Preventing A “Fatal Attraction” Hiring Mistake
September 25, 2009 by Simon · Leave a Comment
Any job requires the correct values and behaviors. When a person reads your ad, they sometimes say that they can do the job and adapt their style and tell you what you want to hear … selling themselves and you if you are not careful … problem is some cannot sustain the act, the values and behaviors that they are adapting to and it all comes crashing down and then it becomes your fault that they can’t do the job… a fatal attraction – a hiring nightmare.
Even if you check their references, the names that are offered seldom share specifics.
We have hired many administrative assistants, marketing assistants and juniors advisors over the years for our clients, and we have benchmarked the values and behaviors that are required for each of the positions so that the qualified candidates that you finally short list, can then do a personal values and behaviors assessment.
Then we say hire them, they are a 10 out of 10 hire them quick, or they are a 7 out of 10 and this is what you will have to do to coach them so that they can sustain the job, or they are a 3 dressed up as a 9 and they are only wasting your time.
The fee for the values and behaviors assessments complete with a 20 minute telephone assessment debriefing with me is $400.00. Please contact Laura @ lreilly@leadingadvisor.com.
The assessments will give you additional tools to communicate, manage and motivate the new employee.
How Do I Know If I Need An Assistant?
September 10, 2009 by Simon · Leave a Comment
Using Microsoft Excel as an example;
Type in every idea, project, task and to do line by line until you Clear Your Mind
Look at the items on your desk, your cork and white boards, do a search on your computer and look over the titles of all the documents that you have created in the last 30 days, look through all of your inbound and outbound e-mails, look over your project files, client management system to do list, yellow sticky notes, scraps of paper, notes on your iPhone or Blackberry … the lot
- Next, review the following categories and ask what other ideas, projects, tasks and to do’s come to mind and add them to the list; administration, computers, systems, customer service, financial, marketing, office management, planning, product development, production, sales, team building and training.
- Next, sort the ideas, projects, tasks and to do’s alphabetically.
- Next, using another column in Microsoft Excel, label each item with the category that it relates to
- Next, sort the categories alphabetically
- Next, using another column in Microsoft Excel, prioritize by A+ – must be done / life and death and then, by A, B, & C priority
- Next, using another column, identify what can be delegated – this will tell you if you have enough work for an assistant
- Next, schedule your A priorities in Time Blocks and delegate for action and take action
Time Management Re-Visited Part 2
August 14, 2009 by Simon · 2 Comments
13 Simple Steps to Time Management – Part 2
7. Eliminate Busy Work
People are often too busy with busy work and this creates a huge distraction from paying attention and focusing on goal achieving actions.
Instead of taking action on their specific goal at a specified time they fill their time with what they justify as things that are routine versus what is important.
What they are saying is, “I haven’t created the discipline of stopping myself periodically throughout the day and asking if this is the most effective way to spend my time.”
This is the time to get one of those alarms on your watch or computer to keep you on track when you have made a decision to work on a specific goal at a certain time.
If you get distracted;
- Stop doing it
- Find someone else to do it
- Record it on a list to schedule for future action
- Forget it
8. Schedule Time In Advance and Ask What Is Going To Distract Me?
It’s that time of the week again and it is coming time to write my newsletter. In fact the time is scheduled. Well in advance I ask myself, is there anything that I need to do that is going to distract me from writing the e-newsletter?
A variation of the above is;
- Record it on a list to schedule for future action
- Find someone else to do it
- Stop doing it
- Forget it
You will find that as you get more and more into the habit of focusing on action steps towards your goals, the minor things will not be that important anymore. I think that it was Tony Robbins that said, ‘People major in minor things’.
9. Form Time Boundaries
As a business owner, I am fortunate enough to be in charge of my own time and it is not that often that I must accommodate the schedule of others.
There are many people that are not totally in charge of their our own time and they are accountable to; partners, associates, employers, family members and friends.
We are often interrupted by other people’s priorities.
The next time that you are interrupted by someone making a request for you to do something …
Ask yourself (not them), is this life and death? If the answer is Yes then take action. If the answer is No then I suggest the following.
Person Requesting You To Do Something: I want your help to do _____________.
Your Reply: I am happy to help you, right now I’m in the middle of a project and need 100% concentration to complete it. Would you like me to stop what I am doing? What is the deadline that you need your task done by?
(You may find that by forming a boundary on your time the person that is making a request may realize that you are busy with something that is more important than what it is they are asking you to do. If the person replies with the deadline, then let’s assume that they still want your help.)
Person Requesting You To Do Something: I need it by 10 am tomorrow.
Your Reply: Great I’ll schedule it in for tomorrow morning and I’ll have it ready for you.
(This simple system leaves you with time boundaries and gives you the feeling that you are in charge of your own time versus being a victim. I will expand on time boundaries in forthcoming issues.)
10. You Say You Have No Time – Then Where Is Your Time Going?
To answer the question of where is your time going, start tracking and logging your time daily for a least a week. Track your time by writing down the exact time that you begin each activity, write a few words about what the activity is about and write down the exact time that you end each activity. I suggest that you write down everything. If you begin an activity and in the middle of it, you decide to answer e-mails or the telephone, then write down the exact time that you began and ended the e-mails or the telephone calls. This requires you to be 100% honest about what you are spending your time on. If you take 8 minutes to make a cup of coffee then write down 8 minutes. Forget about being perfect writing down your time in 15 minute increments.
11. Review and Summarize Your Time
At the end of the week, review your time records and summarize your activities and the amount of time spent on each. Create your activity categories and you can have anywhere from 6 – 20 categories. They should be meaningful to you. Examples of Business categories are; Planning, Administration, Clients, Computer, Financing, Marketing, Office, Product Development, Sales, Team & Training. Examples of Personal categories are; Planning, Auto, Clothing, Home, Storage, Financial, Health, Hobby, Intellectual, Family, Friends, Spouse, Spirit & Travel. Next summarize how much time you spent on each activity on a daily and weekly basis and determine the percentage of time that you are spending on each activity. The key is to become aware about where you are spending your time.
12. Start Time Blocking
With your newfound time awareness in mind and taking your priority activities into consideration, start to schedule your major activities into the highest energy, productive parts of your day. For me, early mornings are my best and that is when I write my e-newsletter. Take a look at all the similar activities that you do and group them into time blocks. For me the e-newsletter falls into the category of writing so this includes; web site edits and additions, e-newsletters, blog and product development. You can start to time block your e-mails and phone time together. What about errands? How about meetings so that you block them into time when you are out of the office. What about e-mailing people that you have to have a meeting with and requesting a telephone meeting and letting them know that you can talk with them on the phone at either 3pm or 5pm? The key here is that you will be empowered because you will be in charge of your time.
13. Your Daily Calendar / To Do List
I believe in writing out my daily calendar so that it is a page at a glance. There is something powerful about the power of the written word. The power of the written word causes me to commit.
On an 8 1/2 by 11 sheet of paper I divide the page into 3 equal columns.
The first column is my daily schedule from 5 am – 10 pm to schedule the live and telephone appointments that I have committed to.
The second column is for what I must do that day. I group the activities into similar activities, estimate the time required and then schedule.
The third column is for what I would want to do that day. These are miscellaneous items that are still a priority that will only take a few minutes to follow up on. I often do these while traveling or waiting for appointments.
One thing to remember. Do not block out 100% of your time. Leave 1 – 2 hours of buffer time so that you can still handle those inevitable interruptions.
No Sex Before Marriage
July 16, 2009 by Simon · Leave a Comment
Hiring without a written plan and job description is like sex before marriage.
The written plan and job description are the marriage certificate and the sex is what you are trying to do before the clarity is in place … it may look and feel real good in the beginning, just like the last hiring disaster did but you just go screwed in the end.
Live Practice Visits ~ Jul – Dec 2009 Vision From 35,000 Feet & The Tarmac
June 18, 2009 by Simon · Leave a Comment
My 12 noon Tuesday, June 16th PT flight left on time from Comox, BC for Toronto via Calgary and it is now 5pm MT and my 4pm MT flight is leaving Calgary an hour late because the Calgary airport was shut down due to lightening.
We landed at 2:25 MT in Calgary and we sat on the tarmac for over an hour waiting for the lightening to pass.
Most people would see this as a problem and I see it as an opportunity to invest the time into the projects that I have been working on.
You have heard the Hebrew proverb; “Some people make things happen, some watch things happen, while others wonder what has happened”.
Chris Barrow shared his belief about this as it relates to this economy;
- 10% make things happen
- 80% watch things happen
- 10% wonder what happened
Having said this, 90% of financial advisors are sitting on the sidelines waiting for something to happen.
I’m committed to dealing with the 10% of financial advisors that make things happen.
So having said this, 10% of financial advisors will get better and 90% of financial advisors risk disappearing and I shudder to think about the clients that they deal with.
I had an idea from 35,000 feet to increase our value proposition by including one to two live on site one day practice visits per year and increase our fee along with the value proposition.
I’m already flying across Canada back and forth and it will be easy to stop and do live on site one day practice visits with a select few of my clients along the way.
The increased monthly fee for my clients will be no more than $300.00 per month.
The live on site one day practice visits would coincide with the live financial advisor speaking dates that I offer.
I’m looking forward to developing the above in the Objectives, Strategies and Actions for July – December 2009.
Come to think of it, the live on site one day practice visits have been happening off and on for years and I do them when I am asked for them.
It is time that I formalize them.
Its 4pm ET in Toronto on Wednesday and I have three West Coast clients to do coaching calls for, then a late dinner and then off to bed for an early morning meeting with a COI in advance of speaking at Advocis Toronto and then pack and off to the airport for a 3pm ET flight home.
Friday brings a full day of one on one tele-coaching and I’m on the road on Saturday to do a live on site three day practice visit in Kelowna, BC.
Nobody To Fill The Chair
June 17, 2009 by Simon · Leave a Comment
Today is a bitter sweet day at Leading Advisor because today is the day that the new Administrative Assistant was going to start, the new office is ready to go and we have nobody to fill the chair – by choice.
This is because we made a decision not to hire the person that seemed to be the right choice.
In many ways the person was perfect for the job.
At the same time, I contributed to creating a potential hiring mistake by wanting to hire up.
Hiring Up, meaning hiring someone that was overqualified for the position that just happens to have loads of experience in marketing and publishing.
So here is some real time public admission that the painters house isn’t always painted as we made the same mistake that many people make with their hiring.
They try to get a jack of all trades and in the financial advisor’s case, they try to hire what they term as a back office assistant and kid themselves that the same person can be a marketing wiz at the same time.
There are a few Nightingales out there and if you have got one pay them well as they don’t come along very often. Nightingale meaning someone that can take care of the back office and do the marketing at the same time. However, the majority of the time the jack of all trades doesn’t work out because they will be good at many things and a master of nothing.
What matters is matching the job description to the behaviours not trying to match the behaviours to the job description.
We attracted a person that had more “hire up” than we were ready for with marketing, book publishing and writing experience galore and we decided not to go ahead because the job description would not have honoured the behavioural style and the talents that the person aspired to and the job description would not be honoured either.
So back to the drawing board with another six week hiring process with a goal to hire by August 1st.
The good news is Laura and I will be able to take a slower pace taking a number of one week Staycations that includes; spending alone time together, reading, bike rides, hikes, trips to the book store, going to Starbies, yoga, kayaking and playing with Shadow.
Shadow and his new toy Whale that he returned with along with a load of other cool gifts from the Puppy Shower that our friends put on for Laura and Shadow on Sunday, June 14th, 2009.
Using Our Own Hiring System To Hire An Assistant
April 29, 2009 by Simon · Leave a Comment
I flew to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan on Tuesday evening to speak on Wednesday at the;
Advocis North Central Saskatchewan Chapter
Spring Professional Development Day
Wednesday April 29, 2009
The Willows Golf & Country Club
We are in the process of hiring an Administrative Assistant and we are using the same hiring system that we use when we are working with our clients to assist them with hiring administrative assistants, marketing assistants and junior advisors.
You can find out more about our hiring system by reading the following blogs;
- Why Assess a Candidate’s Values & Behaviors?
- Preventing A Serious Hiring Mistake
- Are You In The Middle Of Nowhere When It Comes To Hiring?
- Hiring To Be Liked Is Sabotaging Your Business
- The Hire Is Not A Fixer Upper
- Hiring For A “Triple A” Personality Financial Advisor
- I Need To Redefine My Job!
- What do hiring mistakes cost?
- How Much Money Are You Wasting On Your Employment Ads?
-
-
Dates for 2012 TBA - stay tuned!
-
Now Reading
Planned books:
- Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
- The Book Of Air And Shadows: A Novel by Michael Gruber
Current books:
-
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
Recent books:
- The Brave: A Novel by Nicholas Evans
- The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway
- The Angel’s Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
- Shadow Of The Wind by Carlos Zafon
- The Outlander by Gil Adamson
