Mary L. Erlain's Blog, page 33
October 27, 2020
Become a Catalyst
In networking, there are three kinds of people. Those who:
wait and watch for things to happen,
make things happen,
wonder what the heck just happened.
A catalyst is one who makes things happen. Without a catalyst, there is no spark and nothing much gets done.
There are three characteristics shared by catalytic people: 
Initiative – Catalytic people don’t sit still – they make things happen in all aspects of their lives. As networkers, catalytic people learn the goals of others in order to help people get where they wish to be.
Confidence – Catalytic people have confidence in themselves and in the players on their team. Their confidence is contagious, and they tend to bring out the best in others.
Motivation – Catalytic people are not only motivated themselves, but they can also motivate others to perform at their highest potential
Are you a catalyst in your networking world?
Michael Shapiro, E Group Partners, Inc.
The post Become a Catalyst appeared first on Peak Development.
October 23, 2020
Fifty Behavior-Based Interview Questions
Are you looking for behavior-based interviewing questions? While the questions and behavior characteristics listed below are by no means comprehensive, it might be just the jump-start you’re looking for. Try these…
If You’re Looking For Behaviors that Revolve Around Leadership:
Tell me about a time when you accomplished something significant that wouldn’t have happened if you had not been there to make it happen.
Tell me about a time when you were able to step into a situation, take charge, muster support, and achieve good results.
Describe for me a time when you may have been disappointed in your behavior.
Tell me about a time when you had to discipline or fire a friend.
Tell me about a time when you’ve had to develop leaders under you.
If You’re Looking For Behaviors that Revolve Around Initiative and Follow-through:
Give me an example of a situation where you had to overcome major obstacles to achieve your objectives.
Tell me about a goal that you set that took a long time to achieve or that you are still working towards.
Tell me about a time when you won (or lost) an important contract.
Tell me about a time when you used your political savvy to push a program through that you really believed in.
Tell me about a situation that you had a significant impact on because of your follow-through.
If You’re Looking For Behaviors that Revolve Around Thinking and Problem Solving:
Tell me about a time when you had to analyze facts quickly, define key issues, and respond immediately or develop a plan that produced good results.
If you had to do that activity over again, how would you do it differently?
Describe for me a situation where you may have missed an obvious solution to a problem.
Tell me about a time when you anticipated potential problems and developed preventative measures.
Tell me about a time when you surmounted a major obstacle.
If You’re Looking For Behaviors that Revolve Around Communication:
Tell me about a time when you had to present a proposal to a person in authority and were able to do this successfully.
Tell me about a situation where you had to be persuasive and sell your idea to someone else.
Describe for me a situation where you persuaded team members to do things your way. What was the effect?
Tell me about a time when you were tolerant of an opinion that was different from yours.
If You’re Looking For Behaviors that Revolve Around Working Effectively with Others:
Give me an example that would show that you’ve been able to develop and maintain productive relations with others, though there were differing points of view.
Tell me about a time when you were able to motivate others to get the desired results.
Tell me about a difficult situation with a co-worker, and how you handled it.
Tell me about a time when you played an integral role in getting a team (or workgroup) back on track.
If You’re Looking For Behaviors that Revolve Around Work Quality:
Tell me about a time when you wrote a report that was well-received. What do you attribute that to?
Tell me about a time when you wrote a report that was not well received. What do you attribute that to?
Tell me about a specific project or program that you were involved with that resulted in improvement in a major work area.
Tell me about a time when you set your sights too high (or too low).
If You’re Looking For Behaviors that Revolve Around Creativity and Innovation:
Tell me about a situation in which you were able to find a new and better way of doing something significant.
Tell me about a time when you were creative in solving a problem.
Describe a time when you were able to come up with new ideas that were key to the success of some activity or project.
Tell me about a time when you had to bring out the creativity in others.
If You’re Looking For Behaviors that Revolve Around Priority Setting:
Tell me about a time when you had to balance competing priorities and did so successfully.
Tell me about a time when you had to pick out the most important things in some activity and make sure those got done.
Tell me about a time that you prioritized the elements of a complicated project.
Tell me about a time when you got bogged down in the details of a project.
If You’re Looking For Behaviors that Revolve Around Decision Making:
Describe for me a time when you had to make an important decision with limited facts.
Tell me about a time when you were forced to make an unpopular decision.
Describe for me a time when you had to adapt to a difficult situation. What did you do?
Tell me about a time when you made a bad decision
Tell me about a time when you hired (or fired) the wrong person.
If You’re Looking For Behaviors that Revolve Around Ability to Work in Varying Work Conditions (stress, changing deadlines, etc.):
Tell me about a time when you worked effectively under pressure.
Tell me about a time when you were unable to complete a project on time.
Tell me about a time when you had to change work mid-stream because of changing organizational priorities.
Describe for me what you do to handle stressful situations.
If You’re Looking For Behaviors that Revolve Around Delegation:
Tell me about a time when you delegated a project effectively.
Tell me about a time when you did a poor job of delegating.
Describe for me a time when you had to delegate to a person with a full workload, and how you went about doing it.
If You’re Looking For Behaviors that Revolve Around Customer Service:
Tell me about a time when you had to deal with an irate customer.
Tell me about one or two customer-service related programs that you’ve done that you’re particularly proud of.
Tell me about a time when you made a lasting, positive impression on a customer.
Michael Shapiro, E Group Partners, Inc.
The post Fifty Behavior-Based Interview Questions appeared first on Peak Development.
October 20, 2020
Being an Entrepreneur is not for Everyone…
Are you one of the Corporate Fatalities from this year’s right-sizing initiative?” Does the idea of running a small company seem idyllic? What could be more exciting than building a business from the ground up? You’ll bootstrap it, call all the shots and make all the rules. You’re certain that your years of corporate expertise will guarantee success in running a small business.
Unfortunately, many of these start-ups can’t stay afloat. They fail because their founders don’t know what they don’t know. The particular demands of small-business life can be quite different than their previous experience in the corporate sector. Would-be entrepreneurs should ask themselves two questions. First, do I have what this takes? And second, does this give me what I want?
Here are some of the harsh realities corporate refugees repeatedly encounter.
You have to be all things to all people
Corporate executives have a seemingly endless supply of support. It’s their prerogative to do what they do best and delegate the rest. When they lack expertise, they can find it down the hall or in the London branch or get it from an outside consultant. Entrepreneurs don’t have those options. Consequently, they can’t afford to be specialists. It’s not enough to be brilliant at product development or sales and marketing if you are barely literate in cash flow. The downside of making all the decisions is that you have to make all the decisions—long into the enterprise. And that requires familiarity with all aspects of your company’s industry and operations.
You’re constantly being distracted by small problems
Entrepreneurs must be proficient at tasks that don’t play to their strengths, and they must do things they once considered beneath them. I’ve seen many new company owners get frustrated that they can’t spend more time on high-level strategy because they have to do things like choose network equipment and decide whether to lease employee parking spaces in a local lot. Most small companies run so leanly that the CEO must be prepared to step in for anyone at any moment, even if that means operating a piece of machinery.
You lose influence and prestige
Performing menial tasks can chip away at your ego, and so can a decline in public recognition. Former executives shouldn’t be surprised when their decisions no longer ripple the markets or the press—but still, many miss the high profile. And because money is always an issue, entrepreneurs must spend considerable time rattling their cups and defending themselves and their decisions to investors and potential investors. Perpetual fund-raising does little to promote self-esteem.
You’re unnervingly vulnerable
Small companies are far more affected than large ones by the loss of a single customer or a sudden spike in oil prices. Minor crises can shake the foundations, and entrepreneurs find their worlds constantly hammered by external forces. You have little control over your time. Executives often view small-company life as a kinder, gentler alternative to 60-hour corporate workweeks. Once in control, these dreamers believe they can design balanced lives for themselves and their employees. But the buck really does stop with you. Uninterrupted vacations and weekends may not have been a part of your past – but guess what – they aren’t going to be a part of your present, either. Entrepreneurs can travel to the mountains of Tibet, and still, the message will reach them: “We’re about to lose the Jamison account. What do we do now?”
So what traits do executives who make it in small business have in common? Versatility, obviously, and resilience. But I’ve observed that the happiest executives turned entrepreneurs are those who can reset their definitions of success—not by lowering their sights but by narrowing their horizons. That means getting satisfaction from a first product run, acceptance by a distributor, or a single customer well served. Executives who consider these victories trivial when compared with the sometimes world-changing influence of their large-company positions should consider other options for their next gig.
By Michael Shapiro, E Group Partners, Inc.
The post Being an Entrepreneur is not for Everyone… appeared first on Peak Development.
October 16, 2020
Effective Communication…
Everyone wants to be heard. So why is it so difficult for us to listen? Perhaps it goes back to our early education where most of the focus is on reading and writing. There was a little focus on speaking, and virtually no focus on effective listening skills – taking notes doesn’t get it.
One thing that gets in our way is the urge to judge, evaluate, and approve (or disapprove) another person’s statement. In other words, your first reaction is to evaluate it from your point of view.
Although making evaluations happens most of the time. This reaction is heightened in situations where feelings and emotions are deeply involved. The stronger the feelings, the less likely there will be mutual understanding in the communication – just two ideas missing each other in space.
We can achieve real communication when we listen with understanding. This means seeing the expressed idea and attitude from the other person’s point of view. Sounds easy but it’s very hard to do. Here’s one way to try it out: The next time you’re in an argument with your spouse or friend, stop the discussion and suggest this rule: “Before each person speaks up, he or she must first restate the ideas and feelings of the previous speaker accurately and to that speaker’s satisfaction.”
You’ll find this to be an incredibly difficult thing to do. And even when you have been able to do it, your comments will have to be drastically revised. But, and this is the interesting part, you’ll also find that the emotion is dissipating – the differences are reduced, and those that remain are rational and understandable.
How well do you listen?
Michael Shapiro, E Group Partners, Inc.
The post Effective Communication… appeared first on Peak Development.
October 13, 2020
Tying Together Your Business Team…On a shoestring budget
Starting a business can feel like being an entire baseball team by yourself. While it’s possible to play all the positions, it’s not easy to do them all well. And it’s impossible to do them all at the same time. Yet that’s often what we’re trying to do, as we start new businesses without the benefit of a huge budget or staff. So it’s important in this process to do two things well:
To accurately assess one’s strengths.
To find creative ways to partner with those who have complementary gifts.
An Accurate Assessment
There are two kinds of people:
Those who are attracted to doing things they are not great at – they take these as challenges and places to improve themselves.
Those who will only do what they do easily and well, ignoring the tasks they don’t. If you don’t know which you are, then ask someone you trust for an outside assessment.
Be aware that if you focus all your work energy on improving the things you’re not good at, you’ll end up burning up infinitely more energy in attempting to get your work off the ground. It is important to put yourself in the position of doing the things at which you excel, the things that light you up. That energy will help carry you through difficult times.
If you tend to focus on things you do well, then you also need to make a plan to get the other tasks done.
Partnering with Others
Let’s assume that you don’t think you are in a position yet to hire the administrative, sales, or production staff who would complement your talents. There are a number of creative ways to get what you need:
Look for someone to become a business partner, someone who can enter your business and take up a complementary role, sharing both responsibilities and benefits. If you want to focus on production, perhaps you can find someone who excels at business development to generate the flow of new clients for you.
Brainstorm about people in complementary but not directly competitive businesses. A local Chicago computer repair shop developed a relationship with the local computer sales store. The seller didn’t want to be bothered with repairs, and the repair shop didn’t want to carry inventory. They helped each other to build their businesses by referring to one another – while maintaining separate businesses.
Assess whether investing some money in getting an expert to do a task will free you to generate more revenue. A graphic designer hired accounts, receivable specialist, to follow up on her past-due accounts, and her revenues skyrocketed as a result. A small investment produced a great pay-off – and didn’t cost her any time away from production.
Consult with people who don’t share your same gifts. If you’re detail-oriented, ask a big-picture thinker you trust for advice. If you’re an unflappable optimist, look for someone who can shoot holes in your theories. In the end, these sometimes abrasive partnerships can save your business by giving you the perspective to see problems before they happen.
By Michael Shapiro, E Group Partners, Inc.
The post Tying Together Your Business Team…On a shoestring budget appeared first on Peak Development.
