I asked a candidate after an interview, “How did the meeting go with the CEO?”
The candidate sarcastically replied, “Remind me again, why would I want to leave my current position and go to work there?”
Not exactly the sort of answer I was searching for.
He was what we refer to as a, “passive candidate.” Meaning, he wasn’t actively on the job market. He wasn’t in any hurry to make a job change. He was open to exploring opportunities and seriously evaluating them, but would only make a change if all aspects of the position were beneficial to him and his career. He had to have good chemistry with the CEO, understand the company’s vision, and his role in helping achieve the vision. Basically, he wasn’t going to just make a move.
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hiring mistakes, hiring top talent, passive candidates, Retaining top talent, sourcing top talent
I pretty much ignore the monologue from the flight crew before the plane takes off. I do note the nearest exit. The rest I kind of tune out. You know the part where they talk about unexpected turbulence and the masks falling down from the ceiling. Well, I got to thinking about that today; especially the part about “if you are traveling with a child or seated next to someone who may need assistance, make sure you put your own mask on first then assist the person next to you.”
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Growing Edges, Leadership, Management
I’ve mentioned in several posts that the world of sales (for non-commodity products) has changed. The consumption minded market is not going to return any time soon. We need to build trust, and so the title for this post. Demonstrate that you are willing to work to generate new money or save me money before you gain from our relationship. Otherwise, it smells like “BS” and I’m not buying.
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Growing Edges, Leadership, Management, Sales
Business guru Peter Drucker has said, “Of all the decisions an executive makes, none are as important as the decision about people because they ultimately determine the performance capacity of the organization.” Warren Bennis, professor of business at the University of Southern California and author of Managing the Dream, calls the search for top talent “the most significant problem facing all organizations.”
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One of the most frequent questions we get on hiring is, “What do I ask sales people to get past the BS?”
For many, hiring sales people is difficult. The fact is most sales people think they can sell anything, when in fact the sales processes are so different, many don’t actually sell as much as take orders.
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Interviewing, interviewing mistakes
In just about every in-house company workshop we conduct on hiring, ( See our University for workshops), sooner or later the topic of reference checking comes up. Usually someone will ask, “Isn’t reference checking a waste of time? After all, the person is only going to give you someone that will say positive things.” As with many hiring managers today they are checking references the same way they have been for the last 50 years.
This comment is valid if you are going to do the standard reference check. You know, the one that asks the same questions Moses asked when he checked references. Such as:
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I spent about two-and-a-half days in a weekend training session with my colleagues this month. The topic was Understanding Company Financial Statements. The training was excellent, as is usual with Vistage, and it was well worth my time. To make things even better, we “saved the company.”
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Finance, Governance, Leadership, Management
A long time ago, before many executives reading this blog were born, I was in my first position after graduating from Engineering School. I was working in the aerospace industry on a military program. About three years into the project, things started heating up. We were “asked” (required really) to work six days a week to meet the contract obligations.
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Leadership, Management, Productivity
I mentioned earlier that now is the time to begin cautiously expanding your business. It’s also time to start looking at what you will do to retain employees. Why? Because of the cost of turnover.
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Employee, Leadership, Management
Recently, I had the opportunity to serve as an expert witness on corporate governance in an arbitration case. I was called to testify by the defendant’s attorney. The plaintiff’s attorney asked a pretty fundamental question right at the start; “What makes you and expert?”
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Expert, Growing Edges
