When I help a client build a robust hiring process to get the best candidates and reduce failed hires, it usually has at least 12 steps and takes 2-3 months to go from start to a body at the keyboard. We all want that to happen faster! I wish I could skip a step. But every time I've done it, I've regretted it. Here's the importance of each step: Define a clear concept of the ideal role and description of the ideal candidate If you don't know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else. ~Yogi Berra Reflected in a Job Description It's one thing to be clear in your head; when you write it down, it's easier to communicate it to the candidate too! Know … [Read more...]
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Do you interview like a detective, or like a cheerleader?
As business starts picking up again, my clients are planning to do some hiring. I've signed 3 new recruiting assignments in the last month! If you are in that boat, too, there's one thing I want you to do before you even start your process. Get your head straight before you hire By the time we launch a hiring process, we're usually overworked. If we weren't, we wouldn't be hiring! If the pain of not having someone on board is high enough, we can start thinking about shortcutting the hiring process. Instead of thinking, "I'm not sure if this person can do this job. I want them to prove it to me." We start thinking, "I hope this person can do this job! I'm going to look for all … [Read more...]
The ONE reason you aren’t making more money.
If you want to make more money, OR if you want to earn the same money but take more time off, there’s only one thing you need to do. You need to increase the value of your work to the level where people will pay you more for it. That’s it, that’s the secret. What could you do to increase the value of your time? There are four ways to increase the value of what you do, gain leverage, increase demand, increase your perceived value, or grow your expertise. You can gain leverage when one hour of your time produces an amplified result. Examples of improved leverage include: Automating routine tasks. Outsourcing or delegating lower value tasks. Developing methodologies or … [Read more...]
The best way to make continual progress
Are you emerging from the last year feeling less confident than you were in 2019? Maybe you feel uncertain or have made a big change to what you are doing or how you do it. You know that showing up with confidence and clear direction is critical to success, but you don’t feel all that confident or clear. Instead, you feel like you’re wading through quicksand in a snowstorm! You are not alone There are a lot of agency owners who feel like you do. Moreover, if you go back and talk to folks who grew a big successful agency, those folks you look up to, they’d tell you about long stretches of their journey where the business went sideways and questioned themselves! Always be … [Read more...]
What needs to die?
I’m great at starting things. I love going through a strategic planning exercise and seeing the possibilities in the future. Identifying new things that offer great promise. It took me years to recognize that I’m bad at stopping things, at giving up and killing things off. So year after year I’d start new things, while the pile of unfinished or incomplete projects pooled around my ankles. “What about that webinar series? Or the book group? Or the…” My team would ask. “Yes, we’ll get to that. But this is more important,” I’d reply. So my to-do list would be crowded with things I’d promised my team I’d do. Littered with half-completed projects on the “back-burner.” At some … [Read more...]
Do you ever feel overwhelmed?
When listening to business owners, I often hear them talking about feeling overwhelmed. It can feel like you are juggling a million balls a once, client calls, employee needs, cash flow, business development… But it’s not just business stuff; your son’s birthday is coming up, your car needs an oil change, you haven’t been on vacation in a year, when was the last time you had a physical, isn’t my anniversary coming up… It’s no wonder you’re overwhelmed! The balls aren’t all the same. That overwhelmed feeling comes when you are trying to keep all the balls in the air and never let one drop – but not all the balls are the same. Some balls are glass balls; when they fall to the … [Read more...]
It’s time to dance!
We’re fools whether we dance or not, so we might as well dance. ~ Japanese Proverb Spring has sprung in the Northern Hemisphere! Flowers are blooming, and businesses are starting to think about a “post-COVID” era. Are you feeling the need to make some changes in your business to accommodate this new season? Have your clients' needs shifted, or their direction changed? How will you adjust to that? Will 2021 be another year without major trade shows? How will you meet new clients? Are the changes in work styles you’ve adopted to cope with the pandemic something you want to keep on with? What have you learned that you want to move forward with? There are always opportunities … [Read more...]
Process over Results 🎰
When I was 21, I was driving through Nevada and stopped in a gas station. I walked in to pay for the gas, and I found a slot machine. Someone had fed coins into the slot machine but never pulled the handle, so I gave it a pull. Much to my surprise, about $5 worth of nickles came pouring out! Totally free money; it was crazy. If I didn’t go into that experience with a healthy disrespect for slot machines, I might have concluded that walking into gas stations and playing the slot machines would be a great way to make money. (It’s not, just in case you were wondering!) Where is the slot machine in your business? I’ve seen clients who hit it big on their first RFP, and they keep chasing … [Read more...]
Where are the opportunities now?
“The reason most people don't recognize an opportunity when they meet it is because it usually goes around wearing overalls and looking like Hard Work.” Carlos had a small training and consulting firm that was doing all right. He had 6 consultants on staff and another 4–5 that were part-timers, but he hadn’t seen growth in a few years. His firm was well-positioned; he assisted large IT organizations who wanted to implement a certain best practices framework. They had solid case studies, and he knew who his ideal client was, but leads were still hard to come by. The CIOs at these large companies were well guarded, and he didn’t have the sales horsepower to get in. It was just going … [Read more...]
What if you aren’t achieving your goals?
"A man must shape himself to a new mark directly [once] the old one goes into the ground." ~Ernest Shackleton I love the story of Ernest Shackleton. An Antarctic explorer who never made it to the South Pole. He returned from a failed quest only to see someone else make it to the pole 3 years later. Undaunted, he set out in 1914 to cross over Antarctica via the South Pole. Quickly his journey ran into trouble. His ship was icebound, and he abandoned it before the ice crushed and sank it. For the next 73 days, he leads his crew across floating ice until he finally attempted a 1,300-mile open water journey in a lifeboat to get help to rescue the remaining crew. Not a single man was … [Read more...]
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