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The Value of a Job Interview

By Blogpost, Entrepreneurship, Goals, Human resources, Leadership, management, opportunities, purpose, Success

Most of us would not accept a partnership proposal without at least meeting the business owner. The company may look good on paper but nothing beats an actual meeting to be able to get to know who we would be dealing with on a personal level. This is the same when conducting job interviews with potential new employees.

The job interview is one of the most subjective part of the hiring process and is also one of the most important. This is when we would be able to personally evaluate if the candidate is good fit for the company. This is also a good opportunity to decide if the candidate’s skills align with the company’s goals and needs. With that said, it is no wonder why big and small companies alike still value the job interview in their hiring process.

Confidence Level

Employees in your company may need to interact face to face with customers or may need to interact with your business partners. Confident employees will project an image of success within the organisation. This in turn will also give the image that your company is no stranger to success.

Interviewing a candidate would allow you to determine if that individual would be capable of confidently speaking up in front of many people.

Social Behaviour

As a business owner, you want your company’s day to day operations to run as smoothly as possible. You want your team members to work with each other as efficiently as possible. Basically, your team needs to be on the same page for you to be able to achieve your business goals. With that said, nothing can hinder a team’s progress like a team member causing unnecessary friction within the team. This can lead to wasted time and resources.

The benefit of conducting interviews is that you can analyze a candidate’s social behaviour. Does that individual have basic etiquette? Can they work well with others? Can they communicate their ideas properly in a team based environment? A well conducted interview can give you an idea about these things.

Intelligence

In order for an individual to be truly confident, he also needs to have the smarts to back it up. There is a difference between acting confident and being truly confident. Having the intelligence to back up the confidence can really go a long way when it comes quick decision making and taking responsibility at any given task.

Interviewing a candidate would allow you determine how smart a person is by how they present themselves and how quickly they can answer your questions.

Getting High Performers to Come to You

By Attitude, challenges, Entrepreneurship, excellence, Goals, Human resources, Leadership, management, opportunities, Success

The performance of your team members is one the pillars of a successful business. You may already have a huge market and a solid business plan in place to reach your business goals but without a good team behind you, the journey will be harder than it should be. Having a competitive team is essential if you want to stay ahead of the competition and create opportunities for further growth.

A high performing talent can have a positive impact and facilitate growth in your business, but we all know that getting those individuals to join your team is not an easy task. As a business owner, one thing that you can do is to make your company enticing to these high performers.

Team Leaders

Make it clear that you are looking for leaders. High performing individuals tend to be natural leaders and will see this as a challenge. They will assume that you are hiring them to facilitate growth and make positive changes in your company. Empowering them will allow these talents to shine and to step up to every challenge. This will foster an environment where leadership tasks are driven by the team members which can be an advantage when it comes to quick and efficient decision making.

Partnership

High performers know what their worth is. They know that whenever they are in business, positive things tend to happen. These individuals are not looking for the standard compensation packages like salaries, bonuses and benefits. They already know that they can get those at a competitive rate. As a business owner, offer up a financial partnership with them. Build a compensation plan that will show them that you want to share the value and wealth that they will create by being a part of your company. Being considered as a partner will encourage them to bring out their best, knowing it will also benefit them.

Confidence

High performers are always on the lookout for organisations that know how to succeed and is always expected to succeed. A culture of confidence within the company means that the company has seen multiple successes in their line of business.

Business awards, or recognition received by the company showing that it is a leader in the industry will make it more attractive to high performing employees. These companies are expected by the employees to succeed and grow because it has done so time and again. Company growth means that employees also have opportunities to grow and develop their career.

Hiring High Performing Team Members

By challenges, Entrepreneurship, Goals, Human resources, Leadership, management

With growth comes new challenges. It can be stability or staying ahead of the new competition. One of the challenges is hiring high performing team members. When your business is growing rapidly, it can be difficult to know when and who to hire. While it is important to hire new team members to accommodate business growth, some business owners may not like the hiring process. It takes up a lot of time and can be complicated.

The job market has a lot of talented professionals just waiting to become a member of your organisation. With this said, you need to have a strategic process in place to have a higher chance of hiring the best person for the job.

Keep on Looking

Keep on looking for new talents. Do not wait for a job slot to be available in your company before starting to look for new team members. Thinking positive is a good mindset when running a business. It means envisioning your business to grow in the future, and needing new team members to support your growth. Keep tabs or stay connected with talented people that you might have already met. You can scout for talent even in unexpected places. Take conferences, for example. You might meet fellow entrepreneurs who can refer a professional who would fit in nicely in your current or future business ventures. Having information on the professionals who you think would be able to help you reach your future goals would make the hiring process so much easier.

Plan Ahead

Once you have decided to hire new team members, plan ahead of time so you can start the recruitment process early. It will give you enough time to pick out the best of the best. A standard recruitment process can take at least 4 weeks. This is on top of the training period for your new employees. The training process can also draw up a lot of your existing resources. This means that your existing employees, who are already at max capacity, will be the ones who will train the new hires. Planning ahead would allow you to predict possible delays or problems, which can give you time to come up with solid contingency measures to make the whole process as smooth as possible.

Set Your Expectation

The fact that your business is growing means that you are a competitive business owner. Make sure to share this fact when interviewing candidates so they will have an idea on what you expect from them. Share stories of current employees who has the same competitive mindset. Set the bar high. Competitive candidates will take you up on that challenge.

Interviewing Potential New Hires

By Attitude, Blogpost, challenges, Entrepreneurship, excellence, Goals, Human resources, Leadership, management, Success

Expanding your business means hiring new employees to fill up different job positions. You need professionals who are competent and have the drive to achieve your company’s goals. You, or your company’s human resource department may start posting online for available job positions.

Once you start receiving those job applications, you can start narrowing down the applicants based on their experience, qualifications and skills. How do you correctly select who shares your vision and passion? How do you know who has the talent to take your business to the next level? This is where the importance of interviewing applicants come into play.

Through a job interview you will be able to assess a candidate’s experience, skills and mindset on the job that he is applying for. This will allow you to know the potential employee on a personal basis. If that person does not work well with a team or has a questionable attitude, skills and experience mean nothing. Some companies are moving toward favoring test scores in the employee selection process. However, most still rely on the good, old-fashioned way. So how do you conduct a proper job interview?

Prepare a List

Whether you have an interview team or you are doing it solo, make sure to prepare a list of the skills, experience, qualities and knowledge that you are looking for in an employee. Using this list, come up with questions to be able to efficiently gather the necessary information on each applicant. If you have an interview team, make sure that they understand their role in the applicant assessment process.

Legal Job Interview Questions

In a job interview, not everything is up for discussion. Ask legal interview questions that will highlight their strengths and weaknesses pertaining to the job that they are applying for. Avoid illegal job interview questions that could make you a target for a lawsuit. Questions about their marital status or if they plan to have or already have children should be avoided.

Relaxed Atmosphere

A friendly handshake in an onsite interview or a friendly greeting in a phone interview can go a long way. Establish a connection with the applicant to make him or her comfortable during the interview. A relaxed applicant would be able to provide you with accurate information that you need during the selection process. This will allow you to gauge their personalities and attitudes and make a decision if they are a good fit for your team.

Creating an Employee Handbook

By management, challenges, Entrepreneurship, Goals, Human resources, Leadership, Success

In one of my previous articles, I talked about on how to onboard new hires to the team as smoothly as possible. One of the points I mentioned is having an employee handbook to set expectations and to provide a company overview to your new team members. This can also help them with their daily tasks and can increase their efficiency in the first few weeks on the job.

One of the challenges encountered when making an employee handbook is on how to make it interesting enough for your new hires, let alone existing employees, to read it. Let’s be honest, these handbooks aren’t exactly page-turners. If you are asked to describe an employee handbook, you may come up with words like “boring”, “bland” or “stiff”. Which should not be the case since an employee handbook is technically the first company document that new hires receive. Take that opportunity to grab their attentions and make them emotionally invested in your company or organization. Start nurturing those positive emotions by creating an employee handbook that you yourself would want to read. Remember, your employees are your greatest assets.

State Your Company Mission and Vision

The first thing that your employee handbook should show is your company’s mission and vision. This is the most important part since this is the part where you should be able to engage with your new hires’ at the emotional and intellectual level. Challenge their perception of your company or organisation. Lay it out for them so both of you would be on the same page. A company’s success depends on excellent teamwork. If you and your team members share the same mission and vision for the company then you are on your way to achieving your business goals.

Showcase Your Company Perks

Make the job more than just a paycheck. Almost all standard employee handbooks are filled with a list of expectations a company has of their employees. Make it more enticing and exciting to the one reading. Highlight the perks that you are offering. State what you are offering them and emphasize that you are investing in them. Showcasing the company perks is telling your employees that they are getting more than just a paycheck. Show them that you consider them valuable members of the team and worth keeping.

Do Not Call It an Employee Handbook

Remember the words that are usually associated with an employee handbook? Boring, bland and stiff? Well those same words will usually come up in your head if a handbook is just named “Employee Handbook” or “Staff Manual”. Come up with a name that piques their interest or reflects a company’s culture. Make them want to read the handbook just by the title. Be creative but be as clear as possible on what the handbook is. As simple as changing the title can make a huge difference.

Five Reasons Why Outsourcing Fails

By Blogpost, challenges, Entrepreneurship, Food for thought, Goals, Human resources, Leadership, management, outsourcing, stress, Success

Why Business Owners Fail When Outsourcing Tasks

Your goals are set. You are now ready to grow your business. You have decided to take the outsourcing path to help you reach your business goals. Once you have outsourced those specific tasks, it should be smooth sailing from there, right? But outsourcing is not a miracle solution. Some businesses still fail, despite outsourcing. Here are 5 common reasons why outsourcing fails.

Hi, I’m James Short. As you already know by now, I always encourage entrepreneurs to outsource if they want to have that edge over their competitors. But over the years, I found out that some businesses still do not experience significant growth even after outsourcing. What went wrong and what could have been done? With that said, I’m going to share with you five (5) reasons why business owners fail when it comes to outsourcing those tasks.

They Don’t Have a Clear and Effective Plan

Just like anything in business, we need to have a plan that outlines what your needs and requirements are. This is no different when it comes to outsourcing. Plan out which tasks need to be prioritized. Be specific and detailed in what exactly do you want to accomplish with the given task.

Choosing the Right Outsourcing Partner

Just like with any partnerships, we need to do the due diligence to ensure you’re partnering with the right type of outsourcing partner. Do your research before partnering up with an outsourcing firm or a freelancer. Ask other business owners for feedback on what their business relationship is like with the firm or individual. That way, you can get a good idea if the firm or individual is the right one for your plans and goals.

Too Much Too Soon

Giving your outsourcing team too much too soon and thinking that it’s just going to magically all get done. Outsourcing tasks is a learning process for both you and the outsourcing team. The team needs a bit of time to figure out the most efficient way to do their appointed tasks. Give them that time and you will reap the benefits.

Set and Forget

So many times, I hear business owners just set their outsourcing team on their way but without any follow-up and without any directions, no difference to a team onshore. You’ve got to manage them similarly. Set up regular meetings with the team to check up on progress as well as to get feedback.

Lack of Communication

This is where business owners fall down when it comes to outsourcing. Ensure that you are constantly in touch with your team. There is absolutely no reason not to do this since today’s communication is so much easier and accessible.

So those are the five (5) main reasons why outsourcing fails when it comes to those business owners wanting to outsource.

I’m James Short, looking forward to speaking to you soon.

Facing Adversity: Your Road to Success

By Attitude, Blogpost, challenges, Goals, mindset, Success

You may or you may not know, I recently just we went over to New Zealand, Rotorua and completed another Ultramarathon. It was a grueling 102 kilometre run to Rotorua, which is to the north island of New Zealand.

I’ve done couple of races like this in the past, but this one was absolutely spectacular. And there are different number of elements why the race was so spectacular: It was the inclination, it was the declination, it was the terrain, it was the scenery. There are a lot of amazing lessons I took personally from that race.

Lessons from the BIG RACE

The first lesson was, obviously, how to breakdown a biggie goal. 102 kilometres, right? Huge!

Another element is that, reverse engineering that into one aid station, to the next aid station, checkpoint, checkpoint and checkpoint. It’s a bit like a goal, right? You got a big audacious goal, reverse engineer it down and go through each station as you go.

Another lesson that I took away from doing the Ultramarathon is, what happens when things don’t go your way?

So, what happens at 30km in? Achilles blew out. Hip blew out. I was in a world of pain. So, I had a couple of options: I could push on or I could pull out.

And so, I thought – “I’ve done all the training. I’ve come this far, I’m not gonna be pulling out at 30km.” So, I sucked it up and just kept on going. And obviously, with a bit of help, I got through each aid station.

It’s a really good analogy of – what happens when you’re facing adversity? What happens when you face a challenge? Do you go, “Ah, I’ve check out. I’m out!” Or do you actually push through?

Because mostly what happens when you push through the other side, that’s where the goal is guys. That’s where true success is. It’s getting through each ceiling. Getting through that next level.

So, you may be having troubles with your team. You may be having troubles with sales. You may be having troubles in any business. But the element of pushing through, that comes from having that support crew around you. It comes from having that team around you. Knowing what resources you’ve got – your backpack on your back, your water and everything like that to get you through to the next checkpoint.

How about you? How do you face your own adversities in your personal and work life? Sometimes, it helps to know that you have reliable people around you. Surround yourself with the right support group and you will definitely overcome any challenges that comes your way.

Lessons for the Week: Finding Your Genius

By Blogpost, excellence, Goals, inspirations, mindset, purpose

In our team, we go through a cool little sequence. We also did a conference recently to review the year by going through reviewing the four (4) debriefing questions:

  • What’s worked?
  • What hasn’t worked?
  • What’s been some of the lessons?
  • And what do we need to be doing differently?

And when we can look at the week like that, we can sort of stop and reflect how the week has been and what do we need to be doing differently next week.

We had a great week here in the Tribe. We’ve had some huge lessons along the way, and this week we’re starting out strong. This is where I want to segway into becoming the rippling effect.

The Rippling Effect of Finding your Genius

Sometimes, we can be out there and in the trenches and going, and going, and going. We don’t realize the impact that we’re having or the effect that we’re having out there in the bigger world.

Sometimes we are feeling that, you know, we’re slogging away. We’ve got our goals we are working towards but isn’t really happening.

And I talked a lot about your genius, and I talk about a lot around finding that genius.

Finding what really lights you up. Finding those elements in your work, in your business, in your life – that you know, when you pursue it, when you’re actually in it, it’s easy.

It’s a breeze. It flows. Lights you up. Makes you feel good. You feel passion. You feel energized when you’re doing it.

And I think, when you find your genius, the rippling effect that it has out there in the wider world is huge. Because we’re all energy right!? It’s an energy thing out there in the world.

When you find your genius – that sends a vibration out there in the world.

I want to share with you a little story, we’ve had some great wins within the business for us over this last week. But one of the biggest wins was getting home one night and receiving a message from a young man whom I’ve known for 12 or 13 years.

And just the impact on these videos, you know, the Monday Magic Moments and the Finish it Fridays are having in his world and in his life.

To watch this boy develop into this young man, and to receive this message on the impact that these videos and these messages, and the learning and the lessons has had on him – really, struck a cord in the heart, as you can see.

It really goes to show that you don’t know who is watching. You don’t know what the impact that you’re truly having in the world when you are in your genius. You don’t realize the impact that you have on others. Both good and bad, right!?

Stay True to Your Genius

So, my message today is, stay true to your genius. Find your genius and stay true to your genius, and watch the rippling effect. Because you touch many lives out there.

And the more lives that you can touch, the bigger impact that you’ll have for yourself personally. And more importantly for those out there, and the community as a whole.

The Power of Review

By Blogpost, Goals, habits, management, mindset

Hi guys! Welcome to another great opportunity to stop and reflect. I just did a quick little podcast around this topic. And it’s around reviewing. The power of REVIEW.

You know I’m going in the car, right!? We’ve got this big wind screen out the front – and then we got a little review mirror at the back. And the reason why we had this review mirror, is so we can actually keep on looking at the rear view.

In our reflection we should ask ourselves, “Am I on the right track? Is there someone coming up the side? And if I make that turn, am I gonna get knocked over?”

And so, this is where we constantly – we need to review.

Again, I’d like to go to four (4) debriefing questions or four (4) reviewing questions when we go through this process. And the questions are:

  1. What’s worked for you? What’s some of the wins? What’s been some of the success for you over the previous year?
  2. What’s been some of the setbacks? What hasn’t worked? What’s been some of the challenges over previous year?
  3. What are some of the key lessons? What are some of the Aha moments that you’ve experienced previous year?
  4. What do you need to be doing different this year?

Now, I try this question all the time. What’s the most important question out of those four? And people go, “Oh, what didn’t work?” and other goes, “Oh, what do I need to be doing differently next time?”

What Did I Learn?

The most important question is, WHAT DID I LEARN?

What was my Aha moment? What were some of the key lessons? Because we run patterns. Everything we do in life, we run patterns.

And when we can look at the good patterns that we run, and the bad patterns that we run – we can go, “you know what? I want to do more good patterns,” right? How do we amplify that?

But then we also need to see our bad patterns – what are those patterns that are holding us back? What change do we need to make, to go from bad to good?

So, the third question is – what are my key lessons, is the most powerful question.

What Do We Review?

Obviously, we go through – and I’ve got a number of area I’m going to suggest you review:

  1. We review health, super important.
  2. Relationships.
  3. Your finances, your investments.
  4. The places that you’ve visited or the experiences that you had.
  5. Also look at new learning throughout the year that you’ve done and achieved.

Are there any other areas, you know?

And obviously, you have on your work front. Looking at, you know, your key lead generation strategies. Your conversion strategies. Client fulfillment strategies. Your business structure – so your legals, your account, your systems, your processes, your planning.

When we go through this, and we do this every quarter with our clients. When we go through this review process, it gets the Aha moments to start to pop. Because now, they’ve reviewed all those four key areas of what’s worked? What hasn’t worked? Key lessons? And what do I need to be doing differently?

And then, boom – when they start to plan for the next quarter, enables them to really go to another level.

So, I’ve got the full outline of that on our upcoming podcast. So jumped on to our website, jamesshort.com.au. Go to podcast. Subscribe. And I’m looking forward to share all or some of the secret sauces with you on other podcasts.

So, there we go! Monday Magic Moments, great way to get started for the week. Let’s get into your review process this week.

Looking forward to speaking with you soon.

Plan Ahead: Resolutions or Goals?

By Blogpost, Goals, mindset

When the year ended, what did you do? Did you make a list of all your new year’s resolutions, or did you set a list of goals that you want to achieve the following year?

Take note of your answer. There are three things I want to discuss:

  1. Why new year resolutions don’t actually work.
  2. The importance of creating vision boards and why it’s crucial for the year ahead.
  3. Why is it important to map out in the next 90 days?

Resolution versus Goal

So, RESOLUTIONS!

The stats say that at least 80% of resolutions wont last until June. And I totally I agree with that. I reckon it’s even more. Because resolutions are usually set in a stage where, you know – “Ah, I wanna stop smoking,” or “I’m gonna do this, I’m not gonna do that.

And usually what happens with resolutions is there’s no plan behind it. So it’s all well and good. You write it down, put it in the drawer at the end of the year. It’s like the dust gather on it and that’s where it leaves.

So, what is the difference between a resolution and a goal?

A goal actually has a plan associated to it. It has mapped out of what the actions, what needs to get done, the reasons why and how to go about it. Where resolutions is just like, oh yeah, it be its nice to have. That’s why resolutions, I personally feel don’t work but goals actually do.

Create a Vision Board

The second component is creating a vision board.

Now some of the thing that we do as a family, is sit down on Christmas break and we get our laptops out – we review our previous year’s vision board and then we set up the next year’s vision boards. So its pretty cool around the kitchen table, all of us we start to map out.

We get our goals written down in relation to what we want to achieve throughout this year, then we go, “okay, if there’s a picture that would associate to that goal what that look like?” So we go to Google images and we type out that goal. Then we have that goal and we put in a slide on a PowerPoint.

So what happens is you create what’s called a montage – of all the different goals, different pictures of what you want to achieve for 2019. And that’s super easy, cause then you save it, you print it, laminate it, and you put it in the shower.

Importance of Creating a Vision Board

The reason why it is so important because this is what when you get up, you have your shower. When you go to bed, you have your shower – you just see it constantly each time your in the shower. It reminds you of what the activity is. It reminds you of what you need to start to be doing, who you need to become more of.

This is the motivator, this is the juice, the pictures of where you want to travel, the things you want to have, the person you want to become more of. Its so important to have this as your visual component.

The 90 Day Plan

The third component is, why is it so important to get the 90 day plan ready to go right now?

Because it’s so easy to get overwhelmed when you get back into the business. So when you’re having a clear right map of what you need to get done over in the next 90 days, you get back in the super charged mode knowing – “okay this week I need to that, next week I need to do that.

And so the frustration completely goes out the window, because you’re super clear, you’re super focused and you’re on track of what you need to do.

So, resolutions or goals? Ask yourselves and think about what you need to do.