Secrets of the Hiring Process: How to Hire

by Harwell on May 7, 2013 · 0 comments

in Careers,Management

I’ve hired hundreds of people during my career, and my process has been pretty consistent for all of those hires:

1. Decide on the need for a person in a job. Maybe it’s a replacement for someone who left, or maybe it’s a new position that I need for a project or for an expansion of a functional area.

2. Define the job. I’m not a personal fan of job descriptions, but they’re important for recruiting and for determining a fair level of pay. So I’ll usually put one together, sometimes working with someone in Human Resources (HR). In many cases, the job is similar to another existing job, and so the job definition and salary range are based on that other job. Once in a while, I’ll create a totally new position, and then it takes a bit more thought and effort to define the position and its salary level.

3. Get approval for the position if necessary (this depends on [more…]

Tagged as: Careers, Hiring, human nature, Management, Recruiting

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Failed First-Time Managers: 2 Case Studies

by Harwell on March 19, 2013 · 0 comments

in Careers,Management

I’ve promoted 20 or 30 people into their first manager jobs during my career. Two of those promotions were failures — they did so badly that I had to take them back out of the positions. Here’s what I learned from that experience.

Background
In both cases there was ample evidence that the people were ready for a promotion. Both people had performed well as project leaders where they provided direction to others. Both were respected by their peers and customers, and had good communication skills. Both people had worked for me for a few years, so I had a pretty good idea of what their strengths and weaknesses were.

The First Failure
The first failed manager was promoted into a software development manager position. She had shown good ideas as a project leader, and I expected her to dig right in when she had her own people reporting to her. But I didn’t recognize a problem she had with self-confidence and prioritization.

As a project leader she had to make decisions, and she seemed to cope well with the decision-making process. But [more…]

Tagged as: Careers, failure, Hiring, HR, human nature, Management, Objectives, promotion, risk, training

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How to Sell to a CIO

January 7, 2013

In 2006 I wrote an article explaining a recommended sales approach for selling to a CIO. The article has been available as a downloadable PDF file since that time, but I thought it might be a good idea to have the text of that article available directly on my blog as well. And after my [...]

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The “Emperor’s New Clothes” Trick and How to Deal with It

December 11, 2012

As a child, I read the story “The Emperor’s New Clothes” by Hans Christian Andersen. The story is one of the earliest known accounts of a trick that technology salespeople use all of the time. Let me first recap the story, and then I’ll explain the trick and how to deal with it. The Plot [...]

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Emergencies Aren’t Strategy

November 27, 2012

In a previous article I talked about how there are two reasons for strategy: focus and communication. It seems like companies have a lot of trouble with focus. Particularly in large companies, there’s a tendency to “focus” on everything at once: accomplishing all of your objectives, expanding in all of your markets, increasing revenues in [...]

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Is Your Strategy a Rifle or a Shotgun?

November 12, 2012

A strategy can be viewed as a way of achieving an objective. A coach’s strategy for the football game might be to attack relentlessly on the ground. A general’s strategy for the battle might be to feint an attack to the center while flanking from the right. A CEO’s strategy for the business might be [...]

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Taking Shadow IT Out of the Shadows, Part 2

October 29, 2012

In my previous post I described Shadow IT and the problems it causes. In this post I’ll describe some approaches that the formal IT organization can take to deal with Shadow IT, and I’ll give you some recommendations. 5 Approaches to Dealing with Shadow IT Most formal IT organizations take one of five different approaches [...]

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Taking Shadow IT Out of the Shadows, Part 1

October 22, 2012

Shadow IT is one of the names for the Information Technology work and expense that’s done outside of the control of the formal IT organization and outside the formal IT budget. It’s more prevalent in some companies than in others, and it often changes over time within a company. I’ve found that the amount of [...]

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Why Both Government and IT Need Transparency

October 15, 2012

A lot of people in the United States are against what they call “big government.” Yet most of those people are in favor of government services that they consider essential. In many cases, the concern about big government is not actually a concern about the size of government — it’s more a concern about a [...]

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4 Advantages of a Portable Expert

October 2, 2012

In my previous post I defined the term “Portable Expert” and I described the two secrets that make portable expertise possible. In this post I’ll give you some examples of portable expertise from my own experience, I’ll list four advantages of hiring a portable expert, and I’ll give you some tips on how to create [...]

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2 Secrets of a Portable Expert

September 27, 2012

The traditional view of expertise is that you become an expert by spending many years working in a broad area.  In gardening, for example, you gain expertise by working with different plants, experimenting with different nutrients and soils, and by making mistakes and then learning from your mistakes.  Under this traditional view you are then [...]

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12 Problems in IT Caused by the E-Myth

August 28, 2012

In 1986 a book called “The E-Myth” attracted a lot of attention. The “E” in “E-Myth” refers to entrepreneur, and according to the myth in Michael Gerber‘s book, if you’re good at a particular skill then you’ll do well starting a business which requires that skill. So, for example, if you’re a good cook then you’ll [...]

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The 4 Things I Look for in a Prospective Employee

August 14, 2012

When I interview prospective candidates, I look for four key attributes: enthusiasm, curiosity, insight, and perspective. Here’s why: Enthusiasm Motivation is probably one of the most important attributes of a good employee, and the best kind of motivation comes from enthusiasm. Enthusiastic employees are eager to work. They volunteer for assignments. They work longer hours [...]

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It’s All About Trust

July 24, 2012

Trust is an important part of every relationship, but in some cases it’s more important than others. It’s easy to say you trust someone when you can watch their every move to see if they’re doing what they said they would do. It’s harder to trust someone when they’re far away for extended periods of [...]

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Why Upscale Hotels Charge for WiFi, and What We Can Learn from It

July 10, 2012

If you’ve traveled much, then you’ve probably noticed that the more expensive, “better” hotels charge for WiFi while the same service is often included in the room rate at less expensive hotels.  This phenomenon probably seems odd to you — isn’t this the opposite of what you should expect? In this article I’ll provide an [...]

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Never Stop Questioning

June 25, 2012

There’s a certain age that kids go through when they seem to have an endless supply of questions: “Why is the sky blue?” “Why do cows make a moo sound?” “Why don’t planes fall out of the sky?” “Why are traffic lights red, yellow and green and not purple, orange and pink?” And then, as [...]

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Why I Never Hire the Best Person for the Job

June 21, 2012

I never hire the best person for the job, but I always try to hire the best person for my company’s future. Here’s my reasoning: A job is a task-oriented view of the business. Jobs are constantly changing because business needs are constantly changing. The best person for a job is the person who can [...]

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A Crisis is the End of an Illusion

March 19, 2012

Every morning I post a new quotation on Twitter, Facebook and Google+.  The quotation on February 9th, 2012 was from Jerry Weinberg, one of my mentors in the IT industry.  The quotation was: “It may look like a crisis, but it’s only the end of an illusion.” Many years ago, I copied this quotation to [...]

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Does a Higher GPA Make You A Better Employee?

December 1, 2011

Someone tweeted me a question yesterday, “Is GPA [Grade Point Average] an accurate summary of how someone will be as an employee?” I checked the source of the tweet and — no surprise — it seems to be coming from a student. I don’t know the person but my guess is that he is either [...]

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The Naive CIO

October 11, 2011

The naive CIO believes all the articles telling you that it’s your duty as a CIO to prevent devices like iPhones, Android devices and tablets of all types from coming into your workplace. The naive CIO may actually believe that there is a workplace these days, even though more and more business is being conducted [...]

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8 Techniques for Dealing with Grief

September 26, 2011

In a previous article I talked about the loss of my wife and some of the things I’m going through. Since that time I’ve gotten a little better at dealing with my loss. In this article I’ll share some of the techniques I’ve been using. I think they’re applicable in dealing with any loss, whether [...]

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Grief and Disentangling

August 29, 2011

My wife Sharon passed away July 31st, and I would like to describe some of the thought process I’ve been going through for the last month. My wife’s death wasn’t sudden. She was diagnosed with ALS two years ago, and she’s been through a progressive loss of muscle control over various parts of her body. [...]

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Should You Let People Go, or Keep People and Reduce Salaries?

July 1, 2011

My friend Derek Cheshire made an interesting observation yesterday: Tell me if I’m being stupid but after reading about the Greek austerity measures I do wonder why we have to try and make hundreds of public sector employees redundant. Why not just trim pay by say 10%? At least there would be more people with [...]

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Are You Listening with Confidence or Listening with Arrogance?

June 1, 2011

Listening is one of the most important traits of a good manager. Good managers spend most of their time listening: listening to their employees describe the problems they’ve encountered, listening to what their bosses tell them to do, listening to what customers have to say about products and services. Beginning managers listen It’s easy to [...]

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8 Ways to Deal with Employee Personal Problems

May 3, 2011

There’s a naive belief among many new managers that employee personal problems should be irrelevant to job performance and therefore something that managers can ignore. We like to believe that when employees walk through the office door, all of their personal problems are left behind. To managers with this belief, employees are like robots: treat [...]

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Interview with Harwell on SerialStartups Web Site

May 2, 2011

The SerialStartups web site has posted an interview that I did with Naomi Tapia.  It’s about some of the things to consider when starting up a new company.

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No Surprises, No Rushing

March 21, 2011

People who have worked with me know that two of my biggest project principles are “No Surprises” and “No Rushing.” No Surprises Surprises are a sure sign of inadequate planning. When you do a project you have to anticipate what might go wrong as well as what might go right. Some of the things that [...]

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Future IT = Cloud + Mobile + Enterprise App Store

January 31, 2011

There’s been a lot of talk about cloud computing, and mobility has been in the news for years.  But apps and an enterprise app store are going to bring it all together to remake the face of IT. Cloud Computing Cloud computing is a method for delivering computing resource.  Its principal attributes are outsourced management, [...]

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IT isn’t about Analysis and Programming Anymore

January 6, 2011

I’ve talked about the changing nature of IT in a previous article, but it’s amazing to me how fast some of the changes are taking place. Ten or twenty years ago the key skills for someone in IT were systems analysis and programming — mostly technical skills. But more recently the need for those skills [...]

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Are You a Manager or a Leader? Who Cares! Just Do What’s Needed!

November 29, 2010

Business literature is full of distinctions that some very smart people make between a manager and a leader: “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” – Peter Drucker “…Leaders are concerned with what things mean to people. Managers are concerned about how things get done.” – Abraham Zaleznik “Leaders are the [...]

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Two Questions to Ask After Each Project is Completed

November 8, 2010

Know what the biggest difference is between an adequate project manager and a great project manager? The great project manager always learns from every project and applies that learning to the next project. Here’s a simple technique to help you learn from every project too.  After each project completion, before you send the project team [...]

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A Manager’s Biggest Burden, and 5 Ways to Deal with It

October 25, 2010

One of the biggest surprises to new managers is the intense pressure to keep people working productively. This is especially true in a project environment like IT where employees aren’t doing the same thing day after day. Managing an organization is like being in a taxi with the meter running and only a few dollars [...]

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One Situation Where IT Magic Can Be Valuable: Requirements Definition

September 17, 2010

In my last article I talked about why IT magic is never good. Well, I guess I should have known better than to use the word “never.” In his “Thoughts by Techxplorer” blog, one of my readers came up with a pretty good exception: a situation where the thought of IT magic — but not [...]

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Why IT Magic is Never Good

September 14, 2010

I recently spoke at a conference attended by senior business and IT people from accounting firms. I described my usual view on IT Magic: that when Information Technology gets too complex, it’s perceived as magic; then there are lots of problems for IT because business people develop unrealistic expectations. In the Q&A with attendees, one [...]

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Why Cloud Computing is Good for Your Financials

August 17, 2010

Here’s the way most people justify automation of a manual process: they replace a high variable labor cost with a relatively fixed system cost.  I’ll illustrate using graphs, then show how cloud computing fits into the picture. Before: A Manual Labor-Intensive Process Before any automation, the financials for a manual process look like this: With [...]

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A Model of Job Performance

August 10, 2010

Back in 1979 I put together a model of job performance to help with some process improvements we were doing at Digital Equipment Corporation.  Here’s the model: I ran across the model when was going through some old papers, and I thought you’d like to see it.  Here’s the explanation of the model that accompanied [...]

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Why We’re in this BP Gulf Oil Mess, and What We Should Do About It

July 26, 2010

I’ve talked a lot about human nature in my articles. I believe that human nature is the biggest challenge to most successful management, and especially the biggest challenge for IT managers. Information technology is all very logical. Software does exactly what you tell it to do. Computers — for the most part — behave the [...]

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IT Governance is Like Pushing a Rope

July 13, 2010

IT governance has been getting a lot of attention lately in the press. Frankly, it bothers me, since I think that a focus on IT governance is misguided. Four years ago I wrote an article about the difference between management and leadership. In the article I said that: “… management is like pushing a rope; [...]

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Join Me August 23rd in Kansas City, Missouri

July 12, 2010

I’ll be giving the keynote at the 2010 Boomer Technology Circle Summit on August 23rd in Kansas City.  If you’re in the accounting industry, then join me for a two-hour session on “How to Demystify I.T. For Your CEO.”  For more information, go to http://www.boomer.com/?page=btcsummit

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Which Do You Have? A Job, a Profession, a Career, or a Passion?

June 28, 2010

A Job A job is an exchange of work for money: for every hour you work, you get an hour of pay. Although you might derive some satisfaction from doing the job, and you might enjoy the people you work with, the reason you do the job is for the money.  If you win the [...]

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Should You Use a Business/IT Liaison Person? No!

June 23, 2010

The question about the pros and cons of using a business/IT liaison person came up at a meeting I attended last week. I’ve got to admit some bias on this issue. Long ago I tried using a business/IT liaison person for one of my software development groups, and I wasn’t happy with the result. The [...]

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The Difference between Success and Happiness

June 1, 2010

A lot of people tend to confuse these two words. We work hard, focus on our goals, and figure that happiness will come once we achieve success. Don’t fall for this deception. Happiness Happiness is a feeling. It can be triggered by external factors — a friend, a lover, a place, an event, a food [...]

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How to Deal with Complainers — 2 Approaches

April 27, 2010

People who complain fall into two categories: those who complain because they want help in resolving a problem, and those who complain because they want sympathy. Often the complainers themselves don’t understand why they’re complaining, so it’s up to you to figure it out for yourself. The Complainer as Problem Solver The first category of [...]

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How to Deal with Complaints — 7 Steps

April 22, 2010

How do you deal with someone who complains — whether it’s a customer of your company, a customer of your department, or even an employee or family member? How do you turn the complainer into a supporter? Here are some steps to take: 1. Listen If you’re going to make the complaint go away, then [...]

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How to Create Misleading Statistics in 6 Easy Steps

March 25, 2010

Want to deceive people?  Here’s how the professionals do it: 1. Do a survey and use a biased sample population People focus on the survey result and seldom pay attention to information about your sample population.  So feel free to bias your result by surveying people you know will answer the way you want. Want [...]

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ComputerWorld Interview with Harwell on IT Centralization

March 9, 2010

ComputerWorld has published an article by Mary Brandel that includes the results of an interview I did with Mary last fall.  The article is entitled “IT centralization is back in fashion.”  You can see the article here.

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There are Only Two Reasons for Strategy

January 20, 2010
Thumbnail image for There are Only Two Reasons for Strategy

A lot of people think that the creation of business strategy is a mysterious process — something that’s secretly practiced behind closed doors in the boardroom. There’s a lot of mysticism around strategy setting, and so we avoid it for fear that we’ll do it wrong. But there’s no magic in strategy — just as [...]

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The Bad Economy is an Excuse for Layoffs, But They Should Have Happened Earlier

December 31, 2009

I’ll let you in on a secret: Most companies have used the bad economy as an excuse for laying off people who the company wanted to get rid of anyway. Now I’m not saying that these companies haven’t had financial issues — most companies have experienced a loss of revenue as a result of a [...]

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What Penguins Know about ERP Success

December 21, 2009
Thumbnail image for What Penguins Know about ERP Success

Have you ever watched a nature documentary showing penguins entering the Antarctic ocean? They gather at the edge of the water, hesitating until more penguins arrive. They look at each other as if saying, “Do you want to go first?” or “Are we ready yet?” Then finally the hesitation will end and a large number [...]

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How to Deal with a Bad Boss — 3 Approaches

December 2, 2009

You’ve got a bad boss. Maybe it was a surprise — he seemed nice during the interview. Or maybe it was a gift from higher-up in the organization — she was brought in to replace your previous boss. Whatever the reason, now you’re stuck with a bad boss, and you have to do something. There [...]

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