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I’ve had the opportunity to interview several strong candidates (and some weak one’s) over the past few months for various positions at our company- here are 10 qualities and actions that have stood out to me:

• Quality follow-up response: When someone takes notes during our discussions and follows the interview with a quality recap of what we talked about with a few value added nuggets for our company- it’s rare and refreshing. A follow-up “thank you note” is one thing, taking the extra time to address something we talked about… better.
• They’ve done their homework: A few people have stood out simply by answering the question, “So, what do you know about Pinnacle?” They studied our website, talked to a few clients, employees, or asked around about our reputation…
• Positively Persistent: The best ones have followed up on a regular, positive basis- many times continuing our discussion with value added articles, events of interest, attended our events, and seem to continue to learn about our company.
• A Moving Car: Mark Beeson has always said, “It’s easier to do something with a moving car than a parked car” meaning… if someone has energy, is self motivated, and action oriented- attractive. Philosophers and sages of wisdom that don’t do anything- not so much…
• Genuine Character: When I know someone has integrity, it matters. A few indicators that scare me off: “It’s all about me” attitude, bashing previous employer, a sense they’re working too hard to tell me what I want to hear, or overly complimentary.
• Demonstrated Leadership: If I feel like we can’t find the “perfect fit” of skills and/or experience, I’ll hire a leader. People that can make a decision, accept responsibility, will do the heavy lifting, and can drive initiatives. They may not have all the “technical” answers, but they’re confident and competent enough to navigate their way to effectiveness.
• Self-Assured: Those who are comfortable in their own shoes, can talk freely of who they are, who they’re not, without apology= you’re in the top half of all candidates. Don’t be desperate, directionless, or tentative.
• Lifetime Learners: The best are pressing in, reading, and have appetites for learning. While they’re seeking, it’s clear they’re filling their time with positive, building activities. It makes me think they’ll “dive in” when we hire them and will be able to learn what they don’t know…
• They Welcome Feedback: One person mentioned they have 2 or 3 strategic people in their lives to give them input on what their next steps should be, another thanked me for a few concerns addressed… we don’t have time for games, we need a team that’s real and can sharpen each other…. Defensiveness and excuses are normal. Superstars seek out editors in their life.
• They Admit What They Don’t Know: New team members are going to encounter too much “new” as it is… the last thing we need are people trying to “fake” their way through waters they’ve never navigated without asking questions. It’s OK to admit what you don’t know in an interview in my book.

We’ve got some great people and great days ahead as we build our team… What qualities would you add?

My company is accepting resumes for technology sales and business development. If interested or if you want to pass along this opportunity to a friend, a complete job description is available here:

http://pinnacleofindiana.com/careers.aspx

3,999,999 new jobs to go….! Hang in there everyone….

The drumbeat from the $787 billion dollar stimulus package has been jobs, jobs, jobs. Last week President Obama visited Elkhart, IN to help sell the 4,000,000 jobs the bill would save and/or add. At that price tag, we are paying a staggering $196,750 per job. If the goal is to create jobs, let’s do it in 90 days (4-6 times faster) and for 1/2 the price. Here’s how:

• Offer $49,000 grants each year for the next 2 years for each new job created by pre-qualified/awarded businesses
• The $49,000 would cover the cost of salary, insurance, and other benefits for each employee (actual salaries could vary, this would be an average)
• Businesses would hire these people within the first 90 days of the program launch

How would you launch it?

• By district, grants would be allocated and prioritized by those hardest hit. Our elected Representative (in our case, Joe Donnelly) would be charged to form a quick team of local business minds and economists to review business applicants in their district
• Businesses would be selected on merits such as: ability to retain the jobs after two years, job training offered to new employees, benefits to local community, current strength, etc
• This goal of the selection process should be to keep it simple and swift
• Let’s launch this April 1, 2009

Benefits:

• Immediate impact on monthly job loss numbers, rather than seeing the 500,000 jobs lost in February, the American public would see these numbers subside or even reverse for a period of a few months
• Consumer confidence could improve on the news of a stimulus working… immediately
• Actual price tag would be less by eliminating unemployments costs of those sitting on their couch rather than employed through the grant program
• Millions of workers would have an opportunity to be retrained in a new industry, employers would be able to allocate training resources they would not normally expend
• Federal deficit for 2009 could be drastically reduced
• Businesses that are waiting to hire could hire immediately. Not all companies are struggling, but most have hit a cautious, hiring freeze button
• Rather than hire workers by contracts that could end in 6 months or two years (in the current plan), thousands of businesses would want to retain these newly trained workers after the two year grant

Immediate Questions:

• How would that be fair? Fairness is already at issue. Someone is going to get the contract to build a bridge in Minnesota, some other company is not. People are already in line for bailouts to save their industry. This would be aimed at “creating” vs. “saving”
• Couldn’t we get burned again by corporate America? These grants could be monitored and paid in “arrears” once businesses have demonstrated they’ve maintained their payroll levels, businesses would not simply receive lump sum deposits when approved to spend in other means (as we’ve experienced in the banking industry)
• How would be administer it? By having it handled by district, it immediately spreads our risk, creates accountability, and shares workload for each Congressional Representative and their staffs. Local chambers of commerce, municipal governments, and community leaders could all assist
• What about all the other needs in the current bill? Anything beyond jobs is simply “spending”, we should call it for what it is. I’m not saying some of these items aren’t valid or are certainly needed, but the concrete in a bridge is a “material cost”- not a job.

President Obama, Congressman Donnelly, the company where I work has 50 new jobs ready to go in the South Bend/Elkhart/Michiana area if this were approved…. we’re in. I’ve already talked with one of our owners, we have scores of resumes in hand, and we’re dead serious. We would train, deal with the human resources strain, find room, bring in computers, and whatever else it would take to make this happen. I’m confident that thousands of businesses would step-up to do the same. Small business all across America can lead this effort for recovery for half the cost and 400% faster. (If you are a business owner or influencer, feel free to send this or a version of this to your Representatives to let them know you’ve got jobs ready as well)

I’m not special, but I would be willing to help lead this effort. Just give me a call.

Thanks, Mark

If I did this, I would have a completely different look on my face.

There are times when our roles may shift at work… If done too early or without the right process, you or people on your team can end up in this position…

Have you ever felt this way at your organization? Here are some observations of doing the “splits” at work:

• If you begin doing a role at work before you have any authority to do the role, you may feel some pain for taking it on too early.
• You can fake it for only so long… this guy has a determined look on his face now… I’d like to see him in an hour…
• With growth comes change. With change comes some pain.
• Not everyone can do the splits at your organization, there comes a need to have people that are flexible for a short period of time.
• Leaders, managers… are you doing this to anyone on your team? If so, don’t leave them “exposed” too long.
• Are you doing the splits currently? It’s better to have a conversation with the decision maker(s) and manage one post well than to drown trying to hold on to both…
• Clarity is important as roles shift- those impacted need to understand the changes and what adjustments they may need to make.
• Leaders, when you have done all the analysis of the changes, commit to it, support it, and keep casting the vision to your team. When you’re the one doing the “splits”, it just confuses your people and well, let’s just say you don’t look like this guy…
• Have both feet in with change, don’t keep one foot in the past.

Ok… I stole this title from my friend, but we really do have some cool jobs as we continue to grow:

Here are the next three on deck:

• IT Division Manager/Coordinator

- Oversee a team of 12-15 IT guru’s, coordinate schedules, project management, proposals, help desk, and preventative maintenance planning… Raise our bar for creating customer fans.

• ERP Consultant

- Work with Microsoft Dynamics product lines (Great Plains, CRM) to implement, train, and lead projects. Accounting background, experience in software integrations, and client contact are all pluses….

• Accountant

- What accountants do.

Know of any good candidates out there?

Current employee count: 54

Since the inception of the technology firm I’m part of, we’ve experienced an amazing 35% growth year over year. As the company continues to expand, maintaining that type of growth clip is going to be an increasing challenge with several dynamics at play. While the future is always an unknown, I hope to be able to capture the progress of our growth at our current number of 50 employees (actually 54 as we just brought on four more developers over the past few weeks) to 100 employees. It would be great to hear your stories and comments of similar challenges you face in your companies and organizations as we press in together….

Some key challenges as I see them today:

• As the project manager (and also involved in some operations), my drive has been to raise the bar in our customer experience and processes within our projects and company. Our ability to continue to improve in this area while growing with new people will be an interesting dynamic.
• Currently we have three Sr. Managers each overseeing one of our 3 groups (ERP, Developement, and IT). They are extremely gifted technology gurus who will have to learn to grow into more management function or reshape the structure of their teams. (Either shift from be a do-er to a leader or find some alternatives). This goes for me too, I need to be preparing for what 100 team members looks like…
• Our internal processes for leveraging information (task coordination, emails, budgets, scope, proposals, etc…) need to make critical improvements. Implementing and syncing the functionality of SharePoint, MS CRM 4.0, and Outlook with other tools will be essential. Gaps in communication will only grow without continual tightening of our systems…
• Outside leaders are going to have to be able to succeed and assimilate into our group. We’ll be able to pull some up from within our team, however, most are talented “do-ers” that should stay exactly where they’re at…already adding huge value…
• Management is going to have to look at the number of direct reports they currently have- typically 6-8 is the max- currently we’re exceeding this in all three groups…
• Without acquisition, finding top calibur talent to come to South Bend/Elkhart, Indiana will continue to be a hurdle. We may need to stretch our boundaries and be creative with work locations, mobility, and communications to bring on new team members…
• We will need to have a plan to help each individual grow in their expertise’, feel connected to the team, know how what they do makes a difference, and that they matter and are cared for…
• Our service needs to be at a level that’s remarkable… something worth talking about as Seth Godin would say….

I love this team. I look forward to this run. While I’ll be limited in some of what I can share, I hope to be able to report the core of the experience along the way… stay tuned….