Categories
Coaching

Please: stop “hiring to cultural fit”

I bristle at the trendy, thoughtless phrase “hire to cultural fit”. And I’m not alone.

Often, you’ll hear this phrase parroted at tech, business, and startup conferences. Generally, it means, “when hiring, consider personality first — consider tech and business skills second”.

Here’s the loosey-goosey rationale for ‘hiring to cultural fit’:

“Hey, it’s easier to beef up a cool guy’s tech skills than it is to teach a nerdy weirdo how to fit in! And in a company culture where everyone gets along and agrees? Why, your efficiency and productivity will soar!”

There’s so much wrong with the tired ‘hire to cultural fit’ line. (Tech skills are easy to teach! Social skills are hard to teach! You need people who all agree to succeed! Creative tension is bad! Etc.) But for now, I’ll only break it down into two ways that saying the phrase makes you seem egregiously insensitive.

  1. “Hiring to Cultural Fit” is perceived as code for “Discriminate Against Women and Minorities”. Here’s the unspoken code, cracked’: “It doesn’t matter if the woman is a better coder: a female presence in the workplace is going to end up being a problem. No matter how hard she tries, we can’t teach her how to be ‘one of the guys’. And the black homosexual guy? Sure, he’s technically better for the technical job — but only technically. He ‘talks black’ and ‘acts gay’ — and that’s going to make the majority feel uncomfortable.”
  2. “Hiring to Cultural Fit” often relies on unwritten and unspoken gut feelings (i.e., unacknowledged stereotypes and prejudices) about who fits in the culture and who doesn’t. Companies that frequently chant the ‘hire to cultural fit’ mantra often cannot define and document what their company culture actually is. How can saying ‘hire to cultural fit’ NOT open a company up to a discrimination lawsuits? Especially when you tell a highly qualified candidate that she ‘isn’t a good fit’ — but can’t document or describe what ‘a good fit’ is?

If you’re a company leader or founder, please consider another approach. Instead of defining your company culture outright, start with a corporate constitution. A constitution is a living, changing document that makes company operating principles and core values explicit. Please note the distinction: a constitution doesn’t define culture. Rather, the people who agree to work within the framework of the constitution actively create the company culture.

Think of your constitution as an openly available document that only begins to shape your company culture. Ultimately, company founders don’t get to define or create the culture: the employees, customers, and other important stakeholders do. The constitution only serves to guide the culture.

To paraphrase a local tech company leader, “Culture is what happens when the boss leaves the building.”

Further, a constitution is open to being amended as time and technology advance. Guiding principles and values that worked well 200 years ago may not work so well today. A constitution is an imperfect document that needs defending, strengthening, and updating.

Writing a constitution even sounds like a noble endeavor. By contrast, company leaders will probably feel like slimy supremacists or crazed dictators if they go on an executive retreat and try to define and defend a superior master culture. (And if they don’t feel slimy…why not?)

If you are indeed a company founder, please think about writing a constitution that helps your employees grow your culture into something bigger and better than your executive team can possibly hope to define.

And please — stop saying “hire to cultural fit”. You might be surprised to know that it offends more people than it charms.

Categories
Presentation

7 Reasons Why You Might Not Be Sleeping

“Help me! I can’t sleep!”

I see variations of the “I can’t sleep” post on Facebook almost every week. I know that some friends have serious health problems and need medical help: this post is definitely NOT for them. This is just a “hey, friends — if you’re having a tough time sleeping lately, here’s some easy baseline stuff to check that might have escaped your attention.”

These seven observations are based solely on my personal experience. I’m an excellent sleeper — but this wasn’t always the case. This is what works for me:  I hope it helps you.

1. Check your coffee intake. I notice that people who complain the most about sleep problems on Facebook also like to post frequent check-ins to trendy coffee houses. It seems so obvious, but near-constant coffee consumption may play a huge role with your inability to sleep. (I dropped down to two cups in the morning with breakfast. That’s it. If I make a mistake and have more, I usually pay the price in erratic behavior for the rest of the day. Decaf exists for a reason.)

2. Check your caffeine intake. As a label-reader, I was surprised to see “caffeine” listed on quite a few skin and hair products. I don’t use any of those and my skin and hair seem acceptable. Read labels: you may be unwittingly taking on caffeine in some surprising places! For more details on ‘caffeine in surprising places’, check out the caffeine content in a number of products at  the Center for Science in the Public Interest.)

3. Check your conscience. “People with a guilty conscience don’t sleep” was one of my dad’s sayings. And he’d always say it whenever I had a bad night’s sleep. As a teen, this would make me seethe — until I figured out what Dad said was true. (Proof: if you feel angry or upset when someone merely insinuates that you have a guilty conscience, that’s a huge giveaway. Burning with self-righteous indignation is going to keep you up at night. Don’t deny your guilt: acknowledge it and address it before you go to bed.)

4. Check your blue screen time. Spending too much time around electronic devices can mess with your head. If you can, shut it down. If you can’t, find out why you can’t. How can you put TV/internet/phone time into balance? Tools like flux help reduce the eerie blue glow that may be messing with your sleep cycle — but shutting your devices down altogether can be a viable option, too.

5. Check your humidity levels. Personally, I find that keeping the humidity at a comfortable and stable level is critical to a good night’s sleep. In the summer, we often manage high humidity with an air conditioner. But I’m often surprised to learn that many people don’t manage winter’s low humidity with a humidifier. Try it. Decent humidifiers are often inexpensive, quiet, and effective. (On the downside, they’re often a pain to keep clean.)

6. Check the noise and light. Keep your sleeping area dark and banish noise. I live in a quiet neighborhood, so I’m lucky. But I travel with earplugs and a sleep shade, just in case I end up in a hotel where I’m not-so fortunate. I don’t use sleep shades or ear plugs at home, but I do use light-blocking window shades to keep out light that may creep in from a full moon or shooting star.

7. Check your food, drink, & exercise. Moderation works for me. Eat too much and I can’t sleep. Eat too little and I can’t sleep.  Same deal with exercise. It took me some time to find a sweet spot of eating/exercising/drinking. However, I see some friends habitually post extreme eat/exercise/drink habits on Facebook, which inevitably leads to their “Help! I can’t sleep!” post. (If by drinking you think ‘alcohol’ — I do very well without it altogether, but too much is always a problem. I tend to drink a lot of water, but I need to stop drinking after 7pm…or else.)

These 7 tips might seem obvious, but you might be surprised at how much resistance you’ll get for suggesting a few of these ideas to someone who is complaining about a lack of sleep.

“I WILL NOT stop drinking coffee! I DO NOT have a guilty conscience. Plenty of people sleep with their iPhones – that CAN’T be it.”

If your first reaction is a cranky denial, just smile and say, “OK, cool. Just thought I’d mention it.”

Because you really don’t want to lose any sleep over this…

Categories
Presentation

How can you positively frame your core message?

A number of people and organizations have gone out of their way lately to tell me that they are non-violent. They remind me of people who go out of their way to tell me that they are not racists. Not sexists. Not homophobic.

It’s a tell.

Let’s take a look at what a person who earnestly professes to be non-violent might actually be telling you:

  1. I am unaware that all human beings, including myself, are violent. I am also unaware that I am suppressing or re-channeling my violent tendencies to participate more fully in a civilized society. Because my self-awareness is low, I’m unpredictable and dangerous.
  2. I know darn well that I’m a violent person. I’m going to lie and pretend to be I’m something I’m not. I am a wolf in sheep’s clothing: don’t trust me.

Either way, if anyone seriously tries to sell you that they are non-violent: it’s a cause for suspicion. Actually, if anyone ever leads with a line about being anti- or non- anything (in a way that isn’t meant as parody) it’s a cause for suspicion.

Perpetually speaking in the language of non- and anti-  is feeble, defensive, and reactionary. Instead of speaking in terms of anti-violence, anti-GMO,  anti-gun, anti-fracking, anti-bullying, anti-wimp, anti-war, anti-poverty, anti-vaccine, anti-science, anti-anything: why not start by stating what you actually stand for, instead of what you stand against?

Reframe the conversation.

If we only live to rail against some cause, action, person, or principle that we don’t like, we’re a huge part of the problem. Our words and actions can support and strengthen the frame of what it is that we say we are against.

Here’s an exercise for positively framing your core message: state what it is that you stand for. If you can only frame what you stand for in terms of what you are against, try again. And keep trying.

Hint: this exercise may or may not be easy, but it’s worth the effort. With a deeper understanding and awareness, we may find ourselves participating in more meaningful, truthful, and helpful conversations.

Categories
Coaching fun Presentation

Beware the uncanny valley of presentation design and delivery

uncanny valley

A performer and presentation can be overly polished and perfect. Creepily so.

Borrowing from the world of robotics, I call this phenomenon the uncanny valley of design and delivery. This is when a presenter looms a bit too near perfection. I don’t run into the uncanny valley of presentation design and delivery too often, but when I do — my hair stands on end.

Yours will, too. Presentation perfection is creepy. It’s just not human.

When presenters carefully design and deliver a flawless presentation, the audience will dislike both the topic as well as the presenter. I’ve seen that happen twice in my lifetime.

throat punch

See? It’s not just me. Presentation perfection can be off-putting.

If you find yourself making a mistake during your presentation, rejoice! You’ve escaped the uncanny valley.

If you find yourself tirelessly rehearsing the smallest gestures and facial expressions before your presentation — be warned! You might be unwittingly entering the uncanny valley!

As you rehearse, remember that your goal is not to deliver a perfect speech or presentation. The perfect speech or presentation does not exist.

Rather, what’s your real goal? To educate? Inform? Persuade? Entertain?

Being human will help you achieve these goals better than striving for perfection.

And hey — it may save you from a punch you in the throat!

Have you ever encountered a presentation that was a little too perfect? How did it make you feel?

Categories
Coaching Presentation

How long do you plan for Q&A?

Cats with questions

Q&A — questions and answers — is my favorite part of any business or training presentation. I’m curious. I like hearing what’s going on in the heads of the audience. I like learning from the audience every bit as much as learning from the presenter.

When I give a presentation or training session, I almost always plan for Q&A. I first offer the audience some content to chew on, so that we can enjoy a conversation near the end.

But just how much time do you plan for questions and answers?

Over time, I’ve discovered a formula that works for me.

  • When I’m speaking to professionals, I plan for 15-20 minutes of Q&A.
  • However, if I’m speaking to students (college age or younger) I plan for 5-10 minutes of Q&A.

I find that professionals will often ask more detailed and specific questions based on their work experience. Students are more likely to ask for broad clarification rather than specific advice.

This formula works for me to keep things from ending too late/too early. Also, I never end on Q&A — I reserve a minute or two for a more formal close.

I’ve found a Q&A timing formula that works for me — but your results may vary. What works for you?

 

Categories
fun Presentation

OK, so never start a sentence with these 10 words…

No offense, but I recently had to leave a lecture because the speaker began every other sentence with either “So…” or “Alright, so…”

His information may have been spectacular, but after a half hour, I felt too distracted to listen anymore. When your audience starts playing a mental drinking game based on taking a sip every time you say “so” and downing the whole glass every time you begin a sentence with the word “so” — and they’re hammered in 5 minutes — you might want to face the problem.

Saying “so” is so over.

The dreadful part about saying “so” is that it’s insanely catchy. A half-hour of listening to someone repeat so like a neurotic cuckoo clock, and you’ll find yourself doing the same damn thing.

The “so” phenomenon has spread like wildfire over the past few years. If we’re conscious of it, maybe we can make that little devil go away.

I’m trying like mad to drop that absurd little word from the start of my sentences, and it’s going pretty well. But all I have to do is listen to an interview on NPR for 10 minutes in the car, and it comes galloping back at my next meeting.

Vexed, I scrawled a list in my Moleskine: Top 10 words never to begin a sentence with —

1. So…

2. OK. So…

3. Alright, so…

4. Alright…

5. OK.

6. No offense, but…

7. I think…

8. I feel…

9. Ahem…

10. Just…

It’s a hastily scrawled list, based largely on my own annoyance that these words have actually flown out of my mouth. It’s a monkey-hear, monkey-say situation: I hear these phrases and I repeat these phrases.

I’m going to make a conscious effort to stop saying these phrases with any kind of frequency. If one slips into my speech a time or two, that’s acceptable. But I don’t want to have it escalate into a drinking-game distraction!

What “stop words” are on your Top 10 lists?


Laura Bergells is a professional story finder. She writes, coaches, teaches, and speaks. Check out her online courses at LinkedIn Learning. If you’re a LinkedIn Premium or Lynda.com member, these courses are free! If you’re not a member, you can either become a member or buy each of these classes à la carte.


Categories
PowerPoint PowerPoint Presentation Presentation

Who else remembers a world before PowerPoint?

Who can remember the first presentation they ever gave using PowerPoint? Can you remember with any specificity, or is PowerPoint so ubiquitous that you can’t really remember?

For those of use who are over 23 years of age — we are not PowerPoint natives. Some of us can remember a time before PowerPoint existed…and we gave presentations, anyway.

My first PowerPoint… it was in the early 1990’s. As a leader of a corporate IT user group, I was charged with giving the team’s recommendations to the executive staff.

I gave my first PowerPoint presentation a yellow background. I used few words — mostly pictures and headlines — and picked the “dissolve” transition between each slide. I gave it on a computer, as the executive staff circled around the monitor, amazed by the potential to use this whiz-bang new technology to tell a convincing story.

I remember a lot of “oooooh’s and aaaah’s”, followed up by “Neat. How’d you do that? Can we do that for sales? How about training?”

The executive staff approved our proposal. And PowerPoint became a global standard for business presentations.

Are you a PowerPoint native? Where were you when you delivered your first PowerPoint presentation?

Categories
Blogging content ideas fun

Doing Nothing is the New Doing Something

Recently, I noticed this absurd trend of gallantly and heroically doing nothing.

About 19 months ago, I accidentally left my cell phone home and traveled out of town on business. When I arrived at the hotel, I needed to find the conference organizer. I used my laptop to call her via Skype & explained that I forgot my cell phone.

I found not-carrying a phone to be extremely advantageous that week. No one changed plans with me at the last minute, since they had no way of reaching me. And I received no interruptions, so I got tons of stuff done.

When I got home, I didn’t want to return to my life as a cell phone carrying goofball. So I didn’t. I just stopped carrying a phone. No big deal, right?

Oh, no. Some folks made a huge deal out of it. I got four main questions:

  • Was I making some kind of social statement? (Not really. I forgot my phone one day, found out I really didn’t need it and that was that.)
  • How do I communicate effectively with clients and friends? (I make plans and stick to them. Every productivity expert on the planet tells you to only check messages at a few planned times a day, so not carrying a phone is probably a best practice.)
  • What’s it like to not carry a smart phone? (I don’t know. I’ve never carried a smart phone, only a cell phone. I have nothing to compare it to, so I honestly don’t know. The smart phone seems like a way for marketers and others to have unrestricted access to me, so I’m not all that keen on the idea of owning one.)
  • What if you have an emergency? (At first, I was stubborn. Everyone else has a phone, so I can borrow one in an emergency. That was my argument, and it lasted about 7 months. However, my partner insisted that I carry a cell for emergencies, so I got a burner mostly to comfort him and foster family harmony.)

So, there I was, not-doing anything, and it got me all kinds of attention. It was like I was actually doing something! One conference organizer suggested I prepare a talk about what it was like to not-carry a phone.

That seemed crazy to me. But I was wrong.

Not-doing something is the new doing something. People are fascinated by people who don’t-do things.

There’s a long list of popular things to not-do. Eat meat/gluten/sugar. Drink alcohol or coffee. Do drugs. Have children. Watch TV. Consume the news. Drive a car. Go to church. Use social media. Carry a gun or credit card. Honestly, the list of things to not-do is infinite.

However, what do people do while they’re not doing the thing they’re not doing?

Here’s the odd part: they talk or write incessantly about the thing they are not doing! If you decide not to use a fork, for example, you set up a Tumblr account to journal about the experience. If you’re not going to use the internet for a bit, you issue a press release and try to get media coverage or a book deal. If you plan to not-work and not-drive a car, you set up a blog and make money from the idea of not needing much money.

Frankly, I’m a bit jealous. There’s a zillion things that I don’t do. It simply never occurred to me that not-doing something was worthy of a book deal, blog, TV show, press release, or humanitarian award.

Since not-doing anything is a pretty hot trend, I thought I might cash in on this gravy train. Pick a thing that I don’t do, and then write about not doing it. What I normally do is not even think about the things I’m not doing.

Why feed the poor, care for the sick, pick up trash, or plant trees — for example — when you can do nothing and make the world a better place?

Clearly, I’ve been doing it wrong. I’m going to start not-doing it right!

What are you not-doing lately? Where’s your humanitarian award?

Categories
Coaching Education

Why do you need a building to get an education?

A few weeks ago, I went to tour the new Seidman Business School Building on the downtown GVSU campus. Reports say the new building cost around $40 million.

Wow. All that money for a business school building! Accounting, economics, finance, management, marketing — fields like that.

You know, the kind of topics people all over the world are learning online. Not in buildings.

The Seidman building is huge — four floors — and richly appointed with artwork and sumptuous furniture. I took the elevator up to the top floor and worked my way down. On every floor I walked from one end to the other, exploring a few rooms, and marveling at the museum quality artwork in the hallways and conference rooms.

When I left the building, my pedometer registered over 3,000 steps. And I have very long legs.

Like I said, huge building. Shockingly so.

Even more shocking: all this new space, and no new faculty. And only one of the floors was devoted to classrooms. The rest were offices, meeting rooms, study rooms, computer rooms, break rooms, copy rooms, and washrooms.

I can’t say for sure, but I think I saw more washrooms than classrooms.

It reminded me of a giant cruise ship. So well appointed. So opulent. So grand.

I’m walking through the open vastness, smelling the new building smell, and all I can think is,

“This reminds me of the Titanic.”

As Mark Cuban recently blogged in Will Your College Go Out of Business Before You Graduate?,

Why in the world are schools building new buildings? What is required in a business school classroom that is any different from the classroom for psychology or sociology or English or any other number of classes?

Like Cuban, I believe that colleges can offer educational value to students. The question isn’t whether young people need to go to college, but whether that college will be in business by the time students graduate. And whether colleges are making smart, sustainable decisions about how they provide value to students and society.

Are giant buildings like these really necessary to get an excellent business education? Especially since online learning is where the future of business education lies? Is racking up enormous student debt to pay for this four year cruise ship experience worth it?

It’s past time for colleges (and students!) to ask tough questions.

  • How does a giant cruise ship of a building provide educational value to a four year business student?
  • How much effort has the college devoted to understanding how to deliver excellent learning opportunities in online environments?
  • How else can students get the same or superior educational value for a fraction of the cost of a traditional 4 year education?
  • How does amassing enormous college debt while in your twenties enrich the lives of students and our society?

I graduated from GVSU. I even taught as an adjunct there. I hope it sticks around for a long, long time. I hope students learn and grow and accomplish great work.

I hope GVSU is not too big to fail. I really hope it’s not the Titanic.

I hope it only looks that way, for now.

Categories
Coaching Presentation

Where were you when the tech went out?

Well, it happened again. The event coordinator gave me a firm 50 minutes to speak — no wiggle room! — and a nifty state-of-the-art presentation system. I love walking into a building with shiny new equipment! Just plunk in a thumb drive, do a simple sound test, and I’m ready to go on with the show.

Except that 5 minutes into the presentation, the brand new computer system decided it needed to do a Windows update. And nothing could stop it from shutting down and doing its own thing.

The update might take minutes, it might take hours — but I only had 50 minutes, so I didn’t waste time. I whipped out a standard sized piece of paper. The night before, I had rehearsed my presentation. I jotted down my key points on paper and tucked it into my briefcase.

When the computer system went down, I acknowledged its crazy behavior to the audience.

“Oh, man. Windows update! Did you ever notice that Windows will update whether you want it to or not? Well, that’s a computer for you. While the computer and tech crew are doing their thing, I can continue without visuals…”

…and I went right on with my presentation. About 15 minutes later, the computer finished updating itself, and I said,

“Now let me show you what some of the approaches I’ve been telling you about actually look like.”

Was this ideal? Of course not! (Especially when the computer updated itself again 10 minutes later! Argh!)

But rehearsing my presentation (with brand new material) the night before helped my recall, as did my low-tech written cheat sheet. Acknowledging the tech failure helped me emotionally connect with the audience (hey, who among us can’t empathize with the frustration of a tech melt down at an inappropriate moment?) And because I had 50 minutes, I only planned to speak for 30. I find that no one is ever upset if a meeting runs short (but heaven help you if it goes long!)

Sure, I had a thumb drive and a laptop as a backup. But with a tight 50 minutes, I couldn’t take 5 minutes to re-wire the presentation system. I simply went on with the show while the tech crew valiantly tried to reason with an unruly computer.

I’ve delivered presentations with tech failures before, so I know the importance of backups. However, when the electricity completely fails or time is tight, a thumb drive and backup laptop won’t help you.

You’ve got to go low-tech. Know your topic cold and keep your soft skills sharp.

Remember, you’re in a position of leadership when you stand in front of a crowd. How you respond to an unplanned or stressful situation is an opportunity. It speaks volumes about your ability and willingness to lead.

How have you responded to a tech meltdown? Where were you when the tech went out?