Category Archives: Leadership

How Do You Interview for New Hires and Promotions? Part 2, Eight Points

Situation: A CEO seeks advice on interviewing both for new hires and promotions. What advice and guidelines do others suggest to improve interviews? How do you interview for new hires and promotions?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Use an interview process that is consistent with the company’s plan and culture.
    • Start with the company’s mission statement.
    • Next develop the value system.
    • Draft a hiring plan that is consistent with the company’s mission and values and develop a process to support this.
  • Monitor the process over time and improve it through experience.
  • Assure that position descriptions reflect the individual(s) that the company wants to hire.
  • Before starting the hiring process, ask “What problem am I solving?” The answer will help to define the talents and attitudes desired in candidates.
  • Utilize “listening with a plan”.
    • Be clear on how the person being interviewed is delivering their message. Is their language positive, proactive, energized, or lethargic? Do they take responsibility for their own actions? Do they look at positive aspects of the company they work for and the people they work with? The objective is to make sure that the individuals sought for the job display these characteristics.
  • Hire for growth potential, not just to fill the current slot.
  • Hire consistent with the values and culture that the company wants to create and foster.
  • Hire to skills needed rather than value to yourself and the firm.
    • Don’t just hire on cultural aspects. Evaluate and check the skill set against what this person is supposed to accomplish. Getting the skills set right is just as important as getting the culture right.

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How Do You Interview for New Hires and Promotions? Part 1, Three Points

Situation: A CEO seeks advice on interviewing both for new hires and promotions. What advice and guidelines do others suggest to improve interviews? How do you interview for new hires and promotions?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Preparation before hiring or promotion is critical.
    • Preparation means having a road map – for what will be accomplished in the new position and for how the company selects and hires or awards promotions.
    • Discipline: have the patience to do it well.
    • Be aware of and watch for possible legal issues. This has become increasingly important under DEI.
  • Raise the bar. Each new addition or promotion should enhance the company’s capabilities instead of just filling a slot.
    • Hire individuals with skills that complement areas of your own or the organization’s weaknesses.
    • Be creative in developing sources or new hires.
  • Ask open-ended questions and follow-up with additional open-ended questions to clarify areas that the response opens.
    • Focus interview questions and processes to identify demonstrated values and habits.
    • Insert pregnant pauses into the interview. How does the interviewee respond?
    • Listen for what is NOT said as much as what is said.

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How Do You Foster Productive Communication Within Your Company? Six Suggestions

Situation: A CEO is concerned that communication between employees is often non-productive. Individuals can be abrasive in their comments. This leads to loss of productivity because the individual criticized feels hurt and distracted. It also results in the formation of “subgroups” which conflict with each other. How do you foster productive communication within your company?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Encourage tolerance of and sensitivity toward individual styles.
    • Identify the particular style of each individual. Assessment tools are helpful.
    • Admit that different individuals have different styles and that this is OK. Have a conversation with them so they are aware of this.
    • Always allow an individual one “charm” that is uniquely theirs.
  • Identify the motivations that drive each individual within the company.
    • Communicate with each individual in a way that recognizes and aligns with their motivation.
  • Focus on constructive communication aimed at helping the individual to strengthen performance. Build a foundation of fact to reduce the risk that what is said will be taken personally or interpreted as critical. Become the model for how others can effectively communicate with each other.
  • Meet others half-way.
    • Outline, test and agree on basic assumptions to get the conversation rolling.
    • Weigh the pros and cons of each suggested alternative.
  • Use employee reviews and compensation decisions as motivators.
    • Explain the company’s marketplace and plans vs. market practices. Get the facts. Know what each job typically pays and market balances between salary and incentive compensation.
    • Align the rewards offered with each individual employee’s motivations.
    • If an employee is not a 5 (on a scale of 1 – 5), explain what they need to do to become a 5.
  • Keep the annual retreat alive when everyone returns to the office.
    • Generate follow-up plans as part of the retreat. Include measurable objectives, responsibilities, accountabilities and timelines.
    • Identify solutions, not just problems.
    • When asking for recommendations, acknowledge each suggestion. Be prepared to implement what is suggested – in whole or as part of a larger strategy.
    • Recognize that the environment is in constant flux and that the company must continually adjust to adapt to changes.

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How Do You Unlock Your True Profitability with Sound Cash-Flow Trade-offs? Six Points

Situation: A CEO has her company on a positive growth track. The company has a solid customer base. Their products and accompanying services are increasingly well-accepted. She is ready to take the company to the next level of growth and profitability. How do you unlock your true profitability with sound cash-flow tradeoffs?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Profit is different from cash flow. Make this distinction clear and act to boost cash flow.
  • Tracking Cash & Forecasting:
    • Watch the company’s bank balance. Frequently track cash inflows and outflows by period.
    • Carefully assess and project the pattern of customer buying habits and payment performance to develop sound revenue assumptions.
    • Compare the company’s margin dollars and billings with norms for peer group businesses.
  • Issues to consider in forecasting:
    • Hiring means commitment of future cash outlays. Consider contingent work force options.
    • Project and plan for future large payments (equipment, technology, marketing, loans, etc.)
    • Differentiate between investing in ongoing business capacity as opposed to incremental add-ons.
    • Look at cyclical trends and issues. Understand your customers’ purchase habits and patterns.
    • Develop likely “what if” scenarios (good and bad) and develop plans to reduce the impact of surprises.
    • Analyze the company’s business model and determine exactly how cash flows through the company’s operations.
  • Analyze important upcoming decisions: hiring equals investment; outsourcing equals expense. Evaluate needed support for each.
    • Differentiate investment versus outsourcing decisions. Smooth cash flow through selective outsourcing – especially when dealing with sudden or cyclical peaks. Avoid the risk of committing long-term resources by staffing up to address short-term peaks.
  • Focus on the opportunity cost of money. Add this focus to both planning and assessment.
    • Operate with a mix of other peoples’ money and ownership funds. The latter are more expensive than bank interest because the trade-off is what you could earn through alternate investments.
  • Fine-tune the company’s planning tools. Analyze budget and cash implications of alternate plans through detailed budget projections and follow-up by tracking cash expenditures.
    • Use Cash Flow Statements to analyze and project trends in investments, operations and financing and how each of these affects cash balances.

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How Do You Maximize Relationships on a Limited Budget? Three Approaches

Situation: A CEO is looking for cost-effective ways to boost her company’s marketing. They currently focus on trade shows where they can set up as many as 15 meetings per day. Their cycle for creating new relationships is typically 3-6 months. What can they do to increase client acquisition? How do you maximize relationships on a limited budget?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Create a public relations campaign around your star designers.
    • An example is a successful campaign created by a well-known creative director with the theme “Ads I Wish I Had Done.” Given the prevalence of social media, programs like this can attract large audiences, particularly if there is wit and humor involved.
    • Consider analogous promotion for the company along the lines of: “Our designer’s favorite products.”  In a promotion like this company designers would “review” good industrial or commercial designs that other designers have done.
    • This is a thought leadership approach designed to compensate for the fact that the company designs for some heavy hitter brand names but is not allowed to reveal that information.
  • Given limitations in using referrals due to agreement with certain clients, how can these be avoided?
    • While the company is limited by agreements in place with certain clients, these agreements do not forbid subtle mention of these clients in 1:1 meetings.
    • Just take care that strict client confidentiality agreements are not voided. Instead of using specific company names, refer to them by industry or commercial sector.
  • Create and conduct your own design conference.
    • Start locally to test the waters and develop a successful program and format.
    • Once an effective format is developed, gradually expand the geographic reach to attract more attention and additional new clients.

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How Do You Find and Train Staff for Satellite Offices? Five Points

Situation: A company plans to grow from a single site to additional distant sites. The CEO has two concerns: how to bring in the new people, and how to preserve the culture that they have developed as they build new sites. How do you find and train staff for satellite offices?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • First, how does the company currently identify customer targets?
    • Typically the company targets specific personnel within a potential client who will be decision makers or influencers on the company’s projects. Market developers then build relationships with these individuals.
  • Points of focus in selecting employees in other geographic areas.
    • What will be the office configuration? Likely 3-4 individuals, including an engineer, office manager and project manager.
    • Promote the company as the preferred place to work in the new locations. Offer signing bonuses for employees who identify and bring in new people, as well as for the new employees.
  • Does the company anticipate that maintaining company culture will be a challenge as the company expands? Yes.
    • Train new employees in the home office for one month to help them understand the culture. Immerse them in a project so that they experience the work ethic.
    • Have current personnel serve short term stints in the new offices. This will help to build consistency of service and delivery between the offices.
  • What is the best way to recover from a service challenge?
    • Occasionally we all make mistakes. Don’t miss the opportunity that “service recovery” presents to strengthen relationships with clients.
    • A competent and timely response to a problem situation can create an indelible impression on the client.
  • What else can the company do to improve its marketing?
    • Assure that there is an existing cost calculator in each remote site. This speeds response without having to wait for decisions from the main office.
    • Install a traffic plug-in on the webpage for each remote site and feature this on the site webpage. This allows current and potential customers to schedule their visits to their convenience.

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How Do You Improve Your Company’s Website and Internet Presence? Seven Suggestions

Situation: A company has not updated their website for some time. As it considers making changes, how can the company optimize their web site for marketing purposes? What have others found to be most effective? How do you improve your company’s website and Internet presence?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Look at how the company is currently using their website and Internet to reach clients.
    • The company currently has email addresses for 80% of their clients.
    • They have been sending an annual survey clients through either mail or email and get a 40% response rate. The best response comes from email. Assure that the survey can be completed in 5 minutes or less unless the respondent wishes to provide more detail as an option.
    • The company has a web page that comes up prominently on Google.
    • They mail or email a quarterly commentary on company performance and initiatives to clients.
  • What are the advantages of print media and mailings versus email blasts.?
    • Does the company have the capacity to automate both envelope addresses and letters for clients without email addresses? If mailings are created manually it makes sense to invest in software to create automated mailings.
    • For more personalization, use stamps instead of meters.
    • Both factors make mailings expensive to prepare versus email communications.
  • The home page of the company website should focus on:
    • Who you are.
    • What you do.
    • Who you serve.
    • Why you do it better than others – what significantly differentiates the company?
  • Invite and include clients in volunteer work to deepen relationships.
    • The company is dedicated to volunteer work.
    • Extend volunteer work opportunities beyond employees to clients who are interested in the particular project.
    • Publicize this on the company website, and send personalized thank you letters – “We built it together as a family.”
  • Create forums on the site for individuals with interest in particular topics related to the company’s offerings and activities.
    • The value of honest discussion is better than no discussion at all.
    • This also keeps the company abreast of changing attitudes and priorities of clients.
  • Create resource lists on the company web site of firms or individuals offering services which complement the company’s offerings.

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How Do You Negotiate a Merger? Eleven Points

Situation: A company is considering a merger with a smaller company. What are the important considerations to take into account in considering and negotiating a possible merger? How do you negotiate a merger?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Look for synergies between the companies. During the negotiation, emphasize these and the mutual benefit available to both companies.
  • In a merger between a larger and smaller company look for the key motivations of each party. What does the smaller company have that the larger company wants? How much is that worth to them? Make a list.
  • Consider combining vs. merging. An alliance can be mutually beneficial while allowing both companies to retain independent ownership.
  • Look at earn out options in a purchase scenario. What are the possible terms and the financial implications of these?
  • Beware of the distraction that a merger will present to current day-to-day operations.
  • Identify other parties with whom mergers are possible. Why is the target partner better?
  • Partner prior to the merger – how do the two companies play together in the sand box? This can reveal cultural differences and differences in focus that will impact the value of the merger.
  • Consider an LLP option – a third Company that is the owner of the two merged companies. This may present tax and other advantages.
  • Look at Product vs. Service
    • Product is always worth something.
    • When service stops, it is worth nothing.
    • Key players must work together well or the service evaporates.
  • Never assume what the other party’s interests are. Make sure that both interests and priorities are discussed and evaluated during discussions between the parties.
  • Ask clarifying questions anytime a topic is raised that requires additional understanding.

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How Do You Prepare and Engage in an Effective Negotiation? Five Points

Situation: The CEO of a company is engaged in an important negotiation. There is a debate within the management team regarding the best way to prepare and engage in this negotiation. How do you prepare and engage in an effective negotiation?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • In any situation where a decision between two parties is to be decided preparation is critical.
    • Start with the basics. What is the bottom line that the company wants or needs to achieve?
    • Once the bottom line is identified, determine the strategy and what will be required to achieve this.
  • The most important question is why an agreement is being sought. What is the objective and what does a win or a win-win look like? How are they different if they are?
  • When meeting with the other party, listen with understanding.
    • Start by establishing norms to govern the discussions. These may include: one person speaking at a time, being up-front about objectives and positions, and the length of the discussion.
    • Avoid the distraction of thinking about the next move – know the possible moves in advance as well as the conditions and consequences associated with them.
    • Be prepared to tell the story of where the company wants to go any why the goal is important for both parties.
  • Good decisions between parties are based on trust.
    • Be trusting until given a reason not to be.
    • Point out items or statements that challenge trust and ask for clarification.
  • A Peer-to-Peer approach is the best alternative.
    • Look for equal give and take. Keep the conversation and negotiation balanced.
    • Don’t start with your real bottom line. Ideally, work with the other party in give and take until it is achieved.
    • Be willing to walk away if the discussion won’t fulfill the company’s needs; but if this is necessary, do it courteously. Leave the door open for possible future opportunities.

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