Six Unique Traits Biz Owners Look For in Potential New Hires
As a business owner always looking for exceptional talent, and as a mentor to emerging entrepreneurs seeking guidance on how to hire great people, I've learned that there are six definitive traits that great potential new hires share. These apply to candidates in all positions, in every sector, at any level - from intern to senior management.If you're in the market for a new position, if you're charged with scouting for new talent in your organization, or if you're a business owner trying to make those essential first hires, consider these characteristics or behaviors.
Goldman Sachs Exec: Leaving Due to "Toxic Culture." Three Lessons for All of Us.
This past week, veteran Goldman Sachs employee Greg Smith submitted his resignation via the New York Times, due to the "toxic culture" that now permeates the organization. "I believe I have worked here long enough to understand the trajectory of its culture, its people and its identity. And I can honestly say that the environment now is as toxic and destructive as I have ever seen it.... The firm has veered so far from the place I joined right out of college that I can no longer in good conscience say that I identify with what it stands for," he said.Smith's resignation cost the company more than $2 billion.
Creating a Culture of High Engagement - And a Future That is Bigger and Better than Your Past
How engaged are you in building a bigger and better future for you, your company, your family, our world?That was one of the questions I pondered as I absorbed every word that Matthew Kelly delivered at a recent Entrepreneurs Organization (www.eonetwork.org) event. Kelly is a master organizational consultant to several Fortune 500 organizations on the issue of employee engagement. He is also the author of the New York Times Best Seller "Off-Balance" and "The Dream Manager." Kelly led 125 entrepreneurs through the thought-provoking exercise of questioning our own engagement, as well as the engagement of those around us, such as our employees.
15 Ways to Be a Lousy CEO
Leadership isn't just about knowing how to do the right things. It's also about being hyper-aware of behaviors that can quickly alienate your employees and bring down your organization. In a position of leadership, everything you do counts. All eyes are on you, even when you aren't there. Employees feel your presence throughout the day because you set the tone. This is what it means to be a leader - to be aware of how your actions and decisions impact others even when you are physically absent. My 17 years of business leadership have taught me 15 ways how to fail at leadership.
Strategies for Evaluating and Building a Solid Banking Relationship
One of the most important strategic relationships a business owner has is with his/her banker. Yet so often, we treat this relationship as a commodity.Switching banks is not something that I would recommend lightly. As veteran business owners know, the process is cumbersome, stressful, and time-consuming even under the best circumstances. However, sometimes you have to know when it's time to make a change.
Status Quo Bringing You Down? Our Obsession With Being Better
It's that time of the year when we tell ourselves that we're going to be better next year. There's no shortage of experts to help us achieve "better" or "more." Is it just me, or are we experiencing an obsession with how-to-lists, habit lists, and steps to a better place?
Group Dynamics: Small Stones Cast Big Ripples
Throw a tiny pebble into a pond and watch the ripples reverberate. They cascade outward beyond the point that our eyes can see. The effects occur on the surface and beneath it. Have you ever thought about this change principle in the context of an organization? One of the most disruptive actions regarding a group's dynamic is the addition of a new member. In an organization, bringing in just one new employee into a company can potentially affect the chemistry and interactions of existing employees, and therefore compromise productivity. Consciously or subconsciously, employees are thinking, "How will this change affect my job?" "How will this person affect how we do things around here?" Their sense of organizational trust may be challenged.
"Always." "Never." "Every." A Guaranteed Path to Failure.
Always, Never, and Every are the easiest ways to set yourself up for failure. There's no room for error. Everything is presented as an all-or-none... an absolute. Who wants to live life with no wiggle room for error?The quest for perfection is too exhausting and completely self-sabotaging.Be a little kinder to yourself. Show some self-love. Lower the self-expectations just a notch.
Building Past The Million Dollar Mark: Will It Work for Your Life?
Building a multi-million dollar company can take over your life.Expanding a business requires careful thought about the lifestyle implications, access to money, and a thorough business plan that maps out the path to go from your current state of business to your desired state of business.
Joining the Club: Five Strategies for Selecting Networking Organizations & Communities That Deliver ROI
Do you ever feel like a lazy slacker because you're certain you're the only person not attending various networking events, or not a member of an organization? It's easy to get sucked into the networking vortex.There are so many events that you could attend a breakfast, lunch, dinner, and reception event every day of the week and still not make the rounds to every event out there. Wherever you reside, you have to choose wisely.
Three Things Business Leaders Must Constantly Do To Remain Extraordinary
Leadership is hard. Vision, strategy, financing, legal, IT, HR, operations, management, sales, marketing... and staying strong through it all. Tough.If you don't absolutely love what you do, if you don't believe in the positive difference you are making in the world around you, you can fatigue very quickly.
Employees and New Hires: Do They Get It, Want it, and Have the Capacity to Do It? (GWC)
One of the most critical elements of any organization is hiring the right people. Whether you are an employee or an employer, chances are you have your share of nightmare stories about the fallout of hires that were not the right fit for a position, or the organizational culture.
"It's Not You, It's Me:" Evaluating Prospective and Current Customers for an Organizational Fit
We’ve all been there… we’ve all met people at times in our life and thought that a relationship was going to work out, only to discover after you’ve peeled back the layers that perhaps it just wasn’t meant to be.
Seven Unique Ways To Create a Culture of Continuous and Collaborative Learning
How do we manage to fulfill our client requirements while maintaining our edge as thought leaders in the fields of integrated communication, social media, training, interactive development, and human capital?We use a variety of strategies that enable participation from the entire company.
A Day In The Life of the CCO: A Chief Culture Officer To-Do List
We can't assume the culture is on auto-pilot. We need to do regular pulse-checks with our people. In an era of technology, processes, and systems... in a lifetime that has become app-driven, we have to protect the humanity of our companies. Our employees need to know we are checking the heartbeat of the organization on a regular basis, and that means gauging the happiness, engagement, and emotional health of those that support us.
Do Employees Make Your System Smarter? Or Is It The Other Way Around?
What's the smartest and strongest aspect of your organization? Is it your employees, or is it your organization?If you follow the thinking of the spectacularly failed Enron Corporation, who religiously subscribed to the belief that having better talent at all levels is how you outperform, then you put most of your stock in the strength of your people. At the height of its hiring frenzy, Enron was bringing on 250 newly minted Ivy League MBA's a year, grossly overpaying them, giving them Carte Blanche to pursue strategic ideas, and catering to their every professional demand.