Do you need a leader or a manager?

Let’s face it, not everyone is cut out to “lead” others. We have all witnessed people in and promoted to positions in which they are just not a fit. Personally, I have been “managed” or should I say victimized by this more then once in previous jobs.

I worked for an IT company years ago. My boss was a programmer and a really great guy. I was hired to develop and manage a few processes. (Of course, recruitment was one.) I quickly fell into leading several departments. My boss made sure we had the processes and I made sure the team was supported and processes were implemented.

My boss would come in the middle of the night to reboot a server and end up writing code for 10 hours without a thought. Ask him to handle an employee issue and he would hide in his office until I settled it.

It worked out beautifully for both of us. Our roles fit. We were both pretty young with a lot of responsibility. Our balance just happened, it was not intentional, and it fit. I look back now and I understand. He was a great manager and not a leader and that was OK; we complimented each other.

Just because someone is a top programmer and manages his processes well, doesn’t automatically make him good at leading other programmers. In most companies to get ahead a person must be promoted to a leadership role even if it not the best fit for them. They may not even want it and look at it as the only way to move into new challenges. Managing things is important. Leading others is its own skill set.

When you are interviewing “management” candidates remember to look at the candidate and ask yourself “Do you need a leader or a manager for this role?"

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Are they a leader or are they a manager?

We have all managed something at one point in our lives. Maybe it was an entire company or maybe it was just managing to get out of bed that morning.

Saying you manage people does not necessarily mean you lead them.

Here is an easy example. I work for a large multinational retailer. We have “Store Operators” or more commonly known as “Store Managers.” They do manage stores. They manage the ordering, financials, employee schedules, etc. Our most successful store operators have in common that they manage the administrative part of the job and lead their team.

Leading a team means investing in the team’s growth and meeting their needs so they can do the job successfully. Leading others is its own skill set.

When you are interviewing management candidates remember to reach beyond the scope of the administrative list on the resume. Look at the candidate and ask yourself “Are they a leader or are they a manager?”

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Rejection Letter?

Occasionally I come across candidates that have a hard time accepting that we decided not to hire them.I call all candidates that were not selected after the interview process to let them know we went in another direction and that I wish them luck in there career pursuit. I follow up that call with a personal email. I want to make it clear and do not want encourage any false hope. Occasionally a candidate will call me back and ask for additional feedback. I rarely provide additional information on our selection to avoid any potential legal repercussions.This fictitious candidate handled rejection differently then most candidates. I found this letter on abcsmallbiz. No matter how many times I read this letter it cracks me up!

Dear Hiring Manager,

Thank you for your letter of March 16. After careful consideration, I regret to inform you that I am unable to accept your refusal to offer me a position in your department at this time. This year I have been particularly fortunate in receiving an unusually large number of rejection letters. With such a varied and promising field of candidates, it is impossible for me to accept all refusals.

Despite your companies' outstanding qualifications and previous experience in rejecting applicants, I find that your rejection does not meet my needs at this time. Therefore, I will assume the position in your department this August. I look forward to seeing you then.
Best of luck in rejecting future applicants.


Sincerely,
Interviewee

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Helpful Tips to Being an Engaged Phone Recruiter

The past few years I have been conducting the majority of my interviews over the phone. In person interviews are undisputedly more effective for evaluation. My company opted for the majority of initial interviews with the recruiter to be over the phone and the 2nd to be in person. This was after weighing the cost of travel expenses and the amount of time management recruiters would spend traveling across the country.

I have posted a rant about being a passionate, engaged recruiter on this blog more then once and never forget how it feels to be on the other side of the desk or phone. I bring this up because I have heard repeated horror stories of disengaged and disrespectful recruiters in a face-to-face interview distracted by an incoming email, phone call, coworker or lunch. It is hard to feel valued when the interviewer prefers giving their attention to meatball sub over you.

If you interview by phone it is even easier to get distracted. The majority of the candidates that I interview are engaged and they want a job with my company. They deserve my full attention so we can both decide if we there is a fit for the position to which they applied.

Here are a few things I do when interviewing over the phone to make sure that I am not distracted and I am fully engaged in the conversation.

-I arrange a time with the candidate that we can have an uninterrupted phone interview.
-I put the candidates resume up on my computer screen even if I print it out.
-I move away from my keyboard and mouse just enough to deter me from the temptation to do anything else while the candidate is speaking.
-I do not have call waiting on my phone. If I am on the phone, incoming calls go to voicemail.
-I do not have another phone anywhere near me with a ringer on.

We do not have to be perfect but we do have to care about what we do and why we do it. So, the next time you are looking for your daily fix of reading recruitnik.net please wait until after you finish speaking with the candidate. I will be here waiting for you to stop by to say hello after the interview.

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Water Cooler Time

I have been working from home since November 2006. I knew it was inevitable about year in advance due to the growth of my company. My husband was worried I would feel isolated by not leaving the house. I try to leave everyday even it is just to run out to the supermarket for a few things. I had a hard time adjusting at first.

I have learned to make a conscious effort to call colleagues. I call this my “water-cooler time” I only see a small portion of people I work with and the majority of our meetings are phone and video conferences.

In an office setting you have 5 minutes walking from the car to the office to ask Mary about her grandkid's birthday party and 2 minutes walking down the hall to get a drink to see if Brad was able to resolve the contract issue from yesterday.

We are social beings. I make a conscious effort to speak with people. It is important for our team to bond if people are conscious of it or not. Great business ideas and best practice learnings often come out of informal chats. Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying I chit-chat all day with colleagues instead of recruiting. Just the opposite is true. Ten minutes to breathe is necessary to refocus and keep you in the game after several back to back interviews.

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10 Emailing Rules When Communicating for Business

I sit in front of my computer for an ungodly amount of hours a day. I do embrace the ease of communicating via email and text message. I am cautious as I can be not to take to human element out of dealing with others. There is no replacement for personal contact. The one thing that is widespread and often missing, in this wonderful instant message world is discretion and etiquette. My attention is not to offend anyone by this posting, just to educate. If I didn’t experience these things often and first hand I wouldn’t know about them to write about them.

1- Use common sense. If you do not have any, borrow someone else’s.

2- Email a thank you/ follow up or touch base to a client, potential employer, colleague, contact after meeting is always wise when maintaining a relationship.

3- Don’t over email! Business minded people appreciate good communication. Follow up is great. Emailing every 2 hours “Did you make a decision on the proposal?” is a bad choice.

4- Be the professional that you are. Don’t be cutesy! No Emoticon :) :(, abbreviations (LOL), pictures or backgrounds.

5- Don’t BCC.

6- Spell check. All too often I receive a muddled email from business associates that clearly didn’t reread what they wrote before sending. They just typed in a quick reply email and hit send.

I can safely assume that that majority of these preoccupied emails are because someone wrote me back from a Blackberry. To really make my point about mistyping/spelling from Blackberries being all to common issue, the company in which my husband works provides a high level of customer service and they discourage employees from replying via blackberry email with a clients.

7- DON’T CAPITALIZE EVERYTHING! It looks like you are shouting. I do have a bad habit of writing as I speak. I do my best to verify what I write so it will not be misconstrued.

Once I had a colleague respond to an email with a light, “Whatever.” I worked with him for many years, and didn’t think twice about the email. He meant it as “Whatever you want, I am on the same page.” However, he responded to “All” which copied my boss who only knows him as an acquaintance. My boss called me angry that this person would respond to my suggestion so inappropriately with “WHAT-EV-ER!” Kudos to my boss for getting clarification from me via phone. That could have ended badly for my colleague.

8- When you forward emails, to “all contacts” in your address book make sure you know who “all contacts” includes.

9- Do not forward jokes, political propaganda or spiritual enlightening chain emails, to anyone’s work email. More then once I have heard of someone almost losing and losing their job because of bad discretion.

My mother-in-law, out of all people sent me an email to work; She knows I don’t use my work email for personal use. In the subject line it read “Striper pole.” I almost had a heart attack. What in the world did she send me!? I neurotically forward it to my home email. When I opened it that evening it was a kitten hugging a red and white striped pole. She did it intentionally. Months later, she was still laughing at me.

10- If you decide to forward these ever so valuable “10 emailing rules when communicating for business” via email, go back and read # 1, 8 and 9 first, then proceed.

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5 ways to make an impact as a new employee (without being seen as a brownnoser, bulldozer or brat)

Great advice from Lindsey Pollak. This advice exceeds the scope of new employees; I feel it applies to anyone entering or uncomfortable in networking situations. I have witnessed people at professional levels at networking events that can really benefit from this advice. Collecting some basic information on how to network can be the difference of being a wall flower to really gaining insight from people in your company or in your profession.

5 ways to make an impact as a new employee(without being seen as a brownnoser, bulldozer or brat) Author Byline: Lindsey Pollak is the author of "Getting from College to Career: 90 Things to Do Before You Join the Real World" (HarperCollins, 2007) Author Website: http://www.gettingfromcollegetocareer.com

If you’re in your first few months as a new employee, you are probably eager to make an impact. At the same time, you want to be careful not to rock the boat too much. How can you strike a balance between productivity and politeness? Here are five tips to guide the way:

1. Listen more than you talk. As my grandfather used to say, there’s a reason you have two ears and one mouth. The best way to learn the ropes and make friends is to listen carefully to the way people in your organization interact. People love to talk about themselves, so give colleagues and clients the opportunity to share their advice, guidance and tricks of the trade. Listening is a great way to win friends and influence people.

2. Network up and down your organization. In other words, bond with the mailroom guy. Many employees spend all of their time networking with higher-ups, when the truth is that to get things done in an organization you need connections all over. Ask a wide variety of people to lunch or hang out in the kitchen and introduce yourself to everyone who walks in. You never know from whom you might need a favor in the future.

3. Be a problem solver. As you join projects and begin to make a contribution with your work, be the employee who offers solutions to problems, not the employee who is always complaining. Being known as the go-to problem solver is a great reputation to cultivate.

4. Seek feedback. Instead of wondering what your new employer thinks of you, take the initiative and ask. You can do this informally with colleagues—“Hey, since I’m new, I would love your feedback on my presentation.”—or formally through regular performances reviews with your manager. If you choose the latter, work with your boss to create specific goals so you will be able to measure your success moving forward.

5. Don’t curb your enthusiasm. Finally, never underestimate the power of a smile. Be yourself, but let your passion and enjoyment of your work shine through. Gloomy guys and gals are generally not high on the list for promotions.

Article courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates searching for entry-level jobs and other career opportunities.

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Passionate Worker or Workaholic?

I always tell people that I am very lucky because there is fine line between my work and my hobby. I am not really sure when this happened, it just did. I am passionate about what I do and really enjoy the strategic side as well as the chase. I am sure that some people have a hard time grasping that concept and think I have no life. I do have a life and I am fortunate I can make a living doing something that truly interests me.

Seth Godin wrote a little something that caught my attention.

He wrote: Workaholics

A workaholic lives on fear. It's fear that drives him to show up all the time. The best defense, apparently, is a good attendance record.

A new class of jobs (and workers) is creating a different sort of worker, though. This is the person who works out of passion and curiosity, not fear...

READ MORE
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/01/workaholics.html

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Too Many Requisitions? Top Ten Ways to Handle it

Interesting Article by Simon Meth from sittingxlegged on ere.net

HE WRITES: "Today I find that I actually have more requisitions on my desk to work than I can really handle. What follows are some thoughts on how to deal with the situation. "

Top 10 Ways to Handle Too Many Requisitions

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31 of the Best Careers for 2008

Good article in US News & World Report.

It also lists:

-Ahead of the Curve: cutting edge careers
-Most Overrated careers
-Get the Scoop on Salary and More
-Follow These Steps Toward a Second Career
-Jobs Sites Boom for the 50-Plus Set
-Here's What to Do When You Hate Your Job
-The Best Jobs for Six Personality Types
-Speaking Well Can Fast-Track Your Career
-Best Places to Work in the Federal Government

read more | digg story

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Continued training & development in all areas of your organization

Continued training & development in all areas of your organization

Never, never stop training and developing talent.

All too often programs come and go with no real impact on the organization. What a waste of time and money. Often promising programs are developed and implemented. They come out of the gate full force, EVERYONE is trained and energized! Then, that it. No continued support or development of the program and the developers want to know where they went wrong. Often they didn’t do anything wrong, they did exactly what they were to do but take the blame when it fails. It was a failure after the initial implementation when it was out of the hands of the developers and trainers. The program gets passed over to the people it was designed to benefit and they are trained and then sent out to put it into practice and they don’t.

Why? Did the program stink? Probably not. How about this for a concept; Are the people that should be executing the plan, actually trained on executing the plan or was the “training” just understanding what the plan is designed to do?

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Discover underutilized & underdeveloped talent in your organization

Discover underutilized and underdeveloped talent in your organization. To put it plainly and simply “Use um’ or Lose um’!” To quote Marcus Buckingham author of First Break all the Rules and Go put your Strengths to Work, “People are not an organizations best asset, peoples strengths are.” This is actually one of my all time favorite quotes.

How many times have you heard variations of “It is too bad he left us for them, he has so much potential.” Potential!? Potential!? The definition of potential is the capable of being or becoming possible. Is it possible? DEVELOP HIM! Don’t lose HIM!

I speak to hundreds of talented candidates in a year. Of course I often ask the obvious question. “Why do you want to leave your present position? All to often I hear “I am looking for a better opportunity” This can mean so many things but can it be I am just speaking with someone that is under developed or underutilized? Am I speaking to a person that may work for you?

Often employers are under utilizing talent. I am not saying everyone can be promoted to CEO I am saying if you have people that unmistakably stand above the rest as consistent, high performers and/or leaders, you better pay attention, these are the companies future. Many companies like to refer to these people as “High Potential.” If you know they stand out, often they know they do as well and are in waiting for you to notice. NOTICE! If you aren’t in a position to promote this person, or if that is not an option in your company, show appreciation, provide them with ability to lead, develop others and themselves. Do something! Make sure they do know that you notice! Because if you don’t, I promise you, other companies will.

Strategic Business? How about aligning the talent you have. Now that’s a Strategy! Move your company forward by utilizing current talent, these people already work for the organization, and they are invested in to the future of the organization that is why they are there. Stop over analyzing the past, learn from it, and use this talent to move forward, discover future goals and future threats.

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Challenge the same old to change the status quo

Challenge the same old to change the status quo

How can an organization move forward if no one scrutinizes what they are doing today to make it better?

Staying the same doesn’t grow an organization. Not ever being complacent with status quo does. The biggest hero’s in the business world are never referred to as the man/women that just showed up each day and did the same thing over and over day in and day out. Personally, I would be uncomfortable to be known as someone who is just consistent. I prefer to be known as someone who is consistent, BUT consistently passionate about growing the business, taking action and inspiring others to do the same!

You have heard the saying- “If you do what you always do, you will get what you have always got” It doesn’t even fit anymore. It should now be “The companies that do what they always do, get a bankruptcy attorney.”

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Foster a Work Environment that Truly Embraces A “Bias for Action” Atmosphere

Foster a work environment that truly embraces a “Bias for Action” atmosphere at all levels. In many organizations if you just act in the best interest of your customer, client, subordinates and then ask for permission, you get in trouble.

More often I see organizations that are inconsistent with this philosophy. In reality it is more of a "some people can be take action, and others only can take action sometimes but only if those actions are nominal.”

Other companies will claim to encourage employees to be to take action but in reality they are really “if you are part of upper management or in HR you can bias for action but if you are lower on the totem pole, there will be career consequences for your actions.” Pretending to take action is not taking action.

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Listen To Your People

Listen To Your People
Many companies like the idea of saying they have an open door to all employee’s ideas. BUT do they really? Many companies like to say they are “focused on the people” and I am sure they would really like to be. If you dissect the actual facts, they are not. If you look at the “Best Places to Work” in the USA they have one thing in common, no matter what the product, it is people focused first. It is amazing what you can learn about your organization when people are truly encouraged to speak up.

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5 Concepts To Really Being A People Oriented Company.

Almost anything I delve into has HR/Business concepts or elements that are in common. Most things that I personally agree with are integrated in one way or another with the next and it is not because I am being one sided in my research. It is because the books, articles, and website and blogs I research are by people that have proven success in HR and Business and are sharing their knowledge, successes and failures.

So what do WE (The organization as a WHOLE) do join all forces inside the company?

REALLY be people oriented.

1-Listen to your people.
2- Foster a work environment that truly embraces a “Bias for Action” atmosphere at all levels.
3- Challenge to change the Status Quo
4- Discover underutilized and underdeveloped talent.
5- Continued Training and Development in all areas.

HR is part of the organization making it whole. As a HR professional stop trying to get a seat at the table in which you sit. Just be a rational, influential, motivating part of the business strategic plans moving forward. Acknowledge past good and bad patterns make informed suggestions and decisions to move the organization forward.


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So You’re a Mortgage Broker, Now What

As I looked though resumes yesterday, a good quarter of the candidates listed mortgage brokerage experience in one form or another. This gives me flashback’s of the late 1990’s, early 2000’s however that trend was people jumping in & out of IT.

Some candidates with mortgage experience ranging from a couple of years experience to ones with 10+. Most are applying management in retail with my company. These candidates often list salaries that more then double the highest end of my starting pay scale. Which, of course often immediately disqualify them. I do feel badly for them however, usually by the incoming resume competition alone, they are not the best qualified to run my stores.

I am sure that I have passed over high potential candidates wanting to change careers that may have actually been a great fit. Recruiters can’t speak with every candidate that applies, so we do our best to select the ones that appear to be the closest fit.

This year, I have hired several people that jumped on the real estate/ mortgage band wagon a few years ago. These candidates usually have a strong retail/ restaurant background to fall back on that does grab my attention.

These candidates are often a different breed then career mortgage brokers. They have worked the role your sleeves up, work 14 hours on your feet and go home smelling like fryer grease jobs. They just wanted a well deserved break.

I have noticed something else. Often these candidates left retail and/or restaurant with $ signs in there eyes and dreams of a 5 day, M-F, holidays off work week. They rode the high for a few years, now feel broke and defeated which often was no fault of there own. The mortgage industry is tough and highly competitive,it is just in a different way then retail or restaurant. The veterans of the industry are taking a hard hit in this market so of course the newbies are.

I have also noticed something else about these returning candidates. Some candidates while searching actually realized what they missed about jobs in food/ retail service that they truly loved. Others just need a job in something they are qualified but are not necessarily passionate about it.

The real job as a recruiter is to distinguishing the truly passionate ones from the ones that just need a job for now. If you are a corporate recruiter, as you search resumes today, when you see resume with the most current position in real estate or mortgage don‘t immediately judge…look further down the page, you may find the candidate you are looking for.

THE REAL, REAL STORY OF THE DAY IN THE LIFE OF A RECRUITER.

Recently, I was diagnosed with R.A.A.D.D. – 9-10 recruiters suffer from this disorder. It often goes undiagnosed and if untreated it can directly effect to what is now referred to as “The Recruitosphere.”

Recruiter Activated Attention Deficit Disorder.
This is how it manifests:

I start my day by making a nice, strong pot of coffee.

While the coffee is brewing, I check my email.

I start to respond to an email from a hiring manager in which he turns down a candidate that I know is great for a position.

Frustrated, I stop myself in the middle of the return email to take a deep breath so I can rationally articulate my response.

As I start to erase the cuss words, I look over at my phone and notice my voicemail light blinking. I quickly write a polite response asking him to explain his rational behind the choice.

I then proceed to check my voicemail. While checking number 3 of my 15 voicemails, I realize that I forgot my coffee in the kitchen and clearly can not make it through the messages without it.

I go back to the kitchen and get a mug of coffee and take a few sips.
I start walking back to my office and notice a plant that needs water. I set down my mug of coffee and get cup of water for the plant.

After watering the plant I head back to my office and continue to check my voicemail.

I have a message from accounts payable that they are questioning a bill for $5000 from our add agency for a job fair.

As I start to write a frustrated email to my ad agency, for charging me $4000 for signing me up for a $1000 event, I reach for my coffee and realize that I left it in the kitchen.

I finish the email and I notice an incoming email from the hiring manager. I know I need my coffee for this one so I head back to the kitchen. I grab my now cold mug of coffee and head back to my desk.

As I get to my desk the phone rings. It is a hot candidate that I have been playing phone tag with for two days. The candidate is available to have a phone interview right now so I dive right in.

After I finish the call I check my email and notice that I have been copied in on 30 emails back and forth from my accounts payable, and 4 different people at the ad agency. All are all talking about different things, not one of which is a job fair but all are pertaining to the $5000 charge.

I then take another sip of my now 5 hour old coffee and finally have a chance to read the email from the hiring manager. He states he did like the candidate but can’t explain why he doesn’t want to hire them. I do a few deep breathing exercises and I courteously respond that I need the details of why so I can effectively support his choice.

The phone then rings and it is a candidate finally accepting an offer I made her 3 days ago. I finish the call and go into the ATS to produce her offer letter. As I am producing the letter the ATS freezes and locks up my whole computer.

While restarting my computer, I notice a voicemail I haven’t retrieved. The message is from a candidate starting tomorrow that wanted to let me know they decided to accept another position.

Once I am able to get back on my computer and into the ATS, I search for the candidate that just decided to take another job and change their status. This reminds me to repost the job and start the search again. I then remember that I still have to produce the letter for the candidate that did accept.

I then take a sip of water from a cup on my desk. I think it was the cup from the plant I watered that morning, I am not sure how it got on my desk but I am parched and I don’t care.

I then make a follow up call over to the hiring manager. He explains he has rethought his decision and thinks the candidate will be a wonderful addition to the team.

I pick up the cup of water and head to the kitchen. I notice it is the first time I looked outside all day and it is dark out. I realize it is time to end my day and just have a feeling that I forgot something. I feel like I was so busy but nothing got done and I'm really tired.

As my day ends I step into my kitchen, pour myself a lovely glass of Pinot Noir and head for my computer, to write an entry in my Blog. You can be sure that I didn’t forget my wine glass in the kitchen. However, I do remember that I left my old mug of coffee in my office!

If you or a friend is suffering from R.A.A.D.D., there is hope. The following provide support that has helped me in my time of need. I hope they will do the same for you or your loved one in need.

http://www.wine.com/
http://www.bloomingdales.com/

Ask the Hard Questions First

I interviewed a candidate yesterday for an operations management position. He had a great background, projected strong leadership abilities, had all the right answers. He comfortably told me about challenges he faced in his previous roles and how he handled them. We even laughed on and off through the interview. He was one of those rare candidates that you just know after ½ hour of chatting is a “done deal.”

After speaking for about 45 minutes, I started to conclude the conversation. I realized I forgot to ask him a question that I usually ask towards the beginning of the conversation. I ask him a question that I have asked hundreds of candidate before in this exact format. “We do a criminal background check. Is there anything I would need to know now?”

I was left with 5 seconds of dead silence followed by an anesthetized “yes.” He then told me told me about a felony, leaving out details. I think he knew by telling me the specific charge alone, my stomach would turn and I wouldn’t have any additional questions. He was right. He was polite as can be, just as most candidates I have encountered at this stage; they know they are not going to pass our background check and find no reason to take it out on me.

Again, remember to ask the hard questions first.

What did you want to be when you grew up?