Terry's Blog

Reference Checks

A job reference who hesitates is typically trying hard not to say something that will condemn your candidate or put him or herself at legal risk.  Neutral, ho-hum references full of faint praise are code for bad references.  A truly positive reference, by contrast, should brim with enthusiasm and admiration.  It will lack hesitation and hedging.

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Effective Idea Generation

It's easy to poke holes in any idea, so your team needs to suspend judgment.  First, identify what's good in an idea - what you like, where you see potential.  Deal with the "Yes buts," such as "Yes but it's too expensive," by turning those concerns into problems to solve like, "How might we make it affordable?"  These kinds of questions reprogram the brain into coming up with solutions instead of shooting good ideas down.

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Grow More Leaders

The best way to build your company fast is to build your people fast.  Anyone on a team can demonstrate leadership ability by role modeling the right behaviors, and inspiring and helping others around them to develop their potential.

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Future Leaders

What sort of leaders will you need to succeed and grow a decade from now?  Better to think about this question now  before the future arrives and is looking you square in the face.

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Pay For Performance

When you pay people on a performance basis, you are better able to attract the right kind of people;  people who believe in themselves with the motivation to get better.  Employees are not created equal.  So why pay them like they are?

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Identifying Areas of Improvement

Be open to the fact that you don't know everything about yourself.  Successful people develop feedback systems that keep them in touch with the reality of who they are, what their real performance is and where they need to change.

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Busy or Productive?

At the end of the day did you produce results that moved you closer to your goals?  If not, what will you do differently tomorrow? 

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Employee Referrals

What percentage of your new hires are employee referrals?  If that percentage is low, why is that?  What does that say about how your employees view your company?  I have one client with a 82% employee referral new hire rate.  Since we're talking new hire referrals remember: it takes A-players to recognize A-players.

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Telling Interview Questions

Here's a good question to ask next time your conducting a job interview: "Who were your last five bosses, and how will they each rate your performance on a scale of 1-10 (1-poor, 10-great) when we talk to them?"

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Personal Empowerment

The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any.

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