Career Advice That Actually Sucks

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Everyone thinks they’re an expert on Career Advice! My favorite career advice folks are the bloggers who haven’t had a real job except for blogging in like a decade! I’m mean, clearly, your career was kicking you in the ass, why should I listen to you about advice in my career!?

But, that’s just one group. Career advice is like bad opinions, everyone has some to give you, even when you don’t want or need it. CNN/Money recently ran an article called, “Career advice you hear all the time that’s actually bunk“, here’s what CNN says is common career advice that is actually pretty bad:

“Follow Your Passion” -“Passion is not something you follow. It’s something that will follow you as you put in the hard work to become valuable to the world,” I completely agree with this, but ‘life style’ bloggers and every person who’s ever made it big love to spout off this crap. My passion is not starving. To make sure I don’t starve I work a job that pays me money. It’s worked out pretty good.

“Stand Out From The Crowd” – No one in corporate America is looking for you to stand out, they’re looking for you to blend in, to be a part of the culture we already created. “Fit in” would be better advice. “Stand out” is the quickest way to get you fired.

“Under-promise and Over-deliver” – Okay, I actually use this one, but it does suck. How about, “Tell me what you’re going to do, and do it!” What happens with under promise, over deliver is people catch on and they expect more than what you say you’re going to do, and they hate playing this game with you.

“Stay at a new job for one year” – How about stay at a job for the amount of time it takes to gain experience, add value to your career and to the organization, and then move to a position that is better for your career. Seeing a resume of a candidate who has spent one year at five jobs makes them look awful as well. If you do want or need to switch, do it early in your career. Switching jobs frequently mid-career, or late career looks awful.

“Build your brand” – This is from CNN, not me. I actually think this is really good career advice if you know how to do with your organizations better interest first. If my personal brand is larger than my work brand, I’m probably on my way out. What I see is too many people spending more time building their personal brand, than giving value to the organization that’s paying them.

Here some of my own:

“It Not About the Title” – This is usually said by CEOs and independently wealthy folks. Titles do matter in corporate structures to a point. Especially when partnered with people who have higher titles and low performance. So, there are many times it is about the title if you want to get things done and be innovative. There are too many high titles in corporations holding great talent back because of fear of losing their current position.

“Tell Those Above You the Truth” – No one really wants to hear the truth. It’s a rare leader who can take the truth, and you better know you work for one before you throw yourself on the sword. I’m not saying you should lie, but don’t be the one trying to save the company by telling a leader something they’ll refuse to hear and then brand you as someone that’s ‘not on board’.

“Find a Mentor” – Screw that, find smart people who know more than you and hang around them. They might be younger than you, older than you, a different sex than you, etc. Mentors think too highly of themselves. Smart peers openly sharing with each other will move you forward faster than anything else you can be a part of.

The Questions Leaders Ask When Great Talent Leaves

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Employee Turnover is a major problem in the majority of organizations, and it’s going to get worse. The economy might not continue to be as strong in the near future as it has been, but it doesn’t look to be any major downturn as well. Plus, demographics are playing into the job seekers favor with so many people retiring.

I’ve never been too concerned with low performers leaving my organization. I do have an issue with hiring managers telling me a performer is average or above, then when they leave the ‘new’ story comes out about how that person was a piece of garbage and now we are ‘better’ off that they left. Wait? What? You said this person was solid, but now they’re awful?

This happens all the time, especially in organizations that segment and track turnover by performance and hold managers accountable to this metric.

For me, I think the best organizations at controlling turnover are the ones where the leadership asks certain questions when they see their best talent leave. The ones that really dig into the reasons and not allow a middle-level manager make up a reason. The ones that have a documented ‘save’ strategy in place.

Here are some of the questions I ask myself when great talent leaves:

  1. Is there anything I could have done to keep this person with our organization? Why wasn’t that done?
  2. Was there anything the employee asked for to stay but we couldn’t deliver?
  3. What would have had to take place to keep this employee with us?
  4. Can we get this employee to return to us in the future?
  5. What was the ‘real’ reason this employee left?
  6. Did we ask this employee what it would take to keep them with us? What was the answer?

I’m a firm believer that you can talk anyone into staying with your organization. I’m also a firm believer that the ‘studies’ that tell you people who accept a counter offer will leave in 18 months anyway are completely wrong and out of date!

What I’ve found in all my years of doing this is that for about 50% of people who tell you they’re leaving, small things can keep them and ultimately they actually want to stay, but someone else showed them some love, and that feels so good to be wanted by another! The other 50% probably have a larger issue that is harder to solve, but if you work really hard it can get done.

One issue organizations with high turnover face is they let each other off the hook with turnover by giving each other excuses. “Yeah, Tim used to be good, but lately, he’s been awful.” “Well, it’ll hurt losing Mary, but we weren’t going to keep her happy for long.” “George is our best sales person, but he was holding other back that can be great as well.”

To control turnover leadership needs to change this narrative and stop the excuses for every single turn. The one caveat I allow is documented bottom performers that are on a plan. That’s good turnover, but it better be documented, or it’s bad turnover. Leadership owns this and it starts with tough questions about their own behavior that led to the turn.

If you get to this place, turnover will stop being a problem, and start being an opportunity.

The Special Secret of Chronic Low Performers

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Do you guys want to know a little secret?  You know how I like hanging out with smokers because they have all the cool inside information before anyone else?  Your chronic low performers have a similar skill.  It’s kind of like information.  Chronic low performers are really good at being low performers!  They’ve figured it out!  They’ve figured out how to do the bare minimum, without getting fired, and you still pay them for showing up and continuing to give you low performance.

If that isn’t a skill then I don’t know what skills are! Let that marinate a little on your mind.

The only reason you have a chronic low performer, is they’ve figured out how to master low performance.

All of us have chronic low performers.  We’ve shot them a million times behind closed doors but never pulled the trigger when the door was open.  I can distinctly remember having conversations about a certain manager when I was at Applebees at 6 straight calibration meetings over 3 years and heard stories about him before I’d come into the organization.  He just was good/bad enough to keep hanging on.  One meeting we’d be short, so he’d make it one more session. Then, the next meeting we’d have some idiot do something really bad and Mr. Chronic Low Performer lives on to suck another day!  The next meeting it would be some other lame reason.  Each time just squeaking by.

Then, the next meeting we’d have some idiot do something really bad and Mr. Chronic Low Performer lives on to suck another day!  The next meeting it would be some other lame reason.  Each time just squeaking by.

Think about all of the people you’ve ever let go. They usually fall into 3 – 4 groups:

1. Bad Performer/bad fit from the start (you shot them early)

2. Good Performer did something really stupid (didn’t want to fire, but had to)

3. Layoffs (decision above your pay grade)

4. Chronic Low Performers (hardly ever happens, they do anything really stupid, personally you don’t hate them)

We have Chronic Low Performers because they make it easy for us to keep them.  They say the right things when we tell them they need to pick it up or else. They’re ‘company’ people, all except for actually adding value part.  They give you no major reason to let them go, all except for not really doing that good of a job.  They always seem to have a semi-legitimate reason for not performing well.

I always wonder how much money chronic low performers have cost organizations vs. the good/great performers we had to let go because they pushed the envelope a little too far and we had to fire them.  My guess is the low performers win hands-down.  You could have a great sales person who is constantly fudging his expense reports or a chronic low performer in the same role. Who would you take?

You don’t have to answer, you do every day.  You take the low performer.  “Well, what do you want us to keep the thief!”  No. But I’m wondering if great performance can be rehabbed?  I know Chronic Low Performance can’t.  My guess is good/great probably can.  Just a thought.

So, why do you have chronic low performers?  It’s not that you allow it. It’s because you just found out what they are really good at!

Did Your Employees Ride the Bus to School?

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It’s that time of year when parents and kids make a big decision, to ride or not ride the school bus! From the Project archives.

I read a very funny quote today from a comedian, Jenny Johnson, which she said

“If you rode the school bus as a kid, your parents hated you.”

It made me laugh out loud, for two reasons:

1. I rode the bus or walked or had to arrive at school an hour early because that was when my Dad was leaving and if I wanted a ride that was going to be it.  Nothing like sitting at school talking to the janitor because he was the only other person to arrive an hour before school started.  Luckily for me, he was nice enough to open the doors and not make me stand outside in the cold.  Lucky for my parents he wasn’t a pedophile!

2. My kids now make my wife and I feel like we must be the worst parents in the world in those rare occasions that they have to ride the bus.  I know I’m doing a disservice to my sons by giving them this ride – but I can’t stop it, it’s some American ideal that gets stuck in my head about making my kids life better than my life, and somehow I’ve justified that by giving them a ride to school their life is better than mine!

When I look back it, riding the bus did suck, you usually had to deal with those kids who parents truly did hate them.  Every bully in the world rode the bus. Let’s face it their parents weren’t giving them a ride, so you had to deal with that (me being small and red-headed probably had to deal with it more than most).

You also got to learn most of the life lessons on the bus, you found out about Santa before everyone else, you found out how babies got made before everyone else, you found out about that innocent kid stuff that makes kids, kids before you probably should have.  But let’s face it, the bus kids were tough! You had to get up earlier, stand out in the cold, get home later and take a beating after the ride home, just so you had something to look forward to the next day!

You know as HR Pros we tend also not to let our employees “ride the bus”.   We always look for an easier way for them to do their work, to balance their work and home, to do as little as possible to get the job done.  In a way, too many of us, are turning our organizations and our employees into the kids who had their Mom’s pick them up from school.

I’m not saying go be hard on your employees, but as a profession, we might be better off to be a little less concerned with how comfortable everyone is, and a little more concerned with how well everybody is performing.

Too many HR Pros (and HR shops for that matter) tend to act as “parents” to the employees, not letting them learn from their mistakes, but trying to preempt every mistake before it’s made – either through extensive processes or overly done performance management systems.  We justify this by saying we are just “protecting” our organizations but in the end, we aren’t really making our employees or organizations “tougher” or preparing them to handle the hard times we all must face professionally.  It’ll be alright they might not like it 100%, but in the end, they’ll be better for it.

HR 101: Prepare to be surprised!

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HR 101. If there is one thing I could give a new HR Pro it would be this simple advice. No matter how prepared you think you are, you really only need to prepare yourself, for one thing, being surprised.

You don’t really get judged on your daily stuff.  Let’s face it, 99.9% of the time that goes off without a hitch.  You get judged on how you handle surprises.

Surprises make and break great HR Pro careers.

There’s really the only way to prepare for surprises.  You need to expect that a surprise will always happen. That one employee you can’t lose or the entire project will blow up, be prepared to lose them.  Talk about it, plan for it, and basically come to grips that it will happen.  Then it will happen, and you’ll be the only one not surprised by it.

The best HR Pros I’ve worked with had this one common trait, they were unshakeable when surprised. Almost like they expected it.

Great Candidate Experience for $1

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I like guacamole.  When I order my burrito I’ll gladly pay the $1 extra for guac. That extra dollar raises my burrito experience to another level. 

I can eat the burrito without the guac and I’ll be just fine. I’ll enjoy it. It will taste good. But, I enjoy it that much more with guacamole.

I enjoy that burrito as much or more than I enjoy so many more meals that cost double or triple that amount.   Sure, I could go to a high-end Mexican restaurant and pay $30 bucks for a great dinner, but I wouldn’t enjoy it triple the amount of the burrito I just got for like $8, with guacamole.

All your candidate experience really needs is a little guacamole.

Everyone wants to take their candidate experience to the ‘next’ level when in reality we just need to add a few little extras.  Some simple sides will do the trick if presented in the proper manner.

The little things make a huge difference if you’re doing the basic things well.  But, that’s the trick. Do your basics first. Candidates could care less that you gave them a bottle of water and logo pen on their first

Candidates could care less that you gave them a bottle of water and logo pen on their first interview if you can’t deliver the basic follow up of how they did in the interview. But, if you deliver all the basic communications well, they will remember all the little things you did to make them feel special.

Candidates don’t want or need a $30 dinner. All they really want is some guacamole on their burrito!

We’re Like the Venmo of Recruiting

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So, for the Gen-X and older folks reading this I first probably need to explain what Venmo is. Venmo is a digital payment system, like PayPal (Venmo is actually owned by PayPal) but different. It’s a mobile app that allows you to make payments between friends and socialize the exchange. Out to dinner, want to easily split the check, one person pays, the others “Venmo” them their share and you get this cool friend feed to see what everyone is doing.

I’ve got three GenZ sons and they Venmo. They don’t carry cash anymore, so when they need to exchange funds with friends, it’s all done on their smartphones.

So, we constantly see talent acquisition and HR technology call themselves the “Tinder” of recruitment, or the “Uber of HR”, or some other stupid comparison to make themselves sound way cooler than they really are. I figured no one is saying they’re the “Venmo” of Recruitment, so what the hell, I’m stealing it before anyone else can!

Here’s my Venmo for Recruiting product. It’s a mobile, crowd-sourced app that shows your network where everyone is interviewing and allows you to share information, contacts, questions, reactions, etc. of your interview experience. Candidates can crowd source positions with each other, ask for help in making connections with companies they’re interviewing with, and share how a certain hiring manager might be to work for.

I’m going to start there. Only candidates, no employers, to build traction. Completely free, I’ll live off my angel funding for the first three years on our way to 50 million users. Then, we turn on the employer portion, ala Glassdoor but better, that will allow employers to see what networks are saying about them and their jobs, but not allow any responses or interactions.

You get to see this new voyeuristic kind of experience that is hidden camera in nature to know what candidates truly think about your organization, your hiring managers, your interview experience, your jobs, etc. Then, it’s up to you to make some decisions on how to change what you don’t like, highlight what’s going well, and basically find ways to use the data from our “Venmo of Recruiting” (it’s trademarked!).

If I know anything, I know TA leaders will pay for inside information to what candidates truly think about them. They’ll pay a lot! Also, they’ll continue to pay to see how that data changes with the changes they make. How cool would it be to have this kind of lab environment and be able to test out pieces of your candidate experience and see real-time feedback?

Also, how cool would it be to have a network sharing real information about interviewing, jobs, organizations, etc., on a mobile platform within your trusted network if you’re a candidate? Venmo for Recruiting. I’m calling it “FeedMo.us” – Feedback and More.

Feedmo.us is now taking meetings with angel investors. Just send me a note if you’re interested in being a part of Venmo for Recruiting!

An Abbreviated List of Things I Like

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It’s Wednesday in the summer and no one reads blogs post on a Wednesday during the summer, no one really reads blogs any day in the summer, at least that’s what my Google Analytics say! So, I’ll write something for me, since I’m probably the only one who will read it…

Here’s an abbreviated list of things I like. Why abbreviated? It’s summer and I don’t want to put too much work into this:

1. My wife. On July 25th I celebrated being married 25 years and during that time I’ve found that I like her than anyone else in my life. My kids are her favorite, but I can replace all of them, I always jokingly tell her. I really love my dog, but I think during the day he’s having an affair with my wife. Basically, my wife and I are the same kinds of crazy.

2. Shoes. I have a problem. I could buy a new pair of shoes every day for a year and still have shoes I need! I’ve even thought of doing a series “365 Pairs of Shoes” where I wear a different pair of shoes each day for a year. Requests to Nike, Cole Haan, Keen, etc. to participate as sponsors are still awaiting a response. Stay tuned.

3. Jackets. Problem #2. I buy too many coats for a normal human being. I give coats to Goodwill that I don’t even think I wore! I live in Michigan so the four seasons and mostly cold weather help me with this obsession.

4. Cookies without nuts or fruit. If I could only choose one dessert for the rest of my life that dessert would be cookies! Cookies with nuts and/or fruit don’t count. Otherwise, all cookies are good. I love sugar cookies with frosting, peanut butter cookies, lemon-clove cookies, any chocolate chip cookies. Years ago there was this place in Omaha where the Pamida HR guys and I would go to lunch. They would put crack cocaine in their cookies, I think, I could eat a dozen of them at one time.

5. Gin. That makes me sound like an alcoholic. I mean I really like margaritas as well! G&T is my go to adult beverage of choice. It’s simple, yet sophisticated. You can dress it up or down. If you spill it, it doesn’t stain. I’ve found the tonic is as important as the gin. Okay, now I really sound like a lush.

6. Blue Diamond Salt’n Vinegar Almonds. I’m addicted to them, you can’t just eat one. You have to like the salt and vinegar flavor, and if you do, do yourself a favor and go get some these!

7. Bargains. I can’t stand not buying a great deal. Not a good deal, a great deal! Nordstrom Rack, Marshalls, TJ Maxx, Outlet Malls, Nike.com Clearance events, etc. It makes me happy to get something 70% off. I feel like I’m cheating life! I got a pair of Cole Haan’s this weekend and I was looking behind me when I left in case they thought I actually stole them because I did! Such a deal! I don’t take this that I’m cheap. I’m not. I like nice things. I like nice things even better when I get them for a lot less!

8. A freshly manicured lawn that I cut myself. I’ve paid to have my lawn cut in the past and it was nice. Come home after work to lawn already done, but it was unsatisfying at a level I can’t explain. My sons can cut the grass, but they’re amateurs. I have it down to a science.

9. Diet Mt. Dew. You probably already knew that if you read this blog. I’ll drink at least three a day on a bad day, six to eight on a good day. I don’t have an addictive personality, but this might be my one vice. Do you know they don’t have Diet Dew in Canada? No wonder they aren’t a super power. Australia as well. I’m going to South Africa this year and I figured a case of Diet Dew weighs ten pounds for my suitcase!

So, what are some of your favorite things? Hit me in the comments and tell me something about yourself and I’ll judge you silently!

 

Midwest Recruiter’s Bootcamp! Minneapolis July 31st-Aug 1 (LAST CALL!)

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My good friend and recruiting guru, Paul DeBettignies, is hosting the Midwest Recruiting Bootcamp in Minneapolis next week, and he asked me to come and speak at it. He also asked some of the top recruiting minds in the business as well! The camp is next week July 31st and August 1st in Minneapolis, and you can still register and be apart of this!

Check out this list:

  • Maren Hogan – Create Winning Employer Brand for Knockout Recruitment
  • Jim Durbin – 8 Mistakes You’re Making: The New Rules Of LinkedIn
  • Shannon Pritchett – In OR out? Creative Sourcing Techniques to Find Your Candidates OUTside the box
  • Caroline Karanja – 10 ways to build diversity, practice inclusion and increase engagement within your organization
  • Paul himself – Create and Grow Your Recruiter Brand
  • Nick Roseth – Selling Minnesota: Strategies And Tools to Improve Recruiting To The Region
  • And me – hugging mostly! Okay, not really, I’m going to be sharing the 10 Truths Of Recruiting And Why You Are Failing At Them! And, how you can not fail at them!

When Paul first talked to me about the concept of the Midwest Recruiting Bootcamp I knew instantly it would be a hit and something I wanted to be apart of! Why? This is real Recruiting development for recruiting teams! It’s what I wanted to bring to Michigan with the Michigan Recruiter’s Conference.

National level development and speakers, in our own backyard! 

Paul let me know today he still has some space open for any recruiter’s or recruiting managers who want to join us. We’ll be onsite at the University of Minnesota. It’s two days that are packed with great material. If you can’t make both days – come one day, then send someone else on your team the other day! Or just come one day – you’ll still get a ton out of it!

REGISTER FOR MIDWEST RECRUITING BOOTCAMP! 

This might be the biggest bang for the buck in recruiter training budget history!

Here’s Paul telling us a little more:

The 7 Forgotten Tools of Recruiting

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Join me on Wednesday, July 26, 11 am PT / 2 pm ET to talk Forgotten Recruiting Tools! 

These days, recruiting moves so fast and is filled with so much technology that it can be difficult to remember what works best and what’s a passing shiny object.
In this free webinar, I’ll dig into some tried and true ways that have been forgotten by most organizations when it comes to attracting and recruiting great talent, and some newer techniques that people will probably want to go back and take a second look at!
  • Simple ways to discover untapped talent pools
  • Connect with more candidates 100% of the time
  • The single most valuable tool in recruiting that you already have, but probably aren’t using!
  • Along with some new tools to add to your toolbox

 

Plus, much, much more!

 

Old school, new school, just plain old good school, my hope is you’ll leave this webinar with some new ideas on using some old tools you already have at your disposal but just stop using and never really used, to begin with. This webinar is a great presentation for recruiting leaders and recruiting pros alike.

 

This webinar is sponsored by the great folks over at Jobvite, but all the content is 100% my own! Also, I’m leaving some time at the end for some open Q & A – so bring all those questions you’ve been dying to ask! See you on Wednesday!

 

REGISTER TODAY!