This has been such a busy news year that the story with potentially the biggest long term impact has rather disappeared in recent weeks. That is Wikileaks, and what it means for secrecy in future.
That is sad for the poor lad in the US who is accused of being behind many of the leaks, whose treatment appears to have been barbaric. It is also a bit sad for Julian Assange, who does seem to be partially motivated by self-aggrandisement, and who is now stuck fighting his seedy court case out of the spotlight.
But it may be that Wikileaks provided an important catalyst for the big story that swamped it, the Arab Spring. True, there were many factors leading to uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere, but the public revelation of the greed of rulers was an important one. Well done Wikileaks.
What Wikileaks may do is accelerate an existing trend, a good trend in my opinion, towards openness in the world.
Nowadays, it is hard to keep a secret. When I started in work, most files were kept on paper, senior managers had secretaries (who, as their name implies, kept secrets) and the workforce were physically separated from their bosses. Now, we have computers, open offices and flatter structures.
Despite this (or because of it?) in some firms it is quite hard to find any document now which doesn’t have the word confidential on the top. We also receive many e-mails where the disclaimers consume as much space as the content, not that any of us pay them any attention.
This suggests a system out of control. Lawyers have a lot to answer for, as usual. But so do ordinary managers. There are many bad reasons to keep information away from others:
- Hoarding of power
- Making one’s incompetence or laziness less visible
- Polishing of ego (by creating an illusion of importance to one’s work)
- Avoiding any risk
- Avoiding necessary confrontations, for example about staff effectiveness
There are a few good reasons too. Competitors might damage our business if they discover our acquisition plans or future pricing strategies. Fair enough. But markets work quickly now, and staff frequently move been companies, so it is a fool’s errand to try to keep too many things secret. It won’t work.
And, apart from all the bad reasons listed above, there are bad impacts of keeping things secret:
- Demotivating staff
- Stopping staff from doing useful things in support of strategy
- Adding to bureaucracy (not to mention the trees lost printing all those disclaimers)
- Offering (illusory) cover for ill thought out or even illegal activity
- Promoting a culture where protecting what we have becomes more important than using what we have or creating something better
Altogether, companies would be smart to radically reduce the items they claim as secret. Open companies innovate, motivate, and ultimately win in markets.
Wikileaks, and other trends like social networking, have the same message for individuals and also for countries. All entities will need to radically reduce what they keep as secret, and then work very hard to make sure that what they really want to keep as secret stays secret. In other words, put less inside the wall, but make the wall stronger.
I hope this happens soon, and we can thank Wikileaks and others if it does. Already, the idea of diplomacy is changing for the better. Would Obama have talked openly about the 1967 border as a basis for an Arab-Israeli settlement had the Oslo and Clinton outcomes remained secret? I am sure that many dictators are sleeping less easily and acting more transparently now as well, all for the better.
We have such a long way to go though, as with any culture change. One sad outcome of 9/11 has been the expansion of secret services around the world, with precious little scrutiny. Personally, I am not heartened when I hear that my government is not sending ground troops to Libya, but hints that it is providing all sorts of covert help for rebels. If help is offered in my name, I would like to know what it is and why it is there.
All these super-injunctions in the UK are not impressive either, but maybe the secret pact between politicians and media in France is even more poisonous. Dominique Strauss Kahn may now be ruefully wishing his personal behaviour had come under scrutiny at home earlier in his career.
However, perhaps our greatest opportunity for openness lies with ourselves. Many of us have virtual confidential marks, limiting what we choose to share with others. Secrets have their place, but all the bad reasons and bad impacts for companies and countries apply to us as individuals too. In general, the more we share, the more we will accomplish. I discovered this myself three years ago, when I started talking openly to different people about my career, and even about more personal matters. I felt less blocked as a result, and found solutions to many problems that before had been stuck in my own head. I also strengthened relationships as a result and became able to help others too. Most important of all, I became able to view my own situation with greater clarity.
Blogging can help too, because it forces me to examine and articulate what matters to me. It also helps to curb my bitchiness and negativity, as I choose to think before condemning now, not just within the blog. Just like with Wikileaks, and also those now wishing they had been more discrete on Facebook having just lost a job opportunity or their modesty, there is a learning curve involved. I learned last week of someone using their blog to rubbish their job, their boss and their customers. Perhaps they felt it safe because the blog is in a little known foreign language, but it still feels most unwise.
So, maybe, Julian will have the most impact on this decade after all, even if the furore is dying down. And I believe the impact will be overwhelmingly positive. And, as so often, at least in this blog, the place we can all start to make a difference is with ourselves.
Monday, May 23, 2011
Monday, May 16, 2011
More on Interviewing
Here are five more tips to help your recruiting.
Tip 6: Use CV’s and References sparingly. At the start of a recruitment process, you often have no choice but to pre-select based on CV’s, since you hope for a lot of applicants. Hopefully, you have defined the requirements of the position carefully, and already worked out your criteria (tip 4). In your position description, avoid what the Dutch call the five legged sheep, in other words a set of requirements that no one can match, at least no one would want to at the pathetic salary you are offering. You want plenty of qualified applicants, and you want to interview as many of them as you can. Maybe you can define an intermediate step, such as a short telephone interview, to help your short listing, or, more often, require candidates to submit not just a CV but also a statement of why they feel they would be a good selection, sometimes called a motivation letter. I also put the motivation letter as more important than the CV, and used the CV only for confirming the basic suitability. It does depend on the role, but defining a requirement of fifteen years experience in the field is going to exclude a lot of talent.
Once you have done your pre-selection, and then your interviews and ranking, only then look at references. For me, apart from the simple confirmation that people are not lying through their teeth, a reference has limited value. I only tended to call a referee when I had a specific concern from the interview. I remember one candidate who seemed very motivated, qualified and suitable, save for a rather humourless demeanour. A reference helped confirm that the person did know how to have fun. If you do call a referee, always ask specific and pointed questions, and ask for examples. Otherwise it is too easy to offer platitudes to support a friend (or someone you are trying to shift from your own payroll).
Tip 7: Question Deeply. There is a whole science now about the questions that work in interviews, and if you are going to interview frequently, it is worth getting trained in the best techniques. One thing the techniques have in common is that they use real examples and explore them deeply. A set of clever questions can easily be mugged up. Questions like “are you assertive?” just beg a positive answer. Instead, ask something like “can you think of a time at work where you had to demonstrate assertiveness?” When the candidate comes up with such an example, ask lots of follow up questions about the situation, about options they considered, about the outcomes achieved, and especially about the candidate’s own actions. That way you will gain any real evidence for the qualities you seek.
Tip 8: Case studies work. Even better than digging into past experiences is to try to model a real experience. Nowadays, many companies use elaborate assessment centres to really explore how candidates behave under pressured but realistic conditions. An interview cannot match that sophistication, but you can at least try a little case study. I used a description of a situation that was just a half page of A4, which I would send to candidates a few days before their interview (long enough to digest it but not long enough to research it thoroughly). Then I would ask some questions about the situation at the interview, focusing more on approach than solutions. It was amazing how often candidates showed up a fatal lack of customer focus or similar flaws under this simple examination.
These three tips work as a group really, and the common message is to model reality as closely as possible. I recently was part of a team selecting a musical director for a choir. The CV’s told us almost nothing compared with the interviews, and the interviews told us nothing compared with the auditions. Of course, we needed an efficient way to whittle down the candidates as it was not practical to audition everyone. In different situations, you will have more scope to model reality. In any case avoid the mistake of a process over-reliant on CV’s. That leads to bland selection based on qualifications and experience alone, which is a very poor guide to quality, motivation, and many other key attributes.
Tip 9: Shut Up. True (tip 2) this is a two way process, so do answer their questions and give some introduction so the candidates get a feel for what they might be letting themselves in for. But during the questioning, the less you talk the more you will learn. Simple, even single word questions such as “Why?” or “How?” will work far more effectively than long speeches. Even silence works well, once you have asked a question. Wait for an answer, even if the wait becomes a little uncomfortable. This tip is obvious, yet it is amazing how many of us struggle to put it into practice. We like the comfort of sound, and for many of us our own sound is the most comforting of all. If you are interviewing as a pair, ask your partner to judge how much airtime you are taking, and then adjust it downwards. Charlie Stayt has become a decent presenter on BBC Breakfast, but his interviews often fail because his questions ramble on for so long. He is a trained expert, while probably you are not. This is a practical tip that we can all work on and reap benefits from.
Tip 10: Trust your gut, at least partly. Yes, we all have many biases, that is why we involve our team and design a clear process. But in the end, this is our choice, a choice we will have to live with. There is such a thing as gut feel, and it does have a place in our lives, for human relations are as much art as science. Be aware of as many of your biases as possible. Do avoid making judgements before or during interviews. Do score diligently, and generally follow what the scores tell you. But also leave a little bit of room for your heart as well. If you try to become a machine, always asking identical questions and always noting down every answer, you take away some of your human power in finding compatibility. If, during an interview, you find yourself really wanting to ask something, then for goodness sake ask it! Make sure your ranking criteria give you some space for less defined qualities, and then be ready to trust yourself, not recklessly but at least a bit. Many of my best recruiting decisions came when I let my heart into the process.
I came to find recruiting one of the most satisfying parts of my work. Interviewing is only a part of this, but it can be an important and pleasurable part if handled well. I hope these tips give you some extra confidence and incentive.
Tip 6: Use CV’s and References sparingly. At the start of a recruitment process, you often have no choice but to pre-select based on CV’s, since you hope for a lot of applicants. Hopefully, you have defined the requirements of the position carefully, and already worked out your criteria (tip 4). In your position description, avoid what the Dutch call the five legged sheep, in other words a set of requirements that no one can match, at least no one would want to at the pathetic salary you are offering. You want plenty of qualified applicants, and you want to interview as many of them as you can. Maybe you can define an intermediate step, such as a short telephone interview, to help your short listing, or, more often, require candidates to submit not just a CV but also a statement of why they feel they would be a good selection, sometimes called a motivation letter. I also put the motivation letter as more important than the CV, and used the CV only for confirming the basic suitability. It does depend on the role, but defining a requirement of fifteen years experience in the field is going to exclude a lot of talent.
Once you have done your pre-selection, and then your interviews and ranking, only then look at references. For me, apart from the simple confirmation that people are not lying through their teeth, a reference has limited value. I only tended to call a referee when I had a specific concern from the interview. I remember one candidate who seemed very motivated, qualified and suitable, save for a rather humourless demeanour. A reference helped confirm that the person did know how to have fun. If you do call a referee, always ask specific and pointed questions, and ask for examples. Otherwise it is too easy to offer platitudes to support a friend (or someone you are trying to shift from your own payroll).
Tip 7: Question Deeply. There is a whole science now about the questions that work in interviews, and if you are going to interview frequently, it is worth getting trained in the best techniques. One thing the techniques have in common is that they use real examples and explore them deeply. A set of clever questions can easily be mugged up. Questions like “are you assertive?” just beg a positive answer. Instead, ask something like “can you think of a time at work where you had to demonstrate assertiveness?” When the candidate comes up with such an example, ask lots of follow up questions about the situation, about options they considered, about the outcomes achieved, and especially about the candidate’s own actions. That way you will gain any real evidence for the qualities you seek.
Tip 8: Case studies work. Even better than digging into past experiences is to try to model a real experience. Nowadays, many companies use elaborate assessment centres to really explore how candidates behave under pressured but realistic conditions. An interview cannot match that sophistication, but you can at least try a little case study. I used a description of a situation that was just a half page of A4, which I would send to candidates a few days before their interview (long enough to digest it but not long enough to research it thoroughly). Then I would ask some questions about the situation at the interview, focusing more on approach than solutions. It was amazing how often candidates showed up a fatal lack of customer focus or similar flaws under this simple examination.
These three tips work as a group really, and the common message is to model reality as closely as possible. I recently was part of a team selecting a musical director for a choir. The CV’s told us almost nothing compared with the interviews, and the interviews told us nothing compared with the auditions. Of course, we needed an efficient way to whittle down the candidates as it was not practical to audition everyone. In different situations, you will have more scope to model reality. In any case avoid the mistake of a process over-reliant on CV’s. That leads to bland selection based on qualifications and experience alone, which is a very poor guide to quality, motivation, and many other key attributes.
Tip 9: Shut Up. True (tip 2) this is a two way process, so do answer their questions and give some introduction so the candidates get a feel for what they might be letting themselves in for. But during the questioning, the less you talk the more you will learn. Simple, even single word questions such as “Why?” or “How?” will work far more effectively than long speeches. Even silence works well, once you have asked a question. Wait for an answer, even if the wait becomes a little uncomfortable. This tip is obvious, yet it is amazing how many of us struggle to put it into practice. We like the comfort of sound, and for many of us our own sound is the most comforting of all. If you are interviewing as a pair, ask your partner to judge how much airtime you are taking, and then adjust it downwards. Charlie Stayt has become a decent presenter on BBC Breakfast, but his interviews often fail because his questions ramble on for so long. He is a trained expert, while probably you are not. This is a practical tip that we can all work on and reap benefits from.
Tip 10: Trust your gut, at least partly. Yes, we all have many biases, that is why we involve our team and design a clear process. But in the end, this is our choice, a choice we will have to live with. There is such a thing as gut feel, and it does have a place in our lives, for human relations are as much art as science. Be aware of as many of your biases as possible. Do avoid making judgements before or during interviews. Do score diligently, and generally follow what the scores tell you. But also leave a little bit of room for your heart as well. If you try to become a machine, always asking identical questions and always noting down every answer, you take away some of your human power in finding compatibility. If, during an interview, you find yourself really wanting to ask something, then for goodness sake ask it! Make sure your ranking criteria give you some space for less defined qualities, and then be ready to trust yourself, not recklessly but at least a bit. Many of my best recruiting decisions came when I let my heart into the process.
I came to find recruiting one of the most satisfying parts of my work. Interviewing is only a part of this, but it can be an important and pleasurable part if handled well. I hope these tips give you some extra confidence and incentive.
Friday, May 6, 2011
Interviewing
Over the last weeks I offered ten tips for having success when being interviewed. Well, this week and next here are ten tips from the other side of the table, when it is you doing the interviewing.
Tip 1: This matters, take it seriously.
If you run a team or business, the composition of staff is one of the most critical success factors. Furthermore, happy, confident teams have more fun and allow the boss to enjoy life more. When you select a newcomer, you have full control over a decision with important long-term consequences. It may be the decision you make this year with the most impact. By the way, you owe your best effort to the people who have applied as well.
So really focus on this choice, and apply time and resources to it. I have been amazed at how casually some selection processes are run. Have you ever experienced an interview when the interviewer seems to be scanning your CV for the first time as the interview starts? Or turns up late? Or takes calls or other interruptions? I have. I didn’t feel inclined to work for any other these people. That leads me to tip 2.
Tip 2: This is a two way process.
An interview is an opportunity to learn about some candidates, but it is also a chance for them to learn about you, your team and your company. Afterwards, you can choose to make an offer, but they then have a chance to accept or reject it. If they choose to reject it, you are quite likely to regret it, perhaps because you let the dream team member slip through your fingers, and at the least because you then face the extra burden of looking for someone else.
So give them space to ask questions. Offer up to them what they should expect if they get the job, in an honest way but certainly not in a way that understates the benefits. One of those benefits should be working for you, so conduct yourself in a way that shows you up in an authentic light. Apart from paying them the respect of your full attention, that also includes not patronising them or trying to humiliate them.
Be honest in this, since building up false expectations invariably backfires. But try to give a picture of what is expected, and if possible what the environment they would face in your team would be like. That leads me to tip 3.
Tip 3: Get help, especially from your team.
Interviewing is notoriously unreliable – some say worse than random selection. So improve your chances. Interview in pairs, and if possible offer two interviews so they see four different people overall. This reduces bias, gives candidates extra chances to overcome nerves, and allows time for note taking and reflecting during an interview. But the advantages of using existing team members to join you go far wider than that. It gives the candidate a much broader feel of how working in the team would be like. Candidates will ask questions to team members they would not ask you, and reveal more about themselves too. They may ask about you, and in this situation your team members are unlikely to paint you worse than the reality. It also creates ownership among your team for the new arrival, and they will work harder to integrate them. The first days for the new team member will be far easier for having familiar and friendly faces around.
This approach is such a winner, I’m amazed it is not used more often. I guess many bosses still like to maintain some hierarchical distance. Don’t be one of those.
Tip 4: Design a process and follow it.
Too often people conduct a set of interviews and then try to choose a winner based on general feelings. This might work, but the odds are less than if you do it properly, just like any other business project. I have a tried and trusted formula for this. First, I define about 6-8 criteria for judging, based on the balance of requirements. These could relate to experience or qualifications, but also team fit, and practical things like availability or cost. I always define one criterion as “wild card upside” to give me some flexibility to score feelings and qualities otherwise hard to reflect. I score each candidate out of five for each criterion, add up the scores and generally then don’t override the results. I use this when selecting a shortlist from CV’s and then again at interview. All interviewers use the same template and score independently (no chatting after an interview). Then reach a consensus at a meeting you chair, remembering to choose one or two runners up in case the winner rejects the job. This process does a lot to remove bias, and it also creates a better selection meeting, as the interviewers, including yourself, need to express why they prefer one candidate over another.
Tip 5: No short cuts.
Maybe this is the most important tip of all. Every time I have cheated my own process I have gone on to regret it, and indeed almost all my selection regrets have come when I have cheated the process. I have committed many sins. I have defined a job after choosing a candidate. I have chosen a candidate on recommendation only. I have interviewed only a single candidate (who not surprisingly I convinced myself was up to the job…and then wasn’t). I have made an offer when no candidate made the mark. Once I let my team run the process without me, at the time thinking this was a mature act. I’ve been swayed by emotion or gut feel and overridden what the scoring said. I have bowed to pressure from my boss.
Don’t do it. As tip 1 says, you will live with the consequence of this decision for a long time. Give yourself, and the candidates, the best chance to make it a good one.
Five more tips next time.
Tip 1: This matters, take it seriously.
If you run a team or business, the composition of staff is one of the most critical success factors. Furthermore, happy, confident teams have more fun and allow the boss to enjoy life more. When you select a newcomer, you have full control over a decision with important long-term consequences. It may be the decision you make this year with the most impact. By the way, you owe your best effort to the people who have applied as well.
So really focus on this choice, and apply time and resources to it. I have been amazed at how casually some selection processes are run. Have you ever experienced an interview when the interviewer seems to be scanning your CV for the first time as the interview starts? Or turns up late? Or takes calls or other interruptions? I have. I didn’t feel inclined to work for any other these people. That leads me to tip 2.
Tip 2: This is a two way process.
An interview is an opportunity to learn about some candidates, but it is also a chance for them to learn about you, your team and your company. Afterwards, you can choose to make an offer, but they then have a chance to accept or reject it. If they choose to reject it, you are quite likely to regret it, perhaps because you let the dream team member slip through your fingers, and at the least because you then face the extra burden of looking for someone else.
So give them space to ask questions. Offer up to them what they should expect if they get the job, in an honest way but certainly not in a way that understates the benefits. One of those benefits should be working for you, so conduct yourself in a way that shows you up in an authentic light. Apart from paying them the respect of your full attention, that also includes not patronising them or trying to humiliate them.
Be honest in this, since building up false expectations invariably backfires. But try to give a picture of what is expected, and if possible what the environment they would face in your team would be like. That leads me to tip 3.
Tip 3: Get help, especially from your team.
Interviewing is notoriously unreliable – some say worse than random selection. So improve your chances. Interview in pairs, and if possible offer two interviews so they see four different people overall. This reduces bias, gives candidates extra chances to overcome nerves, and allows time for note taking and reflecting during an interview. But the advantages of using existing team members to join you go far wider than that. It gives the candidate a much broader feel of how working in the team would be like. Candidates will ask questions to team members they would not ask you, and reveal more about themselves too. They may ask about you, and in this situation your team members are unlikely to paint you worse than the reality. It also creates ownership among your team for the new arrival, and they will work harder to integrate them. The first days for the new team member will be far easier for having familiar and friendly faces around.
This approach is such a winner, I’m amazed it is not used more often. I guess many bosses still like to maintain some hierarchical distance. Don’t be one of those.
Tip 4: Design a process and follow it.
Too often people conduct a set of interviews and then try to choose a winner based on general feelings. This might work, but the odds are less than if you do it properly, just like any other business project. I have a tried and trusted formula for this. First, I define about 6-8 criteria for judging, based on the balance of requirements. These could relate to experience or qualifications, but also team fit, and practical things like availability or cost. I always define one criterion as “wild card upside” to give me some flexibility to score feelings and qualities otherwise hard to reflect. I score each candidate out of five for each criterion, add up the scores and generally then don’t override the results. I use this when selecting a shortlist from CV’s and then again at interview. All interviewers use the same template and score independently (no chatting after an interview). Then reach a consensus at a meeting you chair, remembering to choose one or two runners up in case the winner rejects the job. This process does a lot to remove bias, and it also creates a better selection meeting, as the interviewers, including yourself, need to express why they prefer one candidate over another.
Tip 5: No short cuts.
Maybe this is the most important tip of all. Every time I have cheated my own process I have gone on to regret it, and indeed almost all my selection regrets have come when I have cheated the process. I have committed many sins. I have defined a job after choosing a candidate. I have chosen a candidate on recommendation only. I have interviewed only a single candidate (who not surprisingly I convinced myself was up to the job…and then wasn’t). I have made an offer when no candidate made the mark. Once I let my team run the process without me, at the time thinking this was a mature act. I’ve been swayed by emotion or gut feel and overridden what the scoring said. I have bowed to pressure from my boss.
Don’t do it. As tip 1 says, you will live with the consequence of this decision for a long time. Give yourself, and the candidates, the best chance to make it a good one.
Five more tips next time.
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