Due diligence leads to effective hiring

Jim Collins’ refers to team-building as getting “the right people on the bus”.  Tom Rath’s Strengths Finder 2.0 calls it playing to one’s strengths.  In the book First, Break All the Rules, Buckingham and Coffman state that managers should focus support efforts on achievers to bring out their best rather than exert futile effort on under-achievers.  The underlying theme of these management philosophies is that it is critical to have the right people in the right roles.

The hiring process is not only nerve-racking for job seekers, but also for hiring managers.  Managers are responsible at least for leading a team to deliver on specific tasks, and then some.  A great manager creates synergy within a team and within an organization.  Good team-building results in 1+1=2; great team-building in 1+1=3.  On the flip side, poor team-building results in 1+1<2.

Too many hiring decisions are based upon a cursory review of resumes, evaluation of referrals, and an interview.  Instead hiring should require as much due diligence as a capital investment, because hiring is an investment.  Following is a three phase hiring process that facilitates multiple formal and informal interactions with a candidate, allowing for an evaluation of consistent behaviour. 

Phase 1 – Informal interaction

·         After identifying candidates, call each unannounced to introduce yourself and explain the hiring process.  Schedule an informal icebreaker meeting on the call or via email.  (Evaluate how the candidate handles the call and communication skill).

·         Send an email, including an information sheet describing the organization, the team and the role in more candid details than the job posting.  The purpose of the hiring process is to find a great fit between the individual and the role, so there is no use sugar-coating the role any longer.

·         The icebreaker meeting is 30min, and can be held via telephone.  The objective is for both parties to ask clarifying and inspective questions to ensure expectations are clear.  The hiring manager asks clarifying questions related to the resume.  Avoid asking behavioural questions at this time as this is an informal discussion.  In addition, conduct a phase 1 skill assessment.  My roles are quantitative in nature so I provide an Excel forecasting exercise which requires a brief explanation.  For a technical role, I recommend a scripting exercise.  I allow candidates 24 hours to complete, although I recommend only one hour.

·         After evaluating the above interactions, filter the cohort for Phase 2.

Phase 2 – Formal interaction

·         Schedule a formal face-to-face interview with short-listed candidates.  The formal interview consists of a qualitative skill assessment, such as a case study, and is conducted with a peer or senior manager.  The case study should be appropriate for the level of the position.  In addition to the case study, conduct behavioural and situational interview questions.

·         Evaluate candidates based upon Phase 2

Phase 3 – Further interaction

·         If the decision is not yet obvious, arrange further interaction between the candidates and potential colleagues, other hiring managers or senior managers.  These meetings are informal in nature, an opportunity for trusted colleagues to interact with the candidate. 

 

Through this process a candidate displays various facets of their character and both quantitative and qualitative skills.  There is always risk in a hiring decision.  However, with this process the hiring manager gathers information and can mitigate the risk, increasing the likelihood of success.

Effective presentations through storytelling

Engaging your audience with a presentation is a challenge indeed.  You have to be empathetic to your audience, who is inundated with information and figures every day.  So a presentation that assaults with factoids – slides saturated with figures and data – is not likely to be successful. 

To create an engaging presentation, consider employing the art of storytelling.  And what is a better place to turn for the art of storytelling than movies. 

A story is made up of acts, which in turn are made up of scenes.  This structure resembles a presentation that is made up of sections, in turn made up of slides.

A scene provides a change in the beat of a storyline.  A scene is only effective if it changes the “charge” of the story, either providing a positive or a negative development for the protagonist.  A scene that has no charge is ineffective and lends nothing to advancing the story.

In a presentation a slide that does not provide a positive or negative charge should be delegated to back-up materials (the “deleted scenes”, to continue the analogy).  A slide that carries facts but no meaning is as engaging as reading an encyclopedia.  Write the slide header to capture the essence of the charge, similar to a newspaper headline.

An act is a series of scenes that results in an irreversible state, which may be either ultimately positive or negative but have none the less advanced the story’s protagonist to this unalterable condition. 

In your presentation a section should accomplish the same, providing a series of slides that leads to a conclusion that for the audience is irrefutable, thus irreversible in their minds. 

Finally, story is the accumulation of acts, which when combined provide an arc that traces the story from its beginning state through development, a climax and ending in an altered state.   The underlying theme is evident upon experiencing the journey. 

A presentation strives to accomplish the same, leading the audience to a realization – the message – through a series of acts. 

In your next presentation try applying these principles to engage your audience in a way they are only accustomed to in the theatre.

(NOTE: I recommend “Story” by Robert McKee to learn more about the skill of storytelling.)

Insights from Clifton StrengthFinder 2.0

StrengthFinder 2.0 by the Gallup Organization suggests that job performance and engagement are correlated to the fit between one’s intrinsic strengths and role requirements.  The premise is that every individual has strengths that when leveraged in the appropriate job results in high performance and engagement.

As a manager I was interested to see my team’s strengths.  And it was very insightful to look at the strengths within the group and compare to individual work style and job performance. 

I focused on the premise that strengths matched appropriately to the job result in high performance.  Indeed, the top performers on my team appeared at first glance to have the appropriate strengths for our strategic planning and analysis mandate.  However, one high performer stood out with a distinct skill set that favoured so-called “soft skill” strengths rather than analytical and quantitative strengths.

The key to understanding how these individuals with disparate strength sets can be equally high performers in comparable roles is in the environment in which they work, or more specifically the stakeholders whom they support.  The distinct individual supports a sales leader with a reputation for vociferous people-skills and a tendency to shoot from the hip, whereas the other individuals support sales leaders known to be data-centric and pragmatic.

If the analysts on my team switched places, I imagine they would both struggle to be equally successful compared with their current roles.

This insight has implications on the simple theory that fit between strengths and the role requirements results in high performance.  Consideration must also be given to the human environment defined by stakeholders, leaders and fellow team members.

A lesson in humility

In the summer of 1999 I travelled to Chaiyaphum province with CANHELP Thailand ostensibly to build a school house. The actual building of the school house was conducted by Thai contractors while the thirty Japanese delegates (I was the only non-Japanese in this group) provided menial labour and cultural exchange for the students and community.

It was a joyful trip as we joined the school children and teachers in work, games, and recreation. The boys’ amazed us with their dexterity at Sepak Takraw, similar to volleyball but played with a rattan ball and feet only, and after a sweaty game we jumped in the swimming hole behind the school yard.

An experience I cherish is when the young Thai students humbled me. Working on the foundation for the school house I came upon an ants’ nest, which I proceeded to vacate viciously. On my upswing, a gentle hand grasped my shovel. The young girl, her peers looking on from behind her, simply said “No. It’s OK.” in English. I was ashamed because I remembered that the majority of Thais are Buddhist, and as such they believe in reincarnation and respect for all life.  My barbarian attack on the ant nest was an affront to their culture.

The young Thai girl taught the towering farang a lesson in the appreciation of life and respect for diverse cultures, an lesson that would not have been learned poolside at the Hyatt Phuket.

The fallacy of the free market model

As a student of business and a corporate worker I have been bred to believe in capitalism and the free market.  However, the economic damage and hardship inflicted on common folk like me by the Wall Street collapse of 2008 and the social backlash led by the Occupy Wall Street movement has placed the free market under the microscope for intense scrutiny.

The free market concept postulates that markets are efficient because all information is freely available.  Because all information is freely available rational decisions are made and the market is self-stabilizing.  Therefore there is no need for regulation.

The fallacy of the free market model is that it does not take into account human behaviour, which has a tendency to confound any logical model.  Human behaviour is innately self-serving and illogical. 

First, within human behaviour is an intrinsic survival mechanism, which drives us to achieve our own needs and desires at the expense of others.  Wall Street executives have a deep desire for money and will acquire it at any cost, evidently at the detriment of society as a whole.

Second, Wall Street made a killing off of poor quality investments sold through subterfuge.  Despite knowing the impact these investments inevitably would have on the economy, they continued to flog them to the unsuspecting and trusting middle class.  Thus Wall Street had information that the market did not have, which is antithesis to the free market model.

Regulation is required to keep predatory human behaviour at bay; without controls the strong will decimate the weak, or to reiterate, the insider-informed will decimate the rest of us.

CMA vs MBA

The other day I was asked how the CMA designation and MBA degree differ. 

Obviously this individual had done some research to recognize there is a similarity.  The CMA designation is not purely focused on accounting, but also broader business acumen and management skill.  The framework for the CMA designation process is defined by six functional competencies and four enabling competencies:

The six functional competencies:

1.       Strategic management

2.       Risk management and governance

3.       Performance management

4.       Performance measurement

5.       Financial management

6.       Financial reporting

And the four enabling competencies (in other words the soft skills CMA candidates develop in order to fulfill the above functionalities):

1.       Problem solving and decision making

2.       Leadership and group dynamics

3.       Professional and ethical behaviour

4.       Communications

It should be evident that the CMA designation encompasses more than just accounting, but also business acumen and management skills – quite similar to an MBA.

Now that I have highlighted that point, here are the differences between the CMA and MBA:

• Getting your CMA is much less expensive than the MBA program.  In today’s environment many universities promote the MBA as a means to advance one’s career, but with the high costs associated with the MBA it is worth considering the ROI. 
• The CMA designation requires on-going membership in good standing, which in turn requires continued skill development.  In this way, the designation reflects a certain level of subject matter knowledge, skill and integrity.  The MBA, on the other hand, is a university degree that once completed, is … well … completed.
• To remain impartial (if that’s still possible), an MBA from a reputed institution such as Kellog, Harvard or Sauder is quite influential.  The CMA designation has only one issuing institution and thus does not offer a second information tier to indicate quality.
• The private sector collaborates closely with good MBA programs, giving MBA students an opportunity to develop networks and gain exposure.
• My final point is I believe the most important: CMA and MBA are both just letters.  The letters alone do not guarantee a lucrative job.  In either program, one student can complete with barely 50% and another with a strong mark, and they both share the letters.  But what differentiates the successful from the not successful is the knowledge and skills acquired, which comes from effort and talent.  On a resume or at the interview, this will be evident.

"Out of the box" - an approach to problem solving -

Let me illustrate my approach to problem solving with a puzzle.

Draw five dots on a page like below.  Without lifting pen off the paper or retracing a line, connect all the dots together with straight lines so they are all connected with one another.

Scroll down for the solution.

Keep going!

A bit more!

That’s far enough.  Here it is … ta da!

I like to believe this puzzle provided the origin for the expression “out-of-box” thinking. 

Like many problems, the solution is simple.  Yet we prevent ourselves from easily seeing the solution because of self-imposed constraints.  In this case, by seeing four “corners” we automatically assume that we must work within those four corners, or “the box”.  In fact, if you re-read the instructions at no time does it stipulate such confines, just simply instructing to keep the pen on paper.

I have observed a similar behaviour in the way people approach problem solving and analysis.

Many people tend to think linear, following a thought process in the diagram below. 

1.       A problem is presented requiring a solution or analysis

2.       The analyst identifies the available resources, whether it is skill set, data and information, or people.  This step becomes the self-imposed constraint.

3.       The analyst then relies on those available resources to devise a solution or conclusion

4.       Based upon this information, a solution is presented and implemented.

I like to follow a different approach, not to think linear, but backwards.

1.       Like above, the whole process starts with a problem arising

2.       My next step however is to visualize the solution, asking myself “what does the ideal solution look like”.  At this early stage the visualization will be devoid of actual figures, but I know that it will provide the answers we seek.

3.       After identifying the ideal solution, I list what resources will be required to achieve that solution.  These resources may be skills, data, information, knowledge, people, etc…

4.       I will then go about gathering those resources and working on the analysis and solution.  Naturally, not all the ideal resources may be available, in which case at this point I will preliminarily use a lesser quality resource, a substitute or an estimate.

To summarize, when approaching problem solving follow the following hints:

·         Consider the problem statement very carefully.  Beware of developing constraints when non exist.  Do not create self-constraints.

·         Being with the end in mind; ask yourself “what does the ideal solution look like?”

·         Keeping the end in mind, identify the ideal resources and aim to acquire those resources (which may involve seeking someone new in the organization or developing a new skill), or contrive a suitable substitute if not available