Category: enthusiasm

5 steps how to attain and retain new talent


Ralf Weiser

5 steps how to attain and retain new talent

Finding new talent and then keeping it in the long run is more challenging than ever – especially in small to medium sized manufacturing companies. The paradigm shift toward your workplace needing to provide a perspective and purpose is not only favored by GenZ and Millennials. The other generations also look for that as the pandemic had them think about their work-life balance much differently. This puts emphasis on you and your organization level up your hiring process and procedures. The more a job candidate experiences that you have a well-organized hiring and onboarding plan, the greater the chance you will attract better talent and those folks tend to stick around. 

Most of the hiring is done by top management and HR related responsibilities are either contracted or part-time positions carried out by admin or finance personnel. The top complaint went something like this: “We have tried filling this position for months. When we finally found and hired a candidate they either did not show or did not stay for long.” If this sounds like you, then there are five straight forward tips of how to increase your chances to land great talent. 

  • Focus on existing job openings What candidates and your employees are really after is a great work culture. If you do not know where to start, begin focusing where you can make the biggest impact. That is typically open positions. Hiring and onboarding have a huge impact on how new and existing employees can experience what your culture is. The level of care and structure you put into this will demonstrate how serious you are about setting a good example. Remember, the best results come from self-motivated talent that has many responsibilities as they have authority. Position them to their strengths and you will not have to “manage” people. This results in more time that you can direct toward more pressing issues.  
  • Update (create org chart) Yes, this one is an important steppingstone. I cannot stress enough the importance of this document. How else would YOU know who is reporting to whom? New employees crave the knowledge as to who is who and who does what to whom. They should have a very clear picture from day one what the hierarchy looks like so that they can mentally prepare for their first meetings with your other employees. And guess what? Your other employees are just as curious about it. Finally, having this document is needed to develop the job description.   
  • Develop job analysis and job description What do position summary, essential functions, and responsibilities of the proposed job look like? Is this a new or an existing role? Analyze what the daily job routine looks like. What are the inputs and outputs and interaction with other staff? Be specific yet brief in your job description. What is the knowledge, skills, abilities, experience, education, and competencies that a job candidate must possess? Is this an entry level, middle of the road, or expert level position? 
  • Develop interview panel and questionnaire Based on the job description you should have a ready-made telephone and panel interview questionnaire. Get competencies and compensation out of the way with the telephone interview. Once a candidate moves to the panel interview (never hire alone) have 10-13 questions printed out for your panelists. You will cover competencies, cultural fit, and get to know your potential future co-worker. The younger the generation, the more the candidate will interview you – and you may not even notice it. This will be another future post as the impact of candidates wanting to come and stay with you depends how you as the employer will fare during this milestone. 
  • Develop the onboarding plan and 30/ 60/ 90 day check-ins A good hiring manager will figure out in the first two weeks if the new hire will “make it” in their new role. Every leader-manager should have an onboarding plan designed to make a productive team member in the first 30 days of their employment. In order to achieve that you will need to come up with 30/ 60/ 90 day benchmarks as to what the new employee had committed to achieve and deliver. Best practice is assigning an office buddy and having them fill out a questionnaire that will cover sales, operations, production, and even the strategic vision and mission of the organization. 

These principles are simple, it is just a matter of getting started to create this level of structure at your organization. Curious about setting some of these steps up? Stay tuned and just watch out for more content to come.  

Ralf 

15 ways to be more successful as a leader-manager


Ralf Weiser
Ralf Weiser

So you advanced your career because you did your job well. Avoid getting promoted into oblivion using these tips

So you worked your bum off and now you got promoted to leader-manager. It is really not all that difficult for you to get put into this position. Now comes the tough part: You are expected to “manage” people and how they spend their productive time. What changes is that you will need to spend some time on developing your leadership skills. The people you are supposed to serve (lead) – your former colleagues – may start losing trust in you and your company. Most companies unfortunately do not spend any time or effort helping you learn these important skillsets. Here are 14 quick tips that can make a huge difference for how well you lead your team.

  • Park your personal agenda and ego: Did you ever like a boss that is only concerned about his / her own issues, but never yours? Turn that down a notch or two. Have you ever seen the movie “Saving Private Ryan”? In it there is a great line about leadership: “Never gripe down, always gripe up.” Your folks are not interested about your woes; their’s are big enough the way they are.
  • Be fair: Kick up the old golden rule to platinum level. Treat others how they would like to be treated. Never treat people differently. You will regret it in the end. The moment you lose their trust you will no longer be privy to vital people and company information. There has to be clarity about what applies to everyone.
  • Help promote your team members: Nothing shows more respect than to be a great career steward. Help your team advancing in their careers.
  • Give them a great reason to spend their time at work: Purpose, perspective, and impact is what people are looking for. Especially GenZ and Millennials will emphasize on this point.
  • What happens at the work place, stays at the work place: Other than the heavy hitters of employee safety, harassment, discrimination, moral, and ethical problems, no other team member information is supposed to leave your lips. Confidentiality is the keystone to how much you will be trusted as a leader.
  • Make sure having a great one on one contact with your team members: Nothing beats being able to help and assist your team members on a one on one basis. You get to know about their struggles and aspirations and you can help make a difference happen.
  • Listen, listen, and listen: Your organization can tell you anything you want to know about the state of mind of your folks and also the strategic and tactical progress you are making (or the lack thereof). Boy, did that take me a while to learn how to do this better. Asking engaging questions is the tougher but better thing to do and you get to listen to your organization’s creativity come alive.
  • Communicate, communicate, communicate: No leader has ever been accused of over-communicating. Make sure to know company vision, mission, values, and goals by heart. Make sure that there is a steady trickle of this information shared with your team members.
  • Embrace transparency and collaboration: This builds trust. Trust begets creativity. Realize that you cannot and should work alone. You need all the help you can get working toward common goals. The worst that can happen in business is to have success. Success can outgrow and outspend you in a heartbeat. You need a team that is nimble and fully engaged in order to make it through the ups and downs of the economy.
  • Create a safe working environment: Praise in public and critique in private. If you want candid information shared with you then learn how to not chastise any team member for having made a mistake. Go by this rule: A mistake is a mistake; otherwise it is intention and I need to speak with you. I also will need to have a serious performance type conversation with you if you have a pattern of the same mistakes. Every other mistake is just that – a mistake. Being in business comes with risks. Risk taking is essential in learning what works and what doesn’t. Mistakes happen when you take a risk. Remember that good people are tough on themselves. All you have to ask is: “What have you learned?”
  • Be humble and grateful: Nothing beats a little self-depreciating humor when you make mistakes. Admit them and make them public. No one – not even you – should be able getting away with not learning from your mistakes. At the same time you want your team to stay informed enough such that they will not have to make the same mistakes either. Be grateful for the openness your team affords you. Not allowed are intentional or pattern of mistakes.
  • Do something with what they tell you: When your team is trying to tell you that there is a systemic problem with a process, policy, people, etc. do something with this info. That is why you became the leader-manager in the first place. Do not let anyone else handle this important detail for you. This needs to come from and through you. Taking charge of difficult situations is (unfortunately) something you will to get to deal with. Do it well and people will trust you.
  • Be mindful of other people’s time commitments: Knowing when to end a conversation is tough. Sometimes it feels great speaking with like minded folks about issues you are mutually facing. Cut it short if it no longer serves the purpose. Do not fall victim to scope creep either. One issue leads to the next and then there is another one, etc. etc. Trust me, there are more challenges than you can shake a stick at. Keep it to solving one short and effective issue at a time.
  • Prepare meetings well ahead of time: Most meetings are really not necessary, or the are simply not effective. Too often leader-managers look at them as a “working meeting”, meaning that the problem, problem statement, and possible solution finding happen with the attendees hearing about this issue for the first time.
  • Start and end meetings on time: Do this religiously. Yes, there are times when it may be necessary to run over. Attempt your very best to get a reputation for beginning and ending on time. Your folks want to get their tasks done.

Do not be afraid to fail with any of the above topics. Only very few business schools are providing leadership and soft skill training – yet. I am hoping that one day leader-manager training will become a mandatory topic at graduate and undergraduate level. Plan, Do, Reflect, and Correct your future behavior and you will have made the biggest change already. Good luck!

Ralf

Election day – please go vote today


A few thoughts from from an immigrant 

Just because we have local, state and federal representatives does not mean that you should sit back and just watch what your delegates are doing. What we have here in the United States of America is something worth protecting, extending and emulating.

I am an immigrant from Europe, Germany to be exact, and have traveled and lived in a few different places. I am thankful to Germany who I am. My upbringing, education, apprenticeship, parents, grandparents, sister, and friends shaped me who I am. Who I can be, I owe to America. Just think of it, the only barrier in your way is yourself. Where else can you find so many people and organizations that are willing to help you make a living here? The sky is truly the limit.

I do not take this lightly. I was so grateful for the tolerance, help, inspiration, and most of all the opportunities that this country and its people have afforded me that I became dual citizen. A few years ago I earned my citizenship and thus am allowed to vote. Even in today’s divisive landscape we have so many opportunities in stow for all of us. That is very special and it should be preserved for many generations to come.

Why is it so important? You need not look far for reasons, but I have listed a few refreshers that may help you get out of the office or off the couch and vote.

  1. Apathy is the beginning of the end. I get it. You feel powerless and sometimes it feels overpowering how many choices there are of people and positions to vote for. Does it matter anyway? Most folks that are even moderately unhappy choose not to vote. Only people who either vote out of principle, or have really strong feeling seem to go vote.

That is terrible and as a German it is a personal pet-peeve of mine. In high school our teachers pounded it into us that a set of terrible circumstances helped get Hitler into power. One of the most disturbing was the indifference and self-centeredness of Germans toward tolerance and peace. They were all too happy to just go along and not care what happened.

I am not an alarmist, but think back to how many local elections you made an effort to do some research and vote? You have helped make it possible for radical ideas to pass you right by because there may just not be enough votes to go around to be against such things and people.

  1. The power of one. Yes, I have heard this before how your one vote cannot possibly make that much of a difference. Perhaps that is so at the micro level, but this scales up really easily. Then a few more think this way and then more and more do not go just because the feel their one vote does not matter. And now you have a storm brewing because the one vote turned into the majority who did not go. Start with yourself and make a difference. With low turn out your vote DOES matter.
  2. Influencing matters. Delegates make important decisions, but you get to decide what is important.
  3. Greed and power corrupt. Are you not sick of how many elected officials end up in legal trouble or at least in the news about their questionable conduct? Are you happy with that? Our founders risked life and everything they had for us and many, many people died for us in wars trying to protect what we enjoy today. When you see folks that are just too weasely than please get up and make a difference by casting your vote to get them out of their positions.
  4. When you do not like what you see get involved. There so many issues today that are in desperate need of great people to ponder and make decisions on. How do you feel about some of them? Are you happy with where they are now? What are you waiting for? Do that peacefully though.
  5. A staple of democracy. Just think of how thinks can go awfully wrong and you do not have to look far. Over a decade ago I visited Venezuela and I cannot recognize it today anymore just because one man managed to manipulate his way through democracy turning it into what it is today. Why? People did not participate in democracy when they had a chance.

Please do not take your opportunity to make a difference lightly. I do not care whom you vote for. That is totally each and everyone’s personal choice. Go vote and if you cannot do that because you are not registered, make this election the reason to do so.

Ralf

10 way how to improve how you and others feel about yourself


fountain

Be a fountain and not a drain 

Photo credit: Wikipedia link El Alamein Memorial Fountain in Sydney, New South Wales

It is so much easier to be a drain than to be a fountain. A fountain takes a lot of energy to push out water and distribute it such that it works effectively. Fountains symbolize refreshment, nourishment, and providing water as a life spending human resource. Fountains therefore help sustain life. They also represent beauty and many say they even are a source of good luck. A drain is just there and does not need to do anything.Of course that is not a literal reference, but it is a great analogy. When we are at our best we are a fountain: we expend our energy to provide love, inspiration, empathy, compassion, creativity, and so many other positive attributes.

However, many, many people allow themselves acting as a drain to themselves and others. Just take some time at the airport, in traffic, and even at the grocery store and observe the sometimes really nasty interactions between total strangers. Ultimately, these folks are energy sinks – a drain of immense power. How about the drain you experience when you have issues with your spouse or your boss? That hits in the gut and heart, doesn’t it? You can literally feel the energy leaving your body and soul when you are close to nasty people like this.

Ultimately though is your choice. Only you can choose to either take a positive route or the negative. Here a few ways how you can be that fountain to others and you will good about yourself as well:

  • Choose your attitude: Every morning and moment brings along a new choice for you to make. You can either choose to be miserable, or you can choose to smile and be full of joy. No, I am not saying you should fake this. No matter how miserable you think you have it, rest assure there are plenty of other people who have got it so much worse than you.
  • Make other people’s day: It is easier than you think. From random kinds of kindness to just being there for others when they need a boost will do wonders for the ones whom you are helping and your own self esteem.
  • Employ the Platinum Rule: I am sure you know the Golden Rule – treat others like you would be treated. Kick this up a notch or two. The Platinum Rule is treating others like they want to be treated. How do you know that other people like what you like? Is it not better to ponder how other people would like to be treated? Would this not make a much better first impression?
  • Play: Having genuine fun with others whether or not you are at home or at work is incredibly inspiring and uplifting. Ponder how you can generate a good solid mutual laugh with each other. Carry that out as much as your laughing muscles will bear it.
  • Be grateful: Gratitude is when you are truly humbled by the many gifted and talented people you get to meet on a daily basis. Gratitude is when you are truly grateful for your health, family, and friends. We have so much to be grateful for.
  • Share your talents: You impact more people than you think by what you do best. Share whatever talents you have and do it freely.
  • Volunteer: Let it be at school, church, hospitals, fire companies, local business associations, theater, special events, etc. Volunteering impacts the lives of many people and it feels great having made a difference for others.
  • Sleep: Huh? What does that have to do with being inspiring to others? That’s really simple: You had better sustain yourself and sleep as much as you can such that you have plenty of energy to expend.
  • Believe: Faith has a great impact on sustaining yourself. I find it all but impossible to be a fountain and not having a strong belief. Stock up on Faith and you will be inspiring to others and have the necessary integrity to do that for the long haul.
  • Ask what you may bring – not what you can get: In anything you do with and for others make sure you demonstrate your servitude attitude. Serving others is key to advance yourself. Yes, you serve the ones you may be in charge of. Be open, collaborative, inquisitive, and help break down barriers for the people whom you serve. Give and you shall be given.

Don’t be a drain like this woman (click to watch video). Fear, hatred, bitterness, too much ego drain your personality and reputation straight into the gutter. Sometimes it may be fun and also lucrative to let those bad feelings and thoughts direct you through the day. Ultimately, you allow those dark forces to lower, if not destroy your potential.

That’s when you see a fountain make sure to think of what you will do today to inspire others to also do their best in becoming one too.

Ralf