accountability

Harnessing the Power of Collective Effort

November 24, 2019 accountability, leadership No comments

A few blocks from my apartment in Osaka is a lovely park. Coming here is part of my morning routine as I spend this month in Japan.

As I sit watching this neighborhood in Fukushima Ward awaken, I notice movement out of the corner of my eye—a stream of people coming my way. Rakes and bags in hand, dozens of locals descend upon every nook and cranny and corner of the park.

Individually, they each gather up the leaves around them. Collectively, they bag all of the fallen leaves in 10 minutes. Work done, they stream back out, leaving the park clean and ready for others to enjoy.

I’ve noticed that this kind of collective effort is often overlooked in professional and personal endeavors. Instead of asking for help, we bear burdens and shoulder responsibilities by ourselves.

Why do we do this? My own reasons have varied. Pride kept me from asking for the help I needed. Concern that others wouldn’t meet my standards barred me from making requests. Fear that I’d be rejected kept me stuck doing more than one person should do.

Today I’m grateful that I’ve acquired a healthy habit of asking for help. Do I do this perfectly? Hell no! I’m still very human and very much a work in progress. But I’ve made progress and continue to do so.

How about you? Where in your personal or professional life could you benefit from some help? How could some collective effort move things forward faster? Who might assist you with a project and experience some benefits in doing so?

Eliminate This Common Issue That Undermines Effective Recruiting and Hiring

May 28, 2019 accountability, HR, interviewing, leadership, recruiting, staffing, talent acquisition No comments

Most leaders agree that implementation and follow-through are required for business success. Organizations that execute their well thought out plans succeed, those that don’t fail. So why don’t people follow through on plans, especially for something as important as recruiting and hiring the right people? The answer may be staring you right in the face.

Take a look around your office or cubicle. Do the same when you get home tonight. When’s the last time you paid attention to the art or decorations you’ve put up at your home or office? Not just a quick glance, but really taking a moment to appreciate the beauty of a piece or remembering what attracted you to it in the first place. Most people admit that the only time they take notice is when someone asks them where they acquired a particular object or its significance. Simply put, after a while everything blends in, even things that are especially meaningful to us.

This is commonplace blindness. Once we get used to something, it becomes commonplace. We stop noticing it.

Smart product manufacturers understand commonplace blindness, which is why they change their packaging from time to time. They want us to keep paying close attention to their products. Last year, I remember seeing a soft drink can that had the colors of a well-known competing product. Just above the label on the can were the words “Great new look. Same great taste.” Did the new packaging work? It got my attention enough to mention it here.

Commonplace blindness happens every day in organizations across the globe, and it’s not only the art that’s being overlooked. Those signs espousing your recruiting best practices haven’t been noticed in months. The hiring process document that you ask people to keep on their desks is collecting dust. The interview checklist that was put on tablets for convenience is ignored after just a handful of meetings. Seeing these items becomes part of the routine. These items blend in, causing us to take them for granted and stop paying attention to them.

Leaders often have to remind people to do the very things noted on the walls, process documents, or screens because of commonplace blindness. The cure is relatively simple: change the packaging. You do that by altering the look, location, or liability.

You can alter the design, color, or formatting—the look. Moving the location, just like moving furniture, often recaptures attention. To shift the liability, delegate responsibility to team members for regularly modifying the look or location of key items of workplace significance.

What happens when organizations counter commonplace blindness by changing the look, location, or liability? Check out these recent successes:

A large tech company all but eliminated turnover during the first 90 days of employment as interviewers consistently followed every written step of the hiring and interview process.
A boutique ad agency tripled its flow of top talent when managers remembered to follow their proven and well-documented recipe for writing job posts.
A mid-market staffing firm doubled the number of candidates placed on assignment each week when staff stopped overlooking the very simple and powerful workflow for taking and validating job orders.
A global manufacturer sourced more quality candidates than they needed for hard-to-fill roles when the talent acquisition team stopped relying on their memory and followed their checklists for tapping into all of the streams of talent.

You’ve worked hard to build a company with hiring processes and interviewing systems that drive your business. By avoiding commonplace blindness, you’ll have your recruiting and hiring best practices doing what they are supposed to do.

Interviews Are Rooted in Lies. Here’s How to Stop Participating in the Deception

April 2, 2019 accountability, HR, interviewing, leadership, recruiting, staffing, talent acquisition No comments

It has been said of some salespeople that you can easily spot when they’re lying–their lips are moving. Salespeople aren’t the only ones giving lip service to the truth. Job interviews are frequently built on one or more lies.

The lying is happening on both sides of the table. Candidates misrepresent their abilities. Companies overstate the facts. Both parties omit details.

The farcical dance that defines many interviews undermines effective selection. Candidates accept ill-fitting jobs based upon incomplete information. Companies end up having good interviews that turn into bad hires.

Are the lies told by candidates and companies intentional? Sometimes. Often the deception is unconscious. People are simply doing things the way they’ve always been done, unaware of the consequences.

Stopping the deception requires understanding and interrupting these lies. Let’s take a look at some of the different types of lying common in the hiring process.

Omission
Lies of omission are the most common as people leave out details they believe could become a deal breaker. Candidates choose not to share a past mistake they think could end their chances. Interviewers avoid talking about negative aspects of the job out of fear they’ll turn off a talented person. Both parties neglect sharing the full truth hoping it will bolster their chances of a positive hiring outcome.

Exaggeration
Rooted in the truth, lies of exaggeration bend the facts in an effort to make someone or something look better than it is. Employers amplify advancement opportunities; candidates magnify the depth of their experience; both sides distort details. Instead of painting an accurate picture, companies and candidates take liberties that misinform and mislead.

Deception
Lies of deception are a form of hiring magic. Like a magician who diverts your attention to create an illusion, deception in hiring is an attempt to divert attention away from negative details. Jobseekers change dates on resumes to cover up employment gaps. Companies misrepresent job details to make a role seem more attractive. Candidates and companies engage in a hiring version of fake news out of fear of the impact of the truth.

Promises
It has been said that promises were made to be broken. That’s being lived out daily in interviews. Managers openly acknowledge an organizational problem, promising it will soon be rectified even though they have no authority to keep that promise. Candidates commit to improving weak skills if hired, knowing full well they lack the time and resources to keep the commitment. Promises in interviews are a common workaround for real issues that aren’t really going to be resolved.

Plagiarism
When in school, using ideas or work that is not your own will get you a failing grade. When hiring, plagiarism will get you a failed hire. Hiring-related plagiarism is being perpetrated by both parties. Jobseekers provide work samples that aren’t their own and have friends take online skills tests. Employers copy and use other companies’ well-written job descriptions knowing that these documents are a far cry from the job they’re offering.

White Lies
Believed to be harmless, white lies are relatively minor omissions, exaggerations, deceptions, promises, and plagiarism. Although minor, white lies still distort the facts thereby undermining sound decision-making.

Accuracy in hiring requires accurate information. Without that, companies and candidates end up making choices they later regret.

You can put a stop to these regrets by taking three steps.

Step #1
Commit to rigorous honesty
Teach everyone involved in hiring about the 6 types of lies, making it clear that these are often unintentional habits. Share how you’ve made these errors; your vulnerability can elicit the same from your colleagues. Support one another in a commitment to a hiring process that is grounded in rigorous honesty.

Step #2
Be appropriately transparent
Rigorous honesty doesn’t mean engaging in blind transparency. A productive hiring process should give candidates (and you) the details needed to make a prudent decision. Take time to determine the information that a candidate needs to know including job responsibilities, role expectations, company culture, compensation, and career development and advancement opportunities. Appropriate transparency that is rigorously honest will help them make an informed choice.

Step #3
Clean up mistakes
You’re human and you’ll make mistakes, including when you’ve been in the practice of unintentional deception. Breaking this habit may take time, which means you may make some missteps along the way. Seize this as an opportunity. When you tell one of the 6 lies acknowledge it and clean it up. Remember that mistakes are your chance to demonstrate your excellence at problem-solving.

In a world filled with fakery your organization’s commitment to stopping all forms of deception is an opportunity. An opportunity to strengthen your brand, improve the hiring experience, and deepen engagement from the very first interaction. Those benefits alone are worth letting go of the lies.

Improving Employee Engagement Often Starts With a Divorce

March 27, 2019 accountability, HR, leadership, PODCASTS, retention No comments

Do you struggle with letting people go? You’re not alone. Many leaders have some level of discomfort when it comes to firing someone. Yet, this uncomfortable responsibility is frequently what’s needed to improve employee engagement. In this episode, I share with you how to make the decision of whether or not fire someone easier.

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What #PlaidShirtGuy Can Teach Us About Recruiting and Hiring Best Practices

September 10, 2018 accountability, HR, leadership, recruiting, staffing, talent acquisition No comments

Source: Twitter

Tyler Linfesty, better known to the internet as “plaid shirt guy,” became an overnight sensation because of his facial expressions at a Trump rally in Montana. According to the 17-year-old student from Billings, his reactions were a response to comments made by the President.

I’m not writing this to take sides politically; there’s already enough of that going on. What struck me was Linfesty’s choice—he chose not to take what he was hearing at face value. Instead, he listened and when he questioned something he was hearing it showed on his face.

His example is important for all of us who want to improve recruiting and hiring. We shouldn’t take everything we hear or read at face value. This includes news reports, social media posts, and even people in my line of work—speakers and writers.

It’s easy to believe someone who’s been invited to the stage or given space in a trusted publication. Speaking on stage or being featured as a writer elevates that individual’s perceived expertise. Many people listen to what these thought leaders communicate without questioning the applicability of that knowledge for their specific circumstances.

Case in point. I often hear speakers, panelists, and writers offer a best practice, proven method, or industry standard to solve a problem. Then, another thought leader in a different setting offers a different best practice for the exact same problem. Does this mean one of them is being dishonest? No. My experience is that most people are trying to be helpful.

The real issue is that best practices (and phrases that mean the same thing) are relative. From that individual’s perspective, the idea being put forth is what they believe to be the best. It’s up to you to be like #PlaidShirtGuy and question the applicability of that idea for your situation. Here are three ways to do that.

Idea #1
Check the label
Many ideas labeled as a best practice are in the eye of the beholder. Before deciding if it’s best for your organization, check the label.

To do that, I like to ask

Why has this been a best practice for your organization?

Idea #2
Trust and verify
Trust that the thought leader is trying to be helpful (because most are). Then, verify that the results achieved using that best practice will be worthwhile in your situation.

Ask questions like

What specific results did that best practice achieve?
How long did it take to implement?
How long before you saw those results?
How much did it cost? And what was the ROI?

Idea #3
Validate the source
In the spirit of being helpful, people will offer up brilliant ideas. Ideas that are sometimes not their own and that they themselves have not tried. When this happens, it tends to occur during panel discussions.

To validate the source, try asking

When did your company implement this best practice?

You can learn where the idea came from, allowing you to go to the original source for details.

How to Engage in Compassionate Accountability

March 7, 2018 accountability, leadership, video No comments

Holding staff accountable is a must for effective leadership. But how do you do so without being a jerk? Watch this video to learn more.

Being a Kind Leader Without Letting Niceness Get in the Way

May 26, 2017 accountability, leadership, talent acquisition, video 2 comments

It’s great to be kind. But taking that too far can undermine your effectiveness as a leader. Here’s how to combat this common problem.

Guilt-Free Leadership

October 26, 2015 accountability, leadership, recruiting, staffing, talent acquisition No comments

Morning Morning Message image Leadership requires taking chances and making on-the-spot decisions. Often, leaders make the right choice. Sometimes, they blunder.

Francis made such a blunder. In rebuilding his recruiting team, he hired not just one, but two people who ended up being bad hires. Making matters worse, several people, including his boss, advised against hiring them.

Filled with guilt, he ruminated over his “stupid” mistake. This triggered the story-telling mechanisms of his brain to make up frightening yarns as to all the negative impacts this would have. Stephen King himself couldn’t have written a better tale of horror.

The good news was this only went on for a few minutes as he realized that shaming himself wasn’t solving the problem. Instead, he did the next right thing, cleaning up the mistake.

We’re all going to screw up. When this happens, we simply must accept our mistakes, fix what we can, learn what we can, and move on. Guilt is optional.

Mistakes will kill you, if you let them. They can murder serenity, decapitate self-confidence, and eviscerate self-esteem. Every mistake is an opportunity to practice guilt-free leadership.

This gives a whole new meaning to “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”

Innovative Business Practices

March 11, 2015 accountability No comments

Take No Prisoners is a free weekly memo from Scott Wintrip that explores how Radical Accountability prospers companies and changes lives. Instead of taking people hostage with outdated, heavy-handed, and ineffective methods of management, measurement, and motivation, Radical Accountability focuses on creating an unwavering responsibility for getting done what matters most.

Most people would agree that killing the success of a business with ineffective approaches is a really bad idea. Unfortunately, that’s what’s happening in many companies across the globe. While the use of Repetitive Practices in their businesses may not close the doors, they are hampering the achievement of their tremendous potential.

What is a Repetitive Practice? It is an inefficient method or routine that is often the way things have always been done. Repetitive Practices are all too common and are the cause of or a contributor to most of the challenges faced by companies of all sizes.

How do you spot these? Watch for one or more of the following indicators:

A process that achieves less than the intended result.
Beloved or institutionally sacred methodologies that people fight to keep, even when these methods have lost their competitive edge.
Any routine that is complex, requiring constant reminders of what to do and how to do it.
A system, procedure, or course of action that people defend by saying, “But that’s the way it’s always been done.”
All ways of doing things that are the same after a maximum of two to three years (business and the market have evolved but processes lag behind).

What happens when you replace the repetitive? One example is an advisory client that improved sales tenfold in just three months. Their Repetitive Practice of Sales Force, a sales process that attempts to control the client, was replaced by the Innovative Practice of Sales Flow, a collaborative way of selling that engages the customer in selling themselves on buying. Sales Flow required them to put in less effort while creating happier buyers, enrolling them in a more satisfying process.

This Week’s Radical Accountability Activating Action: Start replacing Repetitive Practices with Best Practices and Innovative Practices. Download the Business Practices Spectrum today to begin this process.

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Stop the Exploding Brains

February 5, 2015 accountability No comments

Cartoon Image

How people learn and how they are taught are often not in sync. This shows up as inconsistencies in execution, untapped market potential, and the need to get “back to basics.” Simply put, if staff consistently did what they are supposed to do in the manner in which they are supposed to do it, execution would improve and results would grow exponentially.

Making matters worse, is the amount of content that is delivered in a relatively short period of time. A daylong or weeklong seminar is the equivalent of unscrewing the top of someone’s head, cramming it full of details, and then reinstalling their skullcap. Is it any wonder that people retain so little and use even less on the job?

Education, done well and done right, is not training. Delivered correctly, it includes the following:

Drip the learning to support retention.
Instead of requiring people to gorge themselves on a buffet of knowledge, give them meal-sized portions of content. Learning Limits, how much content people can digest in one sitting, requires this form or portion control to manage the delivery of ideas, strategies, and best practices.

Countermeasures for the human tendency of making the simple, complex.
Humans are masterful at making things much more complicated than they need to be. To counter this, quality education must promote simplicity, a systematic approach, and methods that are sustainable. These countermeasures mitigate or eliminate our innate foibles, especially when it comes to making mountains out of molehills.

Opportunities to apply what’s been learned.
Practice is said to make perfect. While it’s rare that people achieve anything near sustained perfection at anything, we need more opportunities to try out new skills and behaviors. It’s through repetition that we gain mastery, and trying to master any approach or technique only in conversations and meetings with prospects, clients, and candidates often leads to poor or even disastrous results.

Radical Accountability to counter the momentum of the status quo.
Momentum keeps an object going in the same direction. Since the pull of the status quo is so strong, it takes something even stronger, Radical Accountability, to break the momentum and create a sustainable shift in the opposite direction.

By stopping traditional training and starting real education, you and your organization can create real learning opportunities that benefit all parties, with no more exploding heads.

This Week’s Radical Accountability Activating Action: Begin to employ the four interventions to shift from a training culture to a sustainable learning environment.