Tag: team work

An interview is two-way

FabrizioLeave a comment

Your next boss is going to be disproportionately more important than your next role, your next company, your next sector. So, when the time comes for you to ask questions, be ready to interview them. A few ideas.

Tell me about the last time you changed your mind.

What would you do if a colleague and I disagree on how to move a project forward?

What were you doing at my age / at my level of seniority?

Tell me about the last organizational change you managed and what did you do?

What of my background do you find most interesting?

What is the number 1 problem you are trying to fix these days?

How would you react if I’d told you that I want to invest part of my working time for personal development?

I understand, it is challenging to get yourself to ask those questions. That’s because we have been told that during an interview, we ought to do anything to land the job. And that includes being nice and pleasant. And that does not include asking questions that might make the hiring manager uncomfortable.

But if they are uncomfortable with that, isn’t that a sign already? Does it not tell us they will be hiding when the time comes for them to support us? Or to tell us we are not doing a good job? Or to find a better role for ourselves, so that we could thrive in the company?

Interviews are always two-way. You can get better at extracting the information you need out of them.

Remote listening

FabrizioLeave a comment

One cannot overstate the importance of listening.

And now that most are relegated to their own home offices, conversations happening through a screen, listening is more challenging than ever.

We are all very busy trying to control our appearance, our background, our environment, the kids screaming in the other room, the cat jumping on the desk to broadcast their behind, the email that just came in, the little red circle signaling that somebody just sent us a message – it might be important. And the most we can do is listening while waiting for our turn to speak.

Just being mindful of this very challenge can help you find ways to overcome it.

  • Use the camera only if you can handle it, it is OK to keep it off.
  • If you are on a two-screen setup, turn off the second screen. Maximize the app you use for the call, and shut down all other distractions (email and browser, in particular).
  • Keep your hands off the mouse or trackpad.
  • Take notes on a piece of paper.
  • Use headphones.
  • Apply coaching tactics such as asking open questions and mirroring, to keep yourself engaged and the other listened (you can find some very useful ideas in this past post).

We’ve got this!

Replaceable

FabrizioLeave a comment

If you leave tomorrow, the company you work for will continue with their business as usual.

It doesn’t matter if you are doing great work. It doesn’t matter if everybody loves you. It doesn’t matter if your project has shattered all previous records, if the product you are leading is dominating the market, if your last campaign has brought in more business than all other campaigns combined.

It doesn’t matter if you are a regular employee, a manager, an executive, or the founder.

For as much as you think of yourself as the center of the world, most things will continue without you.

And that’s liberating.

Busy

Fabrizio1 Comment

If you tell others often that you are busy – and genuinely would prefer not to – understand two things.

First, delegating is not about telling others what to do, it is about trusting them with important problems to solve. It’s not about “I need this report by tomorrow” and all about “how and when do you plan to report on the findings?”.

Second, there is no one single thing that will dramatically impact the outcome if it is done today rather than tomorrow. Urgency is fake. Success is achieved by doing something consistently and over a long period of time. Big projects or tasks that pop up at the last minute in your calendar are not going to drive results.

Now go out and practice this.

Defensive

FabrizioLeave a comment

When you get defensive during a conversation, you lose the opportunity to listen, to learn, to understand, and most importantly to move the relationship forward.

It is a strong impulse, instinctual almost.

Put some effort towards resisting it.