Do you know the Peter Principle? It was a management theory developed by a man called Lawrence Peter in 1968.
​
It says that people rise to their level of incompetence. They get promoted based on their good performance in previous roles. Once they reach a role where they perform poorly, they don’t get promoted further and stay where they are. 
​
It’s really easy to fall into this trap if, as a first time manager, you aren’t provided with the training and skills needed to effectively manage a team. 

​Here’s 9 signs that you may be a bad manager who needs to brush up on team management skills.

1. You care a lot about title and status and think of yourself as someone’s boss. 
This has to do with how you see power and what is your relationship with power. A manager’s role is and should be one of service - you are serving the team you are leading by helping them be their highest performing self at work.

2. You aren’t open to feedback and want to do things your way. 
Magic only happens when you move outside your comfort zone. So watch yourself carefully when team members want to voice their opinions or request something outside of what you’re used to dealing with.

3.  You often point to the rulebook. 
Requests such as leaving earlier; coming in later, taking longer lunch breaks really annoy you. Your standard response is to refer people to the company policy, rather than really listen to the request. It’s hard to develop loyalty and trust with someone who always points to the rulebook. 

4. You are putting out fires most of the day, dealing with urgent issues without much time to get your own work done. 
That’s usually a sign of poor time management, lack of delegation and ineffective prioritising.

5. You have a lot of turnover in your team. 
The number depends on many factors, but a rate of 40% or more is bad in any situation. It’s a sign that there’s no connection within the team. 

6. You complain that people in your team rely on you too much. 
That often goes hand in hand with #1 - considering yourself to be the boss. It’s a sign of spoonfeeding - which ironically is a euphemism for being controlling.
As I said before, being a manager means removing obstacles for your team and letting them be their best. If they rely on you too much, you’re not empowering them. And you’re shooting yourself in the foot because you don’t have time to deal with your own stuff.

7. Your team doesn’t come to you with requests to go on a course or learn a new skill. 
Or they have and, by default, you have declined because there was too much work to do. It’s a sign that you’re being too operational and focused on day-to-day work, without being strategic, forward-thinking. 
Also, you don’t care much about retention. If your people don’t grow, they will leave. 

8. You feel like you can’t let your guard down in front of your team, because it may look like you’re not in control. 
That’s a sign of low trust in others. Allowing yourself to be vulnerable in front of others is the key to building trust.

9. You rely on HR a lot to deal with the toxic issues that may be coming up in your team. 
If you don’t want to see or don’t care why, where or how issues in your team are coming up, then you shouldn’t be a manager. 

* * *

If you have recognised yourself in some of these, then that’s a good first sign! Use this as an opportunity to work on them so you can become a great manager. 

And helping people become better managers is our sweet spot here at HR360ltd. 

We have been training leaders in small and mid-sized tech businesses for many years now, so if you’re watching this video, I would love to talk to you. 

Get in touch here to schedule an informal chat over the phone. 

Or add or follow me on LinkedIn to tune in next week when I will cover 7 habits you have to develop to check if you’re on a path towards improvement. 

In the meantime, be the best you can be!

How can you spot someone during the interview process who has a higher chance of reneging on the job offer or even not showing up on Day 1?

In Parts 1 and 2 we covered this question - how can you spot someone during the interview process if they will flake on you - from the MENTAL, PHYSICAL and AGILITY pulse point of view in the Five Pulses Model. 

Today, we’ll cover the last two - the emotional and spiritual NEEDS every person has when they are considering working for you. 

Let’s get right to it. Here are the 8 risk factors that someone may renege on your job offer - emotional and spiritual edition.

#1: They don’t appear engaged or excited about the role. Of course, people are different, and an introvert shows excitement differently than an extrovert. But it’s all about congruency. If they’re lively in general, but when it comes to discussing the role, they get quiet and serious, that’s a sign their heart is not in it. 

#2: Inappropriate tone in their communication. If you have reached out to THEM initially, and while they accepted to talk to you, they seem comfortable with where they are. It’s always easier to stay in a rut than to jump into the cold water. 
You need to be emotionally intelligent enough to align to your style. If their emails are too informal, there’s a mismatch in your modes of communication, and they may later decide that you’re not right for them. 

#3: They seem relatively happy in their current job. This is especially important. 

#4: They seem overly keen to get out of their current role fast. It’s ironic given the last point I made, but you do want people who are in the happy medium. If someone who is TOO keen to get out of their job, it may mean they are desperate, and that you are just one of many life lines dangling in front of them. Who knows which one they end up grabbing? 

#5: The role is at odds with their obvious lifelong passion. If someone is pursuing an intense hobby - especially one that CAN be monetised but takes a long time to get there - that’s someone who is likely to reneg (or to quit early). Encourage the dreamers to follow their bliss but beware hiring the carpenter accountant. 

#6: Their hobbies and interests aren’t aligned to the role or what the company can offer. That’s related to my previous point, but in this case, the person is unlikely to ever make money from their hobby. If they would be maxing out their vacation days on whitewater rafting or participating in salsa dancing contests, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t hire them, but it may mean that they’re more likely to renege or not show up on their first day. 

#7: They did or said something that is at odds with company values. Of course, nothing so dramatic that you would have ended the interview process, but something that in retrospect may tell you that slightly, this person is not very aligned with your culture and values. 

#8: Are YOU convinced that they are PERFECT for you? Beware too much excitement. Whenever you think that you have found a veritable unicorn, it’s a sign you should pay extra attention. When we are excited, we tune out of negative signs. And so with perfect candidate, it’s best to expect the unexpected. 

This is all very subtle: You wouldn’t be giving a job offer to someone who displays all of those signs. It’s only about one or maybe two of them that should make you perk up and consider: Is this potentially someone who might later flake on me? 

So, what can you do when someone is a high-risk no-show candidate? There’s three things I advise: 

1. Bring up your doubts to the candidate directly and candidly. This is DRAMATICALLY underused in my experience. Say “Hey there Sam, I would love to give you an offer, you’ve been great. There’s just this one thing, I wonder if you really are ok with leaving your current job. You seem really happy there. What do you think?” Not only will they appreciate your candor, they will also be taken aback at the impression they left you, and will very likely be honest with you in return. 
2. Meet them in person, if possible. Asking honest questions over lunch or coffee will give you so many more cues than a phone call could. 
3. And finally, if you can do it ethically, keep other candidates warm, ideally until your chosen person starts their job with you. This may not always be possible, but if you can get your number one candidate to start soon, say within a week of the offer, in that case I personally think it’s ok to let other candidates wait. 

I hope this was useful, please let me know in your comments if I have forgotten a major warning sign. 
​
You can also download a free checklist on the topic of no-shows and reneges that covers all the five pulses of the five pulse model by clicking on the first link in the comment section. 

​You can subscribe to these videos at hr360ltd.com/subscribe.

What are the signs of someone who may renege on your job offer or not show up on the first day?

In a previous post, we explored this question from the Mental Pulse perspective in the Five Pulses Model. Quick reminder, this model describes the NEEDS an employee has when joining your organisation. Using this model, we can spot if someone will likely flake on us when we give them a job offer. 

This week we want to explore the question from the Physical and Agility pulse perspective. It turns out there are at least 10 signs you should be sensitive to during the interview process. 

This will help you avoid bad surprises on the candidate's Day 1.

#1: They are a job hopper. If the last three roles haven’t kept the candidate longer than 18 months on average, there’s an increased risk they will flake on you. 

#2: The role would not be a progression for them, but more of a lateral move. The chances are that you are their placeholder until something better comes along. 

#3: During the interview process, they got easily frazzled by various environmental stressors. Changed interview location, technical issues while connecting a video call, an unexpected interviewer, and any of these things made the candidate visibly uncomfortable? Maybe, for them, certainty is important and your style of working may not be the right fit for them. 

#4: They asked about remote working and you don’t offer it. Big sign. Working from home, on occasion, has become such a big topic that if you don’t offer it, you may lose your candidate in the last minute to someone who DOES offer flexible working. 

#5: There’s a certain lack of urgency on their part, like they cannot be bothered. If they take days and not hours to respond to your emails, you may have someone on your hands who’s not really excited about the role. And that doesn’t bode well for them showing up on Day 1

#6: Their salary expectations are quite a bit removed from what you offer. My estimate here is 20%. If you offer 80 and they want 100, the risk is higher they will flake on you. 

#7: The role is low-paid and non-prestigious. Yes, it’s a fact of life that the less paid a role is the more likely no-shows are. Those who recruit servers or couriers know this very well. It doesn’t stop at service jobs, though. Even in the professional space, low-paid roles have a higher chance of attracting people who may flake on you. 

#8: They have a lot of excuses for delays. It’s not that the dog has eaten their homework, but these candidates have a lot of great reasons why they have to reschedule or deliver something later. Beware the excuse-makers.

#9: There’s a lack of effort in the formalities - Poor CV formatting, email typos, appearance less than what it could be. 

#10: They are based elsewhere and would either have to relocate - which is always a big effort and can face obstacles - or, they would be working remotely full-time. In that case, the temptation to renege is bigger because they won’t run into you on the street where they live, and so the risk of social consequences is reduced. 

You can download ALL the signs that someone will renege on your offer or not show up on Day 1 in this handy 1-page PDF:

This is all very subtle. You won’t be giving a job offer to someone who ticks all those boxes, that would be crazy. It’s only going to be one or two boxes that increase the risk of someone flaking on you. 

But the point is that once you spot one or two of these risk factors, you should be alert and address these doubts. 

And the best way to address these doubts is in three ways:

1. Discuss them directly with the candidate - say: “Hey Sue, I’d be very happy to extend a job offer to you, but I had the feeling that in our communications there has been a certain lack of urgency on your end: For example it took you two days to respond to my last message. Are you really keen about this role?”
2. Get face time with them. You can get so many more cues from someone face to face than you can get over the phone. Invite them for lunch or coffee and see how you get along. 
3. Keep other candidates warm, as ethically and as long as you possibly can, ideally until the very moment your candidate is meant to start their work. 

Next week we will discuss reneges and no-shows from an emotional / spiritual pulse in the Five Pulses Model.

You can subscribe to these videos at hr360ltd.com/subscribe.

How do you spot someone during the job interview process who has a high chance of later flaking on you?
Because there ARE some telltale signs that tell you if someone is likely to pull a no-show later on.
So that’s what we’re going to cover in this video.

When someone reneges on your job offer, it means that it was not attractive enough, plain and simple. 

It has not met their needs. What kind of needs do job candidates have? According to the Five Pulse model, there’s mental, physical, emotional, spiritual and agility needs. 

​Let’s look at mental needs first - the needs for intellectual stimulation, career advancement, and learning new skills.

What are the risk factors that increase the likelihood that your offer may not meet their MENTAL needs?

1. The role requires skills that are in high demand. Anyone who has a lot of options because of their rare skills is more likely to drop you than someone unskilled. 
2. It’s a graduate role. We have shifted into a graduates’ market, with more and more entry level positions available. This makes people collect a string of offers yet continue their job search to find something better. 
3. They were not well prepared for the interview. Lack of research on the company, no curiosity during the interview, all those are signs that should give you pause.
4. They don’t have interesting insights. A lack of substance can often be papered over by charisma. So if you liked a candidate, ask yourself if their insights about the industry, their area of specialisation or other intellectually stimulating topics were actually interesting, even if you didn’t agree with them. 
5. There was an assignment element to the interview process, and the candidate was unwilling or slow to complete it. If you found that in the process, the candidate was slow to work on the task or you felt that they were upset that this would be part of the application, that’s another risk factor. Even if they then completed the task. 

Of course, these are only subtle signs. You will not be giving a job offer to someone who didn’t prepare at ALL for the job interview and didn’t have ANYTHING interesting to say. So this checklist is for those subtle edge cases, a word here and there, something small that didn’t feel completely right. 

By the way, if you want the FULL checklist which includes ALL the risk factors that make someone a likely no-show, just click below to download the PDF (no email needed).

So, what are you supposed to do when one of these risk factors applies in your case? We will cover this in a later video in detail, but here I’ll mention it briefly: 

Basically, there’s three things you can do to hedge your risk against a no-show or reneg. 

1. One measure that’s totally underused is the direct addressing of the problem: Saying “Listen, John, I liked our conversations but I felt that you were a bit unprepared for the first interview. What do you think? Is this something that, in retrospect, you would agree with?” That can reveal how the candidate handles criticism, and it helps to bust through the formality in the job interview process. 
2. Get more face-time with them. For example, invite them for lunch with someone more senior than their role would be, so that they feel well taken care of. During the time together, pay attention to the conversation and their body language.
3. Keep other candidates warm. There are ways to do this ethically. 

We will discuss all of this in much more depth in a later video. 

In next week’s video, we will cover what are the signs from the physical and agility pulse standpoint that someone may become a no-show. 

I hope this was helpful, please make sure to add or follow me on LinkedIn, and click the button below to get notified when a new video comes out.
​

So you hire someone, send them a contract to sign, everything is hunky dory, and then they go MIA or, even worse, they sign but then don’t show up?!?!?

When I told my mum that this happens, her reaction was: “What kind of person does that?” 

I know, it’s really annoying, but let’s be grown-ups about it. No-shows and renegs are a fact of life, so we better deal with them. 

In this blog post and video series, I’ll give you a recipe how to handle no-shows and reneges. In this first part I will cover what to do to have your own house in order, so that you don’t do things that inadvertently put people off. In Part 2, I’ll tell you all about how to spot the signs that give away when someone is likely to become a no-show. And in Part 3, we’ll discuss what to do if it does happen to you. 

So watch out for Parts 2 and 3!

Let’s get started:

People thrive in a new job when they have a few fundamentals ticked which I like to describe as the Five Pulses Model. 

he five pulse model says that when deciding on taking a new job, candidates need to know that their physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and agility needs can be met. So if the candidate during the process feels that one of their needs won’t be met, they are MUCH more likely to reneg or pull a no-show.

​So, let’s run through them. Either watch the video or read the brief summary below

​Physical Pulse: This talks to the kind of office environment they see, the benefits on offer, the salary offered, how the company processes work; commuting time etc. Suss this stuff out as a first step and make sure your recruitment process is watertight throughout. 

Mental Pulse: Here the person assesses what learning and skills application opportunities are available in the job and what kind of thinking is pervasive in the company such as analytical, concrete, logical, creative or imaginative thinking environments. Define your environment and ensure you’re attracting people who are aligned to that way of thinking. 

Emotional Pulse: This talks to the emotional connection that the candidate feels to the people interviewing them and whether they can immediately establish trust which is the foundation for candidates being more reliable. Getting on with the person is paramount! Knowing that you will have a good relationship only increases the chances of a successful hire.

Spiritual Pulse: Here is the critical stuff that can’t be seen but rather felt. If you don’t align on common purpose, shared values and a similar way of approaching things, you may as well not hire anyone as you’ll be wasting your time.

Agility Pulse: How progressive the company is; how it’s working to maintain itself and how it has dealt with and come back from adversity is actually a major stickiness factor for most candidates today. Be sure to talk to these real things in your interview process. 
​
Once you’re able to answer to all of these candidate needs, you will have massively reduced the risk of them harbouring doubts in their minds and reneging on your job offer. 

Would you like to get notified of Parts 2 and 3 when they come out? 
Subscribe to the HR360 newsletter here.