Hire a professional

A woman received a phone call at work that her daughter was very sick with a fever. She left the office and stopped by the pharmacy to get some medication, but when she got back to her car, she discovered that she’d locked her keys inside.

Desperate, she started to pray: “Dear God, please help me get back in my car so I can help my daughter.”

Just then a man pulled up on a motorcycle. He had a long beard and his arms were covered with tattoos. He asked what the matter was, and the tearful mother told him.

“Don’t worry,” the biker said. “I can get inside the car.” He went into the drugstore and came out with a coat hanger. In minutes, he had the door open.

“Oh, thank you!” the woman cried. “I prayed for someone to help me, and God sent me the kindest man in the world!”

Embarrassed, the man took a step backward. “I’m not actually a good person, ma’am. In fact, I just got out of prison last week for stealing cars.”

The woman looked up toward heaven. “Thank you, God, for sending me a professional!”

Whenever I need to get something done, and I realize I don’t have the skills for the job, I hire a professional. Maybe you need help designing a marketing piece or a website. Or you are writing a book and need a professional editor. How about public speaking or planning a special event? You will save yourself many headaches and mistakes if you hire a true professional.

After all, you want the best results possible.

And most of the time, the payoff far exceeds the expense.

Professionals are knowledgeable, experienced, focused, and most importantly, they are cool under pressure and used to dealing with the unexpected. They are not infallible and they still make mistakes, but they are better equipped at dealing with them.

We all have specific skills, but we can’t know everything. There is no glory in trying to fix a problem if your efforts only make matters worse. You think you will save time and money? It’s far less expensive to swallow your pride than to choke on arrogance.

If I want to learn a new skill, I hire a professional coach to teach it to me. I want to practice the right concepts, so I won’t get it wrong. Practice makes perfect … not true. You have to add one word … perfect practice makes perfect.

Legendary Dallas Cowboys Coach Tom Landry explains, “A coach is someone who tells you what you don’t want to hear, who has you see what you don’t want to see, so you can be who you have always known you could be.”

Over my lifetime, I’ve had numerous professional coaches to help me develop whatever natural talent I may have. I understand that I will never be as good as the coaches I’ve hired, but I can surely improve on my limited abilities. So I go to the people who know what they are doing.

I’ve hired professional coaches for public speaking, writing, ideas/creativity, foreign languages, running marathons, golf, tennis, water and downhill skiing, swimming, dancing, bowling, boxing, scuba diving, ice skating, basketball, and many others.

I’m not spending a single penny; I’m making an investment in myself. And, believe me, it comes back ten-fold.

Many times over the years when I’ve purchased a new electronic gadget, I’ve hired the person who sold me the device and paid him to come to my office to teach me how to use it. Technology can be difficult for me, so I hire a pro to teach me and take copious notes. Does that seem frivolous? Not to me. The sooner I can be up and running, the more efficiently I can work.

The old saying “time is money” is so true. Why waste your time and money when so much help is available to enable you to save both time and money in the long run?

I’ve been on the other side of the equation, too. I’ve been honored to be asked to be a mentor, usually not paid, to help aspiring salespeople and entrepreneurs hone their skills. It’s so rewarding to pass along professional knowledge and experiences. If I can steer someone away from making a monumental mistake, I’m satisfied. I want to demonstrate the highest level of professionalism so that others understand the importance of seeking the best advice.

Make a bad hire and your plans could backfire

If there is anything more scarce, more unique, more rare than ability … it’s the ability to recognize ability.

For example, you are considering a person for a software position at your company. You interview her for six months and give her every test known to mankind. You would think that you would know the candidate well, but this is not necessarily true. Hire the person and you will know more in the first 30 days watching her on the firing line than you learned during the previous six months of interviews.

It is extremely difficult to pick good people, but if you have a system and commit yourself to it, the chances will go up dramatically that you will succeed. And it is essential to hire and retain good people. You cannot build a business that has a revolving door.

When I started in business at Mackay Envelope Company (which is now MackayMitchell Envelope Company), I came up with an eight-point plan to ensure the highest probability of success in hiring key employees. These concepts have worked very well for me, and we have continually led our industry in employee loyalty and longevity. I hope you get one or two good ideas from my system:

1. Multiple interviews. Have six to eight interviews with a candidate and involve others in the interview process—coworkers, friends, and colleagues. The more people you have interview the candidate, the better.
2. Full disclosure. When a candidate becomes a finalist at our company, we allow them to talk to anybody on our payroll. We don’t have a company point of view. Everyone can express him- or herself individually. We want the candidate to have 100 percent full disclosure of how any of our people feel. We have no hidden agenda or small print under the small print.
3. Interview in different environments. I want to check out candidates away from the office to see how they handle themselves in different social and casual circumstances. We might play golf, tennis, attend a concert or play, have breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Believe me, you’ll have a better feel, touch, and pulse of that candidate.
4. Interview the candidate using the telephone, email, and online conferencing. Today, everyone must be good in all forms of communication, which I believe can be awesome weapons. This is doubly important for the people who use these tools for their jobs.
5. Interview the spouse and family. A lot of people do not agree with me on this, but I feel spouses and family members need to realize we care about them, as well. Caring is contagious … help spread it around. We want candidates to know that when we make the decision to bring them on board, we consider it the single biggest decision MackayMitchell Envelope Company can make. Remember, anyone can buy an envelope machine, but it takes talent to hire the right person.
6. Use industrial-organizational psychologists. For hiring key employees, a valuable tool is using psychologists. They don’t make decisions for you; all they do is help you make the decision. But if you have some specific concerns, they can laser in on the problem.
7. The Acid Test of Hiring. Let’s say I’m hiring a sales person. Approximately 10 to 15 minutes into the interview I ask myself, “How would I feel if this person were working for my competitor?” If I’m not worried, that’s the end of the interview.
8. Agreements prevent disagreements. I strongly believe in written contracts. If you are willing to fight your guts out for an agreement, you won’t have a disagreement.

There is one overriding philosophy that you have to keep in mind for every person you hire. Never compromise your standards.

Firing is like public speaking; few like to do it

In the last chapter I outlined an eight-step plan to improve your hiring techniques. Now let me switch gears for a moment and move to the other side of the ledger: firing.

Anyone who thinks he is indispensable should stick a finger in a bowl of water and notice the hole it leaves when he pulls it out.

A substantive, in-depth survey was done a couple years ago that asked 1,000 executives, “What’s the most difficult task you have to do on your job?” Of course, the answer that was head and shoulders above the rest was firing someone. To terminate another person is the most difficult task any of these executives have, and there are a myriad of reasons why:

Their business is going well and they are making money.

It’s easy to procrastinate.

They might have a personal relationship with this person, which would make it very difficult to terminate him or her.

They might be in the comfort zone.

This reminds me of the story of the worker who was asked, “Why did the foreman fire you?”

“Well, you know, the foreman is the person who stands around and watches other people work.”

“But why did he fire you?”

“He was jealous. A lot of other people thought that I was the foreman.”

Jack Kent Cooke, former owner of the Washington Redskins, said: “Hiring and firing people is the most unpleasant part of being an employer, but it is a major part of the responsibility a proprietor has to himself, his organization, the persons who are dependent on that organization for their living, and those who support it.”

Another interesting statistic from that executive study: 92 percent of the executives said, “I should have done it sooner.”

None of them ever said, “Gosh, I wish I had Mary or Paul back on the payroll.”

Here is one more point from the study. Some of you might not agree with me, but no one can talk me out of it, at least from my experience. If you ever have to fire another person, and he or she is shocked or surprised … you are a poor manager. You see, you have to work with these people. You have to be a coach. You have to help them accomplish their short-term and long-term goals, their dreams, their hopes, and their vision…. But, of course, sometimes it just doesn’t work out.

And if it doesn’t, then that person will have to jump to another lily pad. And almost always, you’re doing that person a real favor because he or she may be more successful in a different environment.

Do you know where the term firing came from?

It started with family clans in early civilizations. When they wanted to get rid of their unwanted people without killing them, they used to burn their houses down—hence the expression “to get fired.”

We’re a little more civilized now, and I can name many successful people who were fired, and it turned out for the best.

Ronald Reagan was elected president of the United States after he was fired by Warner Brothers (with a few other jobs in between). Lee Iacocca was booted out of the presidency of Ford Motor Company by Henry Ford before he revived the dying Chrysler Corporation. Television host Sally Jessy Raphael, by her own count, was handed the pink slip no fewer than 18 times. Luciano Pavarotti was fired from the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 1989. Even Fred Astaire, Burt Reynolds, and Clint Eastwood all flunked screen tests.

Fortunately, these people all found bigger and better jobs where they could showcase their talents. Getting pushed out the door was a step in the right direction.

Employee retention: A cause for reflection

Employee retention is a hot business topic today. No longer do people stay at the same company for 25 years and collect the gold watch like in years past.

In fact, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics, the average worker will have 12 jobs from age 18 to 48. A shocking statistic. That alone should tell managers that all the time they put into hiring, training, and promoting may just be preparation for the employee’s next job—and chances are it will be somewhere else.

Employees have more bargaining power than ever before. Unemployment is relatively low, and social media makes a company’s employee retention information and job satisfaction public knowledge.

Factor in that a recent Gallup poll shows that only 31 percent of employees are engaged at work, 51 percent are disengaged, and 17.5 percent are actively disengaged. Translation: less than one-third of employees are excited about their jobs. Glassdoor, a website where employees and former employees anonymously review companies and their management, says that the average employee gives their company a C plus (3.1 out of 5) when asked whether they would recommend their company to a friend. In other words, companies need to do a better job retaining their valuable employees.

Then there is the collateral damage. Customers have an uncanny talent for picking up on dissatisfaction, and that can damage the bottom line. Can your company afford that?

Why do people leave companies in the first place? There are many reasons: changes in benefits, bosses, and job responsibilities, difficult coworkers, unethical practices, poor leadership, lack of challenges, and many more.

I happen to believe that employees leave managers; they don’t leave companies.

Taking action when your employees are seriously dissatisfied with your organization’s policies or decisions is a test of your leadership. A face-to-face discussion about grievances can clear the air, but you have to be careful to prevent it from turning into an explosive gripe session. A productive meeting needs careful planning, so consider these suggestions:

• Prepare to hear some painful conversation. Be ready to listen without becoming defensive or arguing back.
• Limit the size. A group of 10 to 15 employees is large enough so people don’t feel exposed and singled out, but still small enough so everyone can participate.
• Assure privacy. Meet in a conference room where you won’t be overheard, not the lunchroom or break area where other employees might wander in and out.
• Ask for input. State the problem as you’ve heard it and ask for everyone’s opinions and feedback. Promise that you won’t punish anyone for speaking out, and stick to your word. Ask participants to prioritize the list so that the most important issues can be addressed first.
• Respond honestly. Address each complaint. If you believe any issues are invalid, explain why, but be willing to listen to other points of view. Specify what you will do in response to the valid complaints.
• Follow up promptly. If you can’t resolve a problem immediately, promise that you will respond in a short, specific time.
• Thank the group. Express your sincere appreciation for their courage and honesty in bringing each issue to your attention. Re-emphasize your mutual goal of working together productively and efficiently so employees know you value their opinions.

That’s a good start, but keeping good employees is a long-term proposition.

Retention depends on more than bonuses and rewards. The best strategies engage employees on the job with equitable and generous compensation and benefits. Reliable, long-term retention depends on actions that managers should be practicing every day.

Coach employees on how to influence, motivate, and persuade people. They’ll be able to accomplish more, which will lead to greater job satisfaction, if they can motivate others.

Help them develop their leadership skills. When employees see a path to advancement, they won’t have to look elsewhere for better opportunities. Providing opportunities for leadership shows they can have a future with your organization.

Give constant and immediate feedback. Tell employees what they’re doing right, and how they can improve. They’ll see that you are paying attention and are committed to their success.

Encourage workers to suggest ideas and innovations, and take them seriously when they follow up. Show that you value their experience and skills.

Recognize their contributions. Praise employees for their efforts, share credit as widely as possible, and give their achievements the attention they deserve.

Getting a job is a job

Getting a job is a full-time job. Here are 10 things you should do to improve your job situation:

1. Get a routine and stick to it. Getting a job is not a nine-to-five job. It’s a 16-hour a day proposition from the moment you get up until you go to sleep. With that kind of workload, you need a daily schedule to establish that routine and organize your time.
2. Get back in shape. Companies have always hired according to subtle, hidden values. Take huge pains with your wardrobe, hairstyling, and makeup. And not just at interviews, either. Looking good is the rule every time you poke your nose outside the door. In fact, in this age of video chats and teleconferencing, you need to look good even if you don’t step outside. For that matter, be sure that your home is clean and organized, and have a well-arranged room from which you might perform video interviews. Similarly, make sure your LinkedIn, Facebook, and other social media profiles project the right image for when human resources departments check them. Appearance has always been 30 percent nature and 70 percent cunning artifice, so we can all be at least 7s if we try.
3. Read. Start with online job boards. The Internet gives you the classifieds, which are the meat and potatoes of your job search. The Wall Street Journal is your link to the state of the national economy and the job market. It would be prudent to check the business section of USA TODAY, as it often leads in identifying new trends. Also, it’s not uncommon for an interviewer to ask the “friendly” and “casual” question: “What have you been reading lately?” Have a good answer.
4. Make those calls. Keeping your network alive means casting a wide net. Dive into your LinkedIn connections, professional networks, address books, and lists of contacts and give yourself a quota of, say, five contacts a day. Be brief. Your agenda is obvious: What do you know that I don’t that might provide me any leads? It will also help if you can carry your own weight and provide the persons you’re calling with some information that may be of value to them.
5. Do your homework. Stay on top of new developments in your field. Now is the time to take those courses you never had time for... and be sure you find a way to mention them during your interviews.
6. Know the company you keep. Before you interview, check with anyone you know who knows about the company—employees, customers, bankers, vendors, and others. You’re looking for two things: First, you want clues about the company’s reputation. Is it a leader in its industry? An also-ran? How does it compete? Does the company emphasize price? Quality? Service? Innovation? Second, you want to know the company’s values and style. Check the company’s website to see where they are focusing their energy and what they value. If you can, find out who will be interviewing you and check their online profiles. You can be sure they’ll be checking yours as well.
7. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Did you have a little chat with the receptionist or with an assistant while you were waiting for one of your interviews today? Write down that name and send a thank-you note or an email recalling the conversation. It’ll help differentiate you from the pack when you call that firm. It won’t hurt your chances of having those calls put through, either. And, of course, the interviewer and anyone else you may have met at the company are musts on your thank-you list.
8. Keep notes. You need a system for keeping track of people. When I started in business, I kept a well-worn business card file that I thumbed through on a daily basis. Then the backs of the cards were so covered with smudges and chicken scratching that they became unreadable. I developed a system on paper where I could make regular notations to my customer files. That evolved into the Mackay 66, a 66-item profile I keep on my key customers, vendors, and so on. These days, there is a wide array of apps and software that can help you. You can start with your email address book and your LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social media connections and build from there.
9. Volunteer. Get involved in a cause that means something to you. First, you’re keeping actively busy during an emotional downturn in your life, which is good for the head. Second, you’re improving your job-hunting skills. Volunteering involves marketing, selling, time management, public speaking, fundraising, creativity, and more. Third, depending on the organization and the role you take, volunteering can put you in contact with some of the most important people in your community. They’ll see you do your stuff. Finally, doing something good for others helps shape your attitude and keeps your own situation in perspective.
10. Get ready for tomorrow. Clothes in shape? Appointments confirmed? Schedule set? Sign off. You’ve had a busy day.

How do you get better at your job?

When I am hired to speak to a company or association, I typically talk ahead of time with six to eight people who will be in the audience to get a better sense of the group. I ask them a series of questions about creative selling, teamwork, negotiations, how they get close to their customers, and so on. Then I surprise them and ask what they do to get better at their jobs?

Over the years some of the typical answers I’ve received include going back to school to learn new skills or get another degree, joining trade organizations and attending events, networking, listening to speakers, reading everything they can get their hands on, being more available, working harder and smarter, improving people skills, and many more.

These are all great ideas, but I’d like to add to the list and share some of my ideas on what you can do to get better at your job.

Improve your time management. Most people fail because they let time manage them rather than managing their time. Time becomes a crook. Often it’s the people who make the worst use of their time who complain there is never enough of it.

Get organized. This will not only improve your productivity, but it will streamline your life, lower your stress, and save you money. The Wall Street Journal reported that the average U.S. executive wastes six weeks per year retrieving misplaced information from messy desks and files. (I’m still working on this.)

Stay positive. Positive thinking is more than just a tagline; it changes the way we behave. And I firmly believe that when I’m positive, it not only makes me better, but it also makes those around me better. Positive thinking turns obstacles into opportunities.

Write down your goals. Goals not only give you a reason to get up in the morning; they are an incentive to keep you going all day. Goals tend to tap the deeper resources and draw the best out of life. Achieving goals produces significant accomplishments.

Learn to compromise. When you observe the politics in Washington, compromise appears to be a lost art. Maybe that’s because it often is looked upon as weakness. Nothing could be further from the truth. Business involves constant compromise—negotiating contracts, hiring, closing sales, and so on.

Exercise your mind and body. Taking care of business starts with taking care of yourself. Exercise makes me feel better and gives me energy to work more productively. My philosophy is that exercise doesn’t take time; it makes time.

Develop your confidence. Confidence doesn’t come naturally to most people. Even the most successful people have struggled with it in their careers. The good news is that you can develop confidence just like any muscle or character trait. Some tips: improve your skills, keep track of your success, practice being assertive, and step out of your comfort zone.

Improve your relationship with your boss. A good relationship with your boss is the foundation of a successful career. Your boss is the person most likely to recognize your contributions and achievements and potentially recommend you for promotions. Strive for a positive work environment.

Surround yourself with mentors and coaches. You can’t do it all by yourself. Seek out the very best help you can find to take your game to the next level. On the flip side, don’t shy away from mentoring younger workers because business is a team sport.

Practice public speaking. Most people dread public speaking, but there are few skills that are more important. Public speaking improves your confidence and communication skills and helps you think better on your feet. How you say things can be as important as what you say. Join Toastmasters International, one of the best-kept secrets in the world. (I did.)

Learn to love feedback. You can learn from anyone if you are open to accepting feedback from not only your manager but from colleagues and customers. If you really believe in yourself, you’ll be open to criticism, learn from it, and improve your performance.

The main thing is that you keep working on you. Life is like riding a bicycle. You don’t fall off unless you stop pedaling.