Category Archive: Staff Development

How To Lead The Interview Process

Posted by on August 5, 2013

When it is all said and done all potential employees will be evaluated under the two broad categories of character and competency.  The more important of the two is character because you can help most people through training to improve their skill set but you may never be able to overcome who they are as a person.

Once you have narrowed the number of resumes down to the people that you may be interested in it is very helpful to conduct an initial phone interview.  It is very important to learn how to ask open ended questions that will allow the person to talk beyond the typical scripted answers.  As quickly as possible find out what they are passionate about and what they are capable of doing.

The next step is to send them a series of questions and assessment tools that will give you an even clearer understanding of the person’s strengths and personality tendencies.  This should be compared to a very detailed reference resource form that looks for the not so obvious information.  A good question might be if you were to see them in a totally different field of work what would it be and why?

By the time you get to a face to face interview the issue is more about character and chemistry than it is competency.  I have found it very beneficial to involve other team members in this process to see how they read the fit for our organizational culture.

I would never hire anyone for any kind of significant role without first meeting their spouse.  Seeing a couple interact with each other can tell you a lot about the person.  Probably one of the most important things to do is get the person in several casual settings where they will not have their game face on and you can listen and observe how they interact with other people.

This entire process could take several months but remember the only thing worse than not having a position filled is to have it filled with the wrong person.  When in doubt move on to the next person because as a leader your gut is probably right.

What practical steps do you include in this vital process?

 

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Multi-Generational Churches

Posted by on April 22, 2013

There is always the debate about what is the most effective strategy for reaching new people, change an existing church or simply start a new one with its own unique culture.  In my opinion both have their strengths and weaknesses, so the decision should depend upon the context.

There are several things I have noticed when churches are started with one particular age group in mind as the target.  All of your programming, especially your worship can be one style depending upon the age group in the room.  The staff and the facilities can be designed with the needs of this age group in mind as well.

Although this may work for a short period of time there eventually will be serious challenges that must be addressed.  One day all of these single adults will get married and then they are going to want programming for their children.  Eventually, this same group will become empty nesters and that will bring on another whole set of needs.

My point is simply this, every church given enough time will become multi-generational unless you are going to tell people at some point you need to leave.  Since that is a reality then why not start with a multi-generational model from day one that will avoid all of these potential crisis points that can kill momentum and destroy unity.

An even more significant reason is that it is biblical.  Every person is important to God from the youngest newborn to the oldest senior adult.  The gospel will always be more receptive with younger people but the ministry of the church must include the widow who is all alone.

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Peter Principle

Posted by on October 10, 2010

Every leadership expert that I have read in the last five years understands that the most important asset for any organization is the people who are on your team.  If you have not transitioned from the industrial age to the information age in how you are leading your people you will not be able to compete in the new global economy.

Good to Great makes the point about getting the right people on your bus and making sure you get the wrong ones off.  There is also a priority on verifying that everyone is in the right seat on the bus.

This is where the Peter Principle can create blind spots within your organization.   Just because someone has been a very effective employee in the past does not mean they can continue to be effective in the future.

The natural tendency is when someone does a good job they eventually assume even greater responsibility.  They were the best customer service representative you had when your company started and there were less than one hundred accounts.

When the company reaches three hundred accounts then other customer service representatives are brought on board and now your best practices representative just became a manager of other people.  After all they deserve the job because they have tenure, expertise and loyalty to organization.

There is only one major problem; they are not gifted or passionate about managing a customer service department that one day will grow to over one hundred employees.   These once great team members who are no longer effective have been promoted beyond their capabilities and that is why they are failing.

Never assume that because someone is great in one discipline they can naturally transition to leading others in the same area.  If you do not watch this one very carefully you run the risk of a dysfunctional customer service department and tragically loosing a once great employee in the process.

 

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First and Lasting Impressions

Posted by on January 21, 2010

I have had two very bad experiences with customer service this week.  Not only was I the recipient of this bad “service” I also saw several other people having the exact same horrible experience.

In both situations the people assigned to dealing with the problem made promises they did not keep.  For example setting pickup times and assuring you that if they did not call it would be ready, status updates that did not happen and the approach let’s just try this and I am sure it will work when they really did not have a clue about what to do.

Here is the interesting part at least for my situation.  With both companies only because of my pushing I was eventually given to a supervisor to help me resolve hour’s worth of wasted time and finally fix the problems. 

When I communicated with these new people they had a much better attitude and brought product knowledge that the front line people did not know.  They did simple things like returning my calls on time and then committed to do whatever it took to resolve my issues.

Here is my question?  Why not set the bar for all of the front line people in your organization at the same level where the supervisors were operating either in technical training, people skills or the authority to make it happen.

You will never convince me that it is cost effective for any company to pay less than qualified people to take hours of their time and your customers offending people that will probably never come back unless they get the slim chance to talk with their boss.

The front lines of your organization where interaction takes place with the people who are experiencing what you have to offer will always be the place where you want to make the best impression.  If you’re weakest and newest team members are given these roles thinking they will grow into the job eventually the problem will solve itself because you will not have any more customers to deal with.

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Pull The Trigger

Posted by on August 10, 2009

There may be nothing harder to do as a leader than make the decision to terminate an employee.  To be honest we feel to some degree we have failed and that is hard to accept.

This is especially true if we hired the person in the first place.  Not only have they failed but now our performance as a leader may be in question also.  We cannot let our own emotional need for personal success stand in the way of doing what is right for the organization.

There are three critical things that I must do as a leader before I feel that my responsibility has been completed prior to any termination.  The first is to provide clear expectations of what is required in their job description.  It is impossible for someone to meet your expectations if they have not been clearly communicated early and often.

The second important thing is to make sure the person has had adequate training and resources to complete their job successfully.  It is not fair to ask someone to grow a particular area and not give them the financial and manpower assets they need to be effective.

The last issue for me is a comprehensive and ongoing feedback system that lets a person know exactly where they stand in the area of performance.  It is not right to see someone make mistakes day after day and stick your head in the sand hoping it will go away only to drop a bomb on them at annual review or even worse an unexpected termination.  If you do not have the leadership skills to positively confront someone about what they are doing wrong then you may be the one in the wrong job and not them.

If you have done all of these three things well and given this person every opportunity to improve and they don’t then you should feel no guilt or sense of failure.  Never obsess on the five to ten percent of your staff that may need to go every year. What is extremely important is to remember the ninety to ninety five percent who are doing their jobs well and are watching to see if you have the character as their leader to pull the trigger.

 

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In Search For Silver Bullet

Posted by on July 28, 2009

In Jim Collins latest book How The Mighty Fall he talks about companies that start on a systematic downward spiral that leads ultimately to total failure as an organization.  One common problem he found is that when they finally realize they are in serious trouble rather than dealing with real problems they search for the quick fix approach of finding the right silver bullet.

When full blown panic sets in there is a frantic search for several silver bullets that can be dramatic big moves such as game changing acquisitions or a risky new strategy or an exciting innovation or new leadership, anything that can save us.  The following is list of several silver bullets observed:

1.       Grasping for a Leader as Savior:  The board responds to threats and setbacks by searching for a charismatic leader and an outside savior.

2.      Panic and Haste:  Instead of being calm, deliberate, and disciplined, people exhibit hasty, reactive behavior, bordering on panic.

3.      Radical Change and Revolution with Fanfare:  The language of revolution and radical change characterizes the new era: New Programs! New cultures! New Strategies!

4.      Hype Precedes Results:  Instead of setting expectations low—underscoring the duration and difficulty of the turnaround—leaders hype their visions initiating a pattern of overpromising and under delivering.

5.      Initial Upswing Followed by Disappointments:  There is an initial burst of positive results, but they do not last; dashed hope follows dashed hope; the organization achieves no buildup, no cumulative momentum.

6.      Confusion and Cynicism:  People cannot easily articulate what the organization stands for; core values have eroded to the point of irrelevance; the organization has become just another place to work.

There are no quick fixes or silver bullets for organizations that have complex long term problems that have built up for decades.  The new realities of the global economy did not create these problems it merely acted as a catalyst to reveal them.

 

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Performance Review Systems

Posted by on July 13, 2009

All of us at some point in time have waited with anxiety for that wonderful time of the year when we receive our annual performance review.  Even if you know that you have had a great year you are never really sure what is going to be said and how pleased management is with your performance.

To a great degree this whole process is a major problem within most organizations.  On the one hand poor performers are not dealt with on an ongoing basis and sometimes they are even given good reviews because their direct supervisor does not want to admit that they also have failed.  Sometimes employees think things are going great only to have the big bomb dropped with no real explanation as to why they were not told before.

On the other extreme top performers are left in the dark about what they are doing well and they only get the one time a year serious conversation about where they stand and what is next in the area of development.  The bottom line there should be ongoing informal times for evaluation and at least twice a year if not quarterly a brief review of exactly where everyone stands in regards to expectations.

I have seen performance reviews that are literally 20 pages in length with a tremendous amount of worthless information.  Most in my opinion should not be more than two to three pages that only deal with key objectives and some type of quantitative analysis on success.

I also prefer some type of 360 feedback system in place so that in a non-threatening way immediate supervisors can be told what they need to do to help improve their direct reports performance.  This should be a time where an honest exchange of information takes place so that everyone knows what they need to do to improve day to day performance and lay out a clear plan for professional development for all involved.

We really need to change the culture of the performance review process from going to the dentist mentality to meeting with my coach who I know has my best interest in mind and is passionately committed to helping me reach my potential.

 

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Practicing Feedforward

Posted by on July 1, 2009

Almost every serious organization uses some form of feedback to evaluate the performance of their top leadership team.  This usually works best in a 360 type environment where the person receives feedback from superiors, peers and subordinates as well.

The concept of feedforward was developed by Marshall Goldsmith in his best seller What Got You Here Won’t Get You There about how to coach senior executives.  He encourages every leader to identify core behaviors that need to change through feedback.  Then apologize for your mistake and commit to change that character quality in the future.

The primary way he recommends to accomplish this is through the four disciplines in feedforward:

1.       Identify Target Behavior—choose the one behavior that your colleagues have told you about that you consider to be at the top of your list for change.  The number one issue among the thousands of people he has worked with is to be a better listener.

2.      Enlist Accountability Partners—the key here is to secure a personal commitment from as many people as possible to help you in this particular area.  This should include family members as well as various levels of people within the organization where you work.  They will all commit to help you focus on this one specific area and help you with ongoing feedback.

3.      Solicit Specific Suggestions—ask everyone in your accountability circle for at least two suggestions that might help you achieve a positive change in your selected behavior.  The key ground rule here is that there should be no mention of mistakes in the past but every comment is about the future.

4.      Practice Active Listening—take appropriate notes if necessary but make sure you are really listening to each and every suggestion to the point that you can put it into practice.  Also it is very important regardless of the quality of the input to be sure to graciously thank everyone involved who will take the time and emotional risk of telling you what you really need to hear.

 

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Law Of The Inner Circle

Posted by on June 23, 2009

This by far is one of the most important principles identified by John Maxwell in the realm of leadership.  The simple definition of the law is that a leader’s potential is determined by those closest to them.

As any organization continues to grow the leader cannot continue to spend equal time with every person on staff because of time constraints alone.  This means that eventually the majority of a leader’s time will be need to be spent with the top 20% of their leadership team.

It is a proven leadership principle that they in turn will produce at least 80% of the desired results because of the scope of their impact throughout the entire organization.  The leader is incredibly dependent upon this inner circle because they are responsible for providing the best information possible upward for decision making and they are also responsible for the downward execution of all planning.

Leaders of large organizations should still spend some time managing by walking around and maintain some personal contact with all levels of staff.  However the purpose of this interaction is for personal encouragement and visibility and not for problem solving and day to day decision making.  The leader can be involved to some degree with everyone but they must invest themselves only in the inner circle because they are the key to continued growth and outstanding performance.

 

 

 

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