Posts in category: Featured Blog

We all know Jim Collins and Good to Great, right? If so, then we know how important bringing the right people into the organization is. If not, go here to catch up then meet me back here!

I recently found this article, How to Hire Like a Superboss, on Harvard Business Review, one of my favorite lunchtime reads. It talks about bosses hiring and finding employees in non-traditional ways; in other words, outside of HR, no resumes or cover letters in sight.

I like it.

Who a person is, how they will perform, what types of ideas they create, is really hard to effectively capture on paper for the interviewer. It’s also hard to appropriately convey when you’re trapped in an uncomfortable heels in a stuffy room full of strangers grilling you on your grad school coursework. I’ve been in interviews where the interviewers went in a circle around the table, recited a pre-rehearsed question, listened to my answer, then the next person asked their pre-rehearsed question. I wanted to get up and scream, Stop! Can’t we just talk? This isn’t me! Let me tell you about WHO I AM! I left that interview feeling like they didn’t get to know me one bit and like I had no clue about the culture of the organization, other than robotic.

I think we need a balance though. We need something between simply liking someone and hiring them then figuring out later what they can do (um, let’s first define the business need for hiring them, please!) and a terribly formal, rote interview process where we learn virtually nothing about the candidate except canned answers to boring questions.

Here are some tips to help you get the right people on the bus:

Treat the interview like a conversation.

Create a list of questions to guide you but let the conversation go where it goes. Don’t obsess with taking notes on every single answer; look your candidates in the eye, ask probing follow-up questions and try to learn who they are. Their grad school transcript will not be indicative of their success in the organization; let’s assume they’ve made it this far because on paper they are absolutely qualified. Can you imagine communicating with them daily? Working on a high-impact project together? Watching them interact with your board or other stakeholders? How do you feel about all this?

Ask the right questions.

Speaking of questions, don’t ask stupid ones (or illegal ones!). If you were stuck in a jar, what kind of fruit would you want in there with you? is ridiculous and tells you nothing about the person. Don’t try to be funny or clever. Here are some great pointers on asking the right questions. I especially love the forward-thinking questions: outline your plan for this job or forecast the evolution of this job.

Be mindful of formality but don’t be uptight.

The nonprofit field can vary wildly in terms of formality. I’ve seen everything from the Monday through Friday suit and tie crowd to leggings and hoodies all be acceptable. As an interviewer, I expect job candidates to put effort into their appearance and show me you care about the job. I do not expect, however, ultimate formality. I’m not deducting mental points if you don’t have a leather folio (I actually despite those things!) or perfectly coordinated belt, shoes and bag. Be yourself and dress like you care, that’s all!

Invite other departments/groups to participate.

When it comes to hiring, more minds can be better than just one. Notice I said “can be better” – please do not have a search committee of ten people. That will be chaos. It’s important to get other departments’ perspectives on how this person would fit into the organization since it’s unlikely she will work alone 100% of the time. How does this finance person come across to non-finance people? Does his communication come across as effective or arrogant?

How does your organization handle the recruiting process? Need help creating a process? Or maybe just filling a role or two? Call me; I can help!

More resources:

• How to Assess a Job Candidate Who Doesn’t Fit the Mold – another great article from the Harvard Business Review
• Why the best hire may not have the perfect resume – an excellent TED talk.

Over the past several months, I’ve seen tons of articles come across my desk about companies ditching the annual performance review. GE is the big one. Instead of a formal review process where they used to simply hack off the bottom 10% of performers (talk about archaic and heartless!), they have an app which encourages constant 360 degree feedback.

I am so on the fence about this!

What happens if you have a manager who’s busy, doesn’t like using the app, doesn’t know how to give feedback or simply doesn’t care about the employee’s development? Are managers held accountable for providing feedback to their employees? I’m assuming not, since they’re not being formally reviewed either. Sounds like the employee really gets the short end of the stick here.

To me, this isn’t an either/or situation. We need a culture of both frequent feedback and annual performance reviews.

On frequent feedback:

We need to better train our managers on how to give feedback. It’s easy to tell someone they’re doing a good job (although we probably don’t do it often enough) but it’s much harder to tell someone they need to improve. Managers get uncomfortable with conflict and leave the tough conversations to the annual performance review.

If the frequent feedback we’re giving is negative, make sure to document it. Send a quick recap email to the employee about your conversation. If performance doesn’t improve and you need to terminate the employee, you want everything documented clearly. Just wearing my HR hat over here!

As the leader of the organization, promote a culture of frequent feedback. Publicly praise employees when they’ve gone above and beyond! Institute a recognition system for star performers! When other managers see you doling out feedback (when deserved of course), they will do the same.

Your best employees are ones that want to improve. Giving them frequent feedback throughout the year allows them to make real-time adjustments to working style or output which will bring your middle-of-the-road performers to the top. And that just means a higher functioning organization – win-win!

On the annual performance review:

I think these babies need to stay. They are a formal, structured way to dole out salary increases based on cold, hard, documented facts. It makes me itchy to think about a system in which raise amounts, timing and rationale aren’t documented or consistent.

Annual reviews give no excuses to managers or employees. Both are forced to think about big picture goals, long-term development and how the employee can best contribute to the organization. Isn’t strategic thinking a good thing?

Maybe we simply need to revamp our performance review process? Do away with the seventeen-page document of rate on a scale of 1 to 5 and repetitive, confusing questions and instead talk about:

• Where the employee really knocked it out of the park
• Times they felt like they weren’t performing up to par
• How they want to/can best contribute over the next year
• What is their BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal)

So what do you think? Ditch the reviews or should they be here to stay?

Several years ago, I had direct reports in Nepal, Malawi, Mali, Senegal, Haiti and Nicaragua. While I was excited at the prospect of visiting each of them throughout the year and experiencing their countries, I was at first nervous about building a relationship. I would spend maybe three weeks, tops, with them annually and worried: Will they be offended I don’t speak their language? Will it be difficult to communicate? How will I be able to tell if they’re performing well? Will they respect me as a leader?

Turns out I had nothing to worry about. To build individual relationships, I quickly initiated weekly Skype calls during their business day – I often started my work day very early – to establish that mutual respect and understanding type culture that I wanted to promote. I asked a lot of questions in those initial calls and listened more than I talked – I wanted to learn everything I could about not only their work processes and activities but their culture, families and aspirations. While we Americans often cut the small talk and dive right into business, my colleagues in Mali asked about each member of my family (including the dog!) every time we chatted. Being patient, giving him space for this cultural norm and then asking about his family connected us on a deeper level than just discussing the budget.

Once I had an employee in Nicaragua resign for a higher paying opportunity elsewhere. I knew we needed to fill the position quickly but I already had other trips planned and couldn’t make it to Nicaragua for a couple months. I had to build the team from afar! I enlisted the help of other in-country staff to post the job description locally, then reviewed resumes and spent hours on Skype with potential candidates. I narrowed it down to my top three candidates then passed them on to the in-country program team to interview in-person. They shared their recommendations and I made a final decision, sight (almost) unseen. That candidate, many years later, is still a key player in the organization, which goes to show it can be done!

Finally, how do you connect a global team to each other? I wanted my team to know each other, despite their geographical differences, in order to share best practices and connect with the organization on a deeper level. I eventually figured out how to connect six different time zones into a common meeting time without making anyone be awake in the middle of the night. We talked about big picture ideas: organizational strategy, best practices for internal audits, ideas for a better budgeting process. I included all of the team in my communications and encouraged them to share ideas with each other. As the organization grew, a few of them were even able to meet each other in person at international events.

It is challenging to build a high-functioning global team, but a wonderful opportunity! If you are willing to put in the extra effort and perhaps some early mornings, to effectively connect many different people, cultures, time zones, working styles and ideas, you will reap massive benefits.

Diversity and inclusion at its best!

So is February the month of love for you, filled with pink and red hearts, romantic dinners and red roses? Or is February the month that winter sets into your bones and you are desperately craving a dose of sunshine? For me it’s the latter. Not that I don’t adore my husband and dog-son but we’ve never made a big deal about Valentine’s Day. I think last year we even skipped exchanging cards in favor of doing a house project! This month’s blog theme is relationships – get excited!

Today we’ll talk about keeping your staff not only inspired and engaged by your mission but also satisfied with the nitty-gritty, day-to-day work.

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Let’s look at the Pyramid of Employee Needs from Bain & Co via Harvard Business Review and start at the top; as nonprofits, I think we need to focus the most on satisfaction and I’ll explain why.

For us nonprofits, inspiring employees is the easy part! Most likely, employees have joined the organization because they have a personal passion for what we’re doing. We’re not selling pharmaceuticals or providing IT support, we are changing the world! We’re bringing education and clean water and shelter and healthcare to people who need it and we are darn excited about it. Inspiration? Check!

So if we’ve got an organization full of passionate people, they often form extraordinary teams. What feels better than joining forces with other people who are as excited about secondary education in East Africa as you are? Many of the nonprofits I work with are small and so your impact is felt throughout the organization – you have and know your purpose and even the Executive Director can feel the work of a Program Coordinator. You’re fully engaged with your work, the people and the mission.

Satisfaction. This is a challenge for many nonprofits because frankly, we don’t usually have the funds to provide as much training or compensation as we’d like. We’re too busy spending it on programs (which is, of course, a great thing!). But there’s a beautiful balance between a low overhead rate and ensuring you’re taking adequate care of your employees – at the end of the day, passion for the mission will only keep someone for so long.

Here are some ideas to get you thinking about doing more for employee satisfaction with less (or often nothing!):

• Create a comprehensive onboarding program to make employees feel welcome into the culture and knowledgable about how things work immediately
• Invite board members or other professionals to host soft skills trainings or webinars pro bono – time management, conflict resolution, leadership skills
• Host regular information sessions on benefits – employees often feel overwhelmed or confused about health insurance or 403(b) retirements plans and taking the extra effort to spend time talking about it goes a long way
• Ensure employees’ performance is being reviewed annually and reward accordingly. If you can’t afford large salary increases, consider small bonuses
• Recognize employees’ work publicly – announce staff who’ve gone above and beyond during monthly meetings or consider an Employee of the Month program
• Give staff appropriate, functional technology – no one should be expected to use their personal computer or obsolete equipment

How are you ensuring your employees are not only inspired and engaged but also satisfied? Need help on 403(b) training or developing an onboarding program? Give me a ring!