January 2009
Greetings!
As we begin a New Year we are all thinking about what we want 2009 to look like.
Do we need to employ “zero based thinking” before moving forward? This requires that we put every past decision on trial for its life regularly by asking:
If I had not made this decision, knowing what I now know, would I make it? Did I make the right decisions? Do I have the right supporting cast? If I had not hired this person or gotten involved in this project, knowing what I now know, would I do it over again?
Did I get the most out of 2008?
If the answer is “NO” to one of these questions, then our aim should be to get out of the decision as fast as possible. Be willing to “cut our losses,” and try something else.
I hope all your decisions have been on point, but if you are like me; I sometimes need to be reminded to evaluate how I make these decisions whether it is in hiring the right people, or using the right processes.
Please take a moment and explore what Jim Collins has to say on making tough calls,and what the Harvard Business Review advises on hiring for the right intelligence.
Collins on Tough Calls
It’s really a stream of decisions over time, brilliantly executed, that accounts for great outcomes.
We tend to think that decisions are very much about “what.” But when I look at my research notes and I look at interview transcripts from the executives we’ve interviewed, one theme that comes through is that their greatest decisions were not “what” but “who.” They were people decisions.
Why are people decisions so important?
Fundamentally, the world is uncertain. Decisions are about the future and your place in the future when that future is uncertain. So what is the key thing you can do to prepare for that uncertainty? You can have the right people with you
Hiring for Emotional Intelligence
Making a hire can be a hit-or-miss affair. A promising candidate can turn out to be a disaster, leaving frustrated colleagues and tattered client relationships in his wake. Sooner than anyone planned, the new hire and the organization part ways, with recrimination and regret on both sides.
To increase their chances of making good hiring decisions, many companies subject candidates to an extended battery of interviews. But according to Adele B. Lynn, author of The EQ Interview: Finding Employees with High Emotional Intelligence (Amacom, 2008), conducting more interviews is not really the answer. What’s needed are better interviews–interviews that take a measure of candidates’ emotional intelligence.
Quote of the Month
“The quality of an individual is reflected in the standards they set for themselves.”
–Ray Kroc – Founder of McDonalds
2009′s success should be determined by you, and not the world around you.
The following are a few thoughts on how to thrive in today’s turbulent times:
- Get passionately engaged in a cause greater than self.
- Commit to the simple acts of daily discipline required to achieve your goals.
- And, most importantly, don’t quit before the blessing!
Remember Now is the time to make plans to succeed in this New Year.
Winston Churchill noted “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
Hope you enjoy a successful 2009!
Mike Harbour
Harbour Resources
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