Four Hiring Tips to Help You Select the Right Talent

An increasing number of companies are looking to add personnel in 2012 in response to more favorable economic conditions and growing business demands. But even companies in hiring mode continue to operate with caution to ensure they invest wisely in personnel who fit well with the organization and can hit the ground running.

Every manager knows it can be hard to separate qualified candidates from those who do not meet the job requirements. Finding the right talent for organizational needs requires managers to read between the lines when reviewing resumes.

Following are a few red flags to watch out for:

1. Unexplained employment gaps:

Many talented professionals have been out of work through no fault of their own because of the recent recession. So don't dismiss job candidates from consideration just because they are unemployed. But do proceed cautiously if an applicant has a history of job hopping that predates the downturn, or if the person has not explained significant gaps in his or her work history.

2. An overabundance of buzzwords:

It's not uncommon to encounter resumes that are littered with business buzzwords such as "optimize," "leverage" and the like. But take these terms with a grain of salt. Do these phrases truly provide insight into a job seeker's ability? Can you determine exactly what he or she accomplished in a previous role? The answer to both questions is likely no.

Instead, focus on individuals who can communicate their contributions in a clear, straightforward manner. Better yet, single out applicants who quantify their achievements to show the impact their actions had.

3. A laundry list of job duties:

Virtually all job seekers provide a few details about their previous roles so potential employers understand the range of their responsibilities. But be wary of candidates who include long, drawn-out lists of their former duties. This could be a sign that they are trying to fill space or cover up for a lack of notable achievements.

During your review, keep an eye out for individuals who describe how they helped a previous employer save money or increase efficiencies. Also, look for a history of advancement in a past role or details about how they changed a job for the better.

4. Vague descriptions of skills and experience:

While it's difficult to accurately determine someone's level of expertise based solely on their resume, be cautious of candidates who claim to be familiar with a certain technology or to have knowledge of a particular business process. These terms paint an unclear picture of a person's proficiency. When screening resumes, look instead for potential hires who offer specifics about their skills and experience.

None of the red flags above is reason alone to dismiss a job seeker from consideration, but if a resume raises several of these concerns, managers may want to think twice before requesting an interview with the candidate.

Another point to bear in mind is that some job applicants are simply not as skilled as others when it comes to summarizing their qualifications. In select cases, it may be worth conducting a brief telephone interview with an applicant who could hold promise in order to clear up questions about the person's resume.

Managers are likely to encounter many resumes that appear perfect at first glance, but a tight examination of the application is an important step in determining which job candidates are too good to be true - or too good to miss.

Are Leaders Born or Made ?

Are leaders born? Or can they be made? A new study that looks at the brain waves of various individuals seems to find evidence that charismatic leadership has a physical manifestation in the brain. But it may be possible to teach people how to change their brain activity in ways that may make them more inspirational to others.

Do you get the sense that everything now is genetic?

Surely one of the last bastions of learned behavior is executive development. Over the generations, we have spent millions turning individuals into leaders at the military-service academies, at business schools and with corporate programs.

Despite the extensive practice of leadership development, we don't have a great sense as to how well this training actually works, and many critics have long suggested that leadership can't be taught. Some people are born leaders, they say, and others just aren't.

So here's a study, "Leadership and Neuroscience: Can We Revolutionize the Way That Inspirational Leaders Are Identified and Developed?," that appeared in the February issue of the Academy of Management Perspectives that gives some comfort to both sides of the debate.

The study, by David A. Waldman, Pierre A. Balthazard and Suzanne J. Peterson, centers on the concept of coherence, which measures the extent to which different parts of the human brain communicate with each other.

The idea is that different parts of the brain are responsible for different types of behavior and responses as well as different types of cognition (remember the "left/right brain" arguments?). Brains that are better able to communicate across regions may also be better able to handle a range of responses and thinking, especially the complex process of understanding and conveying emotions.

The study used electroencephalographs -- those little electrodes on your head - to measure the extent to which signals are moving across parts of the brain.

The authors found that greater movement, suggesting greater coherence, was associated with individuals who had visions of the future for their organizations that were more inclusive and collective; those with less coherence had more individualized or, one might say, more selfish visions.

And finally, those with more collective visions were seen as more inspirational and charismatic by their followers.

The idea that charismatic leadership has this physical manifestation in the brain is especially important because such leadership appears to be, at a minimum, one of the least teachable aspects of management.

So these results seem to support those who believe that some people have it and others don't.

But before we get carried away with the inevitability of biology, the authors of the study note that the same techniques of mapping brain signals have been used in other contexts to actually rewire the brain.

Neuro feedback is the process of helping an individual understand how his or her brain is firing in different ways and recognize the associated sensations so that one can learn to focus on particular patterns of firing.

The idea is the same as with biofeedback, which helps people learn how to control their involuntary processes like heart rates.

There is some evidence that neuro feedback can change some brain functioning. It may be possible to teach people how to change their brain activity in ways that create more coherence across regions of the brain, possibly allowing us to process information and emotions in ways that make us more inspirational to others.

It's important to note that these results are just suggestive. We don't know with any certainty that the brain patterns observed are actually the cause of the leadership traits. And we don't know to what extent we will be able to change those brain patterns.

But we may have to get used to the idea of leadership-development programs that involve hooking participants up to monitors and having them watch video screens.

Since leadership-development programs are so often held in fancy places, maybe those video screens can be set up near the shopping marts.

Getting Recognition

Recognizing each other’s achievements, talent & wisdom on a continuous basis is the grown-up equivalent as the grades which were given in school times for behavior, and can inspire the workplace.

During the school days, earning the grades from teachers was a great deal for us, maybe because it didn’t occur very often. According to the grades, we felt recognized and important. As a result, it made us work harder and be as sincere as to the expectations of the teacher, which was not able if we were left alone without any consideration.

But nowadays, we don’t have the grades anymore, and I think that’s too bad. Current findings in positive psychology and organizational development bear me out, suggesting that people and organizations flourish when they focus on achievements and best practices.

Certain members of the workforce development community agree to this condition. In her thought-provoking book The Power of Acknowledgment, Judith W. Umlas maintains that recognizing each other's achievements, talent and wisdom on a continuous basis is the grown-up equivalent of the grade school gold star and can inspire the workplace.

Umlas is a senior vice president at the International Institute for Learning (IIL). She believes that creating a culture of appreciation within an organization or team can produce breakthrough results. She presents a strong business case for recognition and drives home the need to incorporate it into the workplace, listing the payoffs as increased employee engagement, enhanced productivity and better working relationships.

At the heart of her thesis are the seven principles of acknowledgment. One of these principles should resonate strongly with organizational leaders concerned about maximizing the potential of their human capital:

"Principle No. 4:

"Recognizing good work leads to high energy, great feelings, high-quality performance and terrific results. Not acknowledging good work causes lethargy, resentment, sorrow and withdrawal."

Umlas isn't telling us anything we don't already know from numerous studies and reports. According to Umlas, this startling level of disengagement results from people not knowing they are valued and feeling they are not contributing.

"I see a lot of event and webinar announcements from HR organizations - they seem to always be looking for ways to keep their major talent engaged," Umlas writes in her blog. "They need look no further than making sure that they have created a culture of appreciation in their organizations. ... I have heard acknowledgment referred to as 'the double paycheck,' which I think is very fitting. Even people who are earning less money than they feel they should be earning will dig in and engage fully if that other 'paycheck' is coming regularly."

Like all who aspire to high-impact leadership, learning executives must develop the soft skills that support the harder assets they bring to the table, such as strategic thinking and business acumen. Recognition is one of those soft & critical leadership skills. It has the power both to influence important decisions and to inspire people to attain peak performance. And it affects every organization's ability to step up performance to meet new challenges.

For the learning organization, recognition is part and parcel of assuring the continuing commitment of high potentials and preparing strong leaders to fill the company pipeline. The trick, of course, is knowing how to use the tool of recognition in an effective way.

Providing dynamic leadership development, mentoring opportunities and strengths-based coaching are all concrete ways to recognize the value of employees and demonstrate the organization's commitment to advancing their careers.

WHY LEARNING IS AN ACT OF COURAGE.

The best leaders love to learn. And the greatest organizations are learning enterprises – places where ideas are the currency of success. Yet, so many amongst us resist learning and embracing the new ideas that change brings with it. The deeper question is why?

What I’ve realized, as I travel across the world helping people Lead Without a Title, is that the very act of learning something new means you must also disrupt your thinking of yesterday. To accept or even just to entertain a new idea means you must leave the safety of your former way of perceiving the world and open up to something foreign. And that means you’d have to leave the protection of your comfort zone/Safe Harbor of The Known and sail out into the unknown – even for just a moment.

The unknown is a pretty scary place for most people. Ordinary people get threatened there. Victims get frightened there. And so the average person in business (and within life) avoids learning and exposing themselves to any idea or influence that might cause them to have to rethink the way they think and re-behave the way they have always behaved. But the fascinating paradox is that trying to avoid new ideas to stay safe is actually enormously dangerous – and infused with risk.

On the other hand, those who make the choice to Lead Without a Title have a lust to learn. They remain blindingly curious. They read books daily. They drink coffee with brilliant people. They have long conversations with role models whose ideas provoke/challenge/irritate them. Real leaders truly get that learning and ideation is the fuel of life. And that all it takes is a single idea to change the game at work (and rescript the story that is your life). Sure they too feel uncomfortable or even scared when faced with an idea that confronts their most closely cherished beliefs. But they understand that to resist the idea is to resist growth. As well as their next level of Mastery+Progress+Leadership. And so they move forward. Into an uncertain yet gorgeously exciting future.

- Robin Sharma,

Renowned Author

"The Monk Who Sold his Ferari" and other best sellers.

Management vs Leadership

Should Child Beggars be given Money or Not?

India may be one of the fastest growing economies in the world, but the irony is that there is still large number of children begging in the streets of its leading cities like Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune, Delhi and Kolkata.

These innocent children do not beg on their own and hardly get anything, as they are exploited by mafia gangs, and gang leaders. Why do we see children below the age of 14 begging? The truth is that there are people who get money from child beggary, which has become a kind of forced labour and slavery.

While walking in the street for shopping, we often come across mutilated children, who have lost their hands or legs. Our hands invariably go into our pockets seeing the pitiable condition of these children, but please tarry a little here. Does the money that you give them actually help them or nourish them? The truth is bitter!

These children are mostly chosen by gang members to invoke sympathy in the minds of people, so that they are given money. There are also alleged reports of other harsh realities that suggest that these kids do not lose their limbs in an accident. So how does it happen?

There are no guesses to make here. These innocent children are physically and mentally tortured. They are taught how to beg, pose sad faces, and cry. If they do not cry, then they are beaten up. There are also gangs who steal small children to make them beg. Such a case was reported by CNN this year.

A 7 year old Bangladeshi boy was brutally mutilated by gang members as he refused to beg. The boy was hit on the head with a brick and his throat was slit. When his mother found him, he was hardly recognizable.

This young boy survived and has become the key witness in a national investigation against the gang members in question. Shocking everybody, a report by the Human Rights Commission in India has said that apart from begging, children are kidnapped for various purposes, Working as cheap forced labour in illegal factories, establishments, homes, exploited as sex slaves or forced into the child porn industry, as camel jockeys in the Gulf countries, as child beggars in begging rackets, as victims of illegal adoptions or forced marriages, or perhaps, worse than any of these, as victims of organ trade and even grotesque cannibalism.

A CNN IBN special investigation in 2006 had proved the existence of Beggar Mafia in Mumbai. The investigation had astonishingly linked mafia to doctors. The IBN report had said, For the greed of earning a few substantial extra bucks, these doctors are ready to forget their professional ethics and code of conduct.

The investigation reveals the brutal truth of these doctors, who charge large sums of money and comply with the Beggar Mafia in amputating limbs of perfectly normal people and force them into begging. In 2009, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was forced to order an enquiry as the scenes of movie slumdog millionaire became a reality.

The Daily Mail carried a report on how gangs were severing the limbs of street children in Mumbai to make them beg for extra money. Irrespective of the concern show by the PM, the ground reality has hardly changed. So how can we really help these poor children?

Giving a few coins or notes that are taken by the mafia gangs may not be the right way. The existence of children begging rackets may actually have arisen due to people giving large amounts to these unfortunate mutilated kids. Instead it would be a great idea to directly provide them treatment, and food so that they are also nourished and there is no such thing as begging mafia in the long run.

HSN