Consistency is about setting clear expectations and following through on them. It’s about behaving in alignment with your organization’s values as well as your own. It’s also about keeping promises or renegotiating them if you can’t keep them. Recently, I worked with a leadership team where each person on the team received 360 degree feedback. The leaders that were the highest rated were also seen as consistent by their direct reports, peers and boss. I think there’s a correlation.

Unlike some of the more attractive and frequently discussed leadership competencies like being visionary, consistency is often overlooked and undervalued. People want to count on their leaders to do what they say and say what they’ll do. As you look at changes you’d like to make in the New Year, don’t overlook this strong silent one. Consistency sends a powerful message.

I recall a time when we were assisting a client with the hiring of a VP of Sales. We interviewed the finalists and our client asked if we’d also interview references. Our approach is to ask each candidate to provide at least two, preferably three references in each of several categories: people that you reported to directly; peers; and if relevant, past direct reports. Each candidate was asked to contact their references ahead to let them know that we would be calling them.

Even though the references were provided by the candidates and in most cases the references wanted to be supportive, it’s amazing what you can find out about a person once you engage the reference in giving you specific examples from the candidate’s past performance. With the VP of Sales candidates, we asked some simple questions like:

1. What do you see as John’s strengths? Can you give me a few examples of how you saw this strength in action while he worked with you?
2. All of us have blind spots, what were John’s back then? Can you describe a time when you saw this blind spot played out? (Be sure to remain silent for a while to give the reference time to think about this; saying “back then” or “in the past” gives the reference a greater level of comfort in sharing because they are describing a blind spot or weakness from the past and not stating that it is occurring now.)
3. On a 1-10 scale with one being low and 10 high, how would you rate John on his overall performance on the job? Why? (If you don’t get at least 7s, that’s a danger sign.)

In the questioning, we discovered that John was an excellent salesperson and always made or exceeded quota. However, one of his weaknesses turned out to be managing and coaching others. He didn’t show an aptitude for it when given the chance “back then.” When compared to the other candidates, John turned out to be the wrong fit. No one picked that up from the interviews with John.

To learn more about Hiring the Right Talent, click here.

In his best-selling book, Blink, Malcolm Gladwell discusses how people are wired to make decisions and often make them in the blink of an eye. An adaptive mechanism goes off called the adaptive unconscious to allow for faster decisions; this mechanism limits the multitude of variables you could possibly consider. Turns out we can collect too much data and suffer from analysis paralysis. In learning to survive, humans have adapted themselves to look at a more limited number of factors so that we can act more swiftly. If we are skilled at knowing the best variables to select for, we can do well in hiring. If we look for the wrong things, we can make an expensive mistake. In our work with organization on hiring and selection, here are some of the common selection problems that hiring managers make:

• Hastiness or operating from a sense of urgency that overrides good decision making. Hiring someone too quickly to fill a gap that suddenly got bigger with business growth is a frequently mentioned reason why organizations hire the wrong person. Hiring someone in haste winds up making more work for everyone, not to mention the backlash that results from picking someone who fails in a leadership role.
• Replicating ourselves. Sometimes people want to find someone that reminds them of themselves. Picking “another you” is a common strategy to find someone you think you can count on. Unfortunately, this practice usually backfires in the end. Organizations need diversity to inspire creativity and innovative thinking. Besides, it’s hard to judge accurately whether or not the initial traits you see in a candidate really are similar to yours or to those of someone you admire.
• Going mostly by “gut feelings.” Not collecting the right information or enough information to know if the candidate really has the competencies and motivation essential to the job is a common error. Intuition always plays a part in business; however, gut feel alone can send you down the wrong path. Be clear on the competencies and expectations of the position in question and investigate how the candidates you meet fit or don’t.
• Asking questions that don’t give you any usable data. A favorite example of this is when some interviewers ask pseudo psychological questions like, “What animal best symbolizes your personality?” or “What are three adjectives that you would use to describe yourself?” The interviewer has no clue as to what to do with the answer and wastes precious time on questions that don’t give you the right data.
• Not assessing the right culture fit. One of the mistakes that many of our small to midsize clients have made is hiring someone from a big public company who is used to having lots of resources available, only to find that the new hire can’t get used to the more entrepreneurial environment where s/he is expected to be proactive, resources are less plentiful, and there is less structure in place to guide actions.

Awareness of the pitfalls helps us to better understand our own personal hiring short cuts. To learn more about how to hire and select, click here.

What does becoming “even better” mean? The focus of the CEO FL Forum is to help you and your organization move from where you are to where you want to be. Being part of a forum involves growing in mind, heart, and spirit in every aspect of your life – work, home, community and beyond. “Even better” is about helping you to evolve into your personal best and take your organization to new heights. It’s about learning exponentially from trusted advisors and contributing to the growth of others.

In facilitating CEO roundtables over the past 15 years, I have observed a special synergy that develops among members as trust and professional intimacy builds. I have seen leaders do great and courageous things because of the support and the objective observations shared by the members. There are three key ingredients to a successful and meaningful executive forum experience:

• Right Focus – the group working on purpose and on their businesses, not in them
• Right People – a diverse group of CEOs with a strong technology base who want to be their personal best and are willing to share their insights with others
• Right Execution – an accountability system that ensures implementation, and a seasoned facilitator who can support the group in deeper exploration of relevant issues and future direction.

Take some time to watch this video and see what these CEOs get out of participating in a CEO Florida Forum:

“If you’re a CEO and you aren’t doing something like this, you’re really not playing your game or thinking at the highest level,” said Tom Wallace, CEO of Vector Learning.

“My company grew 60% last year and that’s a direct benefit of being a part of the group,” said Steve Allen, CEO of iDatix.

“The difference between this group and other CEO groups is that it’s all about business without agenda. It’s a place to be motivated by really smart people,” said Nancy Rabenold,CEO of xcira, Inc.

“I’ve made some of the best friends I have.  You have an agreement of confidentiality that overtime creates a bond that will last forever,” said George Gordon, CEO of Enporion.

Expert paratrooper and one of the members of our Key Leader Program, retired General Robert Holmes, has a great way of describing the implications of not addressing the important, but not urgent. He says in jumping from a plane, your equipment is set up to handle malfunctions by having two rip cords; one is connected to the main “canopy” and the other to a reserve canopy or “cut away” system. If you experience a “high speed malfunction” like your main parachute hasn’t opened, your training and trust in the equipment make the next move very immediate and clear, act quickly and use the cut away system to get a good parachute over your head.

While high speed malfunctions are dangerous, the “low speed malfunctions” can often be of greater danger.  An example would be partial deployment of the parachute or full deployment with some associated problem. Bob says that in the low speed malfunction situation, the jumper often thinks s/he has time and can fix the problem. “The jumper may waste precious seconds focused on fixing instead of acting,” he explains, and the result is the loss of overall situational awareness. Bob brings the lesson home when he adds that more jumping fatalities occur with low speed malfunctions than high speed ones.

Are you putting off addressing the “low speed malfunctions” in your organization because they are not critical to how it’s running today? Have you and your team ignored implementing important, but not urgent initiatives because of another crisis? A sure fire way to jeopardize the health of your organization is to not take action on the important, but not urgent. Make a list of what’s urgent and important and next to it, a list of the not urgent, but important things that need to be done. Ask, which of these listed on either side of the page will most likely help us reach our vision and goals? Act on those things without hesitation.

The shoe business is tough. Shoes have become a commodity and as with most commodities, price is the name of the game. Undaunted by the odds, on-line shoe retailer, Zappos, started as a small entrepreneurial company and built its business on outstanding customer service. Their mantra is to WOW customers and for shoe aficionados they do – 24 hour turnaround, you can return your shoes for a full refund up to one year after purchase, and women with big feet like size 11 can get variety and speed, two things that used to be nearly impossible with larger sizes. Zappos sold last year to Amazon for just under $1 Billion. Zappos’ CEO, Tony Hsieh, attributes its wild success to a strong culture and paying attention to hiring employees that are a great culture fit. Creating a strong culture is so much of a priority that Zappos’ employees produce and sell The Zappos Culture Book each year; it continues to be a big seller on Amazon.

Locally, myMatrixx CEO, Steve MacDonald, agrees that building a culture is about clearly defining your values. He feels that starting a company from the beginning affords you the opportunity to create any culture you want. Founded in 2001, myMatrixx’s goal is to turn pharmacy and ancillary benefit management into a paperless industry while “delivering an unimaginably great customer experience.” myMatrixx is committed to hiring people that reflect its core values which are: Do the right thing; Respond with care; Serve with passion; Innovate constantly; and Love to learn. According to MacDonald, one of the keys to maintaining a great culture is to adhere to your values in every aspect of your business – hiring, firing and development. myMatrixx selects employees using a systematic behavioral interviewing approach that focuses on the competencies necessary to succeed in a position as well on evidence that a candidate’s values align with the company’s. myMatrixx’s culture has helped them achieve some great accomplishments like consistently being among the TBBJ’s Fast 50 and the Inc. 500/5000.

Companies with a strong, positive culture that aligns with their business goals regularly outperform their competitors. Take Southwest Airlines as an example. Former CEO Herb Kelleher often spoke of “hiring for attitude.” What he went on to explain was the importance of Southwest inviting only those people with a positive customer orientation, sense of humor and strong work ethic to be part of the company. He built the culture by hiring people that modeled the values first. Skills could always be taught later in his estimation. Southwest has been the most successful airline in its industry and one of the best performing companies across industries; it has often won the airline industry’s “triple crown”  (the airline that has the best ratings for bags on-time, customer satisfaction and on-time flights annually).

So how do you hire for culture fit? First you need to get clarity on what your company’s values are. Values are your guiding principles that can’t be compromised for financial gain. Values are your code of ethics and need to be taken seriously. An example of a value might be “integrity” defined as “doing the right thing.” My experience in working with many companies is that the values were once written down by the CEO or one or several of the company’s leaders and never really communicated consistently. Worse yet, behavior that directly contradicts the stated values is sometimes accepted, even rewarded.

So if you haven’t developed your values, now is the time to do so. Getting input from across the company is essential. The question that I like to ask organizations that we work with is: “What is the one value that is so much a part of this company that without it, you wouldn’t be the same organization?” Once you’ve developed your values, it’s time to have a dialogue about which behaviors align with the values and which don’t.  The best company cultures are clear on the behaviors that support the values and which do not.

Take time to develop and ask questions that address your company values in the interview process. Don’t telegraph the answers that you are looking for (Tell me about your views on integrity.). Ask questions that get at past situations and behaviors that will tell you whether or not the candidate possess those values (Can you think of a time in the past where you felt it was necessary to bend the rules at work?)

Leaders play a large role in strengthening or weakening the company’s culture. The best leaders model the values themselves, have no tolerance for value violations, reward and recognize all those who display the values, communicate the values often and hire only those whose values are a culture fit.

When we read about change and/or are the initiators of it, it’s easy to get smug about our perceptions of ourselves as “change agents.”  Even when you say you want change, if the outcome is shaping up to be different than what you expected, change is disconcerting. I’m reminded of a CEO we worked with who wanted a plan that took his company to the next level of growth. In addition, he wanted help in “transforming” the culture to one that was more receptive to change. He opened our first session stating that he wanted to “encourage out of the box thinking” and was “receptive to the team’s ideas on where the company needed to be in the next 3-5 years.”

As the participants began to brainstorm new directions, you could see the CEO’s discomfort grow in his non-verbal  (arms crossed; frowning; smiling at only those who agreed with him) and later in his verbal communication (Yes, buts; interrupting those who had a different view; making remarks like “that’s too costly” or “we tried that before”.)  In debriefing the day, the CEO admitted that he was surprised by his own reaction and at times, he felt like he “went on autopilot” and didn’t realize how closed he was behaving.

We can understand change cognitively. Handling it viscerally is another matter, especially if we feel we’ve had no control over the change and it just happens.  Although there’s no tried and true approach, there are three things about change that are important to remind yourself about when you are experiencing it:

1. Change brings an end to a way of doing something or of relationships – it is a small death of sorts and with endings, come a variety of feelings. Be conscious of how you are feeling and remember to acknowledge the past, even celebrate it before forging ahead.
2. People handle change better when they have some preparation – feeling blindsided or not having a chance for input can be disconcerting and make you resistant.
3. Change is an opportunity that can help usher in a new way of doing things – realize that you may be uncomfortable during the transition time between the ending and the new beginning, yet this is the time where you are most likely to innovate and create something that you may not have anticipated before, so hang in there.

In the CEO forums I have facilitated over the years, I’ve seen some hard driving CEOs come to their peer group with an issue that initially appears cut and dry. Upon examination and input from the group, they see or are confronted with new alternatives that weren’t evident.  I recall one CEO who decided based on industry trends, to project a flat growth year. When he presented his analysis for the year to his peers, he was shocked to hear some of them challenge him by saying things like, “Why don’t you just go play golf if you can’t find any alternatives?” Or “Being honest with yourself is certainly better than playing the victim – is this a self fulfilling prophecy?” It was this type of feedback that opened the door for the CEO to let go of his blinders and see other alternatives for growing the business. And he did indeed grow his business 12% that year; something he couldn’t have done without the push to a new level of exploration.

So how do you develop the ability to detach yourself from a situation so that you look at the key factors from a new place? In other words, how can you learn this skill of detachment?  Among the most effective ways I’ve observed is by having the opportunity to bring your situation, problem or decision to a peer group made up of leaders from diverse backgrounds that you can trust. The composition of the group is important since you want to tap into the collective intelligence and experience of the group. The best peer groups are made up of people who are consistently raising the bar for themselves and others. They are learners who want to grow and influence the growth of others. Whether a peer group is made up of CEOs or people in various leadership positions, peer forums can serve as a platform for distancing oneself from those who have a vested interest in the outcome like other employees or board members and facilitate the distancing of oneself from his or her situation to see things in a new light. To hear more about this experience, click here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHkIPHfP588

This gift is simple, it doesn’t cost anything financially and it is one of the highest expressions of your caring – your presence.  Being present for another human being or group is one of the most significant things we can do for other human beings.  Being in the moment and 100% “there” makes people feel that they are important to you, that you care and that you are listening.  In this day and time where we look for external expressions as tokens of our caring and love, consider giving all those you care about your precious presence.

Engage

When you do what you love like Antonio DeSousa, the same job doesn’t get boring. Antonio is the doorman at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Tampa and he’s held that job for over 20 years. In fact, since he started with the Hyatt, he hasn’t missed a day of work in 25 years. Anthony shares his perspective on how he has stayed engaged and loyal while never losing his motivation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naNh7iQhaB0&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Visualize

The time between Christmas and New Year’s has always been a time when I assess what went well in the past year and what didn’t. I also ask myself, “What do I want to see happen in the upcoming year? Although it’s not something you can predict, you can impact your future positively by visualizing your highest wishes for your work and your life and writing them down. Here’s a tool that I call, “I’m Going to Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter.” You may find it helpful as you plan your upcoming year. We use this “Performance Letter” as part of the CEO Florida Forum www.CEOFL.com program that Key Associates has launched. For more information, please contact us through the website or feel free to call at 813-831-9500.

Happy Holidays!

Being a supervisor is seen by many as a thankless job. You often don’t get much more money and you are charged with a multitude of responsibilities, many of which take additional time that you aren’t paid for and require adapting to circumstances that you may not have anticipated. Certainly Luis didn’t expect to work a 69 day shift.

Research conducted by Gallup and other firms shows that the most powerful reinforcement in any employee’s work environment is their direct supervisor.  What s/he models gets done. No matter what type of recognition program you have or benefits you offer, it’s the employee’s direct supervisor that makes the biggest difference in whether an employee stays or leaves.  Celebrating everyday heroes at work and recognizing them for their contribution is essential for keeping leaders throughout an organization engaged. Besides, it’s the right thing to do. When a leader models the behaviors that reflect higher values like integrity, commitment and resiliency, everyone wins.