Saturday, December 3, 2011

Book Review: How to Choose the Right Person for the Right Job Every Time


The bottom line isn't the bottom line: people are the bottom line.

Whether you are a manager hiring a team-member or a volunteer leader assembling a team, people are your most important asset. Having the right people doing the right things is vital to any team's effectiveness.

The subject of today's book review addresses the process with a bold claim: How to Choose the Right Person for the Right Job Every Time by Lori Davila and Louise Kursmark. Like most bold titles, this one can't fulfill all its promises. "Every time" after all is nearly impossible in any endeavor and the author's do acknowledge this.

However, How to Choose the Right Person is a great introduction for managers and leaders to the art of hiring and building teams. It really boils down to two key skills:

Skill #1: Defining what qualities are necessary to succeed in a specific role and in your specific team or organization.
Skill #2: Identifying individuals with those qualities.

How to Choose the Right Person walks you through both of these processes and provides many different examples to help you apply what you've learned.

A quick note for newer managers and leaders: After character and attitude, the most important thing to look for in prospective team members or employees is whether or not they are already doing what they will need to do in their new role. It is less important if an individual may not have been able to do the exact same type of work, may not have done lots of it, or may not have been paid for it.

If someone is not internally motivated to do what they would need to do in their new role, they aren't the best fit.

So if you are in an employment setting and limited to resumes and interviews, how do you know if someone has that internal motivation or has already been doing what they'll need to do?

How to Choose the Right Person advocates for Behavior-Based Interviewing. In short, the idea is to focus on questions about actual past behaviors, actual outcomes, and actual situations. While this may seem like a simple concept, if you've sat through many interviews, you've heard hiring managers ask all sorts of hypothetical questions, spend time talking about themselves, or ask about the candidate's opinions. These might be great social discussions, but they don't help you discover what people actually do.

If you have put in the time to clearly identify the qualities someone needs to be successful in a role and in your organizational culture, Behavior-Based Interviewing dramatically increases your chances of finding the right match.

I recommend How to Choose the Right Person for the Right Job Every Time for any leader or manager.

Happy Reading,

David M. Dye

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David shares twenty years experience teaching, coaching, leading, and managing in youth service, education advocacy, city governance, and faith-based nonprofits. He currently serves as Chief Operating Officer for Colorado UpLift and enjoys helping others discover and realize their own potential.

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Saturday, November 26, 2011

Book Review: Love 'Em or Lose 'Em


In sales, there is a saying that keeping an existing customer is worth far more than attracting a new customer.

It is often the same with personnel. Every team, every organization relies on skilled and motivated people.

The first key to assembling a great team is to keep the great performers you already have. Beverly Kaye and Sharon Jordan-Evans tackle how to do this in: Love 'Em or Lose 'Em: Getting Good People to Stay.

Marketing copy on the top of my edition lists Love 'Em or Lose 'Em as "the bestselling employee retention book in the world." While I can't say whether or not that is true, I can definitely tell you that the principles in Love 'Em or Lose 'Em are very sound.

Kaye and Jordan-Evans lay out their 26 engagement strategies in sequence of the English alphabet. For example: (A) Ask what keeps you? (B) Buck stops here. (C) Careers - support growth. (D) Dignity - show respect... You get the idea.

Additionally, Love 'Em or Lose 'Em begins with the a fictionalized, but realistic, memo from an performing employee who decides to leave. The employee give an overview of the reasons they chose to depart. The book then reviews its 26 engagement strategies by starting with a segment of the resignation letter.

For beginning managers and business leaders, it is important to understand that money might initially attract someone or keep them from leaving, but it does not motivate. Newer managers are often surprised by this. But it isn't too surprising if you reflect on your own behavior.

We do our best work when the work is meaningful, we are engaged and share values with the people we work with, we feel valued, and we feel we are making a contribution.

When these things are absent, we might not leave...but, organizations are full of people who have "quit" without leaving.

Love 'Em or Lose 'Em discusses these principles and others with readable and practical suggestions you can begin implementing immediately. Kaye and Jordan-Evans provide straight-forward advice to help you keep your performing staff.

But this isn't a book of shortcuts. Real relationships are built on authenticity and integrity, not on manipulative tricks. You won't find those in Love 'Em or Lose 'Em. At its heart, this book means what it says, if you legitimately care for your team members - including making hard decisions like helping or removing those not carrying their weight - your team is far more likely to stay, be engaged, motivated, and productive.

I recommend Love 'Em or Lose 'Em for any leader or manager. Even if you're a pro at taking care of people, you'll likely find one or two good reminders here.

Happy Reading,

David M. Dye

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David shares twenty years experience teaching, coaching, leading, and managing in youth service, education advocacy, city governance, and faith-based nonprofits. He currently serves as Chief Operating Officer for Colorado UpLift and enjoys helping others discover and realize their own potential.

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Monday, November 14, 2011

Succeed With Your Critics!

Photo by Yusmar Yahaya
Why Can't They...?

It's happening again.

You have a great idea...you're trying to get a new project implemented...you're proposing a change that's better for everyone.

And that person starts asking questions:
  • Have you thought about what will happen when...?
  • Do you look at the data behind this?
  • Did you consider this explanation?
  • What if the problem is really caused by...?
  • How will we resource this?
When confronted by a regular skeptic, many new leaders and managers groan (hopefully internally, but I've seen it happen aloud). These frustrated visionaries ask, "Why can't they just support an idea for once??"

The Faithful Critic

Allowing this frustration to get the better of you will deprive you of one of your best friends.

Effective leaders and managers learn to value faithful critics who challenge their ideas and help them sort out exuberance from real life.

You want your idea to succeed, right?

So try developing your ideas with folks who will do their best to make sure it's an effective solution with a strong foundation. Learn to anticipate their concerns and refine your plans in ways that address their relevant criteria. Every team can benefit from one faithful critic who is willing to ask tough questions.

The hard truth is that if your exciting plan can't survive a little scrutiny from those closest to it, then the plan probably isn't ready for implementation.

Faultfinders

I've been using the term "faithful critic" - that skeptic who wants to be sure things have been thought through and requires some evidence to make a decision. These are valuable team members.

In contrast, there are faultfinders - people who've never met an idea they liked, are critical by nature, and there is nothing you'll be able to do to win their support.

How to tell the difference? Generally, one question can help you tease out whether you have a faithful critic or a faultfinder: "What would it require for you to support this idea?"

A faithful critic talks about exploring options or looking at resources, data, and outcomes - things that strengthen the concept.

No matter what idea you discuss, a faultfinder denies there is a problem or refuses to give support under any terms.

Next Steps

Spend time with your faithful critics. Keep them close. Build ideas with them.

Educate faultfinders to the nature of the problems involved. Try to help them understand. If they remain faultfinders, don't spend extra energy on them and help them find teams / work where they will be happier.

Take care,

David M. Dye

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David shares twenty years experience teaching, coaching, leading, and managing in youth service, education advocacy, city governance, and faith-based nonprofits. He currently serves as Chief Operating Officer for Colorado UpLift and enjoys helping others discover and realize their own potential.

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Saturday, October 1, 2011

Book Review: Salsa, Soul, and Spirit



I hope that each of us eventually comes to that dawning moment where we realize that the world is a much bigger place than we ever realized. When it comes, it can be very humbling as we come to understand that our way of doing and thinking isn't everyone else's way, that our own personal history isn't entirely accurate, and that there is so much more to learn than we ever before realized.

If we are willing to listen and work at understanding, we enrich ourselves, can live more fully, and can become far more effective leaders. Today's book review subject, Salsa, Soul, and Spirit: Leadership for a Multicultural Age - New Approaches to Leadership from Latino, Black, and American Indian Communities by Juana Bordas is one tool to help growing leaders along that journey.

A little transparency: Years ago, when I first picked up this book, I was concerned that Bordas was committing a blunder in reductionist labeling. After all, none of my brown-skinned friends reduce simply to a label of "salsa" and some of my african-american friends would not take it well if you assume they've all got "soul". However, I would encourage the reader who is concerned about simplistic stereotyping to move past these conventions. They are simply useful concepts for representing generalized culturally-relevant concepts. After reading Salsa, Soul, and Spirit, I do not for a minute believe Bordas would commit or countenance such stereotyping.

With that out of the way, let's talk about the book. Salsa, Soul, and Spirit is about effective leadership. Bordas describes her own life journey moving from Nicaragua to the United States and her experience growing up in the United States, learning the ways of her new home, and succeeding while remaining close to her own roots. Throughout the book, she draws out leadership values from various cultural traditions. At the top of the list are principles such as:
  • Real leaders serve their community, not just themselves
  • Leadership credibility derives from the people being led
  • Effective leaders learn from the past and honor the values of those they lead
  • Effective leaders value generosity, hope, thankfulness, and forgiveness
  • Effective leaders work with the collective of which they are a part (the collective does not work for the leader)
Each of these concepts is examined through the lens of a cultural tradition where it is particularly valued and practiced. Put together, the list is not just a list of good multicultural leadership - it's good leadership, period. These are characteristics of true servant leaders. In fact, while the book's title describes these as "new" leadership approaches, they're not really new as much as neglected.

I recommend Salsa, Soul, and Spirit for any leader or manager who wants to lead effectively and particularly for those from any background who are just starting to realize how big our world really is.
For more on servant leadership, read: The World's Most Valuable Leadership Principle
For more on a practical application and the value of teams, read: Help Is Available!

Happy Reading - and here's to that journey!

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David shares twenty years experience teaching, coaching, leading, and managing in youth service, education advocacy, city governance, and faith-based nonprofits. He currently serves as Chief Operating Officer for Colorado UpLift and enjoys helping others discover and realize their own potential.

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Monday, September 26, 2011

Get Out of Your Way

Photo by Jeffrey Beall
Secrets. Of. The. Universe.

When I taught high school students, we often talked about "secrets of the universe" - those enduring, but not always well-known, principles of success. You can ignore them if you want, but they're still out there.

One such "secret of the universe" goes something like this:

Causes produce effects. When we focus on effects, rather than causes, we trip ourselves up.

Some examples of this principle include:
  • You gain respect by being respectable, not by focusing on others giving you respect. (Cause: being respectable, Effect: respect)
  • You become trusted by being trustworthy, not by focusing on wheedling secrets out of others. (Cause: being trustworthy, Effect: trust)
  • You pass classes by truly learning the content, not by focusing on grades. (Cause: learning, Effect: grades
  • You make friends by being a friend, not by focusing on how many friends you have. (Cause: being a friend, Effect: friends)
  • You live by savoring life, not by focusing on being not-dead. (Cause: living, Effect: life)
Effective leaders and managers understand that real influence requires credibility and that real credibility is developed through authentic commitment to people, competence, and results.

Many leaders limit their effectiveness because they focus on the effects of leadership: achievement, influence, reputation, image, power, accomplishment, respect, security, etc.

However, all of these are effects. They are outcomes of an authentic focus on being a role model, sharing vision, building a team, encouraging others, and solving problems. Leaders cannot lead effectively while focused primarily on their own image.

In the short term, authentic leadership can feel risky...when faced with an opportunity to invest in their team or to immediately look good to others, many leaders take the path of immediate gratification. In the long run, however, when the problem is too big they won't be able to rally a skilled and committed team.

This is a basic life lesson, but one it is easy to forget in the middle of leadership and management challenges.

How do you maintain your focus on "causes" and not get caught up in "effects"?

For more on this topic:  It's Not About You

David M. Dye

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David shares twenty years experience teaching, coaching, leading, and managing in youth service, education advocacy, city governance, and faith-based nonprofits. He currently serves as Chief Operating Officer for Colorado UpLift and enjoys helping others discover and realize their own potential.

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Saturday, September 10, 2011

Book Review: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team


There are a number of different team-work formulas that have circulated over the years. Some of them rhyme, some require sophisticated knowledge of varied personality profiles, and some rely on boundary-pushing activities to bring members together. Most of these frameworks have an element or two that are worthwhile, but none of them have the simple elegance of this week's book review subject: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable by Patrick Lencioni.

Like all of Lencioni's books, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team begins with a fable. In this case we follow the journey of a supervisor who has just been hired into a new team. Lencioni's five principles of successful teaming (and their corresponding dysfunctions) are illustrated through the story. Following the fable, the book concludes with a more formal analysis of the five dysfunctions and their remedies.

What I most appreciate about The Five Dysfunctions of a Team is that the framework makes sense, the key elements are communicated quickly and clearly with a minimum of abstraction, and that the model can be implemented in just about any team setting. This book is an easy read - you can do it in one or two sittings if you desire. But don't confuse brevity and clarity for lack of impact. The five fundamental elements of successful teams are easy to grasp, but they require real work to consistently implement over time.

I want to be careful not to reveal the choice material, but The Five Dysfunctions of a Team really shines in its discussion of the role of conflict in healthy teams. This book, paired with the tools found in Crucial Conversations, give teams an incredibly powerful set of tools to consistently produce results. Lencioni is not suggesting we build foo-foo, hold hands and sing songs teams. His framework aims for teams featuring healthy relationships and a strong commitment to meaningful results.

I recommend The Five Dysfunctions of a Team for any leader, manager, or team member wanting to learn the critical elements of building a high caliber team. For those who might want to work through this material with a team, I can also recommend the companion field guide or facilitator's guide.

Happy Reading!

David M. Dye

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David shares twenty years experience teaching, coaching, leading, and managing in youth service, education advocacy, city governance, and faith-based nonprofits. He currently serves as Chief Operating Officer for Colorado UpLift and enjoys helping others discover and realize their own potential.

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Monday, August 8, 2011

Help is Available!

You've been given a responsibility. Your deadline is looming, the demands are significant, and you're not sure how to solve the problem. Alone at your desk, you wonder if you even have it in you to figure this out.

Many developing leaders (and not a few veterans) go through these times of anxiety. I have been there many times. It can be easy for leaders who take responsibility and who passionately care to feel like the world is on their shoulders and that they are all alone.

The good news is that help is available - and more than likely, it's just waiting to be asked.

When faced with problems bigger than ourselves, one of the first places we can turn is to our team. Bring the situation to them, define the criteria that must be met to reach a workable solution, and ask how they might do it. Consulting your team on these tough problems has several benefits:

1) They own the solution. People have greater commitment to their own ideas than to someone else's.

2) You are developing leaders. Team members are empowered by learning what problems must be solved and how to solve them.

3) New ideas. All of us get stuck inside our own head. There is no substitute for a group of smart, committed people getting together to share ideas.

A few guidelines before getting your team involved on tough challenges:

1) If the team solves the problem, the gets team the credit. Taking personal credit for your team's ideas is a quick way to lose all credibility.

2) No team? No problem. Pull together a small group of experts you trust. If you don't overuse the privilege, people are often willing to share their thoughts.

3) Don't abuse your team. Don't use this approach to shirk legitimate decisions you should be making, to play politics and blame-shift, etc.

4) Be clear on the decision making process. How will the decision be made: consensus, majority, or consultation and the leader decides? You should clarify this before discussion begins or it can undermine the integrity of the process.

Team problem-solving can be one of the most rewarding aspects of leadership. Next time you face a problem bigger than you, see if it's bigger than your team. I bet it's not.

David M. Dye

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David shares twenty years experience teaching, coaching, leading, and managing in youth service, education advocacy, city governance, and faith-based nonprofits. He currently serves as Chief Operating Officer for Colorado UpLift and enjoys helping others discover and realize their own potential.

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