I recently heard of a company
that wanted to save money on staffing
so they didn’t replace a key admin person.
They ended up missing a major tax deadline
and paid penalties
equal to a year of that person’s salary
(the FULL cost, benefits and everything).
This happens… a lot!
A huge chunk of my billings
is from cleaning up messes made
by missing staff.
I know that
the chorus for corporations
right now
is cut, cut, cut
but don’t cut so deep,
the costs outweigh the savings.
I’m starting a new contract gig today
(going from insanely busy
to unmanageably busy).
The employer hated my resume.
She didn’t like how I answered the interview questions.
I failed the personality test.
I am unavailable for half the contract dates.
There was a lot of competition for this role.
Yet I got the contract.
Why?
Because they felt I could do the job
and because they liked me.
I met with a senior editor on Thursday.
She told me that voice was important,
style was important,
but what really decided
the signing of a new author
was if she felt they could work well together.
Everything else could be fixed.
Personality… not-so-much.
Nice people do NOT finish last.
BTW… nice does not equal indecisive or meek.
I completed a personality test today.
That test was a requirement
from my prospective employer.
I don’t have a problem
with personality tests
IF they are used to
help a manager manage her staff.
I DO have a problem
with personality tests
as interview screeners.
In this case,
the employer told me
she was going to
compare my results to that of a senior staff accountant.
The thing is…
I’m a project accountant (in this role).
Project accountants and transactional accountants
traditionally have VERY different personalities.
A human resources department
of a Fortune 500 company I once worked for
proposed using personality tests as screeners.
The V-P of Finance flatly refused.
To provide backup for his refusal,
he had his cracker jack staff complete personality tests.
Not one set of results was the same.
Some ‘announced’ that the employee
should work anywhere other than finance.
Each of these employees excelled
in their positions.
The idea of using personality tests
as screeners was thrown out.
Just because a tool is available
doesn’t mean it works
and doesn’t mean you should use it.
Yesterday,
during an interview,
the interviewer asked me for
more and more specifics
regarding what I’ve done for other clients.
I skated around her questions
until finally
I bluntly stated
that I kept all client information confidential.
Sharing specific information
meant sharing confidential information.
I was uncomfortable doing that.
They didn’t understand my thinking.
(And that concerns me
but that’s a whole other post)
Did they really want me
to tell competitors/vendors/the entire world
that the reason I was brought on board
was to find a couple million dollars
that has been missing since January?
Think about what you ask in interviews
and then imagine
your greatest business threat
asking that question of your former employee.
Would you want that question to be asked?
How specific would you want your employee to be?
I don’t have enough hours
in the day
to do everything I want to do.
A big time suck
is, of course, travel time.
There are ways of taking advantage
of travel time…
audiobooks,
voice to text software,
handhelds, blackberries,
writing blogs offline
while on buses, etc
But it is even better
to reduce travel time
all together.
That means
grouping your outside office appointments
by day
(if you’re out, you’re out)
and by location
(if you’re in the west end,
see everyone in the west end).
I also sneak in shopping time
while I’m out
(especially during the holiday season).
Take advantage of all the hours
in your day.
I spent today
listening to person after person
slice into a large corporation.
They talked about this corporation
as though it had no soul,
no face,
no feelings.
You and I know that’s not true.
Corporations,
even those on the Fortune 500 list,
consists of people,
hundreds, or thousands of people.
Each one of these people works there
for a reason.
For many of them,
that reason isn’t just money.
They believe in the organization.
They believe in the product.
They believe in what the company stands for.
So when you attack the company,
you’re attacking these employees.
Next time,
you diss a big organization,
remember that it is not faceless.
I was recently approached
about an executive position
for a non profit organization.
The pitch was…
I got a project
(great, I love projects).
I got a budget
(great, money makes more things possible).
I could make all the decisions
(great, I prefer that).
I had to keep the executives in the loop
(that’s what the cc function
on emails are for).
I had to attend the monthly executive meetings.
(WTF?)
Supposedly the last stipulation
was so I could have input
on other people’s projects.
Why?
I don’t know.
The project I was being assigned
had enough work attached to it.
I said “No, thank you.”
Meetings are a time suck
I’d rather do
so if I can do without meetings,
that’s the volunteer position
I sign up for.
If you’re a volunteer organization,
offer some positions
that are meeting free.
You’ll get more high quality volunteers.
Leadership Blog
has summed up Drucker’s
Seven Deadly Leadership Sins.
The most deadly?
Pride.
“The sin of pride
is usually considered
the most serious of the seven deadly sins.”
Being proud of one’s accomplishments is one thing.
“The problem comes
when leaders believe themselves so special
that ordinary rules no longer apply.
Generalized pride
—as opposed to being proud of specific things—
is the most serious leadership sin
because it can easily lead to the other six.”
Innovators, thankfully, have a
natural neutralizer for this sin.
It is called failure.
If you innovate,
you will fail.
If you never fail,
you don’t innovate
enough
(i.e. you’ve failed at innovating).
I remember that
every time I get a little too full of myself
(which is not often
as I fail on a regular basis).
A friend of mine was having problems
with her marriage.
Instead of addressing those problems,
they had a baby,
hoping the problems would magically fix themselves.
Now she’s divorced with a child.
I was having problems
with a character in my novel.
Instead of spending the time
to gain an understanding of that character,
I crammed the story with action and excitement.
The story still doesn’t work.
We all do this.
We try to solve a touchy problem,
not by addressing the problem directly,
but by applying a quick fix.
Quick fixes are okay short term.
Long term, they don’t work.
Don’t cover up problems,
solve them.
This week,
I’ve noticed an increase in pessimism,
especially on the blogs and twitter.
Fight it.
Optimism (or pessimism),
like happiness,
is a choice
(barring illnesses, etc).
I choose to be optimistic
and I use tools to increase that optimism.
I don’t often watch the news
(I read headlines, that’s it).
I read romance novels
(always a happy ending).
I love hearing good (or groaner) jokes.
I don’t hang out with complainers.
I decide to always, at first,
answer yes
and THEN decide if it should be a no.
I work hard at maintaining my optimism.
Why?
Because most successful people are optimists.
ALL successful entrepreneurs are optimists
(why they launch businesses
despite the rather low odds of success)
Dr. Toshihiko Maruta, a Mayo Clinic researcher,
reports that “optimists have
a dramatically higher level of
physical and mental functioning than pessimists.”
Protect and nurture your optimism.