Joe and Wanda on Management

Mark Murphy, author of Hiring for Attitude, explains that assessing skills is easy. The key to hiring good people is to hire those that embody the unique attitudinal characteristics of your organization. Listen to this Management Tips Podcast to find out how it’s done.

 

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While paging through the business section of my local newspaper, the Daily Local News, I came across an article by Gretchen Metz on excuses people use for being late for work. Apparently Career Builders does a survey each year. Turns out, tardiness is up this year as 16% of survey respondents reported that they arrive late to work once or more each week. That’s up a percentage point from last year. Career Builders also lists some of the best excuses. My favorite is the employee that said he wasn’t late because he had no intention of showing up to work before 9:00AM, despite the fact that he had an 8:00 AM start time.

How do you handle tardiness Joe and Wanda?

Joe Kerr: Hey, they better be there when I’m there. That’s all there is to it. If they aren’t, they won’t be around for long.

Wanda B. Goode: It’s been a long time since I’ve worked in an environment where time was tracked closely, but that doesn’t mean I’ve never had issues. Typically, I’ve just set primary times of coverage where everyone must be present, allowing people to flex around that. For instance, you might say that everyone must be present between 9:00 AM and 4:00 PM. That way, there is some flexibility. The morning people can get in early and leave early. The others can get in later and leave later. They all just have to be there between 9:00 AM and 4:00 PM. Most people don’t abuse that privilege. Of course, if they do, it needs to be dealt with quickly. Otherwise it can easily result in morale problems.

Here are a couple of related posts…

One-in-Five Workers Are Late to Work at Least Once a Week, CareerBuilder.com Survey Finds
Why are Your Employees Late for Work?

Dan McCarthy hosts the January, 2012 Leadership Development Carnival at his site. Sample the dozens of management and leadership articles posted this month.

At around 9:00 pm on Christmas Day, my 8 year old son and I were sitting in our family room. His mother called and told him it was time for bed. Before he headed upstairs I asked him, “Did you have a good day today?” He looked at me like I had two heads and responded, “How could I not have a good day? It’s Christmas.”

It was one of those “Make-sure-you-don’t-take-things-for-granted” moments. It just made my day even better. Hope you have had some time to relax and enjoy the holidays.

In his new book, Hire for Attitude, Mark Murphy relays the results of a study he did with over 20,000 new hires over a period of 3 years. He found that 46% of them failed (i.e. got fired, got written up, or received poor reviews) within the first 18 months. That’s a big number. Even more surprisingly, though, was that only 11% failed due to lack of skills. The remainder failed as a result of attitude.

Thoughts Joe and Wanda?

Joe Kerr: Merry Christmas everybody. I’m going to head on down to the local watering hole with my team, so we can work on our attitudes.

Wanda B. Goode: It is tough to overcome a crappy attitude regardless of the level of technical competency. That’s important to consider when hiring a new employee.

Here are a couple of related posts…

Whom Should You Hire at Start-up (Attitude Over Aptitude)
Attitude vs. Aptitude

In his book, Great by Choice, Jim Collins refers to 10X leaders – Those leaders whose companies have outperformed their industry indexes by ten times. He found that 10X leaders “did not have a visionary ability to predict the future. They observed what worked, figured out why it worked, and built upon proven foundations. They were not more risk taking, more bold, more visionary, and more creative than the comparisons. They were more disciplined, more empirical, and more paranoid.

Thoughts Joe and Wanda?

Joe Kerr: I suppose there’s hope for you then, huh?

Wanda B. Goode: I guess Aesop was on to something. It appears slow and steady does win the race.

Here are a couple of related posts…

What’s Coming Next? 3 Lessons Learned in Great by Choice
What Does it Take to be a 10X Leader?

Kevin Eikenberry hosts the December, 2011 Leadership Development Carnival at his site, Leadership and Learning with Kevin Eikenberry. Sample the management and leadership articles posted this month.

In his book, Little Bets, Peter Sims points out the importance of inquisitiveness to innovation, a trait that seems to be lacking in many. Hal Gregersen of INSEAD offers an explanation. It’s our approach to education.

“If you look at four-year-olds, they are constantly asking questions and wondering how things work. But, by the time they are six and a half years old they stop asking questions, because they quickly learn that teachers value the right answers more than provocative questions.” So apparently, as adults, our tendency to explore and discover is still there, it’s just being squelched.

Thoughts Joe and Wanda?

Joe Kerr: I don’t need any more four-year-olds on my team!

Wanda B. Goode: I guess one of our jobs as managers is to un-squelch the inquisitiveness! There is an awful lot of talk about the value of failing, but lots of times that is just lip service. We need to back it up.

Here are a couple of related posts…
When Failure Leads to Innovation, and When it Doesn’t
7 Habits of Highly Innovative People

In his book, It’s Okay to be the Boss, Bruce Tulgan identifies a series of myths for why managers don’t manage. Myth #7 is The Myth of Time. Managers complain that they don’t have time to manage their people. They are just too busy with their own tasks and responsibilities. Tulgan debunks the myth as follows: “Since your time is so limited, you definitely don’t have time not to manage your people. Managers who try desperately to avoid spending time managing people always spend lots of time managing people anyway.” In other words, pay me now, or pay me a whole lot more later.

Thoughts Joe and Wanda?

Joe Kerr: I’m broke!

Wanda B. Goode: I also like how Tulgan refers to time spent managing people as “high-leverage time.” For every 15 minutes you spend effectively managing someone on your team, you get paid back many times over in productivity.

Here’s a related post…

The Authentic Boss

Dan McCarthy hosts the November, 2011 Leadership Development Carnival. Sample the dozens of management and leadership articles posted this month.