How do we find the balance between the polar ends?

The first step is knowing the difference between certainty and self-confidence.

Leaders were given a survey and asked to rate how many of their decisions each day were absolutely correct. They were also asked to evaluate their level of confidence. Employees were then asked to assess these same qualities in their leaders.

The results of the survey showed that leaders who were confident but relatively uncertain were viewed as more effective, more likely to foster creative thinking and independent thinking. Those who were confident and certain were viewed as authoritarian and inflexible.

In other words, leaders must lead with authenticity.

1. They speak their truth. In business today, we frequently ‘swallow our truth’. We say things to please others and to look good in front of The Crowd. Authentic leaders are different. They consistently talk truth. They would never betray themselves by using words that are not aligned with who they are. This does not give anyone a license to say things that are hurtful to people. Speaking truth is simply about being clear, being honest and being authentic.
2. They lead from the heart. Business is about people. Leadership is about people. The best leaders wear their hearts on their sleeves and are not afraid to show their vulnerability. They genuinely care about other people and spend their days developing the people around them. They are like the sun: the sun gives away all it has to the plants and the trees. But in return, the plants and the trees always grow toward the sun.
3. They have rich moral fiber. Who you are speaks far more loudly than anything you could ever say. Strength of character is true power – and people can feel it a mile away. Authentic leaders work on their character. They walk their talk and are aligned with their core values. They are noble and good. And in doing so, people trust, respect and listen to them.
4. They are courageous. It takes a lot of courage to go against the crowd. It takes a lot of courage to be a visionary. It takes a lot of inner strength to do what you think is right even though it may not be easy. We live in a world where so many people walk the path of least resistance. Authentic leadership is all about taking the road less traveled and doing, not what is easy, but what is right.
5. They build teams and create communities. One of the primary things that people are looking for in their work experience is a sense of community. In the old days, we got our community from where we lived. We would have block parties and street picnics. In the new age of work, employees seek their sense of community and connection from the workplace. Authentic leaders create workplaces that foster human linkages and lasting friendships.
6. They deepen themselves. The job of the leader is to go deep. Authentic leaders know themselves intimately. They nurture a strong self-relationship. They know their weaknesses and play to their strengths. And they always spend a lot of time transcending their fears.
7. They are dreamers. Einstein said that, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” It is from our imaginations that great things are born. Authentic leaders dare to dream impossible dreams. They see what everyone else sees and then dream up new possibilities. They spend a lot of time with their eyes closed creating blueprints and fantasies that lead to better products, better services, better workplaces and deeper value. How often do you close your eyes and dream?
8. They care for themselves. Taking care of your physical dimension is a sign of self-respect. You can’t do great things at work if you don’t feel good. Authentic leaders eat well, exercise and care for the temples that are their bodies. They spend time in nature, drink plenty of water and get regular massages so that, physically, they are operating at planet-class levels of performance.
9. They commit to excellence rather than perfection. No human being is perfect. Every single one of us is a work in progress. Authentic leaders commit themselves to excellence in everything that they do. They are constantly pushing the envelope and raising their standards. They do not seek perfection and have the wisdom to know the difference. What would your life look like if you raised your standards well beyond what anyone could ever imagine of you?
10. They leave a legacy. To live in the hearts of the people around you is to never die. Success is wonderful but significance is even better. You were made to contribute and to leave a mark on the people around you. In failing to live from this frame of reference, you betray yourself. Authentic leaders are constantly building their legacies by adding deep value to everyone that they deal with and leaving the world a better place in the process.

If you found a stellar candidate the same day your job was posted, would you hire them?

Probably not, according to our recent survey of HR pros. When asked what they would do if they interviewed a candidate and got a great feeling about them, only 23% said they would jump at the opportunity to hire them. The rest would continue to go through the hiring process to ensure that they are in fact the best candidate.

It’s an understandable decision, especially given that the costs of making a bad hire can be high, in terms of both time and dollars.

But at what point do you put decisiveness ahead of procedure and trust your ability to recognize the right candidate when you see them?

A whopping 92% of HR pros who participated in our survey said they would be happier if positions were vacant for less time, yet 58% said that a longer hiring process results in better hires.

It seems like what’s missing here is confidence. There’s a lack of confidence that quality candidates can be found in a very short time, and perhaps even a lack of confidence on recruiters’ part to say, “This is the one. I don’t need to look any further.”

The best we know to get your confidence level up is to use Predictive Talent Analytics (PTAs). What these assessments will do is reduce time to hire while AT THE SAME TIME, accurately identify candidates who really fit your job and your company culture.  Predictive Talent Analytics not only reduce time to hire, but predict what you can expect in the way of performance right from the get go.  So instead of waiting 90 days, observing the new employee’s performance, PTAs can actually compress that uncertainty down to about 2 hours on the front end before a hiring decision is made.  Want to learn how?

Knowing the importance of continual leadership development, today we want to share one of the greatest leadership books of all time.  The book is True North by Bill George and co-written by Peter Sims. True North has a simple premise for leadership: understand your own life story.

True North shows how anyone who follows their internal compass can become an authentic leader. This leadership tour de force is based on research and first-person interviews with 125 of today’s top leaders—with some surprising results. In this important book, acclaimed former Medtronic CEO Bill George and coauthor Peter Sims share the wisdom of these outstanding leaders and describe how you can develop as an authentic leader. True North presents a concrete and comprehensive program for leadership success and shows how to create your own Personal Leadership Development Plan centered on five key areas:

• Knowing your authentic self
• Defining your values and leadership principles
• Understanding your motivations
• Building your support team
• Staying grounded by integrating all aspects of your life

“Your truth is derived from your life story, and only you can determine what it should be,” writes George. “When you are aligned with who you are, you find coherence between your life story and your leadership.” That alignment is your “true north,” an internal compass.

“What emerges from these stories is that virtually all the leaders interviewed found their passion to lead through the uniqueness of their life stories,” he writes. “Not by being born as leaders. Not by believing they had the characteristics, traits, or style of a leader. Not by trying to emulate great leaders.”

True North can be found on Amazon and most local bookstores.

One of my favorite sales experts, Dave Kurlan, President of Objective Management Group just wrote a new eBook. His new book, “63 Powerful Sales Tips for a Huge Increase in Sales”, can be read in less than an hour.

It will make you laugh and most importantly, help you increase sales. Whatever your role in sales – inside or outside, B2B or B2C, transactional or complex, long or short sales cycle, capital equipment or widgets, products or services, expensive or dirt cheap – this fun book has lessons for you.

Simply provide the requested information along with a valid email address to receive an email with a link to download the book.

Here is the link to download the book:  http://www.objectivemanagement.com/omginfo/page/Sales-Tips-eBook.aspx?DistNum=354

Call us if you’d like to learn how a Sales Force Evaluation can propel your organization to the top.  800-700-6507

1. Can you name a person who has had a tremendous impact on you as a leader? Maybe some one who has been a mentor to you? Why and how did this person impact your life?
2. How have you gained commitment from your team?
3. What are the most important decisions you make as a leader of your organization?
4. How can a leader fail? Tell me about a time when you failed as a leader.
5. As an organization gets larger there can be a tendency for the “institution” to dampen the “inspiration.” How do you keep this from happening?
6. What is the difference between a leader and a manager?
7. How do you encourage creative thinking within your organization?
8. Describe a time you took a leadership position when you did not have the title of a leader.
9. Where do the great ideas come from in your organization?
10. Have you ever been a mentor to another aspiring leader? How did you go about establishing that relationship?
11. Which is most important to your organization—mission, core values or vision?
12. As a leader, how do you measure success?
13. How do you or other leaders in your organization communicate the “core values”?
14. How do you encourage others in your organization to communicate the “core values”?
15. Do you set aside specific times to cast vision to your employees and other leaders?
16. How do you ensure your organization and its activities are aligned with your “core values”?
17. What is a leader’s best asset?
18. How do you help a new employee understand the culture of your organization?
19. Is competition among a team healthy? Why or why not?
20. When faced with two equally-qualified candidates, how do you determine whom to hire?
21. What is one characteristic that you believe every leader should possess?
22. What is the biggest challenge facing leaders today?
23. Who are the most important members of your team?
24. What is one mistake you witness leaders making more frequently than others?
25. What is the one behavior or trait that you have seen derail more leaders’ careers?
26. Can you explain the impact, if any, that social networking and Web 2.0 has made on your organization or you personally?
27. How do you achieve objectives in a fast-paced environment?
28. What are a few resources you would recommend to someone looking to gain insight into becoming a better leader?
29. What advice would you give someone going into a leadership position for the first time?
30. What are you doing to ensure you continue to grow and develop as a leader?

The most effective leaders are authoritative, not authoritarian.

Authoritative:

Authority is permission to act without asking permission while being held accountable.

Successful leaders know how to take the bull by the horns – be authoritative – in ways that engage and energize organizations. They don’t trample people. They point the way and “go with” at the same time.

Authoritarian leaders believe leadership is about power rather than service.

7 ways to be an authoritative leader:

1. Purpose. Leaders exist to serve. The purpose of authority in organizations is effective service.
2. Parameters. Authority is made safe by boundaries and accountability.
   1. Align and explain your role in terms of organizational mission and vision.
   2. Define what you don’t do. Boundaries focus energy and protect.
   3. Exemplify organizational values.
3. Learn. Authority often makes people feel they know when they don’t. You become authoritative when you learn from people who know more than you. Leaders become coercive jerks when they’re always the smartest person at the table. (Sarcasm intended.)
4. Competence. Celebrate the competence of others without degrading your role.
5. Engage. Authoritarian leaders say, “Do what I tell you.” Authoritative leaders get their hands dirty. Participation indicates authoritative. Isolation indicates authoritarian.
6. Explain. Authoritative leaders explain what we are doing and why. Jerk-leaders leaders just want it done.
7. Forward. Focus more on where you’re going than what went wrong. Backward facing leaders only lead into the past. They’re great at blame and repetition. Never point out negatives unless you’re ready to reach toward positives.

Push-overs can’t lead. Authoritative leaders are confident but not domineering, empathetic but not weak.

The power of authoritative leadership is respect; authoritarian is fear.

How might leaders be authoritative without being authoritarian?

Being constantly surrounded by the buzz of the phone or the chime of an email takes its toll on our ability to reduce stress and not get overwhelmed. Here are 5 tips to reduce the overwhelm in our lives.

1. Stay focused: Multitasking reduces our ability to produce quality work.  When our projects are being interrupted with Facebook notifications, texts, and emails it could double (or more) the amount of time it takes to complete our tasks.  When we have spent 3 hours on a project that should have taken 1, overwhelm begins to set in.  Turn off all other distractions and focus on the task at hand.
2. Find time to think: When you are busy it seems like taking time away from work would only add to the stress.  However, often times what we are missing is the ability to clear our minds or look at things from a broader perspective. Even if it is only 15 minutes a day, or mind needs a bit of a rest every once in a while so that we can be more productive when we are ready to work.
3. Question your methods:  Too many leaders fall into the trap of doing things because it has always been done that way.  Do you have tasks that could, or should, be given to another person yet you continue to do them?  Are there projects or tasks you do that are not really necessary to the success of your company?  Are you attending meetings that are reducing your productivity rather than increasing it?
4. Don’t just talk, get support!  Talking about our issues and stress with allow us to have temporary relief. But for long term changes and decrease in overwhelm we need to talk to someone who can offer constructive insights and feedback into the causes of our problems.  Keep in mind that your ultimate goal is to make permanent changes towards reducing overwhelm, not just find temporary solutions.
5. Say No: Learning how to politely refuse can create an amazing amount of space in your schedule. Often times the people who are most overwhelmed are the ones who have not set boundaries for themselves. Whenever someone makes a request of you, before you say yes, think about whether or not you can actually deliver on the commitment you’d be making without imposing on other commitments or overwhelming yourself by working overtime.  Even if it is your boss, you can learn to manage a diplomatic no by explaining that it would be difficult with your prior commitments and then offering suggestions on finding another way to get the project done.

The next time you search for something on Google, type in millennials and see what pops up.

Google’s algorithms are pretty good at helping you complete your search by pre-populating commonly used phrases. What do you get when you type millennials into the Google search bar? The answer: millennials in the workplace.

This says something about the state of today’s businesses. Companies everywhere are working to determine how to attract millennials to work for them. But, this challenge isn’t limited to just human resources professionals. It’s a marketing problem, too. Hint: Search marketing to and notice the marketing to millennials is the first thing to appear.

If today’s companies wish to succeed in hiring millennial employees, it requires the removal of the departmental silos that have traditionally separated human resources and marketing.

Here are three ways HR departments can partner with their marketing teams to attract millennials.

1. Make a great first impression.
   You only get one chance to make a first impression. And, unless you’re a Fortune 100 company with national brand recognition, chances are that your website will be your prospective employee’s first interaction with your company. For most marketers, the Career Opportunitiessection of the website is an afterthought. After all, most marketing teams are evaluated based on their ability to convert web visitors into customers, not employees.

Just as it’s important to make a good first impression with prospective customers, it’s equally important to do the same with would-be job applicants. Have your marketing team build out the career section of your website. Add pictures from your company picnic or service project. Maybe even put a video together that talks about your company’s mission and culture. These additions will go a long way in attracting millennials to join your team.

2. Stop being so boring.
   If you’re still using the same job descriptions you’ve been using since 1998, it’s time to update them. Today’s applicants can instantly compare your job listing with hundreds of other listings. What’s going to make your job opportunity stand out from the rest?

I get it. Job descriptions are inherently boring. But, there’s a way to make just about any job sound fun. Enlist the best copy writer in your marketing department to help make your job listings pop.

3. Make it easy to apply.
   The customer journey is a critical focus for most marketing departments. How do we ensure that the customer has the best possible experience from initial contact to delivery of goods and services? And, how do we make it as easy as possible for the customer to make a buying decision? This thought process should also extend to the job applicant.

Simply put, make it easy for people to actually apply for the job. If you don’t already have a way for people to apply online, get one soon. No one wants to print off an application, scan it and email it in. Have your marketing team build an online application that users can easily complete. Or, better yet, let job applicants apply using their LinkedIn profiles.

On a related note, if you don’t have any job openings at the time, you might consider creating a career interest form where people can provide you with their name, email address and resume. You can use this list of interested candidates later down the road when an opportunity arises. Not to mention, your marketing folks can also add them to your monthly e-newsletter. That’s what we call a win-win!

These certainly aren’t the only areas where HR and marketing can collaborate, but, by enhancing your first impression, updating your job descriptions and improving your application process, you can better position your company to attract millennials.

Bryan Fonville is an assistant vice president and marketing director at Central National Bank, a $750 million bank headquartered in Waco, Texas.

Obviously woman have come a long way since 1920. But just how far have we come? Today we are going to review ten key findings from a new Pew Research Center survey and analysis of Census data that explores the views, values and economic realities of women and men in the workplace

1. Today’s women are starting their careers better educated than their male counterparts.

2. Young working women today are also making more money relative to men their age than their mothers and grandmothers did. This is due not only to the rising earnings of women, but also to the falling earnings of men. In 2012, young women earned 93% of the average hourly wage of men the same age.

3. Each new group of young women entering the workforce over the past 30 years has started out at a higher average hourly wage relative to men. However, the more recent groups of young women have also seen their wages fall relative to men during their work lives.

4. These dramatic gains among young working women haven’t translated to an increased optimism about their career paths. Young women today are more likely than young men to say women are paid less for doing the same job and men have easier access to top executive jobs.

5. While a significant share of Americans (45%) still think society favors men over women, attitudes have changed considerably in this regard over the past 20 years. When Gallup asked a similar question in 1993, 62% of the public said society favored men over women.

6. Women are much more likely than men to say more change is needed to achieve gender equality in the workplace. The gap is especially wide among Millennial women and men.

7. Women of all ages, just like men, want a secure job they enjoy, but they are less likely than men to ask for raises or aspire to top management jobs. This is especially true once they reach their 30s and 40s, when many men and women face the tradeoffs that go with being a working parent.

8. Far more women than men say being a working parent has made it more difficult to advance their career.

9. Among parents, women are much more likely than men to experience family-related career interruptions.

10. And among mothers and fathers who have taken a significant amount of time off from work to care for a family member, women are much more likely than men to say it hurt their career overall. Even so, about nine-in-ten mothers and fathers say they are glad they did it.

“With the survey results indicating that 47 percent of employers also intend to raise starting salaries, [Matt Ferguson, CEO of CareerBuilder] predicts hiring will become even more competitive.” Job seekers have more resources than ever because of the Internet to do thorough research on employers that they are interested in—before they even apply. If your organization doesn’t have a strong presence on these resource channels, it is unlikely that you will appear on a candidate’s reconnaissance radar. Your website and career site may look great from your desktop, but how easy is it to navigate from a mobile device or tablet? Industry experts have advised organizations to reduce the number of clicks on mobile-optimized sites to prevent job seekers from leaving their page and abandoning the application process.

CareerBuilder’s mid-year job forecast revealed that 49 percent of the surveyed employers anticipate recruiting additional permanent, full-time staff by the end of the year. This is great news for the (three out of four) full-time employed workers who are actively seeking new job opportunities. According to CareerBuilder, there are four phases of a candidate’s job search:

Phase 1: Orientation

“This phase consists of a candidate’s self-evaluation and evaluation of the market.  During this phase, candidates will update their resumes; search for jobs on major  search engines including Google, Bing, Yahoo; network with colleagues, family and  friends; and visit job boards to assess the market.”

Phase 2: Consideration

“During this phase, the job search moves from solitary practice to an interactive social experience. Candidates tap into their social networks to get a more transparent look at the companies they are considering. At this point candidates will visit companies’  career sites; network with colleagues, family and friends; and check out companies’  social media presence.”

Phase 3: Action

“In this phase, candidates are actively applying to jobs. During this phase, candidates  will conduct in-depth research on your organization and form opinions based on the  application experience, which will influence their decision to apply in the future or  recommend this company to others.”

Phase 4: Engagement 

“In this last phase, candidates are interacting with employers, interviewing, and considering job offers. This is where your earlier employment brand efforts pay off.”

It is not enough that we have identified where today’s job seekers conduct their job search, we must also know how they got there. Mark Iadone at Hubspot.com reports that, “almost one third of the visitors that reach a site via search are coming from some sort of mobile device, whether it be a phone or a tablet.” In his article, Iadone discusses the importance of a mobile strategy for your hiring and recruiting processes, and also shares why your organization needs to be able to serve job seekers from a mobile device or tablet.

Three ways to optimize your mobile presence to better attract high potentials and job seekers.

1. Take advantage of social media.

Use company events as an opportunity to take pictures of co-workers, with consent, to give prospects a glimpse into your company’s culture. Share information about your products or services, upcoming events, and tout employee recognition.

2. Provide valuable content.

Professional networking websites like LinkedIn make it easy for employers to connect with job seekers. Post content that pertains to your company, like case studies, press releases, employee testimonials, interview tips, and most importantly job opportunities. Recruiting high potentials from sites like LinkedIn allows hiring managers to gauge and estimate the validity of a candidate’s experience.

3. Consider a mobile app.

According to Iadone, many organizations have invested in this platform to complement their published content, build stronger brand awareness, and improve user accessibility for applying and inquiring about open positions. Companies maximize the app-specific features to alert users using “push notifications” about new content and job listings. Although apps are not the right technical investment for every company, I wouldn’t be surprised if more companies began using apps specifically for “convenient” hiring and application purposes.

How do you recruit high potentials through mobile devices? Share your thoughts with us in the comment section below.