Hire Power Radio Show

As a company founder you have A LOT on your plate. So much,  that it is often overwhelming so you scramble to delegate the things you don’t like to do as quickly as possible. At the top of the delegation list is offloading hiring. Today I'm going to challenge you to own your people function for as long as possible because it is so critical to your success!. Last week our guest, Steve Newcomb, expo...

Let’s talk about why your company is not stacked with A-players. It is not because you cannot afford them. At its root, the reason is narrowed down to one thing, your foundation We tend to think of hiring as an activity rather than an essential function like product or finance or even your pitch deck. So much time is invested into these activities.  Yet, hiring is the most critical component of bu...

Let’s talk about what really draws people to your company… and keeps them there. Trust Trust is what drives better decision making, customer experience and profitability. But trust is not gained after a person starts working for your company. It is established during the interview process. You see, people’s job mindset has evolved over the past few years.  We are being judged throughout the proces...

In 2021 38 million people left their jobs and found new ones. This accounts for 57.3% attrition for US-based companies.  It seems as the trend continues as 4.3 million people quit in January of this year as well. A lot of companies are experiencing turnover today and It makes one wonder, who is winning? The companies that are winning today are those that focus on their people. Focusing on setting...

Today I’d like to start with a question: What if you could 15x your company in 24 months? We all understand that this is virtually impossible as a solopreneur. As delegation creates the space for growth.  It is very possible for you to 15x your business by dedicating yourself to becoming really good at hiring. This starts with changing your attitude. “I hate hiring”, or “I’m not good at hiring” or...

How does one evaluate a subject matter expert when you have limited knowledge or expertise in that discipline? Most individual technical/skills based interviews last about an hour. Where time is wasted quizzing on subject matter that may or may not be relevant to the actual role itself. Scratching the surface on the level of depth that is brought to the table. Consider another option. What I like...

10 business days is the optimal time to bring an interview process to a successful outcome.  The way to achieve this is to tighten timelines from stage to stage and cut down the number of people involved in the process. Now I know what you are thinking, that more people should be involved. Which is incorrect. The reason we involve more people in the interview process is because we value their “opi...

The two biggest complaints I hear today from entrepreneurs are “I can't find good people” and “when I hire people, the skills don’t match up”. The first issue, not being able to “find good people” is an easy one to solve. You're fishing in the wrong ponds! Posting & praying may be working for some roles but the more crucial roles require that more creative tactics be deployed. Go to where your aud...

Two people sit down in an interview. What happens next??? What happens is that, well, we have no idea what happens.  But the data suggests that a decision is made on behalf of the interviewer in the first 7 minutes of the conversation. The remainder of the time is used to confirm the decision.  There is no way that a person can extract enough evidence to support making a correct decision without b...

When time is of the essence and work needs to be executed, we often forego formalities and hop right into execution. Hiring a contractor or friend to help you with the work. This was the case with my friend Pat (name changed) who paid a friend to build a proprietary software product for her company. A lot of problems came up in the process and the relationship was terminated. Pat wanted the IP to...

Those of you who have listened to the show, know that I am no big fan of “employer branding” because I believe it is generic and unrealistic. Often selling an image of unicorns & rainbows topped off with free lunch. To me, job advertisements feel like the car dealer who advertises a low price just to get you in the door only to sell you a lemon at the end of the day. We all understand that every c...

As an entrepreneur, we all share one thing in common. Every single one of us has made a bad hire. Let’s define what a bad hire is. A bad hire is what happens when our need to fill something quickly overrides our logic. The interview process gets rushed, red flags get overlooked, and… Just like that, you have hired a person who is nothing more than a seat filler. We all hope that the person will wo...

We hear a lot about culture today as being the most important aspect of growth. Yet product development & sales are too often prioritized over people. Let’s break this down for a quick minute. Your company's success and/or failure is determined by your people and the relationship you have with their growth. What this means as an entrepreneur is that you are responsible for creating an environment...

Sourcing talented people is a HUGE challenge right now. Over 38 million people quit their jobs in 2021. And a lot of them are not coming back. Then we have the divide over pandemic policies that has driven people away from corporate America. Making it more difficult to retain good people. But sourcing is not the biggest challenge in today’s hiring landscape. Engagement is. It is important that we...

We are neck-deep into a highly competitive job seeker’s market. What this means is that the feeding frenzy for talent has created a perfect storm for people to ask for a lot… and get it. The interview process has been plagued with bait and switch tactics, ridiculous compensation renegotiations (after the offer has been accepted), and outright ghosting once an offer is accepted. The root of the iss...

People will only do something when it is in their own best interest AND aligns with our values.  This was a key takeaway for me from the book “What Got You Here, Won’t Get You There” by Marshall Goldsmith.  We talk a lot about aligning with values when hiring on this show. And almost everyone recognizes the importance but it is so often missed. Why? First, the disdain that most of us share for hir...

Most of us have a tendency to fast track anyone who comes through an internal referral. The rationalization is that we automatically trust the referral source so the person will be a great hire. Add time pressure to fill the role and we are ready to extend an offer before the interview takes place. Yes there is an increased likelihood that the person will work out. But there is danger too. Because...

Finding the right people for your ground level startup is really hard!  As every startup founder can attest, there is just no playbook to getting the right people to join your team. It is about just getting anyone with the right skills to join the team. Often resulting in an unsuccessful endeavor.  So what’s missing?  …. Positioning & expectations alignment.  Positioning is rooted in what the pers...

I sent out 63 inmails through linkedin a few weeks back and received only 2 responses. My mistake… I did not tailor my message to the individual. Now, 8 months ago those same messages were getting on average a 52% response rate, so what happened?   With all the noise fighting to get people's attention, It is easier than ever to get ignored. When the messaging you send seems way too common or anyth...

We all have bought into the belief that following hiring best practices will ensure that we make the correct hiring decisions. Yet those best practices really do not produce consistent results. Why? First, “best practices” are guidelines that trickle down from the big name-brand companies who all have the advantage of a much fatter wallet… And they are Transactional! Second, what works for large c...

Emotional Intelligence is defined as the capacity to be aware of, control, and express one's emotions, and to handle interpersonal relationships judiciously and empathetically. Over the past year, EQ has become less important to companies because of the NEED for someone to fill the seat. This is just creating more problems, as less care is invested into uncovering the fit into the organization.  W...

How do you compete against a huge company like Amazon or even a really well funded startup?  If you are competing checkbook to checkbook, you will lose… Every time!  The only way to tilt the odds in your favor today is to really understand the career wounds of the person and to be able to connect the dots as to how your opportunity fulfills their desires.  This requires you to listen. Stop selling...

Asking for help as an entrepreneur is often a difficult thing to do. But it is the one thing you MUST do if you want to succeed.  I learned this from my friend, Lori Torres, the founder of Parcel Pending. Lori was able to grow the company from $0 to a $100M exit in six years … and the reason it was such a success is because she asked for help… a lot! Asking for help gets people engaged. It allows...

The reason we do this show every week is to dispel the commonly held belief that “there is no right way to hire”. Most entrepreneurs & investors believe that you just have to find the right skills and “trust your gut”. Hoping that the person works out.   The consequences of this thinking results in countless sleepless nights, missing project deadlines, unstable mental health, increased capital bur...

We are in full swing of this “Great Resignation” and a record 4.3 million people quit their jobs in August.  If you are one of the business leaders who have been losing people, please realize that it is not them, It is YOU! People are quitting because they no longer align themselves with your company values … especially the mandated policies in and around the pandemic.  Right now, there are much b...