Author Archives: Larry Janis

4 Steps to a Better Management Technique

photo_uniqueEffectively managing people is difficult, and no one is born knowing how to do it. Fortunately, management can be learned. We suggest following these four steps, which are simple, but time tested:

1. Set appropriate goals.

Goal-setting is essential. It helps employees prioritize their activities and focus their efforts. When setting goals with employees, you should make sure that they are SMART goals (specific, measurable, action oriented, realistically high, time and resource bound). The goals must also be meaningful to the employee. Sufficient rewards for goal achievement and consequences for failure should be specified. This will ensure that the goal and what’s needed to achieve it will rise to the top of the employees’ “To Do” list. (more…)

Are You an Alpha Male Leader?

By Manfred Kets de Vries

Leadership with education

When drive, competitiveness and commitment are too much.

Jeff Bezos, the Chairman and CEO of Amazon, is hailed as one of the most prominent captains of industry. Known for his charisma, business prowess, and bold, innovative ideas, Bezos’ pursuits are driven by tenacity and an urgent sense of mission. For many, his professional trajectory and key role in the growth of e-commerce is inspirational. But Amazon employees have discovered another side to this dynamic leader.

Working for Bezos is quite a challenge. He is a typical alpha male: hardheaded, task-oriented and extremely opinionated. He is known to get very upset when things do not go his way, and living up to his excessively high standards can feel like a mission impossible. (more…)

Engagement Is a Means, Not an End

Michael Schrageby Michael Schrage

An executive friend in an organization and industry riven by digital disruption and declining margins confided over lunch how dramatically her new CEO had impressed everyone at a recent executive offsite. “She listened carefully to people’s complaints about all the processes and obstructions they felt got in the way of their doing their jobs,” said my friend, “and instead of pushing back or challenging them, she agreed and said she’d do everything she could to get those obstacles removed….People were amazed and energized.”

Responsive CEOs are wonderful. But, knowing the industry well, her declared commitment suggested more than an understandable desire to eradicate unhappy bureaucratic burdens. She likely wanted to see how well her top people understood their own effectiveness. The unspoken deal: eliminating organizational impediments would radically improve their business results. (more…)

How to Hire Without Getting Fooled by First Impressions

By Tanya Menon and Leigh Thompson

Dr. James is a leading ophthalmologist at a major medical clinic. Passionate about medicine, he wanted to hire someone to run the business operations of his practice. He carefully reviewed over 200 resumes and conducted background checks, finally deciding to hire Mike, a highly credentialed MBA who seemed to check off all the boxes Dr. James was looking for in the new hire.

But within weeks, Dr. James realized that he’d made a big hiring mistake. Despite a stellar performance in the interview, Mike disrupted the office within his first month on the job. He communicated with the staff mostly by email or spreadsheet assignments, and when he attended meetings he seemed absorbed with his smartphone and would roll his eyes when the staff didn’t understand certain accounting or finance terms. (more…)

7 Rules for Job Interview Questions That Result in Great Hires

by John Sullivan

Some of the long-held ideas about how to conduct interviews are no longer accurate. For example, there’s no such thing as a surprise interview question anymore. With sites like Glassdoor.com, candidates can identify each of your likely interview questions and expected answers ahead of time. With that information, candidates now routinely prepare and video their practice interviews to the point where their responses are universally impressive, if not genuine or accurate.

It’s not just surprise questions that are a thing of the past. Research at firms like Google has proven that “brainteaser questions” can contribute to a costly miss-hire, that having a candidate meet any more than four interviewers doesn’t increase new-hire quality, and that for many jobs, factors like grades, test scores, and schools attended don’t predict success in the position. (more…)