes… delusional optimism How do we solve the bias issue? Mindset Open to People who are different Everyone is on equal footing Allow people come in as being perceived as qualified Vs. unqualified Reinforce that they are qualified  Eliminate your assumptions- college degree Actions Recruit from a diverse pool of job candidates Remove all language in job descriptions that may have bias. Standardize the interview questions. Perform the same due diligence on all candidates whether that candidate is a referral or not Give all candidates the same level of respect  Blind the resume process Remove bias from likability Rick’s Nuggets Customer experience mindset - applicants are your customers More difficult to say No than yes Conduct a qualifying call with most Interview questions Pre-determined and assigned to the individual interviewer according to the order in which they participate Must gather evidence to support the decision either way Feedback & closure Key Takeaways: Acknowledge confirmation bias. Review the language in your job descriptions Standardize your interview questions Guest Contact: LinkedIn  or Twitter  

Bruce Marable: Removing Bias in the Hiring Process

  Key Points for Episode: Timeline for Video Interviews - 72 hours  1- 45 minutes  2- 45 minutes 3- 45 minutes 4- 45 - 60 minutes   Decision  - 24 hours from Final Interview    You must have your questions pre-written and assigned to the individual Interviewer Questions designed to gain evidence of cultural alignment   ** DO NOT just pick random behavioral questions!  They must have purpose and be tied to your company values!   Behavioral Questions  Follow up each question with the “How & What” The purpose of each interview is to get to the “truth” of who this person is and how they align with company core values. Our goal with each question is to find hard evidence one way or the other. Past performance is a key indicator of future performance. We are going granular to understand the core of who this person is to fill your gut with accurate information to make the correct decision.    The Behavioral Interview: The simplest way to learn the behavioral model is to use STAR methodology. Let each interviewee outline the Situation & Task first. This is just the background of the story that you need to know to make the story make sense. Clear context! Look for difficulty, complexity or size of the challenge. What was the person trying to accomplish and why?   Approach: This is where we focus on the actions taken to address the issue, complete a task, solve a problem or improve the situation. We focus on the WHY here!  Focus in on this area the most and poke holes in the answers.  Each answer needs to be tested and must be followed up with why. Look for Key details and explore them!  Why did you take that approach?  Why was that important? Why did that work?   Results: What is the positive outcome for the story? What were the issues? Where did they fail? We are looking for tangible, supported evidence.  Video Interviews (Same Day Ideal)  Ideal to line up back to back Schedule back to back or split them up 2/2 or 3/1 Build a knockout question for each interviewer   Interview 1 - Cultural Value Alignment I Interview 2 - Skills Screen  Live working session to evaluate skills/communication Interview 3 - Cultural Value Alignment II (optional) 24 hours from interview 2 Final Interview - Cultural Confirmation III & Offer preparation (Decision Maker)     Decision / Offer (24 hours max) Best to give immediate feedback Time kills hires, be decisive Role Play   Interview Questions Walk me through the steps you took to prepare for your last project / client presentation (preparation) What made those steps the most efficient? How did you do it specifically? Timeline set? Potential Challenges identified and how were they prioritized for consideration? What were the things you missed? What was the result? Why was this important to you?   **Give me an example of something you tried that failed miserably (keep light & fun) (innovate without fear) What were the circumstances that justified the risk How was it implemented? What was the potential upside if it worked?  What was missing? What would you have done differently?  Why did it fail? What did you learn?   Tell me about a time when it was necessary to admit to others that you had made a mistake. (accountability) What was the specific mistake How did you identify the mistake? How did you handle it?  Why did you choose that particular approach? What was the lesson learned?   What did you do differently going forward?    Tell me about the last project you worked on where you were major time constraints  (own it/quality effort) What steps did you take to ensure quality? What  shortcuts were taken? What mistakes were made How did the client receive the work? 

The Most Effective Video Interview Structure: The Interview Part III

We are now remote.  And we are learning so much about what it takes to keep your people engaged and productive. The balance between communication and micromanagement is often the Biggest challenge.    Here’s what we’ve learned: Consistent communication with ultra flexibility is working. Encouragement to take care of yourself first: ie: a walk, bike ride or step away is increasing productivity. Virtual happy hours are helping to forge team comradery.    Our guests today: Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey, Founders of the world's top wine brand, Barefoot Wines   Beginning with virtually no money and no wine industry experience, they employed innovative ideas to overcome obstacles, create new markets and forge strategic alliances. Michael & Bonnie pioneered Worthy Cause Marketing and performance-based compensation. They built an internationally bestselling brand and as a result were acquired by E&J Gallo.  Today, they offer their Guiding Principles for Success (GPS) & Shelf Smarts courses to help consumer product brand builders achieve success by maximizing the value of their human resources.    Today we are discussing: Virtual challenges today How to build company culture to an off premise workforce Off Premise challenge today? Disengagement Not routine Physical commitment Daily encouragement Why is this important to the company? Two biggest hidden costs in every business!  Reduce turnover Increase engagement Good people transform to great people through growth Improve skill sets & relationships Allow people to do the work they like to do and not do. Allow them to create their own roles.  Rick’s Nuggets Accountability & Productivity Remote causes you to really put your business under the microscope Cost of a Bad hire is 30% of individuals earnings (US Dept of Labor) Does not include Morale & Productivity loss costs How do we do it? Find good people & build great people ***** Keep people from being isolated (Team based) Culture of permission - make mistakes right. Don't hide mistakes. Hiring tactics?   Overkilling Orientation Over educate Money map About understanding how the money flows to get to your paycheck 2 division company Getting into the cause & effect of the business Sales & Sales support Include people in the solutions Everyone asked to contribute their ideas Footsteps to the wine in stores from the receptionist! (recognition) Throw problems out on the table and allow people to contribute Promote the idea that everyone has a voice Rick’s Nuggets Finding good people requires work & a lot of conversations Creative ways to encourage engagement  Virtual happy hour Key Takeaways: You have a responsibility to improve your hires. Find their talents and expand upon them All companies have 2 divisions- sales & sales support All salaries start from the community not from the company! Find Bonnie & Michael here: Business Audio Theatre Linkedin  Websites: www.thebarefootspirit.com & www.consumerbrandbuilders.com

Bonnie Harvey & Michael Houlihan: Finding & Building Great People in an Off Premise Work Environment

High performing individuals come in every flavor. They can not be identified by looking at a resume! They can only be discovered by understanding who the person is,  the values they hold dear and the track record of the impact they have made in the past. Every day, your company loses money when you allow personal bias to influence your hiring decisions without proper evidence. Quite often, the strongest hire is not the person you envisioned for the role.  Our guest today: Kelly Robinson, CEO of RedDotMedia. He founded Broadbean.com Inc 2001, which was acquired by CareerBuilder in 2014. Now he lead RedDot Media, recruitment advertising agency with a particular skill in programmatic advertising campaigns. Kelly has spent the last 25 years in recruitment and recruitment technology, during which time he has grown, integrated, bought, and sold businesses in both the UK and US.  Today we are discussing: Why you need to consider hiring people over 45+ How to value wisdom & hire modern elders Why don’t employers hire older people? The person they are hiring probably has more experience than they do. Oh, why would he want to work for me, They have done my job for 20 years! They don’t have the right degree. Younger workers are better because:  They have more energy. They're more tech savvy. They're more willing to give discretionary effort. They'll work for us for the next 30 years. They have less health problems. The reality is younger workers have just as many problems as older workers. Older workers are better because: They don't have kids pulling them constantly off their game (Uh oh! Parent bias!) While possibly not as tech savvy, they have experience in getting things done in different ways and they won't panic when the internet goes down for 15 minutes. They grew up in a time when work life balance meant you worked until the job was done. They're willing to by loyal to you for the next 7-10 years, which is more loyalty than you'll get from anyone else you hire. Older workers statistically don't miss work more than younger workers. In the next few years, 35% of our workforce will be 50 or older. And 8% of them—about 13 million workers—will be 65 or older. It’s hard to finance a 30-year retirement with a 40-year career - Chip Conley (Airbnb 52)  The average duration of unemployment for older job seekers has dropped sharply since 2012 (though still long); it’s down from roughly 50 weeks to 34 weeks for job hunters age 55 to 64. In other words, it now typically takes about seven to eight months to find a job if you’re over 55. About 29% of job seekers 55+ are considered long-term unemployed (looking for work for 27 weeks or more); while that’s still high, it’s down dramatically from roughly 45% in 2014 AARP surveyed 3,900 people age 45 and older, 61% said they’ve personally seen or experienced age discrimination. Among those who’ve applied for a job in the past two years, 44% were asked for potentially job-losing age-related information such as birth dates and graduation years It’s almost an acceptable bias.  Why is this important to your company? Older workers may be better because: They don't have kids pulling them constantly off their game (Uh oh! Parent bias!) While possibly not as tech savvy, they have experience in getting things done in different ways and they won't panic when the internet goes down for 15 minutes. They grew up in a time when work life balance meant you worked until the job was done. They're willing to by loyal to you for the next 7-10 years, which is more loyalty than you'll get from anyone else you hire. We all miss work for stuff. Older workers statistically don't miss work more than younger workers. The fastest-growing age demographic of employees in the workplace is 65 and older, which has experienced a 35% jump in numbers over the past half-decade. In the next few years, 35% of our workforce will be 50 or older. And 8% of them—about 13 million workers—will be 65 or older. According the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics, 22.2 percent of the workforce is 55 years old and over! Research from the National Council on Aging has shown that modern elders have lower absentee and turnover rates than younger workers. Ultimately, age will be less of a factor. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that those ages 65 and over will experience the fastest rates of labor force growth by 2024. Many people who reach retirement age now are often healthy enough to run marathons, build houses  Rick’s Nuggets You can NOT tell if someone is good for your company via a resume! Anyone who says otherwise is delusional  Recruiters/hiring managers filter people out Ageism Overqualified Too expensive from a benefits perspective Not technically aware- can't learn new skills (stereotyping!)  Not the right educational experience Not a cultural fit (fitting in with people in their 20’s) How do we do it?   Start valuing wisdom Appreciate that you have no choice   Promote diversity & inclusion… which includes AGE D&I increases innovation Productivity Demand that those responsible for recruiting Talk to people everyone who is reasonably close Eliminate educational barriers Anyone over 5 years experience, ignore the educational background Develop a phone screen process to gather evidence of success  Judge viability by gathering accurate data Take notes 

Kelly Robinson: Modern Elders Are The Secret Untapped Pool of Talent

Not having a clearly defined corporate culture document is a recipe for failure. Why? The culture document is a business plan for how your people are expected to behave, interact and resolve conflict. It is your saving grace when things go sideways! You must provide a clear and accurate picture to everyone you interview about the good, the bad and the ugly of the organization and the expectations of behaviors that result in success in their role.  Our guest today: Jeff Wald, CoFounder & President of WorkMarket Jeff Wald is the Founder of Work Market, an enterprise software platform that enables companies to manage freelancers (recently acquired by ADP). He also founded several other technology companies, including Spinback, a social sharing platform (purchased by salesforce.com).  Jeff is an active angel investor and startup advisor, as well as serving on numerous public and private Boards of Directors. He also formerly served as an officer in the Auxiliary Unit of the New York Police Department. Jeff is the author of The Birthday Rules and The End of Jobs: The Rise of On-Demand Workers and Agile Corporations. Jeff frequently speaks at conferences and in media on startups and labor issues. He is an expert at building cultures that thrive. Today we are discussing: Why it is critical to have a culture document The three steps to building your own culture doc  Why does a company need to have a culture document? Not very clear about the culture of the company First stages you hire the people that you know First months/years are the most difficult Very difficult to make sure you work well together When you exhaust your talent pool/first level network Then you branch out Do people really understand the nature of being at a startup? Terrible hire / fit amazing person, really a vanity hire Understand how to be resource constrained Amazing person, disastrous fit Why is this important to the company Resource allocation problem Few dollars, time End up giving a longer rope so the failure impact is that much greater Cost the company Millions of dollars- spending power, budget How do we do it?   You should not hire quick at the executive level They need time to succeed Creating a culture Document Start with your values 6-8 core values of the company Different to everyone Be clear with what it is you believe Who you are (mission statement), where you are going (North Star) & why you are there (purpose) Needs to be super clear to EVERYONE in the organization (repeat it again and again...when people start complaining about hearing it too often, you are halfway there!) Behaviors & Policies Behaviors to support the values How we run our business How you hold meetings, how you promote, how you do business with clients, how you communicate, how you make decisions, your social events, etc.,  all have to support your values, otherwise what's the point of having values? People What are the behaviors that everyone at the company should strive for?  Do we want people constantly learning and growing, or just doing their job well and going home?  Are they questioning things, or just rowing when told to row?  How do they disagree with a decision? What do we expect from our managers?  Are the efficiency drivers or coaches?  Are they transparent?  How do they give feedback? Key Takeaways: A culture document brings clarity to you and your team Repeat it again and again, because your team has to know it Use the document as hiring and promotion guide Guest Contacts: LinkedIn  Twitter Book: The End of Jobs: The Rise of On-Demand Workers and Agile Corporations (Amazon)

Jeff Wald: Best Building A Cultural Document Tips You Will Hear This Year!

Marketing and hiring are far too often major failure points because they are started too late. The right time to start marketing is before you launch your product. Just as the right time to hire is before you feel the pain of needing the work to be done. It is never too soon to to proactively start your marketing or hiring process. The key to not failing is having the structure in place before you feel the pain! Our guest today: Andrew Miller, CEO of GrowthExpertz  Andrew is a Startup Marketer who's been traveling the world working with early-stage companies. After driving growth for 3 multimillion-dollar startup exits, including a 500startups project in San Francisco, he founded GrowthExpertz.  Andrew's specialty lies in helping companies scale efficiently in the early-stages with both growth coaching and remote consultancy.  He’s written for INC magazine, StartupGrind, and StartupNation. Andrew is also a prolific #DigitalNomad who in the last decade has visited, lived, and worked from over 70 countries.  Today we are discussing The right time to start marketing efforts How to kick off marketing for both product and people When should a startup start marketing? Start marketing right now Pre launch, start building a strategy Landing pages, call to action Even still in stealth mode Coming soon, gathering prelaunch beta email list Why is this important? Prioritize marketing too late Show investors that you have traction Do things that don't scale in the beginning Marketing drives your launch Launch with an email list  Bootstrap marketing- drive organic traffic during the early stage of the business. Before launch Rick’s Nuggets Marketing directly leads into hiring How do we implement marketing & when? Online presence- marketing foundation Create landing pages, website,  Social media pages Analytics Start organic marketing  Organic marketing channels PR - start creating relationships with podcast,  Create content with call to action Build to 500 emails of beta testers & followers pre launch Launch product  Create press release, go live Scale the marketing strategies that work Go into launch with traffic Be able to go into investors with relevant data Rick’s Nuggets With hiring: Identify target hires Have conversations, network Gain buy in to win the hire             Key Takeaways: Prioritize foundational marketing early in the game  Greenlight your organic marketing before the product launch Know your kpi’s, analytics Guest Contact: GrowthExpertz - For Funded Startups Andrewstartups.com or Instagram - For Bootstrapped Startups 

Andrew Lee Miller: Startups Fail Due to Lack of Prioritizing Marketing (& Hiring) Soon Enough

Ever finished an interview with a great person and just felt unsure or maybe you need more data to make the decision either way? This all too common scenario is caused by a poorly executed interview process and not asking intentional questions designed to gain the evidence to support a decision either way. Today we will be discussing how to avoid the pitfalls of this conundrum when hiring for your company. Our guest today: Steve Pfrenzinger   CEO & Head Peformance Coach of Pfrenzinger Agency, Inc. Steve Pfrenzinger is an entrepreneur, a coach to entrepreneurs and a Hall of Fame investor in entrepreneurs.  He’s also an author, speaker, and Self-Awareness expert helping entrepreneurs, innovators and change agents solve big problems. Steve is also a Forbes Coaches Council member.   Using his decades of experience building multiple 8-figure businesses, where he hired over 1,000 team members,  Steve has helped hundreds of clients make better decisions, plus expose their career and business blind spots that can clear their path to success.  Today we are discussing Why gathering evidence is critical to support your decision What Steps need to be taken to avoid this conundrum  Why is gathering deep evidence important You have found a very good candidate, but you are just a little unsure, you want one more data point E.G., 3 said yes and one said no or “not sure”. then what? Finding out how people are “wired mentally” in DISC or Myers & Briggs might impact the decision  Why is this important Personality type is a predictor of future behavior and key to major hiring decisions Knowing one’s “preferences” is key, how they “lean” in certain situations, e.g., Thinker vs Feeler  Ask Steve to define a “preference”  4 elements to the personality Compare DISC styles to Myers & Briggs types.  Cheat sheet below.  If you know one, you know the other.  If you know neither, you need to find out.  D = ET   (Dominance = Extroverted Thinker) I = EF   (Influence = Extroverted Feeler) S = IF    (Stability = Introverted Feeler) C = IT    (Consciousness = Introverted Thinker) Rick’s Nuggets Interview questions need to be intentional Digging deeper uncovers the truth…. How & Why? Must avoid injecting your own personal bias/agenda How do we do it? Ask them for their DISC style or M&B type Have them take a test at www.16personalities.com Fast type them with Steve’s 2-page form, uses easy-to-learn computer metaphor Fast typing form, Steve has one for all that ask.  Contact him at steve@stevepfrenzinger.com What is Fast Typing? PIPO  model Power Imput Process  Output Rick’s Nuggets Proper sequence: Interview => Assessment => Interview close Assessments often done too soon Key Takeaways:  Personality Type and the behavioral preferences (tendencies) it highlights can further insure the success of key hires.   You can fast type others without a formal test in minutes, with the PIPO fast typing form Check steve out at www.coachstevep.com or email him at steve@stevepfrenzinger.com He has many coaching and educational programs for executives and management teams, from entrepreneurial ventures to major corporations.  

Steve Pfrenzinger: Trouble Pulling the Trigger on the Hire

Why you need to hire trusted talent to build and scale your startup. Referrals are still the strongest way to stack the deck with talent for your organization. But you cannot shortcut the interview process. Just because a person worked well in another organization does not mean they will be successful at yours. Diligence in gathering evidence of value, growth and cultural alignment must be gathered to avoid making a bad hire.   Our guest today:AJ Bruno, CEO and Co-founder of Quota Path.  AJ leads the QuotaPath team as CEO & Co-Founder. Prior to QuotaPath, AJ spent 6 years at TrendKite, the company he founded and was president of in Austin Texas.  At TrendKite, AJ led the go-to-market and sales strategy/execution and took that team from initial product inception through $20+ million ARR and 250+ employees. TrendKite was acquired by the public company Cision for $225 million in January 2019.    AJ is religious about vetting and hiring talent and has made over 300 hires in his career   Today we discuss Why trusted talent is the best option to build and scale your startup.  What to do when you don't have a strong network The steps to take to hire through referrals:  Why is hiring “trusted talent” the best route   Look into your own network of people you have previously worked with or go to a trusted source to help build the team you need to take you to the next level.   Why is this important Avoid running into bad hires    How do we do it?   Reverse engineer your network Looking for trust and loyalty A lot of back channeling (connect with at least 5 people)      If you know the person?   He needs to justify why for both parties     In the Interview process   Disqualification questions- do you know who Elon Musk is? Tie questions to the importance of the role   Rick’s Nuggets Knock out questions  Provide a growth path to avoid a transactional experience Key Takeaways:    Backchannel with at least 3 references if the hire is very strategic (the first hire in their position or respective position) Create a consistent process (with knockout questions or frameworks) if it will be a hire you will make multiple times (sales reps). Ensure that the person is sold on working with you and learning from you as much as possible if it is a strategic hire.    

AJ Bruno: Hiring Trusted Talent

Will a subject matter expert be a better solution to hiring a leader for your company? We can all agree that there are different types of leaders. I am going to contend that the wiring of the leader you are hiring is more important than the pedigree that is brought to the table.  Our guest today: Ed Tyson, CEO of PerSynergy Consulting. Ed Tyson is the chief executive officer of PerSynergy Consulting, architect of LeadershipSOPs, author of From Expert to Executive: Mastering the ABCs SOPS of Leading, and executive coach and consultant to both small niche brands and Fortune 500 companies. With a mastery of leadership refined throughout his years as a Marine, executive, coach and consultant, Ed guides executives, to key findings he has learned through intimate connections with a diverse array of leaders. Today we are discussing How to identify the right leader for your startup What steps you should take to build the right job description to find the best candidate to fill this position  What questions you should ask to ensure your candidate is the best fit for the job Why not hire a leader in your startup?  I think we can all agree…  ...leaders have a tremendous impact on your culture and process. The smaller the team, the larger the impact of each individual but particularly each leader. Deciding to add your next leader could either be that decision which propels you forward or sets you back. Leaders are more expensive and more capable of damaging your culture than individual contributors - so be certain it’s a leader you need, that you are clear about the challenge you need answered, and you are confident your candidate can indeed answer it. For example, there is a start-up client I am working with right now, just north of here in LA county. They are in the biotech space and have hired several key leaders from a much larger, global entity in the broader pharma space. The leaders they have brought on were extremely competent and well-positioned to lead the functions which they were hired to run. HOWEVER, they were not prepared to engage in both the breath of strategy and depth of tactics the job requires. Further, they are struggling with the lack of defined processes and support from other functions. Consequently, project timelines are being missed and their time-to-market will be impacted. Going the other direction on the 5, I have a client in San Diego county in the manufacturing business who is just reaching beyond the start-up phase. They have a relatively small corporate staff but almost a third of them are leaders with big titles but very small teams (with one or two subordinates a piece). Additionally, almost every leader is an internal promotion with no professional leadership experience – this founder has placed a lot of bets on continuing to cultivate raw talent but does not have the time to do it  – which is admirable but making it difficult to grow beyond his current book of business or empower these leaders to really lead. At the end of the day, the team is too big and too inexperienced to comprehend and reach decisions without its leader (keeping the CEOs nose in the very parts of the business he has to escape to hit his growth targets). Both of these companies made the same mistakes (just differently). They both failed to clarify and challenge what they needed and ensure they got it. So again, my first tip is don’t hire a leader in the first place… unless and until you are confident you absolutely need a full-time person whose primary role is to structure, operate and perfect a community of effort. If that thought makes you nervous, if you're worried who will do the work, you might need someone to lead the work, not the people. Don’t fall into the trap of mistaking a technical lead, a senior subject-matter expert for a leader. Rick’s Input Focus on correctly positioned talent  Avoid vanity hires How do we hire leaders then?  Purpose of a Leader The purpose of adding a leader to your growing team is not to add to your subject-matter expertise, it is to ensure someone other than yourself wakes up every day focused on cultivating a willing, capable and sustainable community of effort. Leaders are no longer obsessed with their craft because every step a leader takes on the career ladder is away from their craft.  Leaders are not obsessed with technical puzzles. They are obsessed with people puzzles. Their primary work functions are to structure, operate and perfect powerful communities of effort. Do they need to understand the work? You bet. But their work is different from the team’s work. And the better you understand that work, the work of a leader, the more likely you are to find the type of leader you need. Defining Your SCOPE For me, it all starts with understanding the SCOPE of the community of effort you need. SCOPE is an acronym which helps leaders remember the five most important architectural components of a community of effort. It stands for Strategy, Culture, Objectives, Purpose and Ecosystem. You can think of it as a replacement for the old mission / vision / values mantra which still permeates business schools today. In fact, Culture, Objectives and Purpose stand for exactly those same three components. The different being, the full SCOPE acronym adds the importance of understanding the players and interactions within your ecosystem and the strategies you craft by considering that ecosystem, how you deliver value to it (i.e. your purpose), the objectives you set (from both a visionary and near-term perspective) as well as the culture you have and the culture you’d like to have. Your best shot at getting the leader you need is taking your best shot at defining the company SCOPE and the departmental SCOPE for the team you want this leader to lead (and do it with your existing team if you can).  Your clarity here will allow you to differential the team’s work from the work the leader must do to be successful. This will result in a rich, leadership-focused job description based on the real work of leading. Then you can use the interview to pressure test key concepts in your company and departmental SCOPEs across a broad set of applicants (think of it as free consultation) and dig into the how. Process Not Outcomes Don’t fall into the trap of listening to canned lists of outcomes your candidates come prepared to throw at you. Ask about the how, the process. How did they refine the SCOPE at their last job? How will they do it here? How will they stay in alignment with the departments to their right and left? How will they stay aligned with you? How will they translate it into clear work methods, roles and responsibilities, how will they structure rewards and recognition; how will they secure the knowledge and capabilities you need to succeed? What repeatable processes do they use to inspire and engage people, drive accountability, evolve the team, etc.? I think the most important thing is to gain insight into their own personal LeadershipSOPs – in other words, what are their standard operating procedures for structuring, operating and perfecting communities of effort?   Rick’s Nuggets Job descriptions  Person type (builder, improver, maintainer) Performance metrics Evidence of past performance Performance tied to process  Key Takeaways: Don’t Hire a Leader in the First Place! Throw Away Your Job Description! Ignore Candidate Stories about Outcomes! 

Ed Tyson: Why do You Need to Hire a Leader?

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