day 1148: Help Wanted

 "But find some capable, honest men who fear God and hate bribes."

A good, well written job spec can make all the difference in who applies for a job and the ease by which a decision is made about who is the best candidate. If we know what we are looking for and can spell it out well then it will entice those who we want and weed out those we don't. Within all of this the spec has to also be compelling to someone who is just learning about our company. It has to be a call to action for either the candidate seeing it or the recruiter who is hunting for the best person. I love Ernest Shackleton's 1907 ad in London's Times, recruiting a crew to sail with him on his exploration of the South Pole:

Wanted. Men for hazardous journey.
Low wages. Bitter cold.
Long hours of complete darkness.
Safe return doubtful.
Honor and recognition in the event of success.

He ended up with more people than he could hire. What this job spec does is get at the heart of what type of person he valued. He was looking for courage, endurance, stamina, and adventure. When we hire, do we think enough about the core set of values and principles that we want within a person? Bad hires are usually not because of a person not having the right skill set, it is usually about the person not fitting culturally with the company, which brings us back to values and principles. In one of the first stories of hiring in the Bible, Jethro tells Moses what kind of people he should "select" to replace some of Moses' duties. We read this in Exodus 18:21; "But find some capable, honest men who fear God and hate bribes." Again, we see values and principles as core to the specifications. If today you are hiring, or being hired, don't forget the importance of putting values first and then letting all the rest flow from there.

Reference: Exodus 18:21 (New Living Testament)

day 453: Simple Delegation

There are lots of reasons to delegate and many times we will use the argument of growing and developing others as an incentive to get someone to take things off of their plate and to give to others. It is a great reason and maybe the most important one, but there is even a more baseline reason. This is that if try to do it all ourselves we are setting ourselves up for burnout, overload and ultimately failure. No one can take it all on their own shoulders and succeed. The underlying reason we don't delegate is our own insecurities around the work not getting done and reflecting poorly on us or the fear that if we have others do the work then we won't be valued as much. In this day and age that translates into a fear for job security. This is a real fear but if we are prioritizing correctly then we can offload the little stuff, or the less strategic and then get back on track in getting the bigger work and projects completed. Believe me, if we show that we can multiply ourselves we will have more work than we know what to do with. If none of this is enough to make us think that we need to get better at even simple delegation, read what Moses' Father-in-law said to him when he saw Moses being overworked and failing; "Both you and these people who are with you will surely wear yourselves out. For this thing is too much for you; you are not able to perform it by yourself." That is straight talk with no punches pulled. Fortunately, Moses recognized the wisdom in this and went about making very strategic changes and ended up setting up a work system that endured well beyond him. If today you feel and see the signs of burn-out coming, try first doing some simple delegation. It will work more than you might imagine and with a little more imagination and delegation, you may well find yourself back on even footing and working on the right things again.

Reference: Exodus 18:18 (New King James Version)

day 452: Try Being Open

Other people who have our best interest in mind have some important things to say to us, if we will listen. I have worked with many a person, and have been guilty of it myself, who don't listen well and when feedback comes their way, they shut down, become defensive and begin to rationalize why what they are hearing is of no value to them. I recently was giving feedback to a senior executive about some things I saw him doing that I personally observed in a board meeting. He listened to me over the phone without response as I spoke and at the end of what I wanted to say he spent the next half an hour telling me why I was wrong. Since these were things that I personally saw him do it was a little like I told him that I saw him wearing a blue shirt and him coming back trying to convince me that no, it was not blue, it was actually red. Not only, in my humble opinion, did he miss out on what I think could have made him better, he also has not endeared himself to me to want to try and provide feedback to him in the future. I will of course, because it is part of my responsibility as as board member, but if it wasn't, I wouldn't want to walk into that thicket of thorns again. We should all realize the value in being open to hear what others have to say to us. We don't have to look any further than the story of Jethro and Moses in Exodus Chapter 18. Jethro gave Moses the solution to how Moses could grow and scale his activities. When Moses listened and tried what Jethro suggested, he showed what can come from listening to others and being open to new ideas. Sometimes, we just need to be reminded to stay open and not to close ourselves off to the thoughts and feedback of others. Today, consider this when someone says, "I have been thinking", or "I have an idea", or "Can I talk to you?". Take these opportunities as a gift and put them to good use.

Reference: Exodus Chapter 18 (New Living Testament)

day 417: Don't Go It Alone

It is a tendency within our jobs to find ourselves going it alone. As I have written a number of times, I believe this is largely a function of how business and organizations are architected to operate and how they compensate. We work within hierarchies and teams bottle neck around a leader who may or may not truly recognize or care about the overall strength and health of the team versus the work just getting done. These are the leaders who say, "You, just go get it done and I will reward you for it." They may not be that blatant, but that is the tone and the gist of the message. So, from there what do we do? We run off as individuals and we do whatever we can to be sure that we succeed and achieve personally in the eyes of our superiors and while we say we care, we actually don't spend too much time worrying about the overall team. This is why it is so hard for us to hear someone else say, "It is important that we/you work within the team." We understand it and it makes sense but in the next hour someone will be recognized, rewarded and/or given more responsibility because they took on the load themselves and made it happen in solo fashion. It is very situational but I do believe that part of what we are supposed to leave behind is that we have made others better along the way. Unless we are willing to let go of some things and get out of the way, then we will have missed this opportunity and potentially missed the greatest impact we can make within our careers. Let's be honest, if at the end of our work days all we have to show for it is our own success and not the success of others there won't be many reunions or phone calls in the future about the good old days. Plus, the burden that we carry by ourselves is likely to shorten our work-lifespan versus sharing the work with others. Jethro told his son-in-law Moses this in Exodus 18:22; "...So it will be easier for you, for they will bear the burden with you." Today, you may find yourself in a place where you have been going it alone for too long. Today could be a great day to start looking around and letting go of some of what you like to do, so that others may grow. A little sharing right now and not going it alone could be the beginning of something great for you.

Reference: Exodus 18:22 (New King James Version)

day 416: A Good Job Spec

A good, well written job spec can make all the difference in who applies for a job and the ease by which a decision is made about who is the best candidate. If we know what we are looking for and can spell it out well then it will entice those who we want and weed out those we don't. Within all of this the spec has to also be compelling to someone who is just learning about our company. It has to be a call to action for either the candidate seeing it or the recruiter who is hunting for the best person. I love Ernest Shackleton's 1907 ad in London's Times, recruiting a crew to sail with him on his exploration of the South Pole:

Wanted. Men for hazardous journey.
Low wages. Bitter cold.
Long hours of complete darkness.
Safe return doubtful.
Honor and recognition in the event of success.

He ended up with more people than he could hire. What this job spec does is get at the heart of what type of person he valued. He was looking for courage, endurance, stamina, and adventure. When we hire, do we think enough about the core set of values and principles that we want within a person? Bad hires are usually not because of a person not having the right skill set, it is usually about the person not fitting culturally with the company, which brings us back to values and principles. In one of the first stories of hiring in the Bible, Jethro tells Moses what kind of people he should "select" to replace some of Moses' duties. We read this in Exodus 18:21; "But find some capable, honest men who fear God and hate bribes." Again, we see values and principles as core to the specifications. If today you are hiring, or being hired, don't forget the importance of putting values first and then letting all the rest flow from there.

Reference: Exodus 18:21 (New Living Testament)

day 341: Delegating

Delegation is one of the hardest skills to teach a new manager or team member. There are a lot of reasons why this is so hard. Mostly, the barriers are excuses that are unfounded. When we hear, "Everyone else is too busy", or, "I don't really have anyone who can do what I do", what is really being said is "I like doing the things I do", "I am good at them", and "If I give them to someone to else, what will I do?" There is also the worry about a loss of recognition by others if someone else does something better than we do. It's a very odd phenomena because delegation is one of the secrets to really being happy within one's work. Those who delegate well are typically the ones who others respect the most, want to work with first, and who gain a reputation as a developer and leader of people. But, still most people hang onto as much work as they can, even to the point of overloading and burdening themselves into burnout mode. This is not a new problem. In the earliest writings of the Bible we are told the story of Moses who after leaving Egypt found himself from morning to night listening to the problems of the people and doing nothing else. It was not until his father-in-law Jethro came to visit him and I imagine had a talk with Moses like some of us have had with our elder relatives who come and visit and we are too busy at work to spend any time with them. Jethro told Moses that he was burning himself out and at the same time the long line of people waiting each and every day was causing a lot of discontent. He told Moses to delegate by picking judges who could handle the routine and mundane complaints and then Moses would be freed up and could focus on the harder problems. So Moses took Jethro's advice and created a system of delegating. His system, by the way, was very analytically based and one to observe on how to break down work by people and numbers. From that day on, Israel had a system of judges and Moses was freed up to get back to his other leadership duties. Are you struggling with delegating today? If you are, think about these simple concepts: if you there are things that you do routinely, things that you like doing and things that you are already good at doing; then these are the things that you should delegate. Others want to learn and they want to do more than you imagine or they tell you. If you give them something that they know you like, then they will feel good about that. It took Jethro harping on him for Moses to see that he needed to delegate. What will it take for you to see?

Reference: Exodus Chapter 18: 13-27 (New Living Testament)