Ideas, Leadership, and Vision

Finding and Keeping Talented Employees

Recently I was asked to contribute to an article that would be featured in the March 11th addition of Radio and Records magazine.  The title of the article is "Finding and Keeping Talented Employees".  I am one of  9 people that were asked to contribute.  I though you might enjoy the article.

Download r_and_r_article_031105.pdf

Bosses on the hot seat

While scanning the both the internet and the bookstores looking in magazines for great management or leareship articles I came across one in The March edition of Worthwhile magazine.  The title of this article is "Bosses on the hot seat"  written by Worhtwhile cofounding editer Kevin Slawen after interviewing Gallup's  Curt Coffman. (Coffman is co-author of bestsellers First, Break all the Rules:  What the World's Greatest Managers do differently:  Follow This Path:  Unleashing Human Potential.)   I encourge you to click on the link and check out the article, I think you will enjy it.

More lessons from the field

It is truly amazing to me how much I can improve my management skills by coaching 9 year old girls soccer.  Last night we had another practice and for the most part the girls did an excellent job.  They all really enjoy playing soccer and they all really like to win.  They are learning that it takes hard work, discipline and a lot of practice if they want to improve and get better, but they are up for the challenge.

so here are some quick take aways from last nights practice....
1.  Give specific instructions
2.  catch them doing it right, and let them know.
3..  Tell them, Show them, Teach them.  You got to do all three.
4.  To much yelling looses all effectiveness
5.  Telling someone good job will go a long long way
6.  Listen to what they have to say, they sometime really "get it" more then you might think.
7.  Putting the right girls in the right positions is a key factor to success and fun.
8.  practice is important but perfect practice is how you make it really happen
9.  celebrate the wins and learn from the losses
10  every once in a while take the kids for Slurpee's.  it's the best $2 investment you'll ever make.

The Job Description

The job description is perhaps the most underutilized yet extremely important piece of information available to help you find, identify, and select a potential new hire.  In my experience, the way most people put together a job description includes simply pulling out the previous description, changing some dates, and moving some things around.  There you go, it must be ready to be posted.  WHAT A MISTAKE!!  When you do this, you are just looking to make a bad hire.  Even worse, you are setting that person up for failure, and they don't even know it. Before you make that next hire, do yourself a favor and give some good thought to the job description.  Consider the job description as a list of the activities that your new hire will be accountable for.  It will pay off down the road.

If you have experiences to share with job descriptions,positive or negative, please post your comments. I am interested to hear what you have to say.

Talent: Sales Talent is hard to find

Why is it so difficult to find sales people that have the right talent themes to make them good at sales?  Why is sales talent so hard to find?  Why do sales departments seem to have such a high rate of turnover?  Why do so many sales people struggle to get by, causing their sales managers to suffer from the anxiety of a struggling sales dept?

There are a variety of different experts who will give a variety of different opinions on all these questions.  If you consider yourself a student of talent or if you are in a profession that requires you to be good at identifying talent, allow me to recommend some books and some websites to you...      

• First, Break all the Rules by Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton 
• Now Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton
• Now Discover Your Sales Strengths by Benson Smith and Tony Rutigliano 
• Soar with Your Strengths by Donald Clifton
• Good to Great by Jim Collins
• www.gallup.com
• www..talentplus.com

In my experience with sales talent, I have found that it is not very common.  In fact most people who are extremely talented at many things, actually do not have a tremendous amount of the many talents necessary to be very good at sales.  There are an endless amount of potential talents that an individual can posses, only a handful of which specifically apply to sales.

In 2003 - 2004 I interviewed approximately 250 "wanna be" salespeople.  Many of them told me that they would be good at sales because they had the gift of "gab."  I have always found that funny because I know so many successful sales people that are not the most talkative in the group.  At some point, being able to "gab" has become a very popular stereo type for a successful sales person.  Others prospects believed that sales was their calling because they are motivated by money.  While that certainly is a quality that helps motivate top salespeople, it does not make someone good at sales.

Of the 250 people I interviewed last year, I would say that about 10% had the talent that would allow them to be successful in outside sales for my company.  Of that 10%, or approximately 25 people that I thought had the right combination of sales talent, we hired about 13.  After 18 months, the 13 people that we hired have whittled themselves down to a group of 10 who are still having a great amount of success for us. Mathematically this works out to a 77% retention rate which is very good and meets our expectations exactly.  Before we started really looking at talent themes and addressing the specific needs of our organization, our retention rate was somewhere in the neighborhood of 40% - quite a difference from the 77% we are enjoying now.

When looking at sales talents, we must look much deeper than, "do they have it or not?"  We must closely examine which talents they do have and how those talents work together and play off of each other in the sales arena. Paraphrasing Jim Collins in his book, Good To Great, we have learned that you have to get the right people on the bus, the wrong people off of the bus, and get the right people sitting in the right seats.   When you can properly match the specific talents of an individual with the specific talents needed in a certain position, you are on your way to success.  The people at Talent plus believe that in the Talent Formula (Talent + Fit) x Investment = Growth. I think they are right on the money with this.  When the process really works, and I am able to match the right person with the right job, and then make the investment into developing that person, they usually do fantastic.  Their natural talents have been correctly aligned with the needs of the organization and we all win.  You can just watch the success happen. 

Lessons from the field

10 Lessons I have learned from Coaching 3rd grade girls soccer:

1. Make sure you set clear expectations of how you want the parents to act on the sidelines and how you expect the players to act during the games and practices.
2. Always make practice fun.
3. Tell the girls how proud you are of them.  Tell them often and tell them in front of everyone.   When one girl messes up, use that as a coaching moment and work with her individually, showing her how she can improve.
4. Start practice off with a fun drill that all the kids like.
5. As the coach, be the first to arrive and be there the whole time.
6. End practice on time.
7. Figure out each girls talent and put them in a position which allows her to excel.
8. Thank the players for their hard work and effort.
9. Remeber that they are in 3rd grade
10. Learning how to win as well as how to loose is very important.

Some great lessons that I have learned....  I use them at work as well.

Developing or Doing?

I always find it fascinating that some people in management positions think that their job is to do the work of the people that work for them (while I am sure that it seems easier to do that at times, certainly not the best way in the long run).  It goes back to that saying:  "If you give a person a fish they will eat for a day but if you teach a person to fish they will eat forever"  I am a big believer in the "teaching" and the "developing" of talented people. 

Recently I was asked by a manger in my company, that had just taken on a bit more responsibility, how he might be able to do a better job of developing the people that work for him.  After talking to him and listening to the specifics of  what he was currently doing I gave him this bit of advise.... 

• Before jumping in to solve the problem that the person has brought into your office ask that  person what they think they should do?

• Acknowledge up front that every person is different and trying to develop everyone the exact same way is not possible and in fact is not effective.

• Set up a plan for how you will develop that person.  Work with them by using their talents and helping them to develop their strengths.

There are lots of ways to help people to develop and as a manger charged with the responsibility of developing people you need to figure out the best way to get that done.

If you have some thoughts on this subject or you want to share a story please comment.

Talent: Is it in You?

What is Talent?  Where does it come from?  When do you get it?  If you don't have it in you, can you work hard, hard enough to eventullay get it?  Will training help?  These and many other questions are very common when people start talking about talent.

As I am sure you are aware, there are many ideas on the subject of talent floating around out there.  But, what is your take? 

In the next few weeks, I will share my thoughts on Talent, specifically sales talent.  I will talk about how this talent, if identified properly and developed correctly, can lead to some of the most amazing results! 

More on this subject soon.......