Frequently Asked Questions

One of the hot button questions these days is what kind of testing should you do on potential hires.  There are a number of aspects to this question, and there are moral, legal, and psychological implications that need to be considered.
First, it’s important to consider what type of testing we’re […]

When people ask about recruiting, one of the first questions they ask is “where do I find good people?”  One of the first straws they grasp at is an online job site such as Monster, CareerBuilder and other more local sites.  I think this is a mistake.

I have a number […]

Let me say this right from the top: there is no single more important factor to the success of a project than a clear, crisp, shared vision.  Period.  Now let me tell you why.

I have seen a lot of projects.  Big projects involving thousands of people over many years and […]

This is by far the most common question I get asked by employees.  In my experience, there are only three ways to get a raise (in decreasing order of success):

Excel at what you do, and don’t look like you want/need/care about a raise.
Have a very carefully orchestrated conversation with your […]

In the world of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) to me, one of the most frequent is “how do I get a job at Microsoft?”.  If I had a dime for every time I’ve been asked it, at parties, on the street, and especially when I post comments on the internet, […]

I get asked this question frequently.  Why is my résumé so important?  Why can’t I just impress the hiring person in the interview?  Why can’t people see past my rough résumé, and see me for who I really am?  In this internet day and age, does a silly old, outdated […]

When the discussion of how to compensate and reward employees comes up, almost invariably someone comes up with the idea of the “employee of the month” award.  Sometimes the name of the award is less tired, maybe it’s outstanding associate of the year.  Or the top achiever of the quarter.  […]

It’s a classic Dilbert cartoon: in lieu of a raise, I’m going to promote you to “senior whatever”.  Not only does it happen (or it wouldn’t be so funny), but it’s commonplace.  But the question is: is it wrong?
Well, if you listen to the CFO, no it’s not wrong.  We […]

If you’ve been following along with me, you know that I’m a huge fan of clearing dead or diseased wood from your organization.  Nothing rots an organization more effectively than people who don’t carry their share of the load, or who complain all the time, or are jerks.  These people […]

Job titles serve a number of purposes, and treating them lightly is done at your peril.  Job titles help to indicate organizational structure to newcomers and outsiders, they tell people the relative importance of the person they are working with, and they reward their holders.

Some companies are famous for their […]

They have decided to leave, now you have to decide how long to keep them around.  In general, there are two schools of thought:

Get them out the door as fast as you can.
Get as much work out of them as you can.

There are a lot of variations in between, and […]

It’s a common management situation: someone walks into your office, and says “I think I’m leaving.”  The next move is yours, and it stumps a lot of managers.  Should you:

Try to talk them out of leaving
Beg and plead for them to stay
Wish them the best of luck in their new […]

Immediately after an organization decides to do performance reviews, the first thing they ask is: how often should we do them?  There is very real tension between providing enough feedback to the employees, and making painful busy work for the management team.  Fortunately there is a good compromise that many […]

Set the time for reviews to be off-schedule from your main business processes, especially budgetting.  The last thing you want is for your team to be overwhelmed with non-line-of-business work, or to give either budgetting or reviews short shrift.  Neither your business, nor your employees will appreciate that.
For example, if […]

Once in a while, as a manager, you will be fortunate enough to have a team member who is a superstar.  These people are not just above average, they are vastly better.  They are smarter, more driven, highly focused, and they get far more work done than the rest.  It […]