Hire for Built-In Excellence
24 December 2007
We had an excellent dinner last night. We hadn't been to the new Ruby Tuesday in town since it opened in September, and thought it was time to compare it to the pleasant experiences we've had at the location in Woodland, 45 minutes away.
It was no surprise that the food was excellent. The real pleasure of the evening, though, was the bar-raising service—and not just by our 'server' Travis.
We walked in between two groups about the same size as ours (five.) At 6:00 on a Sunday evening in a town with more restaurants than you can shake a breadstick at, I was a little surprised at the crowd.
The hostesses were in complete control of the situation; sharing the greeting and seating in a way that made us feel welcomed, not rushed. (It was also a pleasant surprise when our daughter recognized that our hostess was her best friend's cousin.)
Our server seemed to be managing a fairly large number of tables. One of the toughest jobs in the decidedly tough restaurant business is anticipating demand. Not as difficult, but rarely handled well, is providing good service when the demand exceeds anticipations.
Apparently the chain takes this matter seriously.
Before we even realized our dinner was late (a few minutes, but not excessive) the assistant manager was at our table, apoligizing and offering free dessert. When it turned out one of the beers I wanted to try in their 'try three' sampler wasn't available, our server made the judgment call of substituting another I'd mentioned that I like. Considering the time constraint he was under, I thought it was a good call. The entire experience made it clear, though, that if I'd objected to his choosing for me, it would have been promptly resolved to my satisfaction.
While apologizing for our meal being late, the assistant manager explained that each location usually hired folks who've never been restaurant servers before, and then trains them the 'Ruby Tuesday' way.
What? You mean, hire people have the right attitude, and then provide the knowledge and skills they need?
"Joel is extremely creative and innovative. He designed our organization's Intranet website and incorporated several applications that greatly improved our business processes and made people's jobs easier. The usability of his web designs was always excellent. He has a keen sense of business needs - beyond what the user asks for."
Kathy Souza
IT Director
Pacific Health Advantage
"I always enjoy reading your well-thought-out points of view. I'm amazed at how quickly you can put something so thought-out together. Your brain must have a section reserved for evolt [a web development email list] discussion. Some of these discussions require one to change gears quickly."
Jon Molesa
North Carolina Web Designers
Don't Hire for Skill or Knowledge
What a concept.
A concept, in fact, that's the foundation of good hiring practices. Hire for talent. Not 'talent' like Yo Yo Ma or Ted Williams, although if you can get it, get it. Talent, in this case means the natural inclinations and passions of a person.
Some people truly enjoy serving others; their inborn graciousness makes it a personal imperative that those around them are comfortable, and they have a natural knack for saying and doing the right things to make that happen.
Almost anyone can learn to take a dinner order correctly; to carry dishes to a table; to gain the knowledge (information in the head) and skills (actions of the body) to wait tables.
But if they don't have the talent (passion in the heart) of graciousness, all the training in the world won't make them an excellent server.
Apparently, Ruby Tuesday understands this frequently overlooked hiring fact.
When speaking with Heath, the manager, who travels the country setting up new restaurants before handing them over to the ongoing management, he commented on the fact that they know better than to pretend that everything will be perfect in the first few months. What they do instead is make it perfect by hiring people who will do whatever it takes to serve their guests; whether it's moving quickly without seeming rushed, offering an extra free dessert beyond what the manager promised (thanks, Travis!) or anticipating our needs before we even realized they were needs.
That way, they can expect a perfect outcome without expecting perfect staff.
Hire for talent. Have two interviews. Yes, have the traditional 'skills and knowledge' interview, where you determine how much training it will take to create a productive employee. But more important, first have the 'talent' interview. That's a subject for more detail later, but essentially, know the traits which make your stars who they are, and ask open-ended questions to determine whether your applicants share those traits. If not, they'll have enormous personality challenges to overcome in order to achieve excellence in their role.
But, if they've got the talent, the natural passions that make your existing best staff best, then all you have to do is show them the mechanics of the role.
They already have the excellence built in.
More scribblings below the special offer . . .
Risk-Free Consultation
My goal is to help small businesses succeed, while succeeding myself. As one step on that road, I would like to offer you a risk-free half-hour consultation. Let's discuss the biggest challenge you're facing in business, your most recent 'learning experience' (some call them mistakes), or your dreams for your career and yourself. Let me convince you of my ability to understand your issues quickly and offer practical guidance to help you succeed.
My usual fee is $50 per half-hour. If, at the end of our discussion, you don't feel that I've helped, you keep your check.
Regardless, I also sincerely ask for your honest feedback, and the right, if I choose, to include that feedback here on my website and in my book (credited to you, or anonymous; your choice.)
Please call toll free (877) 771-7746 or email Book@CommonsenseEntrepreneur.com (or use the contact form) to arrange your risk-free half-hour consultation by phone, email, or letter, or if you're in the Roseville/Sacramento area, in person at your place of business.
Fearful Power Redux
21 December 2007
Fear is a powerful motivator. It's not a good motivator, but it's certainly powerful.
When I've performed music in the past with beginners who aren't used to being in front of a crowd, I've suggested the possibility that their body can't tell the difference between fear and excitment; that, perhaps, if they convince themselves that it's the latter and not the former, the increased pulse, fidgets, and sweaty brow are good things!
I keep asking my clients: What's your greatest fear? Why isn't it an asset?
Bob Dylan has always been good at marketing. This fascinating web application is brilliant marketing: making you actually want to do the marketing for them, by sharing it with others.
You can even go create your own, but that'd be silly, wouldn't it? Sure; go ahead.
Hard vs. Difficult
18 December 2007
In an interview with author Bryan Eisenberg, marketing guru Seth Godin comments on the difference between hard and difficult—difficult in this context means that it requires thought; it requires challenging our own preconcieved notions; it requires challenging others' notions; it means taking risks. Hard just means putting in more hours, more sweat.
Most people choose hard over difficult. Most people avoid risk. Most people live in quadrant one (all the stuff that's urgent and important) fighting fires and dealing with stuff that just has to happen now instead of spending it in quadrant two (the stuff that's important, but not urgent) preparing for what they know is going to happen tomorrow.
This website's redesign is an example of working smarter instead of harder; doing what was difficult in the beginning, instead of just doing what was hard. (Hard is the easy choice.)
As a web developer (in my other life) I realized I had to spend the time and effort learning about web standards. I had to figure out how to create reusable bits of code instead of starting from scratch each time. I had to learn how to separate the content, this stuff you're reading, from the structure and appearance. It's not easy.
What would have been easy would be to continue writing every single bit of code from scratch every time I built a site. Nothing new to learn, no risk, no frustration with the learning curve. No new books to buy, no asking dumb questions from those who learned before me. Doing all that stuff was difficult. I had to make choices that required thought and risk and new ways of thinking. Not doing that stuff would have been hard. Way more typing; immense amounts of effort making a fundamental change to a website's layout. Endless copying and pasting and tweaking to get all the right code in all the right places.
Instead, other than fixing a minor inconsistency in my code when I first created this site, I made 95% of the changes by modifying the style sheet (the code that determines how the site looks) and directing all the pages to the new styles. Of course, creating and testing the new style sheet took effort, but I would have spent exactly that effort or more regardless of how I deployed it. Once the changes were decided and created, though, I spent minutes instead of days implementing them.
What things are you doing today, maybe right now, that are a result of not planning? What fires are you putting out that you'll probably be putting out again next week, next month, next year, which you could avoid by doing what's difficult now instead of being faced with what's hard later?
Getting Attention—and Keeping It
4 December 2007
Junk mail usually doesn't last a minute with me. The headings on this postcard caught my eye, and the rest of the content didn't disappoint. It's a classic example of how to do it: the offer is clear, the explanation makes sense, and the call to action at the end is very motivational.
