WorkPuzzle

Helping People Transition from a Traditional Part-Time Job to a Full-Time Real Estate Agent—Part 3

I want to wrap up the current series of blogs we’ve been working on for the last couple of weeks. The premise of the discussion thus far is that many individuals in the workforce find themselves in part-time jobs that are not fully utilizing their skills, abilities, and talents.

Some of these people may also find the possibility of transitioning into a full-time real estate agent position as an attractive alternative to their current circumstances.

If you haven’t read the previous two blogs in this series, it may be helpful to catch-up (Part 1, Part 2) before reading today’s conclusion.

Assuming you’ve bought into the premise of our discussion, the next question you may be asking is: 

If there are talented individuals languishing in part-time jobs, how do I find them?

The quick answer is figure out where they’re working now. This may not be as hard as it sounds—searching through some of the Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) data will help us uncover some answers.

Here are two tables of data that I found particularly helpful, and I’ve also provided some commentary on each data set.

1.  People working in jobs that require less than a high-school education, who are college graduates.

If a person finds themselves in one of these professions after going through the hard work and financial sacrifice of getting a college degree, I would suspect that many of them are very frustrated.  They are even more frustrated if they can only get part-time hours.

Not all of these job categories would be a natural fit for the real estate industry, but the following professions contain a higher percentage of those who could make the transition to real estate:

 -Retail Sales Persons

-Waiters and Waitresses

-Bartenders

-Home Health Aides

-Telemarketers

Of the 2.9 million people represented in this chart, 1.6 million are employed in these five professions.

2.  People working in jobs that require a high-school education who are college graduates.

Moving up the employment food chain, the next table documents those who are closer to what they would consider a desirable job, but still not quite there.

Almost all of the categories in this group could be viable candidate pools for real estate agents with perhaps the exception of agriculture workers.

Between the two data sets, there are over six million college educated individuals (of all ages) who are working in jobs where they are overqualified. If you also consider that many of these individuals are being forced to work part-time, it’s easy to see why many of them are languishing.

How do these candidate numbers compare to the number of existing real estate agents in the United States? 

The most recent estimates I’ve found report the total number of real estate agents and brokers to be about 2.5 million (900,000 of these agents are Realtors).

If the real estate industry needs to replace 250,000 agents each year (I believe this is a conservative estimate), then a candidate pool of six million is enough to fill this need adequately. 

It is not a stretch to believe that 4% of the candidate pool is a potential fit for a real estate agent position.

Conclusion.  There are many companies in the real estate industry who focus on the conventional candidate pools of experienced agents (agents working for competitors) and new agents who have independently made the decision to pursue a real estate career (these candidates typically show up on a real estate commission’s newly licensed list).

While these candidate pools are important recruiting sources (and should continue to be pursued), many real estate companies do not pursue the “third-pool” of candidates.  The third pool of candidates are the six million individuals identified above.

Those companies who learn to recruit successfully from the third pool will face less competition in the recruiting process, will bring innovation into their companies at a higher rate, and will continue to improve their workforces. 

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Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. 

Helping People Transition from a Traditional Part-Time Job to a Full-Time Real Estate Agent—Part 2

I received some great feedback on the most recent WorkPuzzle discussion. It seems this topic has struck a cord with several of you.

First, I received confirmation the “defacto brand” of real estate being a destination for people who want to work part-time is far from dead.  In fact, in many markets across the country, this branding is alive, well, and being promoted.

As the real estate industry has started recovering, there are some companies are who are eager to get back to business as usual.  They feel comfortable and excited about the prospects of inviting any and all individuals (part-time, full-time, qualified, unqualified etc.) into their offices.  It’s back to the "in one side, and out the other” conveyor belt of agent hiring.

This reality is unfortunate for those companies who are trying to build high-quality teams.  It’s hard enough to overcome the history of the real estate industry without having to continually compete with those promoting the lowest common denominator in terms of talent, commitment, and focus.  Unfortunately, candidates will continue to be confused and high-performing hiring managers will have to work harder to get their message to the right people.

Secondly, I received some feedback that some of you may not be convinced the part-time / underemployment nature of corporate America is as dismal as I’ve described it. In turn, they don’t seem to have the confidence to sell a real estate career as a compelling full-time alternative to the languishing that underemployment produces in the traditional job market. 

I think some of the data I cited in previous discussions would support this assertion, but perhaps a real-life example would help convince the remaining skeptics.

I was discussing this issue with one of our company’s partners who also owns a large retail establishment in the Seattle area.  As an owner in that business, he makes frequent deposits to the local branch office of a large, publically traded bank. 

This activity has allowed him to strike up several conversations with the tellers and other employees in the bank.  Recently, he made a deposit a couple hours later than his normal time and noticed the bank was nearly empty of employees.  He asked the teller,

“Where is everyone?  It doesn’t seem you have many tellers working today.” 

She replied. 

“They’re off work right now, but they’ll be back right before lunch to start the next portion of their shifts.” 

More discussion ensued, and it became evident the bank had learned to track the frequency and time of day of transactions to the point where they could predict the workload of each teller at any point in the day.

Naturally, it only made sense to have their part-time employees work during times when those transactions were taking place.  A common employee schedule was working an hour, taking two hours off, working two more hours, taking two hours off, and then working two hours to finish up the day.  By the end of the week, each employee has worked 25 hours.  They are comfortably in the range where the employer can avoid paying benefits.

This may seem brilliant from the employer’s perspective, but it is abusive from the employee’s perspective. What kind of employees would accept this kind of work schedule?  It is only those who do not see themselves as having other employment options. There must be a lot of those individuals available because they have no problem keeping positions filled.

As a real estate hiring manager, you have a compelling alternative for some of these individuals.   We all know that becoming a real estate agent is not for everyone, but for some people it could be a wonderful escape from employment situations where they are languishing.

To connect with these individuals, sell the agent employment opportunity as the full-time alternative to what they have been experiencing or will be experiencing in the corporate job world.  

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Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. 

Helping People Transition from a Traditional Part-Time Job to a Full-Time Real Estate Agent

In years past, the real estate industry developed a reputation of accommodating those individuals who wanted to work part-time.  By contrast, it was common for traditional businesses to require employees to make a full-time commitment to the company.

The real estate industry also attracted many part-time agents because some individuals wanted/needed to keep their “day jobs” that provided medical benefits while working part-time as real estate agents on nights and weekends. 

Enough real estate companies allowed this behavior that the perception stuck and a defacto brand was established from the candidate perspective: The real estate industry is a viable place to work part-time.

This part-time/ full-time dynamic has long been a source of frustration for many high-performing real estate companies, because part-time agents are rarely successful.  While the part-time status is now discouraged (and sometimes even forbidden) by many real estate hiring managers, the candidates often don’t know this until they get to the interview. Their perception is based on the defacto brand.

Wouldn’t it be great if the real estate industry employment brand could be changed so that serious, professional, and full-time candidates were the norm and those wanting part-time work focused on other industries?

That’s exactly what may start happening in the next few years.

How?  This radical change in perception is being driven by some very powerful organic forces in the job market at-large, and real estate companies will have the opportunity to benefit from these changes.  

The powerful change I’m referring to is the propensity that traditional companies have towards cutting employee hours and benefits to avoid upcoming healthcare reform requirements.  A recent article in the Washington Times highlights the impact of these changes:

“Since January 2009 the country has added a net total of 270,000 full-time jobs, but it has added 1.9 million part-time jobs, according to the House Ways and Means Committee.

The numbers come as…businesses [are trying] to save money and push workers into shorter schedules to avoid the penalties that come from hiring more full-time workers, who under the law will be required to be covered with health care insurance.”

Think about what’s happening.   Our economy now has millions of people who are working part-time with no medical or other traditional employee benefits.  Most of these people would rather be working full-time, but their employers don’t offer this option.

To become more gainfully employed, some people are choosing to work two or more part-time jobs. While this may work for some individuals, it’s often difficult to coordinate work schedules and make this option a viable long-term solution.  So, many individuals hang-on to the best part-time job they can find, lower their personal expenses, and wish they had a full-time job. 

As we discussed a few weeks ago, many of these workers are languishing and would be open considering options outside the traditional job market.   To a person in this situation, a real estate agent position may look surprisingly attractive—it’s full-time and has an opportunity for growth that corporate America cannot match.

As you shape your employment brand in the future, I recommend the following:

1. Don’t hire part-time agents.  Offering full-time work is now your competitive advantage.

2. Learn to compete against those offering part-time jobs.  Craft your recruiting messaging and your interview tactics around the concept that your main competitors are non-real estate companies offering part-time jobs.  Find out these competitors’ weaknesses and exploit them during the recruiting process.

There are lots of talented people in the workforce who are not fully utilizing their talents.  For the first time ever, the real estate industry may be in the best position engage these talents and put them to work in full-time positions.

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Already of a member of TMOC?  If so, join the WorkPuzzle Dialog Group by clicking on the WorkPuzzle Group icon on the left side of your TMOC homepage.  Questions?   Email the WorkPuzzle editor (workpuzzle@hiringcenter.net) and we'll walk through the process.

 

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Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. 

Use It or Lose It: Important Research for Older Agents to Consider

We all witnessed, helplessly, as my father-in-law rapidly declined in his cognitive abilities over the last eight years of his life.  Coincidentally, this process seemed to start just a few years after he had decided to retire.

His decision to retire was partly based on his desirable financial situation. After many years in law enforcement, his pension benefits allowed him to bring home almost as much income as he would have if he had continued working.  So, he decided to retire.

Many of us would probably have made the same decision.  However, recent brain research suggests there is much more than finances to consider when making decisions about retirement. 

By far, the largest study (nearly a half-million people) to look at the relationship between the timing of retirement and likelihood of dementia  was recently conducted by the French government. The results are surprising, and it should cause all of us to reevaluate what we’ve been taught about retirement.   Here is summary of the findings:

"People who delay retirement have less risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease or other types of dementia, and researchers say the conclusion makes sense. Working tends to keep people physically active, socially connected and mentally challenged – all things known to help prevent mental decline.

‘For each additional year of work, the risk of getting dementia is reduced by 3.2 percent,’ said Carole Dufouil, a scientist at INSERM, the French government’s health research agency.

About 35 million people worldwide have dementia, and Alzheimer’s is the most common type. In the U.S., about 5 million have Alzheimer’s – 1 in 9 people aged 65 and over. What causes the mind-robbing disease isn’t known and there is no cure or any treatments that slow its progression.

France has had some of the best Alzheimer’s research in the world, partly because its former president, Nicolas Sarkozy, made it a priority. The country also has detailed health records on self-employed people who pay into a Medicare-like health system.

Researchers used these records on more than 429,000 workers, most of whom were shopkeepers or craftsmen such as bakers and woodworkers. They were 74 on average and had been retired for an average of 12 years.

Nearly 3 percent had developed dementia but the risk of this was lower for each year of age at retirement. Someone who retired at 65 had about a 15 percent lower risk of developing dementia compared to someone retiring at 60, after other factors that affect those odds were taken into account.

To rule out the possibility that mental decline may have led people to retire earlier, researchers did analyses that eliminated people who developed dementia within 5 years of retirement, and within 10 years of it.

The trend is exactly the same, suggesting that work was having an effect on cognition, not the other way around. France mandates retirement in various jobs – civil servants must retire by 65, The new study suggests people should work as long as they want because it may have health benefits.

June Springer, who just turned 90, thinks it does. She was hired as a full-time receptionist at Caffi Plumbing & Heating in Alexandria, Va., eight years ago.

‘I’d like to give credit to the company for hiring me at that age,’ she said. ‘It’s a joy to work, being with people and keeping up with current events. I love doing what I do. As long as God grants me the brain to use I’ll take it every day.’

Heather Snyder, director of medical and scientific operations for the Alzheimer’s Association, said the study results don’t mean everyone needs to delay retirement.

‘It’s more staying cognitively active, staying socially active, continue to be engaged in whatever it is that’s enjoyable to you’ that’s important, she said.

‘My parents are retired but they’re busier than ever. They’re taking classes at their local university, they’re continuing to attend lectures and they’re continuing to stay cognitively engaged and socially engaged in their lives.’"

In our society, we are taught that giving up work and retiring is the pathway to the “good years.” I even know some people who are counting down the days until they retire!

Are they in essence counting down the days until they begin their decline? Is retirement even natural for our minds and bodies? Retirement typically means focusing on one’s own personal happiness and pleasure. Perhaps we weren't meant to make a full time job of doing that. 

In any case, it reminds us that your senior agents need to think twice about getting out of the business. 

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Editor's Note: This article was written by Dr. David Mashburn. Dave is a Clinical and Consulting Psychologist, a Partner at Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. 

Situational Leadership in the Recruiting Process

Occasionally, a book is written that sums up something so obvious it clarifies much of what we know and already do well.  At the same time, it inspires us to strive to perfect those very same things.

Ken Blanchard’s classic The One-Minute Manager developed some ideas about differing management styles that continue to inform me in a variety of circumstances, not just at work.  Read the following excerpt from an article addressing Blanchard's ideas and think through its implications on the entire recruitment, hiring, and training process of a new agent hire. 

"Situational leadership is a term developed by Ken Blanchard. As a situational leader you are able to adapt your leadership style to fit the situation of your team member or employee. This means you can deploy four different leadership styles depending on the situation.

As you assess which style is needed, you need to make a conscious choice about which of your own behaviors is needed. With directive behavior, you provide structure, control and close supervision for the people who need it. With supportive behavior, you use praise and two-way communication to facilitate the work of your team.

Blanchard sees four leadership styles growing out of combinations of supportive and directive behavior: directing style, coaching style, supporting style and delegating style.

In 'directing' style, the emphasis is on control and close supervision of the worker. In 'coaching' style, the leader provides more explanation of what the job entails and solicits suggestions while still staying in control of the situation. With 'supporting' style, there is a team approach between the leader and follower with the leader emphasizing support of the follower rather than control. Finally, in 'delegating' style, the leader turns over responsibility to the worker.

When I coach people on how to use Situational Leadership I usually talk to them about their own evolution in their current organization. I usually say, 'During your first week, how did you feel? You were likely excited and a little anxious. You also wanted to know what you were expected to do and shown how to do it.' You needed your supervisor to be using a ‘Directing’ leadership style.

Most of us evolve in our careers from needing Directing leadership at the beginning and then Coaching, then Supporting, and finally Delegating leadership when we become experienced and reliable.

Of course people develop at different rates and the Situational Leader needs to know where each person is in their evolution in order to determine what type of leadership they need. As Blanchard describes in his work, the level of a person’s development is measured by assessing their ‘competence and commitment’.  

Competence is the level of a person’s knowledge and skills as they relate to doing their job. Commitment, on the other hand, is the level of the person’s confidence and motivation. Most leaders find Commitment to be the most difficult to assess.

Success in leadership comes when the leadership style is matched with the characteristics of the follower. Problems with leadership come when the leadership style does not fit the follower."

What struck me about the relevance of situational leadership to the recruitment process is the evolution from the very first contact. The recruiting professionals who are skilled at switching from one style to another and back again quickly are most successful.  Why?  The savviest recruits may need each style.

Also when the recruiting process is shared across multiple roles in an organization, it is also important to pass this leadership information on to others in chain of contact.  This allows each new phone calll /interview to begin in the right framework rather than backtracking and repeating what others have already done.

Question: What styles do you find yourself naturally using the most? What relevance is it to be aware of these variations? 

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Editor's Note: This article was written by Dr. David Mashburn. Dave is a Clinical and Consulting Psychologist, a Partner at Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. 

What Causes Some Companies to Recruit Better Than Others?

As many of you know, our company often consults with our clients on the metrics of the recruiting process.   We find that metrics are the most reliable way to diagnose problems and shine light on areas that need improvement.

In some cases, the metrics also point directly to solutions.   For example, if a company is not doing enough interviews to meet their hiring goals, there are very specific and measureable things that can be done to fix the problem.

In other cases, the solutions are less tangible and easy to quantify.  For example, some of our clients are reliably able to convert “interviews to hires” at a much higher rate than other companies.   Why?  That’s a complex question.

As we collect data and try to find an answer to this problem, the path to the solution gets cloudy.   There are many intangible factors that play into the “interview to hire” metric.  It has more to do with the “art of recruiting” than hard metrics and simple tactics.

To illustrate this point, I ran across an article earlier this week written by Tod Sacerdoti, the CEO of a BrightRoll, a video advertising company based in San Francisco.  You may have read this article already—it was widely distributed because of the great content and insight it offered.

Tod correctly identifies the importance recruiting plays in the success of all companies (his examples are from the technology world), but also documents the “secret sauce” he commonly sees high-performing recruiting companies possess.  I think you'll enjoy his insight:

“Recruiters generally get little public credit because the naive observer assumes that good companies get talent for free. That is simply not true.

If you look behind the curtain at many of Silicon Valley's greatest tech companies (Google, Facebook, DropBox, etc) you will find great recruiters. In fact, those recruiters tend to be leaders of large internal recruiting teams and many have materially changed the trajectory of their company's growth, particularly in the formative years.

Great recruiters are different in the way great engineers, great salespeople and great leaders are different -- they have a secret sauce. This secret sauce applies to all roles and levels of recruitment, whether a recruiter is attracting interns, managers or executives.

So, what is the secret sauce of a great recruiter?

Authentic Compassion. The best recruiters are often labeled as a "people person" but what that really means is that they are incredible listeners and they truly care about the people they interact with. Compassion is even more powerful in the long term as people build a relationship and interact across multiple roles and/or companies.

Agile Builders. The best recruiters are data driven and iterate with the same discipline and frequency as the best software developments teams. Understanding a problem (such as sourcing, interview process, closing a candidate), measuring performance and using a sprint process to optimize results on a regular basis are fundamentally agile development skills and requirements for top recruiters.

Positive Marketers. Every interaction an external person has with your company is a marketing impression. This includes every email, phone call or news article, and every person they talk to including a recruiter, front desk admin, interviewer or executive. The best recruiters know this and use every impression as an opportunity to have a positive impact. People often forget that 99% of the time you make an impression on an external person you will not ever hire them so the risk of that impression being negative is high. If every interaction is positive, you will impact not only those individuals but a broad network of potential future hires.

Communication Artists. In today's electronic and busy workplace, communication is an often overlooked art. The best recruiters are able to handle three widely varying communication requirements -- sourcing new candidates, rejecting existing candidates and internal process alignment -- with the same level of empathy, positivity and discipline. Each of these communications is an art in its own right and the best recruiters manage all three such that every interaction leads to positive momentum.

How would you grade yourself on Tod’s “secret sauce” metrics?  In essence, measuring yourself on these ideas is a way you can start to make the recruiting intangibles….tangible.  If you master the issues outlined above, you’re recruitng metrics will not only improve, but you’ll also hire higher-quality agents.   You too could “materially change the trajectory” of your office’s growth through recruiting.

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By joining TMOC, you'll get to see who else is in the group and your comments will only be seen by those whom you trust.   Joining TMOC is quick, easy, and free (no kidding…this takes less than 2 minutes).   To get started, click here.

Already of a member of TMOC?  If so, join the WorkPuzzle Dialog Group by clicking on the WorkPuzzle Group icon on the left side of your TMOC homepage.  Questions?   Email the WorkPuzzle editor (workpuzzle@hiringcenter.net) and we'll walk through the process.

 

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Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. 

Conscientiousness: A Trait Every One of Your Future Hires Should Possess--Part 2

Last week, we started a discussion on the topic of conscientiousness.  If you missed Part 1 of this discussion, it might be helpful to catch up before reading today’s blog.

First of all, thank you for the great feedback on this topic. This subject seemed to resonate with several of you.  Like me, some of you even saw the benefit of forwarding this to your sons, daughters and other family members as well as your agents and staff.

After making the case for hiring conscientious individuals as new agents, we left an obvious question unanswered: 

Can individuals improve their level of conscientiousness?

Again, we’ll let Erik Barker answer that question based upon research that he collected on the topic. 

Note: I adapted the excerpt below to fit the WorkPuzzle environment by shortening it significantly.  The original blog is much longer, but worth reading if this topic intrigues you.

“Conscientiousness is the fundamental [character] trait most closely tied to self-control and it tracks with nearly every type of success across your lifespan.

…So maybe you’re not the most conscientious person. Maybe you can be impulsive and often lack self-control. Me too.

This does not mean either of us should be shopping for a cardboard box on skid row. Unlike IQ, self-control (and in turn, conscientiousness) can be increased. Here’s how.

Like a muscle, exerting willpower makes your self-control ability stronger over time.  However, willpower is like energy — using it burns it up, and you have to replenish it. Anything that involves self-control draws on that one willpower fuel source.  For example, dieting takes energy away from your ability to hold your tongue in a conversation — and vice versa.

I’ve posted many scientifically supported willpower tips over the years but I’m just going to focus on my favorite ones here.

1. Use willpower to build willpower.

Just a little bit of practice every day can increase self-control and improving self-control in one area of life tends to improve all areas of life.

2. Automate your behavior.

When something is a habit and you don’t have to make decisions or even think about it, it doesn’t use much willpower. The more you can make something habitual, the less self-control you burn.

And you can further improve your self-control by planning. Decide ahead of time how you will respond when willpower is taxed and you’ll be much more likely to default to that. Without a clear plan in your head you’re more likely to succumb.

3. Pre-commit to good behavior.

How can you use pre-commitment to keep yourself from giving in to unwanted desires?   Use “precommitment devices” to rein in desire.  For example, by asking your significant other, on the way to a restaurant, not to let you order dessert when you get there, you’ll most likely be successful in avoiding dessert.

4.  Replenish your willpower regularly.

Need to quickly replenish willpower? Eat something. Yes, it’s that simple.

One research study demonstrated kids who skip breakfast misbehave more than kids who eat their Wheaties. Give them a snack and they’re little angels again.  The experiment was conducted by telling all the children in a class to skip breakfast one morning, and then, by random assignment, half of the children were given a good breakfast at school. The others got nothing. During the first part of the morning, the children who got breakfast learned more and misbehaved less (as judged by monitors who didn’t know which children had eaten). Then, after all the students were given a healthy snack in the middle of the morning, the differences disappeared as if by magic.

5.  Develop and maintain good relationships.

Self-control is not selfish. Willpower enables us to get along with others and override impulses that are based on personal short-term interests. It’s the same lesson that Navy SEAL commandos learn during their famous Hell Week (continual running, swimming, crawling, and shivering that they must endure on less than five hours’ sleep).

 At least three-quarters of the men in each SEAL class typically fail to complete training, and the survivors aren’t necessarily the ones with the most muscles, according to Eric Greitens, a SEAL officer. In recalling the fellow survivors of his Hell Week, he points out their one common quality: ‘They had the ability to step outside of their own pain, put aside their own fear, and ask: How can I help the guy next to me? They had more than the ‘fist’ of courage and physical strength. They also had a heart large enough to think about others.’'

Summary

Back to the original question:

Can individuals improve their level of conscientiousness (and experience all the great benefits described in our last discussion)?

Yes.  But, it’s not easy and doing so requires an understanding of the connection that conscientiousness has to self-control and willpower.

In essence, conscientiousness is the character trait of saying “no” to our own selfish desires and “yes” to the meaningful desires of others.  Once we’re convinced this is the right thing to do, it takes self-control to make it happen (especially the saying “no” to ourselves part). 

Finally, our self-control becomes stronger when we become successful at managing our wills.  Surprisingly, exercising willpower has a lot to do with tactics (not just desire) as described above.

 

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Already of a member of TMOC?  If so, join the WorkPuzzle Dialog Group by clicking on the WorkPuzzle Group icon on the left side of your TMOC homepage.  Questions?   Email the WorkPuzzle editor (workpuzzle@hiringcenter.net) and we'll walk through the process.

 

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Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. 

Conscientiousness: A Trait Every One of Your Future Hires Should Possess

If you’re looking for a new blog to add to your daily reading, I’d like to suggest Eric Barker’s, Barking Up the Wrong Tree. Besides being listed on both the New York Times and Wall Street Journal blog roles, he has 45,000 email subscribers (it is very difficult to get to this subscription level) and his columns regularly appear in Wired magazine.

In addition to being a great writer, Eric collects and presents research-based content in a way that is easy to digest. He generally does this by picking a topic of interest and then summarizing the research on the issue with short, pithy paragraphs that make the case for his point of view. 

He recently published a blog on the character trait of conscientiousness that I found both interesting and compelling. Upon reading his insight, I immediately copied the content and sent it to all four of my teenage sons! I challenged them to start asking themselves, “How conscientious am I being as I do __________?”

While this information was helpful to my children, it is also a key trait that should be part of every hiring decision you make. Why? Because conscientiousness is highly correlated to success in all parts of life. Eric explains:

"Conscientiousness is the fundamental personality trait most closely tied to self control and it tracks with nearly every type of success across your lifespan.

It’s pretty crazy really:

Money and job satisfaction? - Check.

“Measured concurrently, emotionally stable and conscientious participants reported higher incomes and job satisfaction.“

Finding a job? - Check.

“…the personality traits Conscientiousness and Neuroticism have a strong impact on the instantaneous probability of finding a job, where the former has a positive effect and the latter has a negative effect.”

Long marriage? - Check.

“…our findings suggest that conscientiousness is the trait most broadly associated with marital satisfaction in this sample of long-wed couples.”

Healthier life? - Check.

“Among adults over age 45 (n = 2,419), Neuroticism and low Agreeableness were associated with metabolic syndrome, whereas high Conscientiousness was protective. Individuals who scored in the top 10% on Conscientiousness were approximately 40% less likely to have metabolic syndrome…“

Long life? - Check.

“Conscientiousness, which was the best predictor of longevity when measured in childhood, also turned out to be the best personality predictor of long life when measured in adulthood.“

And let’s not forget good grades and staying out of jail.

Via How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character:

…conscientiousness was the trait that best predicted workplace success. What intrigues Roberts about conscientiousness is that it predicts so many outcomes that go far beyond the workplace. People high in conscientiousness get better grades in school and college; they commit fewer crimes; and they stay married longer. They live longer – and not just because they smoke and drink less. They have fewer strokes, lower blood pressure, and a lower incidence of Alzheimer’s disease."

So, since conscientiousness is such an important trait, it might be helpful to know what it is! Here is the definition I sent my kids:

Conscientiousness is the trait that denotes being thorough, careful, or vigilant; it implies a desire to do a task well. It is manifested in characteristic behaviors such as being efficient, organized, neat, and systematic, also including such elements as self-discipline, carefulness, thoroughness, self-organization, deliberation (the tendency to think carefully before acting), and need for achievement. Conscientious individuals are generally hard working and reliable.

With this research as a backdrop, it only makse sense that you'd want to hire conscientious people. In fact, if you were to rank the importance of other traits, this may be the most important characteristic that leads to successful hiring outcomes.

Here is a quick application for this information: Ask some open-ended questions about conscientiousness during your upcoming interviews. For example:

Was your manager in your last job a conscientious person? How did that make you feel?

In your previous position, were your co-workers conscientious in accomplishment of their work?

Are there situations in the past where you were rewarded for your being conscientious?

These questions should spur some discussion and hopefully give you some insight into your candidate’s perspective on this important character trait. In our next WorkPuzzle, we’ll discuss the capacity a person has for improving his/her level of conscientiousness. I know I could use some improvement!

 

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Already of a member of TMOC?  If so, join the WorkPuzzle Dialog Group by clicking on the WorkPuzzle Group icon on the left side of your TMOC homepage.  Questions?   Email the WorkPuzzle editor (workpuzzle@hiringcenter.net) and we'll walk through the process.

 

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Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. 

Looking for Something to Read this Summer? Take a Suggestion from One of Your Favorite Business Leaders

Summer is here and many of us are looking for a couple of new books to pack along on vacation or even a long weekend. 

You could surf over to Amazon a pick up one of the current bestsellers such as Sheryl Sandburg’s new biography.  If you wanted something a little lighter, you might want to try James Patterson’s most recent novel.

While these may be good choices, I’m guessing these books probably won’t have a long-term impact on your life. I’ve always found it difficult to find the books that fit in this category.   Reading is a serendipitous exercise that I sometimes find frustrating—I usually have to read 20 books to find one that creates a lasting impression.

That’s why a recent article in Entrepreneur magazine caught my attention.  The article was written by Alyson Shontell and documents the books that had the greatest impact on several of today’s most prominent business leaders.

Here are some the leaders and the books they found most impactful:

Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO of Amazon.

 Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras

 The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro. 

Bezos once told Newsweek magazine:  "If you read The Remains of the Day, which is one of my favorite books, you can't help but come away and think, I just spent 10 hours living an alternate life and I learned something about life and about regret."

Tony Hsieh, Founder and CEO of Zappos.

Tribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization by Dave Logan, John King and Halee Fischer-Wright.

Peak: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow  by Chip Conley

Hsieh recently said, "Tribal Leadership codifies a lot of what we've been doing instinctually and provides a great framework for all companies to bring company culture to the next level,"

Bill Gates, Co-Founder of Microsoft.

The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined by Steven Pinker.

The Catcher in the Rye. by J.D. Salinger

Gates told the Academy of Achievement that The Catcher and the Rye is “…very clever. It acknowledges that young people are a little confused, but can be smart about things and see things that adults don't really see. So I've always loved it,"

Mark Zukerberg, CEO of Facebook.

He told the New Yorker in 2010 that his favorite book was The Aeneid by Virgil.

Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle.

Napoleon by Vincent Cronin.

Ellison recently told the Academy of Achievement, "[Napoleon] is interesting to read about him for a couple of reasons: to see what one man of modest birth can do with his life, and to see how history can distort the truth entirely."

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple.

Competing Against Time by George Stalk

Cook has been known to hand out copies of this book to Apple employees.

Jack Dorsey, Co-Founder of Twitter, and Founder and CEO of Square.

The Checklist Manifesto: How To Get Things Right by Atul Gawande.

When Jack Dorsey hires a new employee at his company Square, he gives them a welcome kit that contains this book.

Steve Jobs, Co-Founder of Apple

Innovator's Dilemma, by Clayton Christensen

King Lear, by William Shakespeare

Moby Dick, by Herman Melville

Steve Jobs’ reading influences were very extensive, eclectic and are well-documented in various sources in recent years.

You’ve probably not read every book on this list.  If you see one that seems interesting, it may be a shortcut to finding one that also has a significant impact on your life.  Regardless, it will make your decision on what to read this summer a little easier.

 Question:  What book (s) have you found to be the most impactful in the last 10 years?

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Join the WorkPuzzle Discussion at the Tidemark Online Community (TMOC)

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Already of a member of TMOC?  If so, join the WorkPuzzle Dialog Group by clicking on the WorkPuzzle Group icon on the left side of your TMOC homepage.  Questions?   Email the WorkPuzzle editor (workpuzzle@hiringcenter.net) and we'll walk through the process.

 

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Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. 

Givers and Takers: The Dilemma of Organizational Productivity

Finding and keeping productive people is important to the health of any organization.  Here’s a question you may not have considered: 

When does a person’s individual productivity actually deter from the overall office or organizational productivity?

If you haven't pondered this difficult dilemma, it might be worth some extra consideration because knowing the answer will guide you towards making better decisions about what is ultimately of greater value in the long term.  

One of the simple determiners of those you want to keep versus those you should consider parting ways with is assessing the "Giver -vs - Taker" variable. Here is what Steve Wood, President and CEO of the Leddy Group, recently had to say about this factor.  His comments were based on Adam Grant’s bestseller, Give and Take, A Revolutionary Approach to Success:

"Grant wrote about the findings of Harvard researchers who studied why some teams in the US intelligence system were more successful than others. They were surprised to find that the more successful teams were those that had “giving” rather than “taking” cultures.

Here are two important findings from the research:

Many organizations don’t support information sharing. Worse, in ‘taker cultures’ the norm is for employees to get as much as possible from others while contributing less in return.

The amount of help a groups’ members give one another is among the strongest predictors of group effectiveness. Building a ‘giver culture’ pays.

Giving and Taking Behaviors

Givers help others, share knowledge, offer to mentor, and, most importantly, make connections without expecting anything in return. Takers get things from others without thinking they should give something in return. Importantly, they only give when they expect to receive personal benefits that exceed the cost of giving.

Most organizational cultures fall in between and are called “matcher cultures.” In these cultures people help others who help them. Because this forms isolated groups of people who practice collaboration, they are less efficient than true giver cultures.

Organizational Structure Facilitates Giving Behaviors

In flourishing giver cultures employees are very comfortable asking for help. One interesting finding by Stella Anderson and Larry Williams is that 75 to 90 percent of all help exchanged between team members comes from direct requests for help.

However, in many of our organizational cultures today people are hesitant to ask for help for fear of feeling weak or incompetent, which they may feel hurts their future advancement.

One Structural Idea – Reciprocity Rings

A professor from the University of Michigan, Wayne Baker, experimented successfully with reciprocity rings. These are 60-90 minute exercises with groups of employees. During the exercise each person makes a request for help with their job. Then others with experience or knowledge offer help and people get matched-up. Everyone has to ask for help with something.

This exercise has a number of benefits – 1) It communicates a norm that it is okay to ask for help; 2) It allows leadership to learn who are natural givers and takers; and 3) It teaches those who are “takers” the benefits and skills needed to be a giver.

Recruiting and Hiring Givers, Not Takers

Many organizations including Berkshire Hathaway have policies against hiring takers and they use customized team activities during the hiring process to screen-out takers. Here are some other ideas for screening-out takers:

Listen for candidates taking personal credit for successes. They might frequently use pronouns like I and me instead of us and we.

Takers often practice “kissing up, kicking down” and when dealing with powerful people, they become effective fakers, are charming, and sometimes charismatic. In these cases look for references from people who are supervisors; okay to ask for different references.

Takers often badmouth others. Listen for blaming responses during interviews.

Making Sure Giving Behavior Doesn’t Go Too Far

One drawback of unmanaged giving cultures is that people can spend too much time giving, and too little time doing their own work. Successful cultures build-in time limits for giving activity. Others set aside certain hours for giving or certain hours where no one can be interrupted."

Reading this material has helped me become aware of the degree to which this trait characterizes the people with which I am privileged to work.

How about you? How about your organization? Will knowing this information aid you in making tough decisions about productive but toxic people?

Perhaps more research should be done on assessing the collateral damage that takers have on their organizations.  This would help leaders discern the true pros and cons of keeping (to realize the benefit of their production) or eliminating (to rid the organization of the toxicity) takers from their organizations.

I'd love to hear from you about your experience with both givers and takers and their impact on your organization.

 

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Already of a member of TMOC?  If so, join the WorkPuzzle Dialog Group by clicking on the WorkPuzzle Group icon on the left side of your TMOC homepage.  Questions?   Email the WorkPuzzle editor (workpuzzle@hiringcenter.net) and we'll walk through the process.

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Editor's Note: This article was written by Dr. David Mashburn. Dave is a Clinical and Consulting Psychologist, a Partner at Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.