Michael Beck

How to Attract the Best Candidates

Over the years, I’ve had a number of clients mention that they were having trouble hiring good people. They would get plenty of applicants, but not of the caliber they were looking for. Which of course, led to an enlightening discussion.

I asked those clients this: “Why would a good/competent employee leave their current company? Is it for better pay? No. Is it for better benefits? No.”

Which brought us to this insight…

Most often, a good employee will leave the company they work for because of the culture.

They leave because they don’t like how people are treated at their company. Culture is not simply an HR feel-good issue. Culture affects a company’s ability to attract good people and impacts the company’s turnover rate – either driving it up or keeping it down.

Two additional insights come from this understanding:

The first insight is that if you want to attract high quality job candidates, it’s important to incorporate aspects of your company culture in the job ad. It will attract better employees and will result in stronger engagement, which leads to improved profitability.

The second insight is that if you want to reduce turnover at your own company, ensure everyone – especially the leaders – live the company culture. A culture only works when the leaders live by those values and behaviors, and don’t tolerate non-aligned behavior by others.

Managing People Causes Disengagement

Regardless of whether your title is that of executive, director, or manager, the practice of managing people instead of leading them, drives down engagement. I’ve always loved the expression, “Things get managed, but people get led.” It’s a great perspective and it’s true.

But how exactly do bosses “manage” people? After lots of reflection, I’ve distilled what managing people means down to two issues. The first way bosses manage people is by “treating people like things”, and the second way is by “treating adults like children”. Let me elaborate on those issues and illustrate how leading people differs from managing them.

How does someone “treat people like things”? We do it in several ways. We do it when we’re insensitive to people and interact with them as if they have no feelings. We treat people like things when we ignore the fact that everyone has hopes and dreams and fears and stress. We treat people like things when we relate to people as if our own goals and aspirations are more important to us than theirs are to them. And we treat people like things when we don’t show respect for people nor value their contributions, efforts, and potential.

When we treat people like things, it sends the message that they are unimportant and that we just don’t care about them. And when people sense we don’t care about them, they start not to care about us. When the company tolerates leaders who don’t care about people, people tend not to care about the company. And when people don’t care, there is no engagement.

A good leader understands that people’s hopes, dreams, fears, and stresses are real and matter to them. A leader inspires people. A leader interacts with people as people, helping them to be their best. A leader relates to people the way they themselves want to be treated. And a leader helps people achieve their own goals.

How does someone “treat adults like children”? Think for a moment about how we relate to children and why we relate that way. We generally tell children what they need to do and when they need to do it by. We do that because we don’t trust their judgment, their sense of responsibility, and/or their self-discipline. We regularly check up on children because we don’t trust them to follow through on their commitments. We check up on children because we don’t trust them to be responsible.

When we don’t trust people to do what needs to be done, and don’t trust their judgment, we are treating them as if they are children. When we micromanage people, we are treating them like children. When we treat people like children, it shows a lack of respect and trust. When people feel they aren’t respected and trusted, they lose respect for us. When people feel they aren’t respected and valued, there is no engagement.

If someone doesn’t know what to do, then our job as a leader is to develop their knowledge and abilities. The shortcoming lies with the leader, not the follower. If someone lacks the necessary judgment for a task or decision, then our job as a leader is to develop their judgment. If their judgment remains inadequate, then either we aren’t as competent a leader as we need to be, or we just have the wrong person on our team. Either way, resorting to treating someone as a child is a poor course of action.

If you want to avoid disengagement and drive engagement to higher levels, lead people instead of managing them. Care about people and develop them. Expect people to be responsible and to do their best work, and then hold them accountable. There’s no need to accept mediocrity or to compromise in any way. Instead, hone your leadership skills and learn to bring out the best in people.

How the Other Half Leads

I suspect the title of this article piqued your curiosity about what insights might be revealed. But then, no doubt, the curiosity gave way to another question. Somewhere in the back of your mind you’ve wondered: “Which half is he talking about, the ‘strong’ half or the ‘weak’ half?” And then, after a moment of reflection, another question arose, “I wonder how I compare? Which half am I in?”

And therein lies the first interesting insight…

I never met an executive who thought they were a poor leader!

Most every leader will acknowledge that there is room for improvement, but none feels he or she is poor. Yet, we all know (or have known) some pretty poor leaders. The truth is that it’s difficult for us to determine whether we’re good at leading. It’s challenging for several reasons.

1) The first challenge is that quality of leadership is determined by those being led, rather than by the leader. How we view ourselves is fairly irrelevant. What matters more is how we’re viewed by others and only they can tell us whether we’re being effective.

2) The second challenge is that we often have a hard time accurately assessing our leadership competencies. Even when we feel we have a good read on how others regard us, we’re frequently too lenient or too hard on ourselves. We tend to overestimate our effectiveness or are overly self-critical. It’s very difficult to determine how others really view us until we get objective feedback.

3) The third challenge is that we all have “blind spots”. No matter how experienced we are, how intelligent we are, or how much education we’ve had, each of us has blind spots and no amount of thinking can reveal them. Almost always, it takes someone else to point them out to us.

The bottom line is that the only way to accurately determine which of our leadership competencies are strong and which require honing is to get anonymous feedback from a group of people who are familiar with us and our leadership style. That’s why 360° assessments are so effective and so necessary in accurately revealing a leader’s strengths and weaknesses.

Now that we’ve established that it’s difficult to determine how effective we are as a leader, let’s discuss how the other half leaders. While it’s true that there are poor leaders and strong leaders, there is no real dividing line. There are no “halves”.

The truth is that leadership competence is on a continuum. Very few people are devoid of the necessary competencies for leadership effectiveness. Instead, it’s a matter of degree and quality.

What makes a great leader? Exceptional leaders bring out the best in people. An effective leader helps people feel valued and develops them beyond their present capabilities. An effective leader shows respect for others, and works to earn trust and respect from others. And an effective leader inspires others with their vision, their actions, and their integrity.

Most executives understand these principles and feel they do a relatively good job implementing them. The challenge is that old habits are hard to see and even harder to break. Those executives who consistently work on improving become known as great leaders.

Executive Effectiveness: Stop Setting Goals

Over the years, I’ve seen this scenario over and over. An executive decides they want a real boost in growth and profits, so they set a big goal for their organization. Or, if they’re really ambitious, they develop a “BHAG” (a Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal).

Then they rally the troops, announce their big goal with lots of fanfare and encourage their team by proclaiming they are confident it can be achieved.

The pronouncement is then followed by a cascade of meetings at all levels, during which it’s explained how the goal can be accomplished, thereby ensuring buy-in throughout the organization. Strategies and tactics are developed in each department so that there is a clear blueprint for success in place. And the initiative begins…

The problem is that the goal is rarely reached. Despite all the hoopla and slogans, despite all the detailed plans and projections, and despite all the accountability, results fall short. Why do these initiatives almost always miss their target? Why are these goals not met? The answer is simple.

A “goal” has no emotional component to it.

If you understand people and how they make buying decision, you also understand that people buy emotionally. This holds true whether we want someone to buy a widget or buy an idea. We are emotional creatures and are prompted to action by emotion more so than logic. Yes, we rationalize our decisions logically, but the decision is made emotionally.

Although an initiative may have a well-developed plan, trying to get people enthused about a big goal is like asking people to get excited about doubling sales. No one cares. (Except the owners/shareholders and the person who came up with the goal). It’s unrealistic to expect an enthusiastic, committed response to a cold, arbitrary goal.

In order for something really significant to be accomplished, people need to work diligently towards its attainment. They need to maintain their commitment to it in the face of obstacles and setbacks. The only way to achieve that state is for everyone to “buy-in” to the initiative. And as I noted, people buy emotionally.

Therefore, if an executive truly wants a team to get behind an initiative and really strive to achieve it, the initiative must have an emotional component. There needs to be a compelling “why”. An effective initiative has to embrace a meaningful reason for the pursuit of it. Only then will the efforts be persistent enough to reach the objective. And, if the initiative is well thought out and relevant, the tangible “goal” will almost always be attained as a consequence of the quest.

An example of an initiative with an emotional component might be something like: “We want to be known in our industry as the premier provider of custom solutions. We want to set ourselves apart from our competitors by developing creative solutions for the difficult problems faced by our customers.”

This is an initiative people can get behind, rally around, and take pride in achieving. Also, because the initiative is a way of being rather than the attainment of an arbitrary number, the nature of the strategies and tactics developed will be very different from those created simply to drive sales in the next quarter. Additionally, because it will create a fundamental shift in the way the company does business, the results will be longer lasting.

If you want to be an exceptional executive, get away from setting goals and start developing meaningful initiatives.

3 Skills That Set Good CEOs Apart

Obviously there are more than three competencies that are necessary for good leadership. But there are several skills that CEOs need which aren’t quite as critical for leaders at other levels.

A CEO who masters these skills drives the success of their organization, commands a significant salary, and sometimes becomes legendary. In contrast, a CEO who doesn’t do well with these competencies does average at best and at worst is invited to leave the organization. It explains why the average tenure for a Fortune 500 CEO is only about four and a half years.

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The first skill that’s essential for a CEO is the ability to develop a vision for the future. In the absence of a future that is different from the present, a CEO is destined to make only incremental improvements, simply tweaking what already exists. A CEO who has a vision of the future can put a strategy in motion which, if executed well, can alter the course and the fortunes of a business.

How can someone gain the ability to have vision and foresight? It first requires that a CEO have external awareness. In other words, he or she must have a sense of trends, developments and changes in behavior in the world outside of the organization. Only by being observant can new insights be gained. Next, having vision requires that a CEO keep from being restricted in his or her thinking by self-imposed (and usually unfounded) constraints. In other words, he or she must think “outside the box”. As a friend of mine likes to say, “If you argue for your limitations, you get to keep them…”

How do you gain a fresh perspective? The most effective means is to remove yourself from the day-to-day and spend time reflecting. You’ll end up gaining new insights and perspectives on your business.

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The second skill that’s essential for CEO success is the ability to make decisions with incomplete information. Almost always, the vision of a new future requires heading into uncharted waters. There is no way to have all the facts before action is taken.

How do you gain this ability? It obviously requires some tolerance of risk, therefore a CEO can’t be overly risk averse. The key is to minimize the risk, so that if things don’t go as planned, all is not lost. It is essential to consider the various possible scenarios and then review the result of each. Making decisions without all the information requires a CEO be clear on the underlying problem so as not to address a symptom. But at some point, a decision must be made without having all the pieces of the puzzle.

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The third skill that every good CEO must possess is the ability to influence and persuade. Although a CEO can dictate his or her desires to the organization, the results gained from people who are simply complying will be very different than from those gained by a committed organization.

How can someone improve their ability to influence and persuade? It first requires that a CEO gain the trust and respect of the organization. Trust and respect are earned over time, and are determined as people observe the way in which we conduct ourselves on a daily basis. The level of trust and respect that people have for us greatly impacts the degree to which we are able to influence them.

The second aspect to influencing others relates to the fact that people “buy” emotionally. It doesn’t matter whether we’re talking about selling widgets or a vision of the future, people make their decisions to accept or reject on an emotional level. (They then use facts and logic to rationalize and justify their decision.) One of the most effective means of evoking emotion is through the use of stories. And some of the most effective stories are analogies. The artful use of analogies not only can evoke emotion, but can avoid arousing defensiveness in people. Effective CEO’s are master storytellers.

If you want to be a more effective CEO or want to prepare yourself to become CEO, it is essential to have vision and foresight, make decisions without all the facts, and master the ability to influence others.

If you’d like help developing these abilities, give us a call.