View the Video of the Top Ten Hiring Mistakes

Top Ten Hiring Mistakes - Hiring Errors

On our Hire and Retain Top Talent Blog, we recently posted a video of our Research Project titled The Top Ten Mistakes in Hiring. You can download a copy of the Executive Summary of the Top Ten Hiring Mistakes Research Project by clicking here. The blog post with the video of the Top Ten Mistakes in Hiring can be found by clicking here.

In the video we identify which of the 5 components of our Success Factor Methodology can be used to overcome each of the Top Ten Hiring Mistakes.

We teach the Success Factor Methodology in our popular workshop “You’re NOT the Person I Hired” which is named after our best-selling book by the same title. You can download a digital version of our book on raising hiring accuracy and eliminating hiring mistakes by clicking here.

Barry Deutsch

Finding good sales people

 

Dave Kinnear, Vistage Chair, posted a wonderful article (I’m biased of course) on his blog to one of our most popular blog articles titled “Why is it so hard to find great salespeople?”

Dave wrote this article over a year ago – and it’s just as relevant today as it was when he originally posted the article. His call to action to companies to change the way criteria is set for hiring and performance, incentives, and expectations is frustrating to read since not a lot has changed in sales hiring over the last 10 years. Most companies are still stuck in an antiquated, ancient, tribal, and traditional approach to hiring and managing a sales team that is broken.

Until the basic paradigm shifts of how to define success, how to fish in deep waters for the best sales talent, how to motivate the best performers, and how to keep the best talent changes – most companies will continue to experience mediocre results in their sales teams.

Here’s a small quote from Dave’s article:

 

My friends at Impact Hiring Solutions posted an article on their blog answering a question I hear a lot: “Why is it so hard to find great salespeople?” They are right it is hard, and I think we should listen to their solid understanding of how to properly hire a sales person. However, there is a trap waiting for you. It’s a pretty significant trap; and it’s this . . . . Do you know what it takes to be successful in sales in THIS market or are you going to build your success factors based on past experience. Now, I’m not talking about setting the measurable goals part of this process. You know how to determine what the top line, bottom line and profit margins need to be. I’m talking about what makes a salesperson successful in the present economy. And if you follow the Impact Hiring Solutions guidelines, how will a person demonstrate that they have achieved the success factors in other companies and in this market?

 

How do you define success for top performing sales professionals? Have you changed your methods of where you go to find these candidates? Have you evolved your process of what you do with these top performing sales professionals once join your company? OR we will still using the same approaches from 10-20-30 years ago?

If you would like to read Dave Kinnear’s full article on what needs to change to hire and retain top sales professionals, click the link below:

Finding Good Sales People

Barry Deutsch

Is the Issue of Delayed Gratification Important in Success vs. Failure?

Vistage Chair Mark Taylor, put forth the interesting idea that perhaps success or failure is determined by delayed gratification.

Here are a few of the comments Mark made in his blog post:

 

In this six minute TED talk, Joachim de Posada, author of Don’t Eat The Marshmallow Yet!: The Secret to Sweet Success in Work and Life, shares a telling experiment on delayed gratification — and how it can predict future success. This must see video of kids trying their hardest not to eat the marshmallow is very funny and teaches an important lesson for leaders, the key difference between success and failure is not merely hard work or superior intelligence, but the ability to delay gratification.

 

Mark took this idea to another level by linking emotional intelligence to delayed gratification.

Would you agree delayed gratification is important to measure? Is it a important behavior trait among your top performers.

Is measuring this possible in an interview?

Are you someone who delays gratification?

My experience of having interviewed with my partner over 250,000 candidates over 25 years and having conducted over 1000 search assignments – is that most top performers in the corporate world want immediate gratification. They have a need to see a project or task completed and want feedback on how the did immediately. They are intensely goal/target focused and have an ability to plow through obstacles, problems, roadblocks to complete projects. Can you be someone who delays gratification, yet be someone who is also execution oriented?

It’s an interesting idea to consider – although I’m not yet convinced this is the core issue of success vs. failure. In roles requiring a high degree of urgency in completion, would this potentially be a negative?

If you’re interested in reading the full article Mark posted, click the link below:

Here is the key difference between success and failure

Barry Deutsch

PS: Mark did a great job of illustrating how you can manage content for your target audience and use it as a tool to engage, promote discussion, brand yourself, and establish your thought leadership. If you’re a speaker, consultant, or sales professional, do you do this with your network on a frequent basis by leveraging social media, such as LinkedIn and Blogging? The additional lesson is that I find this interesting article that Mark wrote, quoted him, linked to his material, gave him full credit, and put my own thoughts around his blog post. This technique of sharing information with your network is called content curation – are you doing this with your most important connections?

Candidates Just Can’t Get Any Respect

About Com Human Resources Blog

I came across this great post on the About.com Human Resources site. The primary point that Susan Heathfield makes is that candidate’s deserve a response, they deserve the right to know where they stand in your hiring process.

She claims and I agree 100% that the candidate you reject deserves the same courtesy of notification as the candidate to whom you are offering the job. Communication should be respectful and responsive.

In thousands of conversations with candidates, we discovered a general level of dismay, anger, and frustration with most human resource departments and hiring managers. She states”:

Among job searching candidates currently, their biggest complaint is the disrespect with which they are treated by HR offices. Unfortunately, no communication appears to be the norm.

Do you have a process, procedure, or policy to ensure that candidates are treated with respect in your hiring process – even those whom you reject?

To read the entire article regarding, click the following link:

Candidates Deserve Respectful Communication

Barry Deutsch

P.S. See the expanded version of this article on our primary HIRE and RETAIN TOP TALENT Blog