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Job Competencies & Overcoming Hiring Objections
Tuesday, March 9 and 16 7:oo pm to 8:30 pm Career Jump Start 1st United Methodist Church, Arapaho & Central, Richardson Free, Open to the publicLeveraging Your Job Competencies in the Interview
Wednesday, April 14, 2010 10:00 am to 11:30 am DBM (Drake Beam Morin) Oxy Building, SW Corner of LBJ & the Tollroad Open to DBM clients onlyOvercoming Hidden Hiring Objections
Fall, 2010, Date TBA Career Design Associates 2818 S Country Club Rd, Garland Free, open to the pubicYou're Hired: How to Beat out Your Competition
December 2010 Evening presentation, Date and Time DBA Jewish Family Service 5402 Arapaho Road at Montfort Free - Open to the public, Limited Seating Need a speaker for your next meeting?How to have a good job interview
Hiring Tips: Smart People Doing Dumb Things
by Mitch Byers :: July 14th, 2008 :: Posted in Selection & Hiring |
Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point and Blink, was the first speaker at the May 2008 New Yorker Conference. “Stories from the near future” was the theme of the two-day conference. Albeit condensed, here are his words and my comments from his talk regarding the “challenge of hiring in the modern world.”
Hiring Tips: Selecting the right performance predictors
by Mitch Byers :: July 11th, 2008 :: Posted in Selection & Hiring |
Job Interview Tips #51: Incorporate the Law of Six to Get Hired
by Mitch Byers :: July 7th, 2008 :: Posted in Interviewing to Win |
In a recent job interview seminar, a participant asked the following question: “Should I send an email or a thank you note?” My response was, “Send both.”
The reason for sending both correspondences is based on the Law of Six, an effective sales conversion model. The goal of the Law of Six is to convert an influential buyer into a client. In the job interview process, you can personalize the Law of Six to convert your influential buyer (the hiring manager) into a client (your boss).
The Sales Cycle
We all have a built in resistance to change. An effective sales person understands how to maneuver around or penetrate our protective shell. In the sales cycle, The Law of Six presupposes that a buying decision is made after six or more encounters. Our resistance becomes softened with each encounter until we reach a tipping point – we agree to try the product or services or sign the service contract.
It is natural for us to we work through a number of events to assimilate information and then make an informed decision. A hiring manager works through a similar cycle. They need an appropriate amount of information and time to make their hiring decisions. After all, accurate hiring decisions are one of their most critical tasks.
The Interview Cycle
In sales, the Law of Six is used to preplan six points of contact. Using the same formula, let’s see how we can work with the Law of Six during the interview cycle. Plan on utilizing at least six points of contact from the following list with every hiring manager to penetrate their protective shield.
- The Hiring manager reviews your resume.
- Complete a telephone interview with the Hiring manager. Often, a recruiter or human resource representative completes the first two steps before forwarding your resume to the Hiring Manager for review.
- Complete your first face-to-face interview with the Hiring Manager
- Send a follow-up email to all who were part of the interview process.
- Mail a letter to all who were a part of the interview process.
- If appropriate, or requested, email or mail a sample of your work. This may be a project plan or strategic plan, a work flow diagram, a spreadsheet, an informative PowerPoint presentation or a written example of your work. Be careful not to share proprietary information from your current or former employers, especially if they are a competitor of the incumbent company.
- During the interview, ask about their time frame for making a decision and appropriate next steps. Follow-up with a phone call on the agreed upon day.
- If required, complete your second face-to-face interview with the hiring manager or other decision maker
- Repeat steps 4 and 5
- Continue to follow-up every 5 to 7 business days until a hiring decision is made
The Law of Six requires your commitment and follow through. Here a few examples to get you started.
Email
Following your face-to-face interview, send an email to the hiring manager highlighting one or two of your core competencies. As an example, “Cindy, thank you for visiting on Tuesday regarding the project management position. I appreciate you sharing details of the upcoming logistical projects and the challenges in South America. The work completed for South American governments, complemented with my 14-year career in logistics will provide the ability to hit the ground running. I look forward to our continued conversations. Sincerely, David.”
Letter
A brief, but thoughtful and well-crafted letter is also mailed following your face-to-face interview. A few days later, the letter arrives at the desk of the hiring manager. Their name is spelled correctly and you did not botch their title: Director of Operations of the Americas. In your email, you mentioned your South America exposure and 12 years logistics experience. The letter will also highlight areas of expertise that are relevant to the position. Your letter might provide an overview of one or two of your most successful projects and how the results benefited the company. As an example, you were entrusted with an 18-month, $23.6 million manufacturing and distribution project that incorporated the launch of upgraded logistics software. The project was envisioned to provide a 14% to 18% increase in productivity and reduce back office head count by 10%. Your expertise in the industry and strong vendor relations pushed the company beyond projections to realize a gain of $19.5% productivity gain, reduce back office 12% and increase potential manufacturing capacity up to 16%. The goal of your letter is to help the hiring manager “see” you being successful in a professional environment.
Implementation
- As you plan your Law of Six activities, also incorporate a tracking mechanism. You may have four or five job opportunities in play and it will be easy to unintentionally skip a touch point. Tracking your activities on a spreadsheet will assure your plan provides maximum benefit.
- Request a business card from each interview participant. You will need email addresses and proper titles to effectively implement your campaign.
- Your phone follow-up on the agreed upon date is an important component of the Law of Six. During the interview, ask what time fame is appropriate to follow-up and then respect their answer. Also, ask if it would be better to call in the mornings or afternoons. They will appreciate this small gesture and you will increase your odds of reaching them.
The Law of Six is a powerful concept to enhance your job search. It is a step-by-step guide to keep you in touch, stay on top, and not get lost in the shuffle. The Law of Six is one of many important strategies to incorporate in your job search. Numerous other interviewing strategies can be found in the Third Edition of InterviewRX and SalaryNegotiationsRX.
Announcement: Upcoming 4 week seminar
by Mitch Byers :: July 3rd, 2008 :: Posted in News & Events |
Today, I met with Katheryn Smith from Career Jump-Start and agreed to provide a series of talks to their members. Their mission is assist job seekers through the entire hiring process. Generally when I give talks, I focus on strategies to deliver powerful career stores based on job-specific competencies. New material will be added for the upcoming 4-week session. Creating targeted resumes, industry research, gaining insight into the hiring-manager’s background, and must-do post interview activities will be covered. The last session will include strategies for the critical first 90 days on the job.
Over the next two to three weeks, I will be pulling material together for the series. Please send your specific questions or areas of concern. The four sessions will be tape and made available later this year.
Thanks for your participation, Mitch
Dear Abby, Dear Abby
by Mitch Byers :: June 20th, 2008 :: Posted in Interviewing to Win |
Several years ago, my oldest brother began reading Dear Abby columns to my father, whose health was in decline. The daily reading brought about a chuckle, a point of disagreement, or led to a story of days gone by. Generations have looked to Dear Abby for advice – from what do about their pushy mother-in-law to how to confront a co-worker who leaves a mess in the microwave.
A recent column touched on the hiring process: Listen-up, new hires: You’re now on the clock. Dear Abby relays the concerns of a central Maine municipality worker. The worker provides three common sense tips for new hires:
- Dress appropriately. “Before you leave your home, bend over in front of a mirror as if you were at a desk or counter. And check both the front and back views. I have seen parts of the anatomy that should be viewed only by your doctor or spouse. Also, that floral tattoo on your abdomen may be cute in a bikini, but it’s inappropriate for an office.” Now that is saying it with style!!
- Leave your children at home. The interview has enough unpredictable moments without your intervention. Bringing children, friends, or family members only adds to the hiring pressure. If a baby sitter cancels at the last minute, then it is better to postpone than to be encumbered.
- Turn off your cell phone. This is the one I personally deal with the most. It is a huge turnoff for hiring managers. If the hiring manager is on the fence about whether or not you are a fit for the company, a funny sounding telephone ring can knock you right out of the running. It is a small thing that can have a big effect.
Dear Abby’s final thoughts: “Different offices hold employees to different standards of dress and behavior. Until a new employee is certain of what those standards are, the sensible thing to do is to err on the side of conservatism in both manner and dress.”
Explaining Critical Thinking and Problem Solving in the Interview
by Mitch Byers :: June 20th, 2008 :: Posted in Enhancing Your Career, Interviewing to Win |
Last week, I received a Workforce Vision publication from SHRM. I have commented on the article in several posts, but today will try to tackle one of the central concerns. The article is a wake up call regarding the shortage of specific skills that employers expect to increase in importance over the next five years. The number one expected skill shortage is Critical Thinking/Problem Solving.
While the SHRM list lists Critical Thinking and Problem Solving together, I would like to unbundled them as individual components. Critical Thinking is an internal process that involves gathering and analyzing a variety of data and recollections. It is the gathering and analysis stage. Problem solving provides the opportunity to apply our critical thinking. Problem solving is about sifting through the data, prioritizing the data and selecting which data can best be brought together to resolve an issue for the longest period of time. In our competitive global economy, effective Critical Thinking is the catalyst to solve increasingly complex business problems.
In my mind, “problem solving” is easier to comprehend than “Critical Thinking.” I hope I am not the only one who has a difficulty grasping the entirety of critical thinking. As I try to problem solve toward a proper definition of critical thinking, I pull from my knowledge of competencies in Chapter 6 of InterviewRX. Competencies are formally defined as the key measurable work habits and personal skills needed for superior performance.
Which of 26 job competencies will best define “Critical Thinking?” I selected two primary competencies and one supporting competency to help solidify our understanding of Critical Thinking. The primary competencies include:
1) Conceptual Thinking: Ability to see patterns no obvious to others; Notices inconsistencies most people overlook; Reviews complex data and identifies relationships from disparate sources; Able to convey ideas through original analogies and metaphors.
2) Analytical Thinking: Sees implication or consequences; Analyzes situations systematically; Anticipates obstacles and ways to get around them, thinks ahead; Analyzes what is needed to accomplish a goal.
Bundled together, Conceptual and Analytical Thinking helps frame the dynamics and brings vitality to the concept of Critical Thinking. A third competency is Strategic Thinking, which is particularly relevant the higher you are in an organization.
3) Strategic Thinking: Competitive industry analysis, Understanding Strengths/Weaknesses, as compared to competitors; Understands market/industry trends; Able to leverage organization’s competitive advantage to meet customer needs.
If you are in job transition, you have to figure out a way to convey your comfort level, if not your expertise in one or more methods of thinking: Conceptual, Analytical or Strategic. How have you used these components to solve problems? Think about past challenges, what obstacles you have overcome, what data you relied on, and what steps you took to solve the problem at hand. Using three layers – Situation-Action-Results, outline several compelling career stories to share. Your career stories should be about a minute long. The critical component is to be specific on the results. Specificity will add impact and crystallize your accomplishments. Mentioning you reduced departmental turnover from 58% to 32% peaks a hiring manager’s interest. Saying that you hired less people last year might be interrupted your department is shrinking because of your ineffective leadership style, not because you increased morale and reduced turnover.
Correct delivery of effective career stories will linger with the hiring manager long after you are gone. Focusing on Critical Thinking and results of your problem solving abilities will move you rapidly forward in the screening process. When they are able to “see” you being successful in their organization, an offer will follow.
Teaching Smart People How to Learn
by Mitch Byers :: June 20th, 2008 :: Posted in Enhancing Your Career |
A business associate recently shared, Teaching Smart People How to Learn by Chris Argyris. Though the material was published in the Harvard Business Review back in May 1991, it still has relevance for today’s career professionals. As I was reading the article, two truths kept swirling in my mind:
- Your strengths, when unchecked, become your weaknesses, or as author Michael Watkins (The First 90 Days) notes, “Every strength has it attendant pitfalls.” While someone’s independence and assertiveness may help them lead a company, if unbalanced with a good dose of social responsibility, integrity, and interpersonal understanding then we are left with the framework for a cavalier bully.
- Someone constantly tripping over their own ego rarely wins the race. How many managers do you know that compromise their effectiveness because they put their needs before the company’s, or push their agenda without regard to the ideas of their peers?
The author’s interest is to make visible our counterproductive blind spots, come to grips with their negative impact and replace the cloak that shields us from reality with a healthy dose of continued self-awareness. Self-awareness will enable us to more easily discern and learn from our shortcomings. In short, Chris Argyris provides a lesson on life and sustained success.
Argyris takes a disciplined approach and insists on us taking full responsibility for our learning actions. This includes one of the most difficult aspects, learning from our life’s failures. Learning from our shortcomings is a simple concept, but a practice rarely seen in corporate environments. Because of the opaqueness of our blind spots, it is easier to learn from other people’s mistake because their errors are much easier to “see” and in many ways, more assessable.
For most of us, learning from our mistakes is not part of our everyday vernacular. We have enough worries without being pressed to be critical of our own behavior. Argyris argues it is particularly difficult for “Smart People” because these “professionals… rarely experience failure. And because they have rarely failed, they have never leaned how to learn from failure.” He concludes that when something goes “bad” the natural reaction is to “become defensive, screen our criticism, and put the blame on anyone and everyone” else. This inability to look inward is problematic not only for the individual, but for a company. The multiplying effects of one’s blindness can hit a company hard, like a punch in the stomach.
When you have a strong self-sense of “success” then covering up “failures” is a common response. Power-welding politicians and Fortune 500 executives have driven home this point for decades. Argyris explains that one’s “high aspiration for success” is shared with “an equally high fear of failure and a propensity to feel shame and guilt when [people]…fail to meet their high standards.” Personal embarrassment and guilt feelings driven by sub-par performance encourages the individual to protect themselves and play the blame game. Repeated, this pattern of “self-serving” results in “self-sealing.” This self-imposed inoculation creates diminishing returns on your efforts. While you see yourself as perfectly balanced on the tightrope, the outside world sees you as out of balance and out of touch.
Defense posturing is self-defeating. By focusing outward instead of inward, individuals are shortchanging themselves for “being a catalyst for real change.” The carnage caused by Smart People with “brittle” personalities includes a predisposition against learning and being hypersensitive during performance evaluations, something the author refers to as “the doom loop.” In my own experience, it becomes impossible to build an effective team or a culture of collaboration when people are following their own paths of glory.
The author discusses techniques for how companies can teach their employees to “reason productively.” Interestingly, the author’s insight of 1991 mirrors research of 2008. A SHRM white-paper “Workplace Visions” concludes the number one skill employers expect to increase in importance in the next five years is critical thinking and problem solving.
While Argyris pushes companies to help employees with productive reasoning, I feel the workforce has become more self-reliant since the early 90s. Today, more workers are independent knowledge brokers. Their self-reliance means they will have to shoulder the responsibility for achieving effective productive reasoning. The challenge will be to maintain a healthy ego while engaging in on-going, honest self-assessments. This starts with a willingness to welcome critical dialogue from the outside.
Difficult? Yes. Impossible? No. When I assist people in job transition, part of my challenge is to help people find their strengths and work through their shortcomings. Interviewing is rarely anyone’s strongest suit. Possibly, because they are in job transition and the future is fuzzy, they feel more vulnerable. With a little probing, a dialogue begins that might not otherwise have been possible. Their defense mechanisms are at ease. This state of neutrality allows them to more quickly and more accurately come to a critical point of self-awareness and embrace new tools and concepts to help secure their next position. Once they pass over this threshold, then suddenly, many other doors become visible for exploration.
As the author concludes, when people are active participants in productive reasoning, “they are not just solving problems but developing a far deeper and more textured understanding of their role as members of the organization. They are laying the groundwork for continuous improvement that is truly continuous. They are learning how to learn.”
Don’t Miss the Tipping Point
by Mitch Byers :: May 25th, 2008 :: Posted in Uncategorized |
Author of nearly a dozen books, Jeffrey Fox shares, “The interview is a sales call to sell yourself.” You want the hiring company to “buy” you. At which point you receive an offer letter, you have a clear picture of the exact value of the transaction. However, the decision to buy happens long before the offer letter. If fact, it may be much earlier than you image. Research shows that interviewers are far more influenced by information emerging early in the interview than later. If fact, studies show that hiring decisions often (not always) happen after only four minutes in a thirty-minute interview. In the balance of the interview, the interviewer spends confirming their initial impression.
How do you know when you have crossed the magic threshold and transitioned from a candidate to an employee?
1) Watch their body language. They will be more relaxed. They might crack a smile. Their gestures will be more animated. The formality of the interview will melt into a more casual tone. I once had a hiring manager stand up in mid-sentence and start an impromptu tour of the facility. A good sign indeed.
2) They are off script. Many hiring managers follow a scripted interview. When they put the pen down or push the paper aside, they have made up their mind.
3) They will stop asking questions and start talking about the company. Think of it as their sales pitch to you. Sharing details about a specific client or an upcoming project highlights a growing trust. They would not be sharing their “secrets” if they were not interested.
4) They will mention names – future coworkers or other managers you will have to meet before they make the (official) hiring decision. They are already beginning to see you functioning in their organization and interfacing with the team.
Some managers are sly poker players and the interview game becomes much harder. Their actions will be more subtle. Look for a personalized touch. Instead of dropping you off in the lobby, they will walk you to the door and linger a moment before saying goodbye.
Once you receive one or more buying signals you will want to communicate in kind. State your specific interest in the company followed by a trial close. “Tom, the job description provides a good outline of the position. You filled in a lot of the holes and I am getting a good picture of how I will be able to contribute. My interest in the position is extremely high. What other background information can I share with you?” Tom may continue to ask interview questions, which indicates a need for additional information before making a decision. Otherwise expect a comment like, “It looks promising. Let’s set up a time for you to talk to Samantha next week.”
Speed Interviewing: Coming to a company near you.
by Mitch Byers :: May 19th, 2008 :: Posted in Enhancing Your Career, Interviewing to Win, News & Events, Selection & Hiring |
A recent article from Dr. John Sullivan discusses up an emerging trend – speed interviewing. Speed Interviewing takes its name from the once popular, Speed Dating. Speed Interviewing severely compresses the interviewing process. Compare cooking popcorn the old fashion way – heating up oil in a deep pan and adding a shallow layer of popcorn to today’s fast and easy microwave popcorn. The popcorn today is ready in jiffy with no mess or cleanup. Speed interviewing hopes to achieve the same results: faster and easier without all the messy protocols of a traditional interview. The slimmed down version is making inroads because traditional interviews has several problems:
- Traditional interviews demand time from multiple parties, impacting production activities
- Most managers would rather do ANYTHING other than interview someone they have never met
- Many managers have little to no training in the interview process
- Many hiring decisions are seen as a 50/50 crap shot, no matter how much time you spend trying to analyze the candidate
- Many hiring managers believe their intuition is the most valid measuring stick to make hiring decisions
The article supports the point of psychologist John Gottman, whose research in the dynamics of snap decisions and first impressions is discussed in Malcom Gladwell’s best-seller Blink. Gladwell explains how “thin slicing” videotaped interactions between married couples provided Gottman the ability to predict, with 95% accuracy, the long-term outcome of the marriage.
While Gottman is able to rationalize a relationship in a matter of seconds, Dr. Sullivan’s approach is more akin to speed dating, and suggests setting a time limit between 5 and 15 minutes for the interview. This caught my interest, because when I was conducting research for InterviewRX I found a study that concluded most hiring decisions are made between 4 and 10 minutes into the interview. This coalescing research suggests speed interviewing may be valid for some companies.
Sullivan points to several advantages of speed interviewing:
- It provides for an immediate comparison between candidates. In the morning you can interview the slate of candidates and have an offer ready that afternoon.
- Less time is spent with people you know you will never hire.
- If available, you are able to interview more than 2 or 3 people with the best resumes.
- Hiring managers are more willing to interview people if they know they can get in and out and on with their day.
- Most hiring managers don’t enjoy a formal behavioral interview and prefer to go with their gut. Hiring managers are proud of their ability to ready body language and understand emotional nuances. They don’t need an hour to figure out if they can work with someone.
- Speed interviewing appeals to college students and recent graduates.
- Because of the time constraints, overly prepared candidates have to abandon their canned answers and respond off the cuff, providing the hiring manager with a truer assessment.
While speed interviewing is not yet fully embraced in HR and recruiting circles, there are enough companies using or experimenting with the concept to rethink your interview approach. From the hiring perspective, committing to a hiring decision after a ten-minute conversation is pretty gutsy, but one most of us do internally, even if we don’t make our decision “public” that soon.
Sullivan mentions that IBM, Abbott Labs and Texas Instruments are using Speed Interviewing, though no specifics are given. My personal opinion is that companies will be reluctant to embrace a snap judgment platform, but may follow the pattern used by Tower Consultants. An employee from Tower shares the company speaks with as many as fifty prospective candidates in a day, allotting about 5 minutes with each one. The speed interviewing is the first step. A more rigorous technical and behavioral interview follows before a hiring decision is made. In my own experience, initial phone interviews have become considerably shorter over the years. Today, I allow 5 to 7 minutes to capture essential qualifying information. From there, face-to-face interviews are scheduled.
The bottom line for Tower and a growing number of companies is that the “speed interviewing works” and I believe it will be a trend more and more people in job transition will experience.
An easy way to check your life/work balance.
by Mitch Byers :: April 16th, 2008 :: Posted in Enhancing Your Career |
The calculator provides a snap shop of how you currently invest a rare commodity, your time. The results are displayed in the form of a pie chart. The color diagram is what you know intuitively, but may not have thought about as competition for a slice of your 168-hour week.
With six areas competing for a slice of your week, it is difficult to keep all areas in balance. If your commute time is a larger slice of the pie than your leisure time, then you may want to consider ways of reallocating, such as “outsourcing” some of your chores to increase your leisure. You could talk to your boss about spending every Friday or every other Friday at home, instead of the office. Your commute time could then be redistributed to more hours of sleep or more leisure time. The calculator allows you to re-calibrate all of the times towards a more desired life/work balance.