Monthly Archives: October 2011

Effective Leadership Requires Reflection

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Hey Business Leader it’s time to look in the mirror. The reflection staring back at you is the pivotal driving force of your team’s cultural environment. What does the reflection reveal? In this blog, we are going to reflect upon your team and your leadership. Thoughtfully review the following categories of successful leadership to make an impactful change on you and your team’s cultural environment.

Culture: Your team’s culture is a collection of shared attitudes, values, goals and practices that characterizes your organization. It is the moral and intellectual faculties of your brand. It provides the innate ability for how you and your team will act. What does a measurement of your culture say about you? An honest, open and thoughtful review will clearly provide the answers.

Leadership: There is an old saying: “The speed of the captain is the speed of the ship.” It is your vision that establishes and reinforces the culture. Your ability to communicate, model and provide vision sets the framework for your team to do the right things. It is required to sustain and drive your business to be successful. If your company, business or team is currently not charting the proper course then ask yourself: Why is my team not as successful as I would like it to be? As you gaze in the mirror the individual responsible is revealed.

The Story: Every great company and team has a story. This story is the motivator and the glue that unifies your team. The story captures the legends of your organization and is the compass that guides and impassions every member of your team; it is the fabric that that your team adheres to and will vocally support. You must have an engaging story that will provide the vision and embrace the moral compass of why your business exists. Explain what each team member’s role is in the company story and how their performance is essential to success. The story creates “Raving Fans” of your employees, your customers and your vendors. Raving Fans excitedly share your story consistently to others!

Trust: The pivotal litmus test for any great company, business and/or team culture is Trust! Ask yourself: does your culture provide confidence to your employees so they will be willing to embrace it 100%? A successful culture demands that employees rely on and support each other to achieve results, while recognizing the team’s individual and collective efforts. Successful teams trust each other to take risks with out fear of repercussion. They treat unsuccessful attempts as learning opportunities and are then shared by all. Is this the environment that exists under your direction?

Open Communication: A direct result of trust is open communication. Does your culture encourage open communication that challenges or questions the status quo? Do your employees feel they can question the leaders in a professional manner in public settings or does your team remain silent and nod in obligatory approval? If you believe it is the latter, then I would guess the real discussion is taking place in private grumbling sessions that yield only impediments to the team focus. They have the potential to crater your ability to drive success.

Preach the Gospel: Do you promote your culture and vision, constantly reinforcing the message to all of your team members? Do your team members continually reinforce their actions by aligning with your message? Take a lesson from a time honored practice by religious leaders and reestablish your message consistently in a meaningful and impactful manner.
Here are some useful exercises you may employ to impact your organization:

Evaluate the current obstacles and opportunities that are preventing your team from improved performance and create a list on a column of paper. Identify which category above might be able to rectify and correct it and create a plan to address these areas of opportunities. Evaluate if you are seeing a trend?

Ask yourself if you are creating obstacles that are preventing your team from being successful? Identify a plan for self-improvement to compensate for this.

Review your culture; identify what is great and what might be lacking. Envision the ideal culture you would like to have and then compare it to what currently exists.

When you have success utilizing this information, or would like to share your views, please write me a comment and let me know how you are doing. If you can’t figure out how to begin this process, or would like to refine your current process, then please contact me here and let’s work on this together!

Building a Results-Oriented, Focused & Unified Team Starts with the Interview Process

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It is essential to identify team members that will successfully move your organization forward, deliver results and fit in with the team dynamics; you have to begin with the end in mind.  Every new employee should have the potential to improve your team’s dynamics and performance in order to ensure that you succeed. 

Recently I was discussing with a colleague the methodology of hiring and retaining a team of company-focused employees capable of achieving the desired results—something that many employers struggle with. My colleague had described how he wanted to start off with a team that would actually execute a job in the manner that he desired.  I outlined the following 6 steps to aid in him in his process to transform his team dynamics. 

As with many things in life, the process begins with a change in mindset.

“We hire people to help us fulfill a specific service in the manner that we decide.  We don’t hire people to fulfill a specific service in the manner that they decide!”

Roger M. Kaplan, Founder Restaurant Innovations.

Step 1.  Identify both the job and success criteria for the positions that you are looking to fill—What does successful performance for those positions look like?  Just as in sports, if you cannot first envision the end result, and then communicate this vision to the candidates (your soon-to-be-team), how will you and your prospective employees deliver the end result?

Step 2.  Prepare for the interview and review the candidate’s background information and work history.  Make notes and list questions on a separate sheet of paper.  Have a plan of action!

Step 3.  Use an effective interview process that incorporates at minimum 3 separate interview processes. Always start with an interview that consists of a Screening Questionnaire of 10-12 “yes or no” questions, and go from there.  The candidate must yield affirmative answers.  If any question yields a “no” response then the process stops!!!!  They “do not pass go.” Respect the candidate and your team—don’t waste anyone’s time passing on an individual that is not correct for the position.  If the candidate isn’t right for the job, provide them with quantitative information as to why they are not “a fit” in a respectful and empathetic manner.   If they pass the screening process, then move them on to Interview # 1 and Interview # 2. Both of these interviews should have very specific and very different sets of scripted questions.  Do not perform “back-to-back” interviews; if at all possible, the interviews should be schedule on separate dates. Your questions must be job-specific, and should be designed to aid you in ascertaining the candidate’s ability to yield results, execute the position, and positively impact the team.

Step 4. Identify the following 4 traits in the candidate: Can Do—Does the person have the competency and ability to execute the skill sets and job description for the position?  Will Do—Is the person willing and excited to perform the position you are hiring for? Fit In—Will this person complement your team and improve its performance while positively influencing or cementing the existing team-culture?  Of course, considering compatibility does not mean you hire only one type of person—diversity is the catalyst for an evolving, positive culture. Will Improve-Is this person committed to driving their own development and eagerly looking for opportunities to develop within your organization?

Step 5. Plant the seeds of your culture—Sow your performance expectations while simultaneously nurturing a desire within the candidate to become part of your team.  It is during the interview phase that you start to not only clearly communicate your expectations (about accountability, etc.) to the candidate, but also when you impart to them the awesome reasons why they should want to be part of your team culture.  Furthermore, it is during the interview process that you build a foundation for advertising your brand to other candidates.  How you handle your interviews reflects on how you run your business.

Step 6.  Making the offer—Once you have made your decision to hire the candidate, the offer phase is when you get to have their full attention and focus.  It is important to use this moment wisely; prior to presenting the offer, the team leader or stakeholder must explain the expectations, outline performance, and clearly identify the employee’s obligations, commitment and conduct. Be sure to explain the importance of the position to the organization, as well as the reason that the job exists. The most important step here is to get a commitment from the future employee.  Have them explain to you in their own words that they will fulfill the job as outlined, that they clearly understand what they are responsible for, and confirm that they are excited to ensure their ability to execute the position.  Then and only then should you present the offer!


When you have success utilizing this information, please write me a comment and let me know how you are doing. If you can’t figure out how to begin this process, or would like to refine your current process, then please contact me now at www.restaurant-innovations.com and let us help!