JANUARY 2012• Vulcan v. Martin Marietta:

Antitrust law flaws, pp. 4 & 12

• The New American Home, p. 14

• Manatt’s rallies to reopen

flood-ravaged IA interstate, p. 36

• MoDOT tests photocatalytic

cement-bound pavement, p. 38

• Advancing concrete masonry

veneer standards, p. 40

• CO2-based pH treatment, p. 42

A MINING MEDIA PUBLICATION

COMPETITIVE EDGE

OPERATIONS • MARKET DEVEOPMENT • PRACTICE

concreteproducts.com

MANAGEMENTBY DAVID M. SHEDD

8 | JANUARY 2012 WWW.CONCRETEPRODUCTS.COM

12Stupid Hiring Mistakes

to Avoid in 2012Despite the 8.6 percent unemployment rate, many companies

searching for their next manager or executive have but one com-

plaint: I cannot find the right person for my company; there is no

good talent out there.

In reality, nearly all these companies are making one (or more)

of 12 stupid hiring mistakes that all but guarantee they will not

find the “A-Level” managers and executives that they need.

1. Waiting.It is time to face reality. Your unmotivated “B” and “C” players will

not suddenly become valued performers. Your operationally strong

leaders are not going to become marketing, sales and growth fo-

cused any time soon. And your growth strategies will sputter with-

out the new talent and “fresh eyes” to implement.

In short, it is time to change the people and upgrade your team.

Your continued waiting and inertia is slowly killing your business.

Especially with all the great talent available, the time to act is now.

2. not networking.By most measures, 70 pecent of all managerial jobs are filled by

networking. If you are not out and about (at least one time a

month) networking and meeting people in your geographic area

and industry, then you are relying on others to find the right peo-

ple. Networking broadens your perspective, enabling you to see

the talent that is out there. You will also get to know more people

who can refer you to other good talent.

3. delegating all the work.As a leader, you need to be actively involved in finding and vetting

your next manager or executive. Yes, it takes time and a lot of

work; but, it is essential. By completely outsourcing the initial

screening and weeding out of candidates to either an executive

recruiter or your human resources staff, you are giving them the

job of making the decision. An old maxim in decision theory ap-

plies here: He who frames the decision makes the decision.

Of course, it will take time and effort to go through all the leads

and resumes. But, who is truly qualified to separate the wheat

from the chaff and find that next top-performer? You are!

4. Outsourcing to the inexperienced and unqualified.Even when you are actively involved, you may need help. There

are times when some of the hiring load will need to be delegated

to your human resources team. And your network may be so lim-

ited or you may be so far behind the eight ball that you will need

to bring in an experienced executive recruiter. But, go for experi-

ence. Only outsource to human resources and recruiting profes-

sionals that truly understand people and have personal experience

in being an executive or manager.

But, you need to stay active and engaged in the hiring process! When

using either your human resources team or recruiters, be sure to ask

for more potential candidates (10–20) than they would traditionally

give you. And ask them specifically for a wild card group of three to

four candidates that may not meet all the criteria but are absolutely

the best of the bunch in terms of accomplishments and possible fit.

5. Staying in the closet. In the job search world, it is a truism that at most 30 percent of all

jobs (especially at the senior levels) are visible: want ads, internet

postings, company jobs boards, retained recruiter assignments, and

other activities where the data about the job is available for many

people to see it. The rest of the jobs (the other 70 percent) are “hid-

den.” For companies not named Apple or Google, that is insane!

By staying in the closet, you remain out of sight to nearly all po-

tential candidates, especially those that are currently employed but

looking for new opportunities. This increasingly large pool of po-

tential candidates will never even know that there is an opportunity.

Yes, some positions need to be kept confidential; but there are ways

to make job opportunities visible while keeping the confidentiality.

6. Eliminating the best at the beginning. Once companies begin searching for their next manager or executive,

the focus shifts to eliminating rather than to finding those with the

most potential. Some stupid elimination mistakes to avoid:

David M. Shedd heads Winning

B2B Leadership, an advisory

firm serving small to middle-

market companies in the con-

crete products and other

manufacturing industries. His

experience includes 10-plus

years in executive positions

with a major precast concrete

producer. He is the author of

Build a Better B2B Business

and maintains a blog at

www.helpingleaderswin.com.

He can be reached by e-mail

at davidshedd@cox.net, or by

phone at 480/734-0569. This

is the first in a series of columns addressing leadership and business

success for the concrete products executive.

• Overly strict pre-requisites: These usually require tremendous

experience in doing exactly the job that is being considered.

Beware: the best candidates will avoid such positions because

they offer so little potential growth and advancement.

• Keyword vetting: This all but guarantees that you will end up

with the candidates who have most doctored their resumes and

backgrounds to fit the “keyword system.”

• Only looking at the first resumes that come in: By only looking

at the first resumes that come in, you will all but guarantee that

talented but passive job searchers (those already with a job) will

miss out, as will talented but active job searchers who are likely

out networking (instead of being glued to the job boards).

To find the best among that mile-high stack of resumes, require

something different from the candidates. Some companies ask for

a “triple tweet” cover letter that is limited to about 420 characters

or 70 words. These can be digested in the magic 7–10 seconds that

are needed to catch your attention. Other companies require a one-

page resume. Since most resumes are two pages (or more), this re-

quires the candidates to do some work before applying. With such

steps, the screening and reviews can be done quickly, and it win-

nows out many of the unqualified “lookey loos” who will not take

the time to comply with your requests.

Finally, do not narrow down your list of candidates too quickly.

Select more candidates for a secondary screening stage to ensure

that you do not select based only on a single piece of paper. Then,

schedule 10-minute Skype interviews to hear and see potential can-

didates. A 10-minute video or Skype interview gives more informa-

tion about the candidate than would an hour long phone screening.

7. Hiring the industry expert. The critical factor in the success of any manager or executive is

how well they lead and manage a group of people and how well

they execute and actually achieve what they set out to achieve.

Unfortunately, most companies are more focused on someone with

“deep” industry experience. Yes, having some industry background

and connections can help, but usually only in the short term. Fur-

ther, smart, talented executives can learn any industry quickly.

And an industry expert usually has the same blind spots about the

business that you do. Most companies, especially those that are

struggling or stagnant, need some outsider perspective to see what

so many others in the organization cannot. In short, look to hire

the best leader no matter what their industry experience!

8. Neglecting the unemployed. There is a tremendously talented pool of candidates that are not

being looked at in the least. Either subtly or overtly, many com-

panies are excluding all candidates that do not have jobs; they

prefer to deal only with the currently employed. That is a big mis-

take! Especially at the mid- to senior level, people find themselves

without jobs for a variety of reasons, many of which have ab-

solutely nothing to do with performance: poor cultural fit, incom-

patibility with a boss, company acquired, personal reasons, etc.

Yes, there are lots of duds among the ranks of the unemployed.

But, there are a lot of truly talented people among the unemployed

who were unlucky to find themselves in a bad situation in a tough

economy. Ignore them at your peril.

9. Not giving out homework. For all those candidates that pass your first round of screening,

give them an assignment. This should be a clear and reasonable

request for a follow-up from the candidate to be completed and

sent to you by the following Monday. The request should be prac-

tical and, if possible, related to the position. For executives, ask

them to give you a 500-word strategic or marketing assessment of

the business. For sales professionals, ask them to outline a brief

10-minute sales presentation that they could then give as part of

the interview.

It is eye-opening at this stage to see the number of candidates

that will not complete the task. Equally, it is eye-opening to see

how ill-thought out some candidates’ strategic assessments are and

how poor (and dreary) some salespeople’s presentations can be. By

sampling the product, you will see who really has business acu-

men, insight and new ideas. At the same time, you might also

profit from a new perspective about your business!

10. Wimpy interviewing. A vital step in any hiring process is the in-person interview. Any

candidate worth his or her salt will have been trained in effective

interviewing techniques. This means that they will answer any

question using P-A-R (problem – action – result). This will, of

course, lead to the interviewee sounding like a hero who happens

to be the perfect cultural fit for your company. Don’t accept their

PARs at face value. Drill down and be relentless asking how they

did something and asking for further clarification or details. The

true stars who really did what they said will come across strongly

under this line of questioning. The charlatans who really did not

do what they said (or who wildly inflated their stories) will wilt

under the pressure.

Your goal in the interview is not to be sweet and gentle. It is to

find the best candidate.

11. Not on-boarding the candidate. Once you have selected your “A-Level” manager or executive, your

mutual goal is to work together to ensure a strong introduction

and transition so that the new executive can be valuable as quickly

as possible. As my colleague George Bradt discusses, work with the

executive or manager, and come up with an effective “on-board-

ing” plan. This plan needs to be written down and in place before

the candidates’ first day on the job. The goal is to get the manager

or executive up to speed, thus giving you “better results faster.”

12. Letting a mistake turn into a failure. Despite everything, you may have hired the wrong person for the

job and for your company. Often, you can only truly measure the

individual once the person has started working. So, have a proba-

tionary/evaluation period of 30, 60, or 90 days to ensure that you

have right person. Many companies have gone so far as to not

bring that person onto their company insurance or give them other

benefits until the probationary period is complete.

If it becomes obvious that the executive is not the person you

hired and will not work out, you simply must fire them and begin

the hiring process all over again. Yes, it may be embarrassing to

tell your team or your boss that you made a wrong choice. But, it

is far better to suffer a little embarrassment now than be stuck

with a non-performing, dead-weight failure of an executive for the

next several years.

MANAGEMENTHUMAN RESOURCES

10 | JANUARY 2012 WWW.CONCRETEPRODUCTS.COM