Even at the employee recruiting stage, your company’s Painted Picture helps ensure alignment.

Have your potential employees read your Painted Picture before their first interview so they’ll know if the job/culture will feel right to them.  Doing this ideally weeds out unqualified candidates.

One bad apple can spoil the whole bunch. You don’t want an employee that doesn’t want to make your Painted Picture a reality—not only will they be a drain, but they’ll bring others down, too.

How do you ensure that you don’t hire someone like that? I tell the CEOs that I coach to set up an email auto-reply so that all candidates sending their resumes to your company via email instantly get a response that says, “Thanks for applying to work for us.  Please read the attached Painted Picture that describes what our company looks and feels like three years out.  If this sounds like the kind of company you’d like to help build, send us an email with the words, ‘please interview me’ in the subject line.”

It’s an awesome system that saves everyone so much time by not interviewing candidates that don’t like what the future has in store for them. It also shines a spotlight on candidates who are paying attention, and take the time to send a reply back following your directions.

Also, have all of your employees and suppliers re-read the Painted Picture every quarter.  When every employee reads it, the process of alignment starts taking place. Every quarter, have each person read the Painted Picture quietly and circle the key words or sentences that resonate with them. Then go around the room have each person read out the areas they like.  It provides alignment for the whole team before the brainstorming process takes place, and can assist in planning and prioritizing future projects.

More great tools for recruiting here…

For more information on this topic, check out: Building a World Class Culture.

Here is a list of traits you should look for when interviewing a job candidate. I suggest you pick ten critical ones and focus on those.  I’ve put (*) beside the ones I always focus on.

• Attainment/Goal-oriented (*)
• Decision making
• Interdependence
• Introspection (*)
• Leadership (*)
• Organizational skills (*)
• People/interpersonal skills (*)
• Pressure – can they handle it? (*)
• Sales ability
• Tenacity (*)
• Values (*)
• Assertiveness
• Coaching ability
• Conflict – ability to handle it (*)
• Customer service
• Emotional intelligence (*)
• Patience
• Analytical skills
• Communication skills (Written and verbal)
• Diplomacy skills
• Listening skills
• Negotiation skills
• Precision/attention to detail (*)
• Problem-solver (*)
• Resourcefulness
• Risk taking
• Teamwork
• Technology skills (*)
• Work/life balance
• Ability to delegate
• Job knowledge
• Management of change
• Strategic thinking
• Creativity
• Imagination
• Inventiveness

Rating Guide
When you interview 10 people, only one of them should have a ‘5’ in each of the areas you are using to profile them. By implementing this rigorous process, you won’t let average candidates slip by because you rated them too high.

At least one candidate out of 10 will be a ‘1’, perhaps two of them will be a ‘2’, ‘4’ maybe be a ‘3’. If you’re rating them all the same, force yourself to get more realistic with your ratings.

How to Score
a. 5 = 10% of population
b.   4 = 20% of population
c.   3 = 40% of population
d.   2 = 20% of population
e.   1 = 10% of population

NO half marks allowed

Regardless of your company’s size, both yearly and quarterly retreats are critical to ensure alignment, team building and productive engagement among your leadership team. Yearly retreats should be done in about two days, while quarterly retreats can fit into one day.

Retreats should be done off-site, in an environment where group interaction is feasible. There’s just something that changes when a team is removed from its usual environment, such as the city, and relocated to a cabin or a chalet, away from distractions like bars and restaurants. The goal here is to learn, work, and live together. The more rustic the location, the tighter the bond with the team will be. Retreats are more effective in recharging the group if there’s active rest that everyone can participate in together, like hiking or kayaking (can you tell I’m a West Coaster??)

Once you’ve found a place to engage on a much deeper level, the main work to be done during a retreat is prioritizing yearly or quarterly objectives. It always works best to review the Painted Picture right at the start of the first day. When everyone systematically reads the Painted Picture each quarter, the decision-making just gets a lot tighter, and more focused on highly impactful projects versus the big shiny objectives which can easily distract companies. Allowing two days also produces some serious discussion and debate around projects, and that extra time allows the group to ensure the right projects are chosen.

Get creative in picking a place for a retreat.  Everyone will be more focused/recharged at a Mom and Pop cabin versus the Holiday Inn’s ‘Corporate Retreat Center’.

For more information on this topic, check out: Building a World Class Culture.

Active listening is crucial to understanding what the other person is saying.

During this process, the other person must feel that you are empathizing with them and that you understand and care about their point of view.

To really help you with this, use techniques such as ‘paraphrasing,’ or repeating back what they have said and asking if you understood correctly or ‘perception checking,’ the process of watching their reaction and asking them if they’re following you and understanding what you’re saying.

Once you agree on the issue at hand, define the problem. Deal with the reason the person brought up the conflict and the underlying issues. Try not to get too personal and stay on track.  Examine what you did that helped cause the problem. Take the lead and admit the things you did that were wrong.  Admit what you could have done differently and encourage the other person to do the same.  Good conflict management doesn’t mean giving something resolution–it means getting each person to admit their contribution, facts and feelings.

Remember to:

· Confront the issue, not the person.

· Examine your own contribution to the problem.

· Acknowledge what each person wants out of the process.

At the end of the session ask yourself, have emotions been diffused and an agreement been made on the issue? This is a real bobbing and weaving process that can be complex, but both parties need to be assertive in wanting to reach a win/win solution.

TIP: One way I’m able to listen to others, is I sit on my hands, somehow it stops me from trying to talk or interrupt them.

What works for you ?

pic Flickr