Tag Archives: Expectations

What are Best Practices for On-Boarding a New Hire? Eight Guidelines

Situation: The Company has identified a good candidate for a critical role. What are best practices for assuring successful on-boarding of the new hire?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Provide a fair salary:
    • Review local salary surveys and pay a salary that reflects competitive realities.
    • Consider the impression that the offer makes on the spouse. If the spouse is unhappy, there won’t be peace at home and the employee may continue looking even after accepting your offer.
    • What about a 90 day evaluation period?
      • You won’t look like a serious employer. Increase chances for success by paying a fair salary from the beginning. If the individual doesn’t meet your needs, let them go.
  • Provide clear, concise direction from the start.
    • Provide an orientation to positively introduce the manager to the others in the company.
      • One-on-one meetings between the manager and key employees plus anyone who will report to the manager to establish initial rapport, and establish shared expectations.
      • Consider a lunch to introduce the new manager.
    • Set SMART performance objectives:
      • S – Specific
      • M – Measurable
      • A – Achievable
      • R – Realistic
      • T – Time-bound
    • Meet weekly with the new manager. Teach them what you’ve learned about the company, employees, and how things work.
    • Avoid shifting early objectives.
      • This is distracting and diminishes the chances of success.
      • Sudden or frequent changes in priorities make it difficult to generate momentum – particularly for a new employee.
  • Don’t expect instantaneous results.

Key Words: Best Practices, On-boarding, Salary, Objectives, SMART Objectives, Orientation, Expectations  [like]

Developing Leaders within the Ranks: Four Approaches

Situation: As they have grown, the Company has used Bay Area talent to seed new locations around the country. Leadership is now short at headquarters. What have others done to fill leadership gaps?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Develop a formal Leadership Development Program.
    • Identify the top leadership candidates with the company – the top 10%.
    • Identify their individual goals and determine whether these are consistent with company values.
    • Clearly communicate the roles and expectations that you have for future company leaders – both the upsides and the sacrifices that you anticipate that they will have to make.
    • Team the leadership candidates 1/1 with mentors to guide them.
    • Consider an “internal” Board of Directors for developing leaders. Members are considered advisors to the true Board of Directors, understand company strategy, are coached on company values, and are involved in an advisory capacity in key company decisions.
    • Consider a leadership “boot camp” program to groom potential leaders and weed out those who like the idea of leadership more than the reality.
    • From the standpoint of a very hierarchical company, the following items are involved:
      • Time
      • Talent
      • Defining the traits for key positions
      • Identifying candidates who appear to possess these traits
      • Assigning leadership roles to these individuals in executing the annual strategic plan – with senior managers mentoring leaders-in-training
      • Include training and development in professional development plans
      • Investigate employee assessment tools, for example the Myers-Briggs tools.

Key Words: Leadership, Development, Goals, Values, Roles, Expectations, Mentor  [like]

We Only Want A-Players – But Do They Want Us? – Five Strategies

Situation: An early stage company will staff-up over the next year. In the past the CEO has recruited individuals with big company experience and solid resumes, only to find that they had difficulty transitioning to the hands-on responsibility of a small company. How do you find candidates who are highly experienced but who can also excel in a small company environment?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • The best candidates are not in the job-search pool. They are currently working but open to a change. Some will wish to return to a more hands-on situation.
  • Let people know that you are looking for “the best” and have a great opportunity. Create some buzz.
    • Go to your network ask “who do you know?” Don’t be shy!
  • Look for achievers – with proven performance in companies of the size that you plan to be in 12-18 months. Check their references carefully.
  • What can we do now, while we seek the right people?
    • Use contractors and consultants. These people are more entrepreneurial, self-starting, and self-accountable. Monitor their work. If they are good, add them to your team as permanent employees.
    • Develop a milestone-based personnel plan as part of your business plan:
      • When we hit Milestone A, we will need an operations manager.
      • When we hit Milestone B, we will need channel or market development expertise.
    • Conduct case studies of how other companies in your or similar spaces have facilitated their scale-ups. What worked? What didn’t? Why?

Key Words: Candidates, Recruiting, Fit, Culture, Start-up, Achievers, Performance  [like]

The New Manager Isn’t Cutting It. Not My Fault!? Four Important Questions

Situation: I recently hired a new high level manager. To integrate the individual into the company the original set of assignments was limited in scope – to help the manager get to know others within the company. This manager seems to over-analyze things. Long hours are spent carefully drafting plans but there is little action. Did I select the right person, and how do I manage them without micromanaging?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • It looks like this person is working long hours but not necessarily productive hours. This is costing you time and money – both yours and your employees. The question is whether the root cause is the individual’s behavior or your own expectations and behavior.
  • Ask yourself the following questions:
    • Have you clearly outlined your expectations in terms of what is to be delivered, the time in which it is to be delivered, and any constraints around the projects for which this person is responsible?
    • Have you provided necessary resources, and empowered the individual to make the decisions necessary to bring projects to completion?
    • Have you scheduled regular update meetings with this individual and openly discussed project progress and obstacles to completion?
    • Have you set appropriate expectations with your other staff as to the authority of the new individual, and are you honoring those expectations in your own behavior?
    • If you have done these things, and the individual is not performing, then it is time to ask whether you hired the right person.

Key Words: Manager Performance, Objectives, Expectations, Delegation, Planning and Review  [like]