Posts Tagged "Hiring"
Five Reasons Why “Letting My Management Team Run the Company” is Not an Exit Strategy
By: Patrick Ungashick
We occasionally hear business owners say something like, “My exit strategy is to hire a great management team to run the company, so I can step back and just collect a check.” Hiring quality leaders for your business is always desirable. Yet, this tactic on its own will not produce a successful and happy exit for these five reasons:
1.Even with highly capable leaders running your company, you still own the company. A significant portion—perhaps the majority—of your wealth remains locked inside the business. At some point you likely will want to access some or all of your capital tied up in the business. This requires an exit strategy.
2.Hiring excellent leaders may allow you to step out of the day-to-day operations of the company, freeing up a large portion of your time — but only a portion. Total absentee ownership is a fantasy. You will need to continue supervising the team’s performance, reviewing business plans and budgets, and approving major decisions. Reducing your involvement in day-to-day operations may help you pursue other interests, but you remain closely tied to your company.
3.In the real world, things change. At some point the management team that you hired to run the company will change, pulling you back into the company’s operations. If a key leader retires, dies, or quits, you will need to identify and hire a replacement. You might also have to temporarily fill in for the missing leader until the replacement has been hired and trained. Or, if a key leader has subpar job performance, you have to do the work of supervising that person more closely and perhaps terminating him or her. In our experience, losing just one key leader from a carefully-built team makes it frustratingly clear to the owner that you have not exited from the company.
4.As long as you own the company, your risks remain unchanged. Many owners seek to reduce personal and financial risks as part of their exit planning. Even with an excellent leadership team in place, the business’s risks are still your risks. You still have to personally guarantee the business debts where required. If the business gets into financial, tax, human resources, or legal difficulties you are still impacted. Any significant capital expenditures are still your decision and risk. Your personal financial net worth remains highly concentrated within the company. Letting a management team run your company typically does little to reduce your personal and financial risk.
5.Even with a highly capable team running your company for you, at some point you will still need a plan for determining what ultimately happens to your ownership interest in the company. You have only punted the issue. Even if you do nothing until your death, your ownership in your company will still either pass to your heirs, be sold, or be shut down. You still have important goals and objectives to plan and execute.
Hiring a competent leadership team is never a bad idea. A quality team not only drives business success but also creates exit planning flexibility and opens up additional paths for your exit. It allows you to delay exit if you wish. Moreover, a quality team usually increases company value at sale or, if passing the business to your children, provides for a smoother transition. Competent leadership teams help business owners achieve successful exits.
However, hiring the team and sitting back to collect a check is not an exit strategy. You are still an owner with all of the responsibilities, burdens, and challenges that ownership entails. Therefore, you still need an exit plan beyond a highly skilled management team.
To learn how a strong team can prepare your company for sale, and to help you get ready for exit, contact Tim at 772-221-4499 for a complimentary, confidential 45-minute consultation.
Developing the Most Successful Team
Sydney Finkelstein wrote an interesting article for the Wall Street Journal about hiring teams instead of individuals.
While hiring teams is not always possible or appropriate – the importance of the teams within an organization can directly affect the success of that organization.
Our Team Strength tools help companies maintain the focus on developing the most successful teams. When there is a need for an infusion of talent we use a Team approach in the selection process for those new employees.
By enlisting the help of existing team members, we efficiently identify qualified candidates while also determining their values and fit to the culture of the organization. As a result, in 60% of our engagements our clients have identified and hired two candidates for each available position.
Here’s some highlights from the article that you may find useful to building your Team Strength.
Why Companies Should Hire Teams, Not Individuals
Existing groups work well together, they contribute more quickly, and they are more likely to shake things up (in a good way)
By Sydney Finkelstein
Oct. 29, 2017 10:13 p.m. ET
Illustration: Shout For the Wall Street Journal
Team Players
- Complex problem solving
- Critical thinking
- Creativity
- People management
- Coordinating with others
- Emotional intelligence
- Judgment/decision making
- Service orientation
- Negotiation
- Cognitive flexibility
Team Skills
The Cost of Bad Team Chemistry
Elite Teams
“As my research has shown, the world’s most effective leaders know that members of a cohort typically support one another, while also pushing one another to grow and perform. These leaders explicitly encourage collegiality among colleagues to take root, while also fostering healthy competition between teammates. That unusual combination gives rise to intense team environments, which lead in turn to extremely high performance, high engagement and rapid development on the part of team members.”
From:
Why Companies Should Hire Teams, Not Individuals
By Sydney Finkelstein Oct. 29, 2017 10:13 p.m. ET
The importance of the teams within an organization can directly affect the success of that organization.
Build your Team Strength with our Team approach in the selection process for new employees.
Get started now on your Team Strength- call 772-210-4499 or email for more information or to set up and an account.
The Secret to a Strong Team
The Selection Funnel walks decision-makers through the hiring & selection process, enabling them to SAVE TIME and MAKE INFORMED DECISIONS based on concrete data. Selecting employees with this easy step-by-step process ultimately brings reciprocal returns by improving company culture, increasing productive and reducing costly turnover.
- Qualify Resumes
- Screening Assessments
- Telephone Screen
- Selection Assessment
- In-person interview
- Selection Decision
Click here to view the Selection Funnel 6 Steps.
Would you like to identify the best applicants, optimize employee performance, build top performing teams, uncover the source(s) of communicative dysfunction and develop self-aware leaders?
Get started now on your Team Strength- call 772-210-4499 or email for more information or to set up and an account.
Three Steps to Develop a Strong Team
by Dr. Jack Mitchell
I suggest there are three ways for a company to develop and have a strong and successful management/leadership team.
- Continually train and coach incumbents
- Promote from within and implement #1
- Hire qualified talent and implement #1
The real secret in having a strong management/leadership team is to have talented people who have the ability and willingness to do the job.
The concepts of “ability” and “willingness” are critical.
I may have the “ability” to sing an operatic aria. I can hit that high C. However, if I don’t feel like singing, regardless of the “ability”, I am not going to perform.
Also, I may be very “willing” to sing that aria. I know all the words and the notes, but God never gave me a good singing voice. I cannot carry a tune. I am “willing”, but don’t have the “ability”. I am not going to perform.
Therefore, in business, like in most every other endeavor, a person, or a couple, or a team must have both the ability and the willingness to perform, to achieve success.
Today, professionals, who are skilled in recruiting, training and coaching, have some assessment tools that can accurately assess the “ability” and the “willingness” of incumbents and of prospects for a job with amazing accuracy.
To be a successful owner or manger it is critical to recognize where your strengths and expertise serve your company best. Usually, the recruiting process is outside of your expertise and comfort zone. Using sophisticated assessment tools, with the help of a skilled professional, will identify candidates with both the “ability” and “willingness” to exceed in a position.
Using my recommended three step approach outlined above with sophisticated assessment tools will help you develop the talent that truly has the “ability” and “willingness” to make your company or organization even more successful.
Success Story: Selection Funnel
Recently we were engaged to help a client identify and hire a new Controller. This was going to be a new position because the company had grown to a point where a real financial professional was needed to oversee all the financial functions, which were previously handled by the owner and his assistant.
We were able to source over 130 applicants who responded that they were interested in being hired for the position. That’s a huge response!
Think of a funnel.
Our job was to look at all these responses/resumes and bring that number down to the most qualified applicants. Through our skills at reading resumes and knowing the needs of the new position as well as the personalities of the owner and key company executives (through prior personality assessments), we were able to bring the number of applicants to 28 candidates, who on-paper all seemed to have the requisite skills and experience needed to be successful in the new Controller position.
Our next step was to reduce that number to some 15 candidates, again using our professional knowledge and skills in HR and in recruiting.
Now with these 15 candidates we used one of our assessment tools plus a brief meeting with the Owner and two stake-holders to find the brightest of these talented men and women. We identified 4 finalists.
We arranged one on one interviews with the client and two of his key stake-holders. Using the results of these interviews plus another assessment tool, the owner now has two of the very best candidates in the marketplace to select. What a great challenge for the Owner/CEO. He has 2 exceptional financial professionals, who have the “ability” and the “willingness” to excel in this position.
Believe it or not, this process took less than 5 weeks to complete, and at a cost significantly less than expected. The Owner/CEO spent only a limited amount of time meeting the 15 candidates and interviewing the 4 finalists. All the rest of the work was done by us, getting that funnel from over 130 applicants to two finalists.
Our process resulted in the placement of the best candidate with a significant saving in cost and time to the owner.
The real secret in having a strong management/leadership team is to have talented people who have the ability and willingness to do the job. Contact us to learn more about how to hire the very best candidates and develop your Team Strength.
Today, we have the scientific tools and experience to really help business owners succeed.
Being able to measure and understand How and Why someone will behave is vital to indicating the performance of job applicants, optimizing employee performance, building top performing teams, uncovering the source(s) of communicative dysfunction and developing self-aware leaders.
Contact us to learn how to use the right tools to hire the best people to add to the success of your company.
Would you like to build a Success Team?
Contact PPI at 772 210 4499, www.ppidisc.com or email for more information or to set up an account.
Why do you get up and go to work each day?
The perfect companion assessment to pair with DISC, Motivators measures the seven universal dimensions of motivation that exist within each of us. Where as DISC indicates “How” someone will behave, Motivators tells you “Why”. Being able to measure and understand How and Why someone will behave is vital to indicating the performance of job applicants, optimizing employee performance, building top performing teams, uncovering the source(s) of communicative dysfunction and developing self-aware leaders.
Our Motivators assessment measures seven universal dimensions:
THERORECTICAL: Knowledge, Understanding
REGULATORY: Structure, Order, Routine
INDIVIDUALISTIC: Independence, Uniqueness
ALTRUISTIC: Service, Helping Others
AESTHETIC: Form, Beauty, Balance
ECONOMIC: Practical Results, Money, ROI
POLITICAL: Control, Power, Influence
Would you like to identify the best applicants, optimize employee performance, build top performing teams, uncover the source(s) of communicative dysfunction and develop self-aware leaders?
Get started now on your Team Strength- call 772-210-4499 or email for more information or to set up and an account.
Click here to view the Seven Universal Dimensions.
Vital Tool: Being able to measure and understand How and Why someone will behave.
In my career, I have experienced very different work “cultures”:
In one company”culture”, education was not highly regarded. I was informed not to use my “doctoral title” because it might embarrass fellow employees and the company’s customers. In another company, they insisted I use my professional title, because they thought it would impress the customer base. In a third company, everyone was called by their first name, including the CEO. The “culture” established was one of informality and there was a desire to have a casual and “creative” work environment. There was no written policy about this, it simply was the way people communicated, including the CEO and entire leadership team.
Consider the “culture” of most financial services companies compared to the “culture” of most advertising agencies. There are no written rules about the different “cultures”. They have simply developed over time based on mostly non-verbal behaviors of those in leadership roles
With this understanding in hand, consider the challenges involved in hiring the correct person for a job. To be successful in placing the right candidate in the correct position a hiring manager must look not only for the technical skills of the candidate, but also the personality style and the culture in which the new hire will work.
If a candidate scores highly, for example on the Regulatory motivator, which means they do well in a structured, orderly environment, and your company’s “culture” is very entrepreneurial, shooting from the hip, with little to no formal policies or procedures, this person, though highly skilled, will more than likely not succeed, and will either voluntarily or non-voluntarily leave the company.
Hiring correctly demands much wisdom and skill. Limiting hiring decisions based on looking only at the technical skills of a candidate and perhaps their longevity in a job is often reflected in the company’s turnover rates. The cost of turnover and many times the hidden costs of having the wrong person in the wrong job, and even in the wrong company, can be significant.
Are your hiring managers using the right tools to hire the best people to add to the success of your company?
After making sure a candidate has the requisite technical skills and proper work experience, then the real work of successful hiring begins. Building a hiring tool box using various assessment tools to assure hiring the best person possible.
DISC Personality assessment
Motivators assessment
Cognitive assessment
Emotional IQ assessment
Nothing can “guarantee” hiring the ideal person for the job within your company. However, using all the correct tools can certainly reduce the chance of hiring the wrong person-saving time and money.
Are you optimizing your greatest resource?
The emergence of .com job-search resources has helped create a fluid workforce capable of constantly searching for that next perfect opportunity. According to the International Management Association, average churn rates have jumped by more than 14 percent in just the last decade– and that number continues to climb. Employers can combat this trend– while saving both time and money– enlisting online assessments to accurately pre-qualify new job applicants.
Simply put, quality, science-supported online assessments can ensure that a company minimizes employee related expenses while optimizing its greatest potential resource– human performance.
Want to improve your hiring numbers and reduce the cost? Get started now on your Team Strength- call 772-210-4499 or email for more information or to set up and an account.
Click here to view Hiring and Selection Data and source information.
Optimizing your business’s greatest potential resource– human performance.
A success story by Dr. Jack Mitchell
Mike K was spending thousands and thousands of dollars in his Call- Center business due to turnover. It seemed that as soon as he hired someone, someone else left. The cost of recruiting, spending time reading resumes, interviewing, plus the loss of someone actually “in the seat” making calls was costing him a small fortune.
After a consultation with Mike, together we put into place a custom process using assessments and our Team Strength Chart. These tools helped Mike to identify the “ideal” Profile for him to use when hiring. The next step in the process was to train his managers and supervisors how best to supervise their staff.
The Call-center business usually requires someone who can do repetitive work day in and day out. It takes a special personality to perform in such a manner. With the new custom assessment program, Mike and his team were able to stop the turnover rate caused by hiring people who needed a different type of job. Now they can identity the correct applicants, minimizing employee related expenses while optimizing the company’s greatest potential resource– human performance.
Mike’s new plan included the next critical step of training management personnel. Getting the most out of these types of associates requires a different management style than other types of personality styles. (In our language, for example, managing a High S is quite different from managing a Low S.) This plan puts in place the most effective training customized to the correct audience.
Mike’s turnover cost significantly decreased, and his bottom-line significantly improved having the right people in the right job with the right management style being employed.
“Working with PPI and their Team Strength Chart and assessment tools have definitely helped me understand the value of personality assessments, and know how best to manage different personality styles within my company.”
Thank you
Mike K. West Palm Beach, Fl
Today, we have the scientific tools and experience to really help business owners succeed.
Contact us to learn how you can minimizes employee related expenses while optimizing your company’s greatest potential resource.
If you are having any turnover issue, contact PPI at 772 210 4499, www.ppidisc.com or email for more information or to set up an account.
How Strong is Your Team?
How Strong is Your Team?
Data beats hunches and prevents bias from corrupting important decisions. Throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, Fortune 500s relied on behavioral & cognitive assessments to inform all aspects of their personnel decisions— from an employee’s initial selection and training to their team role and eventual promotion. These paper based assessments had to be individually calculated by a highly trained professional, making them too expensive for most organizations to afford. However, with the advancement of new computer technologies and algorithms, the cost of such assessments has dropped measurably, leveling the playing field for businesses of all sizes.
Now, with the easy to use smart phone app, candidates can complete an assessment in 10-15 minutes while sitting in your lobby. You’ll have the instant feedback you need to make good decision- quickly. You can also receive an expert interpretation from Tim or Dr. Jack – just a phone call away.
How have assessments been used to build and maintain strong teams?
- Improved Hiring & Selection
- Increased Sales
- Improved Customer Service
- Increased Productivity
- Reduced Employee Turnover
- Customized Training
- Model Team Building
Get started now on your Team Strength- call 772-210-4499 or email for more information or to set up and an account.
Tim Kinane
Tim is a Consultant to Business, Government and Not-for-Profits Organizations specializing in innovative and challenging ways for organizations to survive, to thrive and to build their teams.
