Hire Power Radio Show

Latest Episodes:

The Hidden Pools of Sales Talent with Chris Beall of ConnectAndSell Oct 21, 2021

Show notes

While everyone is chasing the same people, ie: those who work for competitors or the 3-7 year up-and-comers, there is a huge pool of talent that are on the sidelines waiting for a well positioned opportunity to present itself.

I’d like to challenge you to think about the concept that outstanding talent comes from the most unlikely places.

Last week we heard the story of a top sales performer at Swag.com who had no sales experience at all. But the Desire alignment was through the roof and now this person is absolutely thriving in their organization. The creativity & outside the box thinking is what sets the stage for success!

Today is all about hiring outstanding sales people in an environment that is ridiculously competitive.

Our guest today: Chris Beall, CEO of ConnectAndSell

For 30 years Chris Beall has led software start-ups as a founder or early-stage developer. He believes the most powerful part of a software system is the human being, and that the value key is to let the computer do what it does well — go fast without getting bored — in order to free up human potential.

Chris and his team provide a SaaS solution for sales teams to talk to more prospects, and hosts a podcast, Market Dominance Guys.

Today we discuss:

Why you are looking in the WRONG places for sales talent
How to adapt your hiring model to uncover high performing sales people

Challenge today in hiring sales people?

Can't find people
- Everyone is chasing the same (wrong) people
Get bid up (too expensive)
Takes forever to train
They bounce
Not interested in the job
Huge untapped pool of talent (over 40)

Why is this important to the company?

Adopting a 2 tier model you
Flow rate of meetings is a bottleneck of almost every company
- Always invest in the bottleneck

Rick’s Nuggets

Value alignment within the organization is more important than ever before
- Connecting the dots between values & desire avoids bidding wars
- Creating value above and beyond the paycheck
People do not leave when they are in alignment

How do we solve the problem?

Change your model
- Make SDR as a real professional job
- Look at different age demographics
Identify people who come from the industry you sell to
- Huge untapped pool of talent (over 40)
Interview like you mean it
- Test people. Have them do some work
- Have 10 conversations
  - Good voice
    - Can you make people laugh
    - Modulating your voice
    - Listen to the conversation
  - Coachable
  - Length of time you keep people on a call

Rick’s Nuggets

“Walk me through the process how you closed your last deal”
Scripts are king!
Align your interview process with your company values
To properly assess people you need to be able to evaluate them for alignment

Key Takeaways that the Audience can plug into their business today! - Value:

Take the SDR role seriously and not just as a stepping stone. (your company’s bottleneck
Embrace real management for sales- pay attention to process
The only thing a SDR needs to do is sell a meeting… not the product.

Guest Links:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-beall-7859a4/#

Company: https://connectandsell.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/chris8649

Blog: http://blog.connectandsell.com/

Podcast: https://www.marketdominanceguys.com/

This show is proudly sponsored by Criteria Corp: https://www.criteriacorp.com/

Hiring Your First 10 People with Jeremy Parker of Swag.com Oct 14, 2021

Show notes

Growing your company from 2 to 10 people is the most critical time in your company's life cycle. The reason for this is every single hire that is made can make or break the company.

Every founder I meet has a story of “we hired a person that we thought was going to be a rockstar and it turned out to be a disaster”.

So where do things go wrong when a bad hire is made?

The interview was run from a position of need; where we focus on selling the opportunity. So excited to get this new rockstar on board that we totally forget to take the time to understand if the person aligns with the values of the organization.

The good news is there is a solution to avoid these sometimes deadly mistakes and it just requires structure and developing your listening muscle.

Our guest today: Jeremy Parker, Co-Founder and CEO of Swag.com

Swag.com is the best place for companies to buy and distribute quality swag that people will actually want to keep. We work with 5,000+ companies including Facebook, Google, Amazon, Netflix, Spotify and Tik Tok.

Jeremy was named to Crain's NY 40 under 40 (Class of 2020) and Swag is #218 on the Inc 500 (2020) and #368 (2021)- Fastest growing private companies

Today we discuss:

The importance of the first 10 hires
Process to avoid making the wrong hire

Challenge today?

Hiring for the resume
People who have done it in the past
Not about the skills but the culture
One bad hire can destroy a business

Why is this important to the company?

Story: First 2 years just the founders. Then scaled quickly to 14 people

Who you hire in the early days is super important. Need to be the right fit, for the right time. They could be a great person and extremely talented but if they are not the right fit for the time it can go sideways.
Up to 70 people now and everyone is ability is important, skills not as important, as culture

How do we solve the problem?

Stop micromanaging
- Guide & teach & trust that people will get it
- Allow people who are hiring to do the job
Right mentality & Right focus (embracing failure)
- Failure is ok
- Embrace it!
4 rounds of interviews
- First meet with Department Head. If that goes well, meet with someone who is currently in that same position in the company, to make sure they feel this person can do the job well.
- If that goes well, meet with the COO,
- if that goes well, meet with CEO.
- If the candidate gets through all rounds and everyone feels they could be a good fit, we get at least two reference checks. Someone who they worked under and someone who they worked alongside.

Rick’s Nuggets

Evaluate everyone around your values

Key Takeaways -Value:

Being ok with failure! Nothing can go wrong when you are ok with it. Failure will get you where you need to go.

Guest Links:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremyianparker/

Company: https://swag.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/swag.com/

Twitter:https://twitter.com/promotewithswag?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/promotewithswag/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/swagdotcom/?fbclid=IwAR1TnFCOQ8kv-chtsiP5wKexliw55YISu2rESPCLGUu86tEynikmspBy9xc

This show is proudly sponsored by Criteria Corp

How to Thrive in Hiring Through the “Great Resignation ” with Rick Girard of Stride Search Inc. Oct 07, 2021

Show notes

4 Million Americans quit their jobs in July of 2021 , according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. What this means is that you have a tremendous opportunity to upgrade your talent base in your organization.

The pandemic has magnified people’s career wounds in a way that every business will be impacted.

While many reasons are given as to the cause of this mass exodus, the root of the fall out is that the people leaving are no longer in alignment with the company’s values.

Value alignment is now more critical than ever to attract and hire people. Because when people align with the actual company values, they find meaning & discover their purpose.

And their purpose is far more important to them than your profits.

Today is a special episode due to the massive number of requests from our audience about this little problem called the great resignation

We discuss:

Why it is critical to own your company values
How to prosper in Hiring - TODAY!

Challenge today?

My people are getting poached!
We have come to a point where people want meaning & purpose in their lives.
Perks, compensation & benefits no longer matter
People are questioning their “why”
Imbalance
Stress & heartache
More flexibility is not the real issue
Inc Article https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/great-resignation-work-meaning-esther-perel.html
Demonstrating meaning & the company cares about them as “human beings”

Why is this important to the company?

Who’s leaving?
- Mid- career employees have the highest resignation rates! (30-45)
You are positioned to heal a person's career wounds.
When you align with values and provide a solution to heal, both parties WIN
- People are expecting win-win relationships with their employers
The Great Opportunity!
- Easiest time in history to engage A-Players!
- Raise the performance bar in your organization

4 Steps to Win-Win Talent in this Great Resignation

Get solid on your Values

Key to attracting top performers
Who you are
how you lead
how people act

Understand your Recruiting Process

Recruiting is how you identify people & get people to talk to you.
Just because you recruited someone great, doesn't mean you should hire them
Or that they will even accept your job offer
What is working today
Target and Contact & Reconnect
Do not sell, listen

Understand your Hiring Process

Start with an in depth Discovery call (phone screen)
Does this person’s desires align with the company (correctly positioned)
Not skills
Vision for the environment in which they will excel
Timed & structured Interview
Values alignment first
Skills second (working session)
Nurture a proactive flow - allow the person to have a voice in what happens next
What would you like to do next?

Heal the Career Wound

Growth, Content of work, Management
Value Alignment
Progression, learning, flexibility
If you cannot provide a path to the individual, don't hire
Someone else will thrive in the role
You will be just a paycheck (if the person joins)

Key Takeaways -Value:

The “Great Resignation” is real and you need to be capitalizing on the opportunity that has been presented to us!
Get tight on the company values… They are the key to a successful hire
Don't confuse a recruiting process as a hiring process. They are two separate activities.

Rick's Links:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rick-girard-07722/

Company: https://www.stridesearch.com/

Podcast: https://www.stridesearch.com/hire-power-radio

Book: Healing Career Wounds - https://www.amazon.com/Healing-Career-Wounds-Ridiculously-Successful/dp/173580360X

This show is proudly sponsored by Criteria Corp: https://www.criteriacorp.com/

Time Kills Hires with Andrew Bartlow of Series B Consulting Sep 30, 2021

Show notes

Time and People are the most precious asset your company has on the road to success or failure.

As leaders, It is our responsibility to protect the time of our team to ensure that projects are delivered on time. It is also our responsibility to put processes in place that ensure that the strongest people are in the right seat!

Shouldn't each step of the interview process have a purpose and save time for everyone involved?

Yet Interviewing is the single point of failure in almost every company.

Too long.

Too short.

No clear direction.

Or riddled with boobytraps that repel strong people from even engaging with your company!

Our guest today: Andrew Bartlow, Founder & Managing Partner of Series B Consulting.

Which helps businesses to articulate their people strategy and accelerate their growth while navigating rapid change. He also founded the People Leader Accelerator, which is the foremost development program for HR leaders at startups.

Andrew Bartlow has 25 years of Human Resources and Talent Management experience at organizations across a wide spectrum of sizes, maturity stages, and industries. He is the co-author of “Scaling for Success: People Priorities for High Growth Organizations,”

Andrew has worked with clients like MasterClass and many others to help them overcome obstacles in a hyper-growth phase.

Today we discuss:

Why your timing kills hires
How to Time out your process in the most effective manner

Challenge today?

Filling roles with good people with less of an internal organization tax

Too many interviews, too much time - I’m out

Over emphasis on consensus, 10-12 people over multiple rounds
Giant time drag on a company
People fall out
Offer to close rate 60% is not good!

Why is this important to the company?

Time - interview time takes away from productivity
Rapid growth is usually essential. Time burns cash runway, employee time and goodwill, and competitors keep coming.
Efficiency matters - particularly at the early growth stages
Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good. Should be able to make rapid hire / no-hire decisions, and fair/reasonable separation decisions without months of agony.
“Hire slow and fire fast?” I’d suggest looking for a goldilocks zone on both. Take the time necessary, but not one minute more than what is net value-adding to do both.

Rick’s Nuggets

All that is needed is:
- Discovery Call
- Value Alignment Interviews
- Working Session (skills)
10 business days max

How do we solve the problem?

Start by clearly defining the roles that you want to fill
- Source candidates in a scalable way
- Expand the pool
- Employer branding
- @ Series A should get beyond friends & family network
Hire a dedicated recruiter
- Need a screen / filter before the manager sees the candidate
- Passive candidate magnet
- Check for compensation expectations & role interest; initial assessment of required skills, knowledge, and experiences
- Goal is that ZERO candidates make it to the hiring manager who have out-of-bounds pay or role expectations, and all of those candidates moving forward have experiences that reasonably match the role
Manager vetting before meeting the team
- One and done interview process ~30 minutes 1on1 via video
- Confirm that the candidate is interested in the role and the comp budgeted - preclose the candidate
- Ask for references here!
- A candidate shouldn’t come meet with a team until / unless the hiring manager is a strong advocate to hire them. Don’t waste the broader team’s time.
- Work Product Sample (optional - often good for technical roles, but rarely for G&A)
  - Give a real problem - don’t spend a lot of time coming up with hypotheticals, too many variations which will change
  - Faster / easier / more accurate to work on a real problem. Just get an NDA.
  - Related alternatives - Can review Github rather than request a project. Can conduct a live shared-screen working session. Can ask for examples of prior work that demonstrates a good fit for the role.
  - LOTS of candidates drop out at the project stage. Don’t let this become a barrier!
- Team Screen
  - One and done over video, with multiple people involved
  - Cultural (watermelon @ Gusto) interviews have a risk of being counterproductive. To be effective it should be structured, interviews have good training, and the traits assessed should be really clear AND ALIGNED with the future needs of the org. Danger of holding onto the past - what got you here, won’t get you there.
- Decision
  - After the team screen, there should be a hire / no-hire decision. Lots of organizations get hung up comparing candidates, not sure what they are looking for. You need to fill jobs with good people and KEEP MOVING. A hiring manager / hiring team which isn’t sure what they are looking for is the single largest waste of time and energy in the company-building process.
  - Can have a calibration meeting. Maybe the recruiter supports it, but really, the hiring manager should own the decision and have the most energy around moving forward.
- Offer & Candidate Closing

Rick’s Nuggets

Reverse engineer the time to hire and set timelines for each stage
- Set process before you define roles
- Train your people on “how you hire”
- Gain commitment from interviewers for excellence

Key Takeaways -Value:

Streamline your process. Fill jobs with less time from the team. May or may not fill the role in fewer days, but can reduce total hours committed by the group from 100+ to closer to 10. Yes, this requires a bit more ownership and potentially a little more time (per candidate) from the HM, but should dramatically reduce the overall time by the team.

Guest Links:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bartlow/

Company: https://www.seriesbconsulting.com/

Speak On Podcasts: https://speakonpodcasts.com/andrew-bartlow/

People Leader Accelerator: https://www.peopleleaderaccelerator.com/

This show is proudly sponsored by Criteria Corp: https://www.criteriacorp.com/

How to Stop Sucking at Hiring Sales People with Joseph Fung of Uvaro Sep 23, 2021

Show notes

Hire slow, fire fast is a motto we have all heard as startup founders. It makes logical sense but what really happens is quite the opposite. As entrepreneurs we shift into panic mode when we have a need and move quickly to fill the role. Completely missing all the evidence that this person will be a bad hire.

Once the person is in the seat, the dread of having to refill a role often leads to concessions made to the detriment of the business.

Hiring Slow means investing the time to really make sure the person will be a strong hire. Therefore there should be no need to fire fast. Especially if you really understand who the person is and gain evidence of the value they add to the company.

Think of each person you hire as being worth $2 million dollars to the company. Changes your perspective, right?

A lot more care and a higher talent bar would be prioritized over just “filling the seat”.

Our guest today: Joseph Fung, Founder & CEO of Uvaro

A tech sales career accelerator, and of Kiite, a sales enablement platform purpose-built to provide sales teams with the information they need when they need it. Joseph’s a repeat Founder & CEO, and with multiple successful exits, and speaks frequently on the topics of sales leadership, diversity, and corporate social responsibility.

Joseph is an expert in sales, startups and building scalable culture.

Today we discuss:

Our mentality around hiring sales people
How to effectively attract & hire high performers

Challenge today?

Hiring for software skills rather than problem solving skills
No internal training- want someone who already doing what you need done
Rely on stereotypes and gut
- Need people who can speak to a bigger variety of customers

Why is this important to the company?

Fix the problem, you can triple the production of 1st year sales reps
- 8 months to ramp, average sales rep only achieves 60% of quota
- Ramp in ⅓ time and drive production to 80% - Training
Churn & burn kills morale
Cash costs are immense on the back end

How do we solve the problem and hire the strongest people every time?

Throw out your job description
- Translate ideal customer to sales job description
- Ideal Customer Profile- go granular
Choosing what & who to hire
- Invest in Revops & sales enablement
- 50:1 ratio Rep to SE is a start => move to 20:1
Mindset
- Treating the organization with respect
- Thinking is you solve the problem by hiring more people
Interview
- Culture fit interview - “Is this someone I want to have a beer with?” not
- Turn it into a behavioral interview - what behaviors demonstrate values alignment

Rick’s Nuggets

Performance metrics are most critical component today for job descriptions today
- Accountability up front
Understanding a person’s positioning
- Transactional Sale VS. Enterprise/Solutions Sale
- Resources available
- Builder, Improver, Maintainer
Uncovering the impact that has been made in their current/former position
- Save time, increase revenue

Key Takeaways -Value:

Throw out your job description . Copying others is just propagating bad habits
Stop asking people to sell like the founders - it won’t work
Re-think your culture fit interviews...write behavioral questions

Guest Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josephfung/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/josephfung

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/josephfung/

Company: https://uvaro.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/school/uvarolife/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/uvarolife

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/uvaro.life

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/uvaro.life/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/uvaro

This show is proudly sponsored by Criteria Corp: https://www.criteriacorp.com/

Hiring for Talent Optimization with Mike Zani of The Predictive Index Sep 16, 2021

Show notes

“There is work that needs to be done and I just need someone good to do the work”

*** sigh ***

This is what we tell ourselves when we decide to hire someone. But it is so much deeper than just getting a butt in the seat!

Growth is the most important factor here. So, we must start with the end in mind to avoid making HUGE hiring mistakes!

Yes, we need to get the work done but will this person really help your company grow? And more importantly, can your company provide the growth that the person you want to hire desperately desires?

Our guest today: Mike Zani, CEO of The Predictive Index.

Mike Zani, the Wall Street Journal best selling author of The Science of Dream Teams, is CEO of The Predictive Index, the leader in talent optimization. Prior to The Predictive Index, Mike served as president of LEDCO, a manufacturer of rugged computer peripherals. It was at LEDCO where Mike, a customer of The Predictive Index, developed his passion for the company’s vital management tools.

An avid sailor, Mike began his career in marketing and sales with Vanguard Sailboats and was a coach for the 1996 U.S. Olympic Sailing Team. He holds a B.S. from Brown University and an MBA from Harvard.

Today we discuss:

Hiring for Talent optimization

What is talent optimization
How to hire for it

Challenge today?

How to you hire well within the context of time & risk

What risk are you willing to take on bad hires?
Systems in place to support the risk
- 30, 60, 90 day check ins to support
Do you just want t body in a seat
Persona
A talent optimized system allows you to train & develop
Need to develop the programs to support

Why is this important to the company?

We are 30 years behind sport in bringing analytics for hiring
What is sport doing now?
- TA is the single most important function in the organization
- Need to take a maniacal approach to hiring.
- Fantasy league hiring takes more time than hiring to companies
Data drives success
Performance measurement

Rick’s Nuggets

Getting the right person the the bus is FAR more important than getting work done
- If the work is that important, hire a contractor
The mistake made is the optimism of the founder
- Assumptions
- Hire on their potential (assumed), bias (assumed) & need (get it off my plate)
- Zero time is taken to understand what the other person desires, other than a paycheck
Consider this: The cost for every bad hire is $2M

How do we solve the problem?

Top of funnel strategy
- Clear mission
- Hiring brand that attracts talent
- Palpable culture - Strong enough that it disqualifies people
- Great referral strategy - cash after 6 months,
Bottom of funnel strategy
- Hiring systems
- Strong assessments -behavioral , cognitive, analytics
- Hiring process, structured interviewing
- Training- especially on cultural interview aspects
- interviewer grading, scoring, developing
- Remove people who are bad interviewers
Post hire Strategy
- Benchmarks
- Performance systems - 30,60,90 day
Hire for buoyancy!

Rick’s Nuggets

Mid Funnel Strategy

The Interview
- Structured & timed
- Values aligned
- Challenging
- Does the interview produce evidence to support the decision
  - Is the evidence supported by the assessment?

Key Takeaways -Value:

Need a post-hire system!
Can take more risk
Need to have a feedback loop to add/subtract people from the interviewing process.

Guest Links:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikezani/

Company: https://www.predictiveindex.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/predictiveindex?lang=en

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/predictiveindex/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepredictiveindex/?hl=en

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCexehrVsBrP9SiNeBm4pY7Q

This show is proudly sponsored by Criteria Corp: https://www.criteriacorp.com/

How to Terminate an Employee with Dignity - Lori Torres of Parcel Pending Sep 09, 2021

Show notes

The first time I was fired was when I was 16 years old and working at Numero Uno Pizza. It happened really strangely, I went in to pick up my paycheck and the manager let me know that this paycheck would be my last one as I was no longer employed there.

No warning and no explanation.

Bewildered, I simply walked out the door, walked across the street and was hired by their competitor.

The way in which the whole experience went down, left me feeling embarrassed & resentful.

Never again did I eat at that restaurant because of the way they made me feel.

Our guest today: Lori Torres, Founder & Former CEO of Parcel Pending

The nation’s leading provider of innovative package management solutions. Prior to Parcel Pending, Lori was SVP of property operations at The Irvine Company.

She has been recognized on multiple occasions for her leadership, including being named 2017 “Innovator of the Year” by the Orange County Business Journal and chosen as one of 13 entrepreneurs admitted into the EY Entrepreneurial Winning Women™ 2017 North America class.

Lori worked to build a world class organization and is going to share her wisdom.

Today we discuss:

Making the difficult decision to part ways
How to fire a person in a way that leaves everyone feeling good about themselves

Challenge today?

When is the right time to make a change and terminate someone?
Can you afford to do it, do you have the bandwidth
Taking the time to really understand
Have an intervention- performance improvement plan, use to be successful
Articulate to really improve the person's performance
Everything possible to make sure they are successful
Accountability tool &

Why is this important to the company?

Benefits: often find someone better
Help the person you are terminating to the world,
Embrace the people management side of the business
Termination is part of the evolution of the company
Change needs to happen,
This is the game we are playing, these are the rules, here’s how we move forward
What you need at $3mil is different at $10M

Rick’s Nuggets

Be proactive in your hiring
Hiring for growth first - start with the end in mind
“people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” - Maya Angelou

How do we solve the problem?

Identify performance issues first
- Candid open, specific conversation
- Time frame to meet the expectations
- Check in: not meeting expectations,

Provide a performance improvement plan
- Whatree performance is now, when they are not meeting expectations, when we are going to convenience to review

Termination
- Reason for termination:
- Labor attorney- worth the money to handle things properly
- Quick conversation : next step, it is not working
- Part ways with dignity!
- Severance with a legal document release of liability & non-disparagement
- Walk them out the door and wish them well
- Offer help to help them move forward

Sample Termination
- Rick gets Fired!

Rick’s Nuggets

Really take seriously the performance metrics that were set for your people in the job description
Evidence to support the hire first!

Key Takeaways -Value:

Really spend the time to hire correct people. It's like dating, Interview a lot
When the person is not performing, invest the time to
Have non-confrontational conversations with people

Guest Links:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/loritorres/

Company: https://www.parcelpending.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ParcelPending

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/parcelpending

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/parcelpending/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFj7yh4kDC7Jx5CDUYnar7A

This show is proudly sponsored by Criteria Corp: https://www.criteriacorp.com/

Why You Need to Interview Like Amazon Now! with Rick Girard of Stride Search Inc. Sep 02, 2021

Show notes

Answer: Linking Corporate Values into Your Interview Questions eliminates bias

I posed the question to a room of over 400 corporate executives and the results shocked me when I first asked it. Now when I ask the question, the results just make me …. Sad.

“Please raise your hand if you have had any formal interview training at any time in your career, other than what not to say in an interview”. Three hands were raised. 3 out of over 400 people!

And we wonder why hiring is “hard”. Guess what, It is not so hard for companies like Amazon who, from the beginning, have structured and trained their people HOW to effectively interview people. This is why they have always been a talent magnet, and not because they pay well.

3 out of 400 people! This was a major a-ha moment for me and it should be one for you!

Imagine the impact your company will have on this planet when you and your people get really good at hiring.

Today we discuss:

The importance of linking values to interviewing
How to set up and execute a values driven interview

Challenge today?

Talk about bias elimination
- cannot happen until interview questions are designed to extract evidence
- The content of the interview cannot be left up to chance
- The fate of each interviewee is determined in the first 15 minutes at most. Sometimes in the first 5 minutes….. All based on bias
51% chance that your decision is wrong
- Unchallenging, unimpressive interviews only attract people who are there for the paycheck
- Talented people (A-players, change makers & high performers) do NOT want to work for yahoos!
- Informal, unstructured & unprepared interviews make you look like a yahoo.
- Offer turn downs are at an all time high

Why is this important to the company?

One word: AMAZON
- Leadership principles (company values) are what drives decision making
- Customer Obsession
- Leaders start with the customer and work backwards. They work vigorously to earn and keep customer trust. Although leaders pay attention to competitors, they obsess over customers.
- Hire and Develop the Best
- Leaders raise the performance bar with every hire and promotion. They recognize exceptional talent, and willingly move them throughout the organization. Leaders develop leaders and take seriously their role in coaching others. We work on behalf of our people to invent mechanisms for development like Career Choice.
- https://www.amazon.jobs/en/principles
Talent is drawn toward excellence

How do we implement values driven interviewing?

Clearly write down your company values
- Founders- this is you & your values
- As you ad people, reassess at least bi annual- especially before hiring ANYONE
Develop Values
- Clear definition of what the values means to the company
- What attributes characterize each value
- Measurables (how does a person live the value in their day to day life?
- Sample exercise

Value #1 Dignity

Definition: Treating yourself and others with respect & courtesy

Attributes:

CEO

Co-founder

Dept Head

acceptance

Self-respect

self-confidence

Non judgemental

equality

Respect for others

Self esteem- elevation

decency

Stands tall

empowered

Treat as equals

Measurables:

*** Empowering others

*** Respect for others

*** Non-Judgemental

Build interview Question Library
- Behavioral questions designed to bring evidence of how people “show up”
- "Tell me about a time...." or “Describe a time when….” or “Outline a time where….” or "Give me an example of..."
- Questions must be Indirect & not obvious to the interviewee
- Evidence to support Attributes
- Support / follow up question flow

Value #1 Dignity

Attributes:

*** Empowering others

*** Respect for others

*** Non-Judgmental

Tell me about a time you helped elevate the performance of one of your teammates (Empowering Others)
- How did you learn of the issue?
- What were the events that led to this performance being important to you?
- How much time do you dedicate to the cause?
- How do you feel you could make more of a difference?
- What makes this important to you?
- What was the outcome?
Give me an example of a time you stood up for a person you didn't know (Respect)
- What steps did you take?
- How did this affect the other person?
- What made this action important to you?
Describe a really uncomfortable work situation that needed to be addressed that was personal to the other person? (Non-Judgmental)
- What were you asked to do?
- How did it make you feel?
Reinforcement & Training
- Live your values
- Make it a language by which decisions are made (like Amazon)
- Teach everyone who interviews, how to extract evidence
- Capture data - training & compliance purposes

Key Takeaways -Value:

Invest the time to build out your corporate values - the Payoff will be HUGE
Take the next step and connect them to your interviewing
Train your people! Part of their job is to other high performers so give them the tools to do so

Rick's Links:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rick-girard-07722/

Company: https://www.stridesearch.com/

Podcast: https://www.stridesearch.com/hire-power-radio

Book:https://www.amazon.com/Healing-Career-Wounds-Ridiculously-Successful/dp/173580360X

This show is proudly sponsored by Criteria Corp: https://www.criteriacorp.com/

How to Effectively Make Your First Departmental Hire with Liam Rose of Catalina Seven Ventures Aug 26, 2021

Show notes

You are at the point in your business where the company is ready to hire the first person to head up a department (i.e.: sales, marketing, engineering). You are excited and terrified at the same time. You’re thinking “I have to get this right”... and you are right, you do!

How do you evaluate a person with an area of expertise that you are NOT familiar with?

The answer, my friends, is being prepared, digging deep and really listening! Step outside of your first impression and be aware of your tendency of confirmation bias.

Shift your focus on gathering concrete evidence and the outcome will be the correct decision every time.

Our guest today: Liam Rose, Founder of Catalina Seven Ventures.

Liam is the founder of Catalina Seven Ventures, a Southern California consumer software startup. Before forming C7V, he managed the sales team for an Orange County-based entertainment startup. As a result of his own challenges trying to juggle health, academic obligations, and personal relationships while attending the University of Richmond, Liam created a new approach to life scheduling built to enable better balance. During his time at the Robins School of Business, he was selected as a 2019 Innovator Under 25.

Catalina Seven Ventures' first product, HORUS Life Schedule, is now available for Beta testing on iOS and Android (access available through the company website)."

Today we discuss:

How to effectively make your first departmental hire

Challenge today?

Hiring the first person within a department

How do you make that hire
How do we know if the person is good
What's the barometer
First tech person, marketing, HR or finance person

How do you know if the person is the best person do the job at the current stage

Culture & environment fit
Metrics & deliverables
How well they can make the connections between metrics and the outcome

Why is this important to the company?

They will be the departmental cultural lead
Top quality people hiring more top quality people
The greatest impression people get is from the interview process itself
Set the tone on how you are going to manage the person based on the interview process itself
Improved interview process results in a higher level of talent
- Demonstrates the ability to understand the individual
- Ignorance of the process

Rick’s Nuggets

Every hire is critical at every stage of your start up!
- Hire slow, fire slower-er-er
- Firing fast is negligence & kills culture (reduces trust, increases anxiety)
- Cult creation- Steve Newcomb (https://medium.com/cult-creation/cult-creation-a44303564f21)
- Firing fast “kills innovation, ownership and trust”

How do we solve the problem?

Signaling - feel a unique attraction to our company
- Job Advertisement
- Distributed via word of mouth/referrals first
- The step beyond who we are. Bold- unapologetically ourselves
Demonstration of understanding
- Interview process
- Realistic expectations
  - Show that people can succeed
  - Difficult but not impossible
- Show professional empathy
  - What is going to make you most happy?
  - What does the individual want?
  - Communication preference, invest in every core operation of the company
- Calling the Hotline
  - Advisor de-risk
  - Outside influence to identify the obvious

Rick’s Nuggets

Prepare yourself by adopting process, engage in interview training & experience
- Process: must have a flow and timing- Start on time, end on time
  - Discovery call (45 minutes)
  - Interview #1 Cultural (60 minutes)
    - Deeply tied to corporate values/principles/culture
  - Interview #2 Working Session - judge skills (60 minutes - ½ day)
    - Live example of how we work together, problem solve, communicate
Interview Training
- Behavioral interviews produce EVIDENCE to uncover the TRUTH
- Assign interview questions to the individual interviewers
- Prepare the candidate for what to expect
Experience (not yours, theirs)
- A-players are attracted to excellence
- Leave everyone feeling good about their time investment

Key Takeaways -Value:

Their language, not your language
Gets you the people you want rather than the people you can get
Use experience to de risk: everyone in your network. What you should avoid with absolute certainty

Guest Links:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liamwrose/

Company: http://catalina7ventures.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/c7vinc

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/catalina7ventures/

This show is proudly sponsored by Criteria Corp: https://www.criteriacorp.com/

The Great Resignation & Struggle Learning with Sam Caucci of 1Huddle Aug 20, 2021

Show notes

The key to retention is growth. With looming fears of “the great resignation” company’s are unsure as to how to structure the organization. Forcing a state of flux that is not healthy for the business.
The poles tell us that at least 40% of people will quit if forced to go back into the office full time. Will your company have a mass exodus? If you have not put your people first…. Most likely.
Companies who have been fostering personal & professional growth through leadership will experience far less separation because they have put their people in front of the transaction.

Our guest today: Sam Caucci , Founder & CEO of 1Huddle

A workforce tech company that upskills, trains, and motivates employees through science-backed, quick-burst mobile games.

Sam founded 1Huddle on the belief that every worker deserves access to the job training, support, and coaching needed to win on the job. Put simply, 1Huddle is making training more fun, effective, and accessible for the entire workforce.

Sam is also the author of the #1 bestseller, Not Our Job: How College has Destroyed a Generation of Workers and How to Fix it. Sam is an expert in workforce engagement and development.

Today we discuss:

Why struggle based learning is the key to retention
How to build learning into your culture

Challenge today?

Training
Do unto others as it was done to you
Struggle is important to learning
Leverage technology to increase outcomes

Why is this important to the company?

Middle management job function is more important than ever
How do we arm them to be better coaches to the front line
55% of workers are Millennials & GenZ
- They like structure
- Coaching up and development
Struggle based learning
- Game based learning 45% faster!
- “Make it Stick” -Peter Brown
"It's the Manager” Only 15% or workers are engaged (before pandemic)- Gallop
- #1 driver to engagement is having a coach

How do we solve the problem?

Struggle based learning

Content Audit
What do you have now?
- Gaps - Where are the business problems?
- Finding content: buy vs. build
Selecting Technology (learning management system)
- Accessibility, Outcomes &
- Authoring
- What kind of staff is required to manage it
- Wrap learning in a game format
- Mobile first
52 week calendar (never ending game)
- Continual development
- Up-skilling (stop siloing workers)
- Reskill & re-onboard

Key Takeaways -Value:

Workforce technology is making it easy to more effectively onboard every worker from frontline to full time
Effective skill building and retention requires struggle
Managers need better tools and strategies to onboard, develop and engage workers.

Guest Links:

Sam Caucci:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samcaucci/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/samcaucci

Company:

1Huddle: https://1huddle.co/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/1huddle

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/1huddle/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/1huddle/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/SalesHuddleAcademy

Author of the #1 bestseller: Not Our Job: How College has Destroyed a Generation of Workers and How to Fix it (Amazon)

This show is proudly sponsored by Criteria Crop: https://www.criteriacorp.com/