The 8020Info Water Cooler

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The 8020Info Water Cooler
Issue #91 - Vol. 6 No. 11
08 August, 2006

1. How To Improve Hiring By Focusing On Integrity

When famed investor Warren Buffet hires, he looks for integrity over ability. In Integrity Works, Dana Telford and Adrian Gostick say if you're unsure of that prescription, ask yourself which is more dangerous to your organization: an incompetent new hire or a dishonest new hire?

To hire for integrity, they say you have to change your interviewing techniques, which typically devote 90 per cent of the time to capability-related issues and next to no time on character-based issues. They advise asking ethics-based queries, such as:

Who has had the greatest influence on you and why?

Who is the best boss you've worked for and why?

Tell me about your worst boss.

Who are your role models and why?

How do you feel about your last manager?

Tell me about a time you had to explain bad news to your manager.

What would you do if your best friend did something illegal?

If you were the CEO of your previous company, what would you change?

What values did your parents teach you?

Tell me a few of your faults.

Why should I trust you?

How have you dealt with adversity in the past?

What are your three core values?

Tell me about a time when you let someone down.

Tell me about a time when you were asked to compromise your integrity.

2. Five Business Mistakes To Avoid Top

Most small businesses go through the same phases, and often make the same mistakes. So you can learn from Ottawa web developer Derek Featherstone's admission on his Box of Chocolates blog and five business mistakes he has made:

Not keeping up with his accounting: This is a killer problem, because it balloons. The longer you put it off, the worse it gets, and the less you want to do it. You didn't get into business to do your books, but generally in the early stages of a small business, you will have to.

Not getting company credit sooner: After five years in business he sought bank assistance and found it easier to obtain than he assumed, converting a personal line into business overdraft protection and obtaining a reasonable creditcard in the company's name. "I can't tell you how much of a differences the overdraft protection has made. Having that cushion for when I need it is unbelievably liberating," he says.

Buying letterhead and envelopes: In retrospect, he didn't need them -- or, certainly, as much of them -- given most of his correspondence occurs online.

Not sticking to my core business: He has spent too much time on a sideline that clients seemed to want and offered immediate returns rather than developing his core business further.

Not being aggressive enough: He has not done enough to publicize his company, being content to take the business that came to him.

3. Building Accountability Into Meetings Top

Meetings can drift. So can the decisions that are made in them. Instead, consultant Kevin Eikenberry says on Sideroad.com, you have to follow four steps to keep yourself accountable:

Capture Ideas: As a meeting progresses and action steps are identified, they must be written down on a flipchart, whiteboard or somebody's computer.

Assign Responsibility: At the end of the meeting, find out who is going to handle each action.

Determine Time Frame: Find out when people can complete the task. Everyone in the group should agree that's a reasonable deadline.

Review Each Meeting: Begin each meeting by reviewing progress on action items, marking off completed items and assigning new completion dates if needed.

"Not only will more items be done, but the team will feel a greater sense of accomplishment and accountability," he says.

4. Deadly Sins of Marketing Services Online Top

Professionals like architects, lawyers, engineers, designers, physicians and consultants tend to make some common mistakes as they sell their services online, writer-consultant Doug Stern advises on MarketingProfs.com:

Self-centredness: Instead of telling site visitors about your skills and training, show that you understand potential clients and their problems. Demonstrate that you look at things from their point of view.

Wordiness: There's way too much black on most professional sites and too little white -- long words in long sentences and long paragraphs.

Jargon: Technical jargon doesn't provide comfort, and won't be read. Write in simple, jargon-free language.

Staleness: By the time everyone in the firm agrees on content and puts it up, they usually are exhausted so they then leave the site unchanged for years. Instead, keep yours fresh.

5. Zingers Top

A new study finds that cheerful shoppers prefer peppy salespeople but cranky customers spend more time with someone who mirrors their own moods.
(Source: Psychology Today)

It's often better to borrow experience than to learn just from our own, says consultant Jim Clemmer. It's less painful and faster. Books, seminars, roundtables, mentoring, networking, and group problem-solving are some of the ways to learn from other people's experiences.
(Source: Improvement Points)

Ten ways to recover from a fall at work: Get straight back in the saddle. Stay visible. Be open about your mistake. Remember, everyone falls at some point. Learn from the experience. Don't dwell on it. Believe in yourself. Use it as a catalyst for change. Prove your strength. Don't be frightened to fall again.
(Source: Management Today)

Leadership and living a great life involves a delicate balance between freedom and responsibility, says career and life coach Robin Sharma. At times you want to embrace your freedom, enjoying the moment and having a good time. But you must also be responsible, setting goals and getting things done. Ask yourself where you sit on The Freedom-Responsibility Meter, and whether you must rebalance
(Source: RobinSharma.com)

Canada's heritage institutions -- everything from zoos to museums -- were more popular than ever in 2004 as more than 35 million visitors passed through the turnstiles, 10.3 per cent more than in the previous survey two years earlier.
(Source: Statistics Canada's The Daily)

6. Q & A with 8020Info    Top

Question: How can I get control of my e-mail?

8020Info Consultant Harvey Schachter replies:

The most common answer is to only look at your e-mail once or twice a day, and reply to everything then. That allows you to focus on your other work, and seems to slow down the pace of e-mail.

But I've always been skeptical of that advice, which I feel works only for certain people. Controlling e-mail has to be integrated with the nature of your work, day's activities, and expectations of the people sending you e-mail. One-size-fits-all advice seems suspect -- imagine telling a colleague who is waiting at your door to ask a question that you take queries only between 4 and 5 p.m. In some circumstances, that would be fine, and in others a disaster. Even the advice I recently came across from Julie Morgenstern for offices with a fast tempo -- take 10 minutes every hour to respond to e-mail -- is similarly useful only for some situations.

Any strategy starts with discerning your own temperament. Do you like doing things in short bursts or long focus periods? Do you welcome the interruption that e-mail can provide, avoiding boredom? After doing e-mail do you return to your other work feeling refreshed and likely to come up with new ideas, or worn down, having trouble getting back to it? Do you need excitement or stability, connectedness or apartness, and how does e-mail fit in?

Next, what is the flow of your day, and how does e-mail naturally fit in? If you spend your life in meetings and only do "real work" before or after standard office hours, you may want to squeeze in email any time you have a spare moment. If your day involves detailed concentration for hours on end at a project such as writing code, then maybe e-mail can be saved for late afternoon (unless you relish interruptions).

Finally, you have to consider who normally sends you email and what their expectations are in terms of response. An e-mail from your boss or your top customer probably deserves a faster response than a routine notice from a colleague about an office picnic.

After those considerations, set up email folders that fit your style. You probably want a Hold To Read for newsletters. You may want folders such as Answer Immediately, Answer Before Tomorrow, Answer Anytime -- pick names, and functions, that fit your style. Alternatively, file them in your regular folders for clients or topics, but flag them or mark in your calendar what ones you have to act on, and by when. Colour coding e-mails, through Outlook's Organize function, can also help you spot people whose e-mails need to be acted on sooner than later.

7. News From Our Water Cooler    Top

When it comes to designing your marketing communications strategy in today's challenging environment, you have to get it right. 8020Info would be pleased to take you through our Sense-Serve-Satisfy marketing strategy program -- from selecting target audiences to identifying their pivotal needs, developing your core value proposition, and honing what makes you different, better and special.

Sometimes you need to focus your message or undertake research. Sometimes customer service is the key. And choosing the best channels of communication has always been important -- to your budget and to your success. We welcome your enquiries at (613) 542-8020, or by email at contactus@8020info.com.

8. Closing Thought    Top

"You can only hope to find a lasting solution to a conflict if you have learned to see the other [person] objectively, but at the same time, to experience his difficulties subjectively."
-- Dag Hammarskjold