The time will come when you will need to interview someone to join your team. This could be someone currently working within your company or it could be an external candidate. Whatever the situation, you’re going to have to make a decision about whether they’re suitable for the job or not.
I’m aware that in some organisations a middle manager may have a new team member picked for them. The applicant is either hired by the Human Resources Department or the senior manager. If you’re in this situation you must fight against it by communicating with your manager. You may want to leap ahead to Chapter 5 where we look at how to give feedback to your manager about situations such as this.
It will be extremely difficult to be a Motivational Manager unless you decide who’ll be on your team. You need to have total faith and belief in every member of your team and they need to know that.
It may be the case that you work for an organisation that uses sophisticated selection systems such as psychometric testing. Or you might work for a small company where you write the job advertisement, do all the interviewing and make the coffee.
Whatever the situation, there will come a time when you will be eyeball to eyeball with a potential team member.
Pick the right people
51 It will be extremely difficult to
be a Motivational Manager unlessyoudecide who’ll be on
your team.
Before you can ask a question or conduct an interview, you need to be very clear in your own mind about exactly what you’re looking for. Now you might jump in here and say, ‘I know what I’m looking for – a new receptionist or a maintenance engineer or a sales agent, and I want a good one.’ But what do you mean by a ‘good one’?
In the previous chapter we looked at the importance of achieving your outcomes. In order to do this you need people in your team:
1. Who can deliver the outcomes you need;
2. Who will fit with the company structure;
3. Who will fit with the existing team;
4. Who will respond to your style of managing;
5. Who will be happy in the job.
Let’s look at each of these points in turn.
1. Outcomes
These could be more orders, or more happy customers, or fast main- tenance turnaround; it’s what you and your team are judged on. You need to be clear in your own mind as to the outcomes you need.
A telecom company that I work with employs engineers to repair and maintain telephone systems. This company has always employed people who are technically competent and can do all the screwdriver and wire-stripper stuff. However, it isn’t enough to be technically competent nowadays; this organisation needs engineers who can interact with customers in a positive way.
These engineers visit homes and offices and the interactions they have with customers will have an effect on their levels of cus- tomer service. In fact, positive customer interactions are now as important as fixing the phone.
If you were a manager interviewing engineers for this company, you would have to consider the applicants’ interpersonal skills.
A few years back I was approached by a beer-brewing company regarding customer service training. They had suddenly come to realise that the employees who spent the most time face to face with the customers were the delivery drivers. Up until then, all customer service training had been directed at sales people and office staff, who often had irregular contact with the customers.
The drivers were speaking with the customers once and some- times twice a week. So it made a lot of sense to employ people who, as well as delivering the beer efficiently, could also be trained to make the customers feel special.
I spend a great deal of my time in hotels usually operated by one of the big chains. The first and last person you speak to in these hotels is the receptionist. I’m often surprised at the poor response from some of these receptionists. I’ve been welcomed by highly efficient people behind the desk who process me quickly and effectively; however, they’re often about as warm as an Eskimo’s ice cream. They don’t make me feel welcome and they don’t make me want to return. I would have thought these were two very important outcomes required from a hotel receptionist. However, I suspect they were employed primarily on their academic qualifi- cations and their ability to ‘process’ customers.
2. Company structure
You also need to consider if the person you interview will be happy in your company and your culture. Some people who move from a large company to a much smaller one often find it hard to adjust.
Some years ago I moved from a large international organisation to a small local company. I went into the job with my eyes open and had three successful years. However, I often felt frustrated in the smaller company mainly by its culture and the way it went about its business; I was glad when I moved back to a bigger organisation. I just wasn’t a ‘small company’ person.
I’ve interviewed people in a similar situation. I remember one lady who I interviewed for a sales agent’s job at one of my clients. She was keen to get the job, she had loads of experience, all the skills required and I was confident that she could do it.
However, when describing her current job with a large company it became very apparent that she wouldn’t fit into this smaller one.
She kept talking about all the things they did in her present com- pany and how she went about her daily duties. I knew that this job she was applying for was totally different from what she’d been used to. If I had employed her I believe that she wouldn’t have been happy, would have ended up not doing a good job and would have probably spent her time trying to find a new position.
3. The team
Will the job applicant fit well with the existing team? Maybe your team are a group of loners who don’t communicate with each other, but it’s unlikely. You can’t pick people who are all the same; you don’t want a set of clones in your team. However, you need to pick someone who is on the same wavelength as the rest of the team. Perhaps you could involve a team member at a second interview; they might have a better feel for whether the person would fit in or not.
4. Your style of managing
How will the person respond to you? Will they be able to work with your style of management?
I’ve had applicants complain about their existing boss, ‘Do you know that he expects me to do such and such.’ And I’ve thought to myself, ‘That’s exactly what I’d be expecting as well.’
You’ve got to have a good connection with the person that you bring into your team. That doesn’t mean to say that you’re going to be best buddies, but you’ll need to be able to work together.
Consider if you’re the kind of manager who likes to work closely with your team and regularly check their progress. If so, you’ll need an individual who wants structure and detail and is com- fortable with close monitoring.
If, on the other hand, you’re the kind of manager who sets out- comes and leaves the team to get on with it without much help from you, you’re going to need someone who’s happy to work with minimum supervision.
I once made a mistake with a guy I appointed into a field sales job. Because he was a college graduate I felt that he would be able to pick up the knowledge and selling skills really fast. I’m the second type of manager I described above. I tell people what the outcomes are and let them find their way to achieving them. I keep in contact and give feedback when they do well and also when they need to improve things.
However, this guy was at me all the time: ‘What do I do next, where do I go now, how do I do it?’ This of course took up too much of my time. The others in the team made decisions them- selves and regularly checked with me. This guy was a ‘bad fit’, it didn’t work and he left very soon of his own accord.
5. They need to be happy
Job applicants don’t know what they’re getting into when they start a new job. They might thinkthey know but how can they when they’ve never worked in your team or your company before? Just as it’s a risk for you when you start someone new, it’s also a risk for them. You’ll never totally eliminate the risk but it’s your job to minimise the risk for both you and the applicant.
I think I’d like Jay Leno’s chat show job on NBC. It must be great to sit and chat to glamorous movie stars and other interesting people. You don’t even have to do much talking, you just ask a few questions and let them get on with it. You read a few jokes off the auto-prompter – no problem – and you get paid lots of money. But
maybe it wouldn’t suit me; perhaps I’d get bored in a few weeks.
Maybe there are lots of tedious jobs they’d ask me to do behind the scenes. And I’d probably get bored with all the beautiful women who’d be throwing themselves at a famous person like me.
On reflection, I’m willing to risk it; when’s he leaving?
I’ve seen too many people start a new job and then find that it doesn’t suit them, they don’t like it and they want out. It causes problems for you as the manager; so I suggest you do every thing you can to avoid it.