For the uninitiated, all able-bodied males in Singapore have to serve in the armed forces (The Army, Navy or the Police) for at least 2 years usually before they head-off to college or university.

As a senior instructor in the Army, I had the privilege of picking my co-trainers.

So I decided to approach one of the junior instructors to ask if he will join my team.

His answer was a firm “NO! You always pull rank!”

I was shocked.
I was hurt.
And I was confused.

What was wrong with using my rank to get things done?

But that was the TURNING POINT in my life.

After I joined the Corporate world, I set out to change my leadership style.

I read voraciously on leadership and motivation.

Bit by bit I put into practice what I learned on leadership and motivation.

One day I was asked to build up a regional team in Asia Pacific.

I switched from being COERCIVE and COMMANDING, to being AFFILIATIVE and DEMOCRATIC.

Eventually I built a regional team so cohesive that we achieved 0% attrition rate; hit almost 100% of all KPIs; and almost 100% engagement rate.

Over 10 straight years!

I don’t remember his name. But I still remember how he looks like.
And if I see him one day, I will thank him for making me who I am today.

So what kind of leader are you?

If you would like to find out how you can be a better leader, check this out: Leadership Styles Questionnaire

In the second era, potential leaders were judged based on their intelligence, experience, and past performance. In the third era, talent was evaluated according to specific skills and personality traits.

According to Claudio, we are now at the dawn of a fourth era.

And to deal with the ever more uncertain and volatile business conditions, the criteria have changed again and the question now is not whether employees have the right skills but whether they have the potential to learn new ones. Claudio believes that potential can be gauged through in-depth interviews and by mining candidates’ personal histories for specific evidence of five critical character traits — selflessness, curiosity, insight, the ability to engage others, and dogged determination.

As an advocate and firm believer of hiring the RIGHT people, I could not agree more with Claudio.

The hiring model that I have always upheld consists of the following 4 foundation elements: Cultural Fit, Attitude, Aptitude and Personality.

Claudio’s reference to selflessness, curiosity, ability to engage others all seem to allude to the Aptitude of the potential candidate.

In simple terms, Aptitude is the ability to learn. The aptitude to learn should not be confined to just learning new skills or knowledge. It includes the ability to connect with people; to establish strong relationships with co-workers and peers; to learn and function as a team; and to adapt to ever-changing situations.

People who possess the aptitude to learn are naturally curious and are continually in a learning mode. They usually possess a high level of personal mastery, are inquisitive and feel they are a part of the organisation.

Successful hiring in today’s ever changing world is no longer as straight-forward as selecting and hiring the best candidate with the required skills, qualifications and experience. Team or organizational success is no longer about having the best people on-board. It is about having the RIGHT people on-board.

So the next time you hire for your organization or your team, make sure you dig deep to uncover the aptitude of the candidate.

It does not matter if you are a team manager leading a team of 5 or a Division Manager leading an organization of 500, the challenges with team and people management are fundamentally the same. It does not get any easier with a smaller team. All you require is a couple of difficult employees or staff and your hands will be full!

So what can you do to help you become a better, more effective and more efficient Manager?

Here are 4 things you can do today to help you become a better Manager.

1. Clarity & Purpose

As a Manager or a Leader, you must articulate your team goals, team objectives and intent with absolute clarity. Everyone on your team must understand what the team goals and objectives are.

As a Leader or a Manager, your instructions to each individual member must be clear and concise. Unclear messages or instructions only serve to confuse your team members and diffuse the effort.

As a Leader or a Manager, your instructions to each individual member must be clear and concise. Unclear messages or instructions only serve to confuse your team members and diffuse the effort

The Purpose of the team must be clear to every member of the team. Every individual needs to know exactly why they are doing what they are doing. Each member of the team must also understand how their individual goals and objectives tie into the team’s overarching goals and objectives. Understanding how one’s goals and objectives feed into the team goals serves to provide a sense of purpose and a sense of belonging to the team.

2. Praise & Recognition

Praise and recognition form the fundamentals of motivating people. Everyone likes to be recognized for a job well done. Everyone likes to be praised for an accomplishment. We feel good about ourselves when others recognize and appreciate what we have done.

Praise and recognition are sure-fire ways of boosting someone’s self-confidence and self-esteem. The key to effective praise and recognition is to do it when the person least expects it.

Praise and recognition are sure-fire ways of boosting someone’s self-confidence and self-esteem. The key to effective praise and recognition is to do it when the person least expects it

However, praise and recognition has to be done in a sincere and genuine way. If done in a careless and nonchalant manner, the entire effort could work against you and the effects extremely damaging.

3. Accountability

Responsibility without Accountability results in Anarchy. Therefore hold each member responsible and accountable for their actions or inactions. As much as you praise and recognize good work, members need to be taken to task if they fail to perform as expected.

However it is important to differentiate between individual accountability and team-focused accountability. When your intention is to build a cohesive and collaborative team, every member of the team should be held accountable towards the entire team. In other words, each member is accountable to the entire team — and not just to the team Manager.

It is important to differentiate between individual accountability and team-focused accountability

4. Focus on Possibilities, not Problems

When faced with a challenge, issue or a problem, most of us will by default, focus on the problem or the issue at hand. We tend to ask the “Why” questions first. For instance, “Why did this problem occur?” or “Why wasn’t something done to prevent this from happening?”

It is a natural tendency in all of us to try to get to the root of the problem or the issue at hand by asking the “Why” questions. This is what I call the Problem-Focused questions.

However as a Manager or a Leader of a team, you can guide your team to look at the problem from a totally different perspective — by asking questions that are focused on the possibilities. For example, “What do you think can be done next?” or “Based on your expertise and experience, what should be our next step?” This is being Possibility-Focused.

So instead of focusing on the problem, you should guide your team to focus on the possibilities.

Instead of focusing on the problem, you should guide your team to focus on the possibilities

This will give your team members a sense of ownership and it also demonstrates that you as their Manager respects their experience and expertise, and will go a long way in motivating your team to achieve higher productivity and performance.

Are there any things you should avoid doing as a Leader or Manager? Here are 3 things you should absolutely avoid.

I always answer with this question:
“What type of persons do you like to work with?”

And the answers I usually get include some or all of the following:

“Someone who is helpful”

“People who are friendly”

“Someone who is caring”

“Those who are good leaders”

“Those who are genuine”

“People who are un-pretentious”

“People who are authentic”

“People who care for the team as a whole”

“People who are not selfish and only care for themselves”

“Those whom I can relate to”

“People whom I can trust”

“People who are candid”

And this is not even an exhaustive list of the answers I normally get.

But if you look at the list above, you will realise that practically all of them point to a person’s personality or at least alludes to a person’s personality.

It is a fact that productivity and efficiency increases when everyone in the team or organisation are helpful, friendly and caring towards one another. Research has shown that a happy work environment is the pre-cursor to higher employee engagement and would also minimise employee attrition rates.

We all feel better when our colleagues are helpful, caring and friendly. These traits help make the office environment a much more pleasant place to be in. And this in turn creates a conducive environment where productivity, creativity, efficiency and effectiveness can soar.

Do you have to get familiar with personality instruments such as the MBTI?

In most cases, you don’t.

For most of us, the Big Five Theory of Personality that psychologists came up with back in the 1970’s is good enough for us to understand the basics of personality types.

I wrote about the Big Five back in November 2014. Click here to read the article.

So the next time you make a hiring decision, don’t overlook personality traits.

Not too long ago, an ex-colleague of mine asked me to be his character referee for a job he was applying for. I agreed as I always have.

Several days later, the recruitment firm that was representing my ex-colleague called me up for the “reference check”.

Here were the questions the recruitment executive asked me:

In what capacity do you know Mr. A?

Have you worked closely with Mr. A?

What do you think are his strengths and weaknesses?

How would you describe Mr. A’s ability to work under pressure?

I wasn’t surprised at the questions because most recruiters ask similar questions anyway. These questions could at best, be described as “common”, “standard” or “run-of-the-mill” reference check questions.

The big question here is: Are these background check questions effective?

We should all keep in mind that candidates will only provide references he or she is comfortable with. In fact, as candidates we will only provide names of those whom we can get along with well and trust will say good things about us.

Think for a moment about your own Resume. Who would you include in your Resume as your Character References? Would you use your enemy as your character referee? Would you use the name of someone whom you absolutely could not get along with previously in your office?

If we as candidates only provide names of those whom we can get along with and trust will put in some good words for us, then what do we really expect out of such standard, run-of-the-mill reference checks? Do we really expect the character referees to tell you the absolute and unbiased truth about the candidate you are considering?

In most cases, we will never get the unbiased truth about the candidate. What we will get from these character referees would be a one-sided view of the candidate and most of the time it would be the positive side of the candidate in question.

Then what should you do if you want our background checks to be more effective?

Uncovering the Candidate’s Key Relationships

One technique that I have used very successfully is what I call the “Flanking Technique”.

The Flanking Technique is akin to throwing a curved ball at the candidate. In military strategy, Flanking is a common technique that is used on the battle field to outfox the enemy by attacking the enemy from the sides. However, this technique is effective only if there is an element of surprise.

Here’s an example of The Flanking Technique at work during an interview:

Interviewer : Do you work in a team?
Candidate : Yes, I do.
Interviewer : How many team members are there in your team?
Candidate : “There are ten, including myself.

Interviewer : Please draw the organisation chart of the team on the Whiteboard, listing each member’s Job Title and full name (assuming there is a whiteboard in the interview room. If there is no whiteboard in the room, ask the candidate to write the names down on a piece of paper)

Candidate proceeds to draw the organisation chart on the whiteboard (or paper).

Interviewer : Which of these team members do you work most closely with?
Candidate : I usually work very closely with Thomas. We work very well together.

Point to a name other than the one the candidate works most closely with (in this case, to a name other than Thomas) and ask:

“What would [name] say about you if I were to talk to him or her?

Then carefully observe the candidate’s facial expression, body language and the tone of voice for any sign of stress.

This is an effective way to encourage the interviewee to be truthful about his or her relationship with the other team members. If done correctly, this technique will help you determine if the candidate is a true team player or if he or she is a person you should drop from your list of potential hires.

Do you need to call every person the candidate has listed? In most cases you do not have to. The main aim of the Flanking technique is to let the candidate believe that you will call them.

Variations of the Flanking Technique

Other variations of the Flanking Technique include the following:

• Asking the candidate to list down the full names of every member of the team on the whiteboard or on a piece of paper

• Asking the candidate to write down names (or team org chart) of other teams they work with

Asking the candidate to draw the team organization chart is an effective way to get the candidate talking about his or her team mates. What you would need to do is to ask the candidate to write the actual names and title of each team member on the chart.

These are very effective ways to get your candidate to be more truthful about their relationships in the office – be it their peers, subordinates or their bosses. But you need to keep in mind that the element of surprise is required for this technique to be effective.

The author of the article writes: “the President of the New York Federal Reserve reportedly declared that the nation’s largest financial services companies suffered from institutional pathologies at the very top. Personality testing for boards and their committees would make a creatively cost-effective first step for sussing them out.”

Truth be told, as I read the statement above, I could not help but realise that our organisations today are full of narcissists and sociopaths — all decked out in pretty dresses and handsome suits.

Power is a double-edged sword and as the saying goes “it cuts both ways”. Power in the hands of a narcissist or a sociopath could very well bring about gradual but steady erosion and destruction of our organisational fabric.

We’ve all seen (and some of us have probably even worked with) someone with a narcissistic character — throwing their weight around, shouting and cursing at the slightest provocation, instilling fear and exercising dominance over everyone in their path.

Left alone, these personalities could wreck emotional and psychological havoc in the lives of everyone.
Left alone, these personalities could very well run the organisation into the ground one day.

As we prepare ourselves for the next hiring cycle, it’s important for us to keep in mind that Personalities do matter. And that we should not overlook Personality when considering our next hire in 2015.

Click here to read the HBR article…

Are you a Narcissist? Perhaps not.

But I’m sure many of us have worked with or encountered narcissists sometime during our working life. Perhaps you may be working with one today.

It doesn’t matter if that person is your boss, your subordinate or your peer. Working with a narcissist can be extreme stressful and could seriously wear you down.

But what is a Narcissist? How do we determine if a person is a narcissist?

Here are some statements that will help you determine if your boss or your colleague or someone you know is a Narcissist:

1. Self-centered

• Defined as constantly thinking about oneself

• Focused on getting one’s own needs met (often ignoring the needs of others)

2. Sense of Entitlement or Superiority

• Feeling that one is always right

• Feeling that one is better or deserve more than other people

3. Lack of Empathy

• Lack compassion and feelings for other people

4. Manipulative or Controlling

• Use emotions to manipulate people

• Tendency to be extremely jealous and controlling in relationships

5. Strong need for Admiration

• Demand admiration and praise

• Like to be the center of attention

• Upset if spotlight is not on him/her

6. Difficulty taking feedback

• Over-react to criticism

• Have a hard time admitting one is wrong

7. Easily wounded

• Quick to feel hurt or angry

• Frequently feel wronged by others

Does anyone come to mind as you read through the above checklist?

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) lists all of these traits among the criteria for narcissistic personality disorder. Although not a comprehensive way of determining if a person is really suffering from NPD, it is still a fairly basic way of knowing if a person has NPD tendencies. The more statements you check-off form the above list, the more likely that person has a narcissistic personality disorder (NPD).

However we should not confuse someone with NPD with someone with high self-esteem. A person suffering from NPD usually has an over-inflated sense of self-importance or a heightened desire for attention. But that does not mean they actually feel good about themselves.

A person suffering from NPD usually has a very fragile self-esteem. Deep down inside them, they feel very vulnerable. And it is because of this vulnerability that they tend to act out in ways that they believe would help them compensate for the fragile self-esteem that they feel. And these actions usually manifest themselves as loud, brash and controlling behaviours towards others.

A narcissistic person may appear to be the star of their lives, but in actual fact they have a very fragile self-esteem.

In contrast, a person with a healthy dose of self-esteem will have self-respect and self-compassion, and are usually aware of and feel comfortable with one’s own strengths and weaknesses.

So what has your experience been?

Have you worked with a person that fits the descriptions above?

Or are you working with one now?

What do you do to help you cope with working with a narcissist?

A Stay Interview is the exact opposite of an Exit Interview.

A Stay Interview is defined as a regular conversation with your employees so as to maximise the “stay rate” of your employees. In other words, it is to miminise employee attrition rates.

So instead of waiting to talk to the employee at the Exit Interview after the employee resigns, a Stay Interview is an on-going process to engage your employees to encourage your employees to stay.

When I was managing my team in the corporate world, I never had to resort of any Stay Interviews, because I had built a bond so strong with my team that we enjoyed 0% attrition rate for 13 years.

Here are 10 things I did with my team that kept my attrition rate at 0% and employee engagement at 100% for 13 years and eliminated the need for any Stay Interviews:

• I had regular personal conversations with each and every team member
• I genuinely cared for their professional career development and growth
• I genuinely cared for their personal growth
• I took pains to plan their career paths
• I regularly asked for their feedback, suggestions and comments
• I delegated important tasks and projects to them
• I encouraged them to run their own race
• I always gave credit where credit was due
• We celebrated every success
• We solved problems as a team

Stay Interviews are a great concept, and it has the potential to help organisations increase engagement levels and lower attrition rates.

However, the fact that you need to implement Stay Interviews is evident that you are not engaging your employees enough, and that you are not having deep conversations with each one of them on a regular basis.

If you have been engaging your team members on a personal level and you have already built the bond and the trust with them, you need not worry about attrition rate and least of all, Stay Interviews.

It’s important to keep in mind that employee engagement is a two-way street, and to be successful, you as the manager or the leader need to be available, genuine and authentic. The fastest and surest way to kill employee engagement is to be arrogant, fake and ungenuine.

The fastest and surest way to kill employee engagement is to be arrogant, fake and ungenuine

So in today’s highly volatile labour market and cut-throat competition, what will you do today to raise your employee engagement and minimise your employee attrition rate?

Are you prepared to be available, genuine and authentic?

On 6th November 2014, I declared the old adage “Hire for Attitude but not aptitude” OFFICIALLY DEAD!

I told a packed room of senior leadership and HR professionals that this old adage was no longer valid!

And not a single person in the room objected to what I said.

I spoke on the topic of Acquiring the Right Talent, while my other business partners shared their experiences on Retaining and Energising Your Workforce at the Marketing Institute of Singapore (MIS). Attendees of the event included senior management and HR professionals from MNCs such as IBM & KPMG to local SMEs.

I highlighted why it was important for organisations today to shift their mindsets from looking for the best talents to hiring The RIGHT People, based on the CAAP® High Performance Model.

I did not mince my words when I said that the old adage “Hire for attitude but not aptitude” is no longer valid.

Why?

The reason is because for organisations to survive in today’s highly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) world today, we need people who are able to adapt, adjust, and who are flexible in our organisations.

It is no longer sufficient just to hire those with good attitudes. We need people who possess BOTH great Attitude AND Aptitude.

Incidentally, Korn Ferry (a leading senior executive search firm) did a study and found that “companies that have highly agile executives and leadership have 25% higher profit margins”. Korn Ferry defines “highly agile” as the ability to learn, adapt and apply what they have learnt to their daily operations.

The other point I made that really caught everyone’s attention was when I talked about giving due consideration to the types of personalities you are hiring.

Here are the two pictures I flashed on the screen that day which got everyone laughing:

Which of the above pictures can you relate to?

Do you prefer an organised work desk or is your work station less organised – just like the one in the second picture?

Whichever your preference may be, it is an indication of your personality type and how you prefer to make decisions and organise your life — both at home and at work.

Suffice to say that if you put two people of completely opposite personalities together in a team, working towards tight deadlines, sparks will almost certainly fly.

The event ended with a great Q&A session which saw many attendees asking really great questions.

Here’s some feedback from our participants:

“I have indeed found the session presented to be immensely useful and enriching.” ~ Project Manager

“It was a great presentation and the session was definitely informative and useful, I would try to put them into right use.” ~ Sales Manager

Will we be doing events like this again in the near future?

You bet!

So for those who have missed the event, fret not!

The next event will be on 16th January 2015.

The next hiring cycle is just round the corner. Come and find out what you need to do to get the right people for your organisation and to stay ahead of your competition!

To register for this event, click here.

See you there!

So far we have covered Culture, Attitude and Aptitude in our previous articles. The final piece of the CAAP® Foundation is PERSONALITY.

If you missed the previous articles, read them here: Culture, Attitude, Aptitude

So what is Personality and why is it so important?

According to Peter Gray, a professor of psychology with the Boston College, PERSONALITY “refers to a person’s general style of interacting with the world, especially with other people – whether one is withdrawn or outgoing, excitable or placid, conscientious or careless, kind or stern.???

Personality is important because it is what governs your behavior and how you react to others around you. It governs how you work within a team, how you communicate, how you lead others, how you make decisions and how you manage change.

Personality is a critical aspect of a candidate you are hiring. The common mistake in hiring is that most hiring managers focus too much on a candidate’s “hard??? skills and experience, and overlook Personality.

The Big Five

In the early 1980’s, psychologists came up with a framework consisting of five domains to describe various personalities. They called it the Big Five.

The Big Five consists of five domains. They are:

• Extraversion (E),
• Agreeableness (A),
• Conscientiousness (C),
• Neuroticism (N), and
• Openness to Experience (O).

The Big Five became the foundation for assessing individual differences in the ways people interact with their social and physical worlds.

The first three domains – Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism – mainly relate to ways of interacting with other people, whereas the other two domains – Conscientiousness and Openness – are more general.

The following provides a brief description of the five domains.

Extraversion

Someone who is high on Extraversion would be seen as outgoing, talkative and energetic. Extraverts enjoy being the center of attention. They have a tendency to be happy, upbeat and fun-loving individuals.

In contrast, people who are low in extraversion (introversion) tend to be withdrawn, quiet, and reserved. They tend to be less interested in interpersonal interactions and have a tendency to avoid people and crowds.

Agreeableness

People high on Agreeableness are usually kind, compassionate, helpful and generous. They truly like people and they normally get along well with most people.

Those with low Agreeableness (Antagonism) tend to be seen as cold, uncaring, uncooperative, and stingy. These people tend to be more self-focused and disrespectful of the rights of others.

Conscientiousness

People high in Conscientiousness are usually neat, tidy, organized and reliable. They are also usually hardworking and punctual. They also like to plan ahead.

In contrast, people low in Conscientiousness (Carelessness) are usually more spontaneous, disorganized and less constrained.

Neuroticism

People high in Neuroticism are usually emotionally unstable, volatile, easily upset by minor threats or frustrations, and are usually in a foul mood. They are discontented and experience low satisfaction with life and with the things around them. They are more prone to anxiety, depression and self-doubt.

People who are low on Neuroticism are emotionally stable (Emotional Stability), calm, composed and generally happy and satisfied with life.

Openness to Experience

People who are high on Openness are normally curious, imaginative and enjoy the arts. They also tend to be non-conforming and are comfortable with new ideas. They are also more aware of their feelings.

People who are low on Openness tend to be unimaginative, conforming and conservative. They also tend to be conventional and resistant to change.

What makes the Big Five so useful is that it is clear, concise and simple to use. In fact, just by reading the traits indicated above will probably cause you to instantly think of some people you already know.

For instance, who comes to mind as you read the words Outgoing, Talkative, Assertive? And who comes to mind as you read the words Tense, Unstable, Irritable, and Insecure?

Personality style is important because it influences the type of work one enjoys and the type of people one likes to associate with. Staffing the team with people possessing the appropriate and complementary personality attributes will determine if your team succeeds or fails.

Personality style is important because it influences the type of work one enjoys and the type of people one likes to associate with

Personality Types You Should Hire

Am I suggesting that you staff your team with people with the same personalities?

No, absolutely not. Staffing your team with people possessing the same types of personalities puts your team in danger of “Group Think”. What I’m saying is that you should try to avoid the extremes.

Take for instance, Neuroticism. What you don’t want is a personality that is very high on Neuroticism — someone who screams and shouts at the slightest provocation; or someone who vents her anger at the people around. Instead you would want those who are emotionally more stable, calm and collected to be on your team and to work closely with you.

Similarly, you would want those who have a healthy dose of Agreeableness because they are usually kind, compassionate, helpful and generous, and they normally get along well with most people.

Whatever the case may be, the personality types that you pick should very much depend on the culture of your organization and your team.

If your organization values personalities that are introverted, quiet, and analytical, then hiring someone who is high on extraversion or neuroticism might upset the balance – unless of course, that person has the Aptitude to adapt to the culture of the organization.

Personality Assessment

If you are interested in taking a free personality self-assessment based on the Big Five, go to http://www.personal.psu.edu/j5j/IPIP/.

The Big Five is just one of the many personality instruments available in the market today. The more popular ones that have been adopted and used by many organizations around the world include DISC® and MBTI®.

These instruments are also very useful in helping you understand personality types you have in your team or organization, however they should never be used as part of the hiring process to determine which candidates you should hire.

The reasons are because these personality instruments are primarily self-assessments, which implies that it requires a healthy dose of self-awareness and honesty in order to generate an accurate self-portrait; and these self-assessments are quite transparent meaning that if a person wants to present himself as a particular type of personality can usually easily do so.

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