Frontline Leaders Help Our Firms Go and Grow

Fred Hassan’s article, The Frontline Advantage, in the May 2011 Harvard Business Review (subscription required), turns the spotlight on the too-easily ignored and truly critical frontline leaders who make our organizations go and grow.  Frontline leaders are of course the managers and supervisors directly responsible for those doing the work.

“Typically, they make up 50% to 60% of a company’s management ranks and directly supervise as much as 80% of the workforce.”

Underscoring the importance of this group of leaders, Hassan offers:

“It is the frontline managers who must motivate and bolster the morale of the people who do the work-those who design, make and sell the products or services to the customers.  These managers are central to a company’s business strategy because they oversee its execution.”

While there’s much I don’t like about this article, including my interpretation of Hassan’s royal CEO and sometime turn-around miracle worker taking a pampered and well-facilitated walk amongst the common folk tone, his core theme: frontline leaders are really important is spot on. (In Hassan’s defense, he clearly highlights that his advice is for other CEOs.)

Great Front-line Leaders Create “Hustle and Flow”

Regular readers know I’ve got a problem with stores and businesses where customers seem to serve as inconveniences to sourpuss cashiers, unhelpful shelf-stockers and clusters of employees gabbing about something other than improving customer service.While those workers are just plain wrong, the responsibility for their performance falls squarely on the frontline leaders.

Alternatively, the businesses where you are welcomed, greeted with a smile by every employee you encounter and where your problems are politely and promptly solved, and where the energy level seems to say, “let’s help, and let’s be prompt about it,” owe their success to great people selection and day-to-day leadership of good frontline leaders.

Great frontline leaders create great experiences for their employees. This flows immediately and directly to customers.  And then it flows to the top and bottom lines.

Wrinkly-Shirted Bridge Lizards Need Not Apply:

During an interview for Practical Lessons in Leadership, one of the managers at a company we visited, indicated that the frontline leaders who did the most damage were the  Wrinkly-Shirted managers, who preferred to spy on everyone from behind the one-way glass on the “bridge” above the retail floor, rather than interact with employees and customers.

The visual image of a green, scale-covered manager wearing a wrinkled corporate-issue button down shirt, standing on high with a tongue occasionally flickering out, and glowering at everyone through beady, black eyes, is a powerful and fitting image of the worst-kind of frontline leader.

Five Reasons why Great Front-Line Leaders are Priceless:

1. Frontline leaders are close to the customer. They know how the customers respond to every brilliant and not-so-brilliant idea that rolls out of corporate.  They know the tastes and habits and brand preferences and problems of their customers, and they know what’s going on with competition in detail, long before corporate types have analyzed the latest competitive press release. These individuals are treasure-troves of real-time, detailed customer and market information.

2. Hassan is right…frontline leaders are the ones who execute on strategy. Everyone else plans, talks, reports, critiques and thinks about strategy execution…front-line leaders live it.  Want to do a better job executing on plans where it counts…educate and support the frontline leaders and let them know how important they are in this process.

3. Frontline leaders directly determine how right or wrong the working environment (atmosphere) is for the employees serving the customers. A healthy, respectful working environment where employees are given quality feedback, supported for development and encouraged to cultivate new schools through training and job rotation, goes a long way to creating that “Hustle and Flow” referenced earlier.

4. Today’s quality frontline leaders are tomorrow’s effective general managers and executives. Learning the business from the front is infinitely more valuable than attempting to absorb it from on high. Give me someone who has worked in the trenches with the troops over the classroom educated chair sitter any day.

5. Great frontline leaders drive results. One of my favorite examples: the most valuable sales person in every organization may very well be the field sales manager who supports, coaches, motivates, and helps his/her salespeople move towards success.  The same holds true for great frontline leaders everywhere.

The Bottom-Line for Now:

I’m always glad to see positive coverage of this critical group of organizational leaders. Hassan’s article serves to remind us how important it is to pay attention to and support our frontline leaders.  Based on my informal “smile test,” there are a fair number of frontline leaders who need to be doing something else.  Soon.  And for those who get it…here’s hoping you run your organization some day. Just don’t forget where you came from.

Glassdoor.com sorted through 80,000 interview questions submitted by job seekers and came up with the following mind bending questions. Think you got what it takes to get paid the big bucks? How would you answer them if you were interviewing at one of these top-notch companies?

• “If  you were shrunk to the size of a pencil and put in a blender, how would you get out?” – Asked at Goldman Sachs, Analyst position
• “How many ridges [are there] around a quarter?” – Asked at Deloitte, Project Analyst position
• “What is the philosophy of Martial Arts?” – Asked at Aflac, Sales Associate position
• “Explain [to] me what has happened in this country during the last 10 years.” – Asked at Boston Consulting, Consultant position
• “Rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 10 how weird you are.” – Asked at Capital One, Operations Analyst position
• “How many basketball[s] can you fit in this room” – Asked at Google, People Analyst position
• “Out of 25 horses, pick the fastest 3 horses. In each race, only 5 horses can run at the same time. What is the minimum number of races required?” – Asked at Bloomberg LP Financial, Software Developer position
• “If you could be any superhero, who would it be?” – Asked at AT&T, Customer Sales Representative position
• “You have a birthday cake and have exactly 3 slices to cut it into 8 equal pieces. How do you do it?” – Asked at Blackrock Portfolio Management Group, Fixed Income Analyst position
• “Given the numbers 1 to 1000, what is the minimum numbers guesses needed to find a specific number if you are given the hint “higher” or “lower” for each guess you make?” – Asked at Facebook, Software Engineer position
• “If you had 5,623 participants in a tournament, how many games would need to be played to determine the winner?” – Asked at Amazon, Manager position
• “An apple costs 20 cents, an orange costs 40 cents, and a grapefruit costs 60 cents, how much is a pear?” – Asked at Epic Systems, Project Manager position
• “There are three boxes, one contains only apples, one contains only oranges, and one contains both apples and oranges. The boxes have been incorrectly labeled such that no label identifies the actual contents of the box it labels. Opening just one box, and without looking in the box, you take out one piece of fruit. By looking at the fruit, how can you immediately label all of the boxes correctly?” – Asked at Apple, Software QA Engineer position
• “How many traffic lights in Manhattan?” – Asked at Argus Information & Advisory Services, Analyst position
• “You are in a dark room with no light. You need matching socks for your interview and you have 19 grey socks and 25 black socks. What are the chances you will get a matching pair?” – Asked at Eze Castle, Quality Assurance position
• “What do wood and alcohol have in common?” – Asked at Guardsmark, Staff Writer position
• “How do you weigh an elephant without using a weigh machine?” – Asked at IBM, Software Engineer position
• “You have 8 pennies, 7 weigh the same, one weighs less. You also have a judges scale. Find the one that weighs less in less than 3 steps.” – Asked at Intel, Systems Validation Engineer position
• “Why do you think only a small percentage of the population makes over $150K?” – Asked at New York Life, Sales Agent position
• “You are in charge of 20 people, organize them to figure out how many bicycles were sold in your area last year.” – Asked at Schlumberger, Field Engineer position
• “How many bottles of beer are drank in the city over the week?” – Asked at The Nielsen Company, Research Analyst position
• “What’s the square root of 2000?” – Asked at UBS, Sales and Trading position
• “A train leaves San Antonio for Huston at 60mph. Another train leaves Huston for San Antonio at 80mph. Huston and San Antonio are 300 miles apart. If a bird leaves San Antonio at 100mph, and turns around and flies back once it reaches the Huston train, and continues to fly between the two, how far will it have flown when they collide?”- Asked at USAA, Software Engineer position
• “How are M&M’s made?” – Asked at US Bank, Leadership Program Development position
• “What would you do if you just inherited a pizzeria from your uncle?” – Asked at Volkswagen, Business Analyst position.

Your Guarantee for Making an Impressive Interview First Impression

 Lets face it, interviewing is stressful enough without having to answer stupid interview questions.  But unfortunately, many interviewers, because of habit, lack of preparation time, poor training, or yes, even laziness, often ask stupid interview questions.  Of those, one of the most challenging is the oft used “Tell me about yourself” interview opener.

What most candidates ask me about this insipid interview question is “what do they want to know?”  They want to know about you the candidate as a potential employee.  They don’t want to know about your family, your last vacation, your hobbies, your religious beliefs, that you like the Red Sox, or that you are a proud member of AA.  Yes, I have had candidates give each of those responses to the infamous “Tell me about yourself?” question.  I don’t recall any of them ever getting hired by the employers who interviewed them.

Interviewers also think it is improper, a sign of your lack of preparedness, or even rude, for you to answer their “Tell me about yourself?” question with a question like, “What do you want to know?”  If you are prepared and seriously thinking about making a career change, you will have to prepared and thoughtful answer to this question before you begin interviewing.

Why?  I am glad you asked, and I think one example should convince you I am right.

Let me share just one story about this opening interview question that cost a candidate a job that they REALLY wanted.  It is a perfect illustration to make you understand why you must plan a response for this question whether you are asked it or not.  The scenario was this: The candidate was a General Manager with 4 years at a nationally recognized casual dinning chain.  I had a Client looking to fill a GM position for a $60,000 base + $30,000 bonus.  The candidate had an ideal background and skill set, and the client thought that they were a perfect fit.  The candidate knew the client and was thrilled to be interviewing with them.

You can more or less guess how the story ended.  The candidate didn’t get the job, but please pay attention as to why, because this is the part of the story that matters most.  To start the interview the candidate was asked the dreaded “Tell me about yourself?” question.  Thinking that it was an inconsequential icebreaker question, they retorted, simply intending to cause an opening chuckle, “Well as you can obviously see, I am 15-20 pounds overweight.”

They were only joking!  Yet, due to the impact this answer had on the client, for all practical purposes the interview was over as soon as they said this.  That “amusing” answer to what the candidate viewed as a seemingly innocuous question convinced the employer that the $90,000 GM had an image or low self-esteem problem.  Despite my insistence that it was just a joke, the employer declined to make the candidate an offer.  The retort was just a joke!  But not really.  It was no joke to the candidate who lost their dream job.  It was no joke to me, the recruiter, who invested so much time in finding the employer this ideal candidate.  This candidate attempted to humorously break the ice, but the interviewer misinterpreted the response to a stupid question, and became convinced that the candidate was not GM material.

This whole fiasco could have been avoided if the candidate had just been taught a vary simple formula for answering the question.  Sure, we know this question is a stupid and unnecessary question with which to begin an interview.  But because interviewers open interviews with this question and your answer will set the tone for the rest of the interview, candidates need to know how to respond to this question intelligently.  The formula I’ve learned has worked wonders for hundreds of my candidates.

Many, in fact a sad majority, of interviewers open with some form of the “tell me about yourself?” question.  It would be an easy question to answer if candidates answered with a prepared and well thought-out initial marketing statement of themselves and their skills, which are applicable for the open job.  This sounds pretty straightforward, but few of the thousands of candidates I have interviewed over the years have ever been able to answer this question in this intelligent manner.  The best candidates usually answer with a narrowing question like: “What would you like to know?” But let’s get one think straight: It is extremely poor form to answer the opening interview question with another question.  Yet, that is how the BEST candidates do typically answer this question, due to it’s ambiguous nature.  Though it seems to be a logical approach, you must prepare to do better.

Candidates must teach themselves to answer this question with a three-part pre-planned marketing statement that can more or less be reused from interview to interview.  Part one of the three-part marketing statement is always a one sentence summary of the candidate’s career history.  For example, let me share with you a former candidate’s opening sentence:

“I am a seven year veteran of the restaurant industry with substantial management experience in casual dinning.”

You get the picture; your whole career needs to be condensed into one brief sentence that encapsulates the most important aspects of your career, the aspects that you want to leverage in order to make your next career step.  Few candidates seem to be able to condense a career into one sentence, but it must and can be done.  Ask any recruiter for help here, this is what we do.

Part two of the pre-planned marketing statement will be a one, maybe two sentence summary, of a single accomplishment that you are proud of that will also capture the potential employers attention.  It immediately follows your initial career summary sentence from above.  This accomplishment should be one that the employer will be interested in hearing, one that is easily explained or illustrated, and one that clearly highlights a bottom line impact.  When done correctly this will build interviewer intrigue about the accomplishment so that they inquire further, giving you an opportunity to further discuss a significant career success.  The above candidate’s accomplishment statement was:

“Recently, as a General Manager at Applebee’s I increased  sales for two years in a row and doubled profits during that same time frame by focusing on food, guest service and sanitation standards.  This not only increased guest satisfaction but reduced hourly turnover to 62% a year for the 2 year period.”

Part three, the final piece of the marketing statement, is probably the most fluid piece.  It needs to be a one sentence summary of specifically what you want to do next in your career.  The reason this third part is difficult is that it needs to specifically address what you want to do next, and it needs to change form interview to interview to make sure it matches exactly what the individual employers will be interviewing you for.  Continuing with the above example of one of my past candidates, one of his final sentences was as follows:

“For the next step in my career, I would like to find myself as a GM of a small company, that is focused on great food and service,  that is only beginning to expand thus allowing me the opportunity to open new locations and down the road rise to the level of Area Director.”

The candidate in this case was applying to a company that had 8 restaurants and is driven by great food and impeccable service.  He told them what they wanted to hear.  If the candidate was applying to a large company then this wouldn’t be effective so you can see that the third piece must be fluid and ever changing.  With some simple planning before an interview, you, the candidate, will quickly realize the benefit of a targeted third sentence in these pre-planned opening statements, as employers feel you are perfectly suited to do the job they are interviewing you for.

If you take the time to prepare this way as a candidate, it will be apparent to an interviewer that you are a prepared and serious candidate right at the beginning of the interview when you answer the “Tell me about yourself?” question with this memorized, brief marketing statement, which combines a career summary, an exceptional accomplishment, and employer-specific career goal as in this example:

“I am a seven year veteran of the restaurant industry with substantial management experience in casual dinning.  Recently, as a General Manager at Applebee’s I increased  sales by double digest for two years in a row and doubled profits during that same time frame by focusing on food, guest service and sanitation standards.  This not only increased guest satisfaction but reduced turnover to 62% a year for the 2 year period.  For the next step in my career, I would like to find myself as a GM of a small company, that is focused on great food and service,  that is only beginning to expand thus allowing me the opportunity to open new locations and down the road rise to the level of Area Director.”

Clearly you can understand how the candidate who opens with this type of prepared response to the “Tell me about yourself?” question will make a significantly better first impression then a candidate who responds to this question by answering, “What would you like to know?” or worse yet, “Well as you can obviously see, I am 15-20 pounds overweight.” Plus candidates who prepare in this manner are typically more confident at the interview’s start, make a substantial and positive verbal first impression, give a clear indication of their interest in making a career move, and force the interviewer to get past the ice breaker question to the parts of the interview that will help both parties begin the process of seriously determining if this is a solid match.  AS you can see, there is a great deal of bang for your preparation buck.

Clearly these three simple steps of, summarizing what your experience is as a candidate, sharing an impressive career accomplishment, and then summarizing what would be an ideal next career step for you, one that matches what the employer is looking to hire, is the key to beginning your interview with a competitive advantage.  Candidates, who take the time to do this, significantly improve their initial verbal impression, get their interview off to a confident and focused beginning, and more often then not get called back for second interviews, or better yet, for offers of employment with employers who are impressed.

The 10 Toughest Job Interview Questions

Article written by Barry Golds

Q1. What did you not like about your last employer?

A. OK, so the interviewer has asked you to say something negative about your ex-employer. You need to turn this around so that it makes it sound like the negative is in fact a positive!

Remember, you will not get any credit for complaining or describing a negative situation without adding a positive ending. Here are some examples of what you should say if you are faced with this question:

Start with “Actually there are a lot of good things to say about my ex-employer, however if I need to highlight one area…

“I used to get a bit annoyed when I noticed inefficiencies in the processing workflows and controls. A number of times I made suggestions as to improvements that could be made which would have saved money but the ideas were effectively ignored.”

or

“I always tried my utmost to make sure that all customers were treated fairly and honestly but I noticed a malaise creeping in which meant that some staff didn’t always try their best to meet the exacting standards required. I feel this reflected badly on everyone.”

Q2. I see from your resume that you have never actually been in this role in any of your previous companies. How are you going to manage?

A. Firstly, this is an obvious weakness. Weakness means risk to an employer and they are looking for re-assurance that you will adapt to the new environment.

Relate your previous experience to similar situations where you moved departments and had a new role or were faced with new technology which you had to learn quickly.

Turn this into a positive about ‘how you are able to adapt to changing circumstances and have a flexible approach. How you pick up new skills quickly. How you enjoy the challenge of the ever changing technology’.

Try to broaden the answer by saying ‘we are all faced with a fast moving and changing environment which constantly presents new challenges. I have always been able to rise to these and perform effectively despite tight deadlines and little support.’

Importantly, then go on to list examples of similar experiences where you have demonstrated such skills. This should close the issue in the interviewer’s mind and paint a positive picture.

Q3. What is your typical working week in hours?

A. Whatever it takes to get the job done. However, be careful not to suggest you work long hours purely because you are inefficient.

“I like to think I am an effective and efficient worker who gets through a full workload each week. However there are times when I need to work late and weekends and this is fine. This is often due to uneven demands on my time. I will put whatever effort it takes to complete my role.”

Q4. How long would it take for you to start making a real contribution to the organization?

A. There is no point in blurting out an answer here because the contribution could be anywhere and you could go off in the wrong direction. Bat the question back to get a more precise idea and allow yourself some time to think.

“In what particular area of my responsibilities did you have in mind?”

“Of course there will be a short learning curve while I get up to speed but in the past I have prided myself on being a quick learner who can make an effective contribution in a short space of time. I see this opportunity as no different although I accept it will be a challenge.”

Prepare an example of how you had a similar situation where you had to learn a new skill quickly.

Q5. What have you learnt most from your past career?

A. A truly open ended question and the opportunity to talk positively. But you need to keep your answer at a high level.

“I have learnt many things as you can imagine. But one point always rings true. Every one needs to be treated with respect, their opinion should be valued and they should be encouraged to contribute to the good of the organization.”

Q6. What would you most like not to do in this role?

A. Dangerous question. The interviewer is probing for things that you didn’t previously like and then they can ask a follow on question about why you didn’t like them. Beware of this trap.

Turn the question around and give a ‘model answer’…

‘In an ideal world…I would like to avoid any bureaucracy or red-tape which can delay decisions. Like anyone, I am always keen for good progress to be made at all times and everything to run smoothly’.

…or perhaps you have an example such as this….

‘I would like to avoid the situation in the last role where we had tight deadlines and three of my staff went off on long term sick with the winter flu last year. Although we achieved our targets, it was only through hard effort, team-work and long hours’.

See how these answers portray you in a good light and turn a negative into a positive.

Q7. What would your job references say about you?

A. Try to make sure that any job references have been sought and written before you go interviewing. This is not always possible but would allow you to repeat their positive comments.

Where you do have job references, then you can say you have references, and they are very complimentary around a number of aspects of your work.

It is not a problem if you don’t have references and the question implies that you would probably imagine what they would say.

Effectively, the interviewer is therefore asking to list your strengths. Take the time to list your job strengths and behavioral qualities. Start the sentence in the 3rd party with…’My references would say…’

Any time you are able to reply in the 3rd party, it sounds like someone else is endorsing your candidacy which in effect references do. Everyone will say they will receive good references but if you say this using a 3rd party endorsement, then you add greater credibility to your statement.

Q8. Why should I hire you?

A. This is one question which you should have prepared for thoroughly.

You need to have a personal pitch of 3 – 4 sentences prepared. This needs to relate to the job description which you need to go through line by line. Then add in the additional personal qualities that you bring to the role. Apply these to the personal summary statement.

It is always worth using a qualifying phrase such as ‘colleagues have said of me…I am a great motivator/team-builder/technician etc.’. It sounds better if there is a 3rd party endorsement. It doesn’t sound like you are bragging but a colleague is speaking on your behalf.

In addition, you will need to have relevant examples which you can offer to expand on. The personal qualities for the role will be attributes such as hard-working, motivating, good communication skills, desire to succeed, etc…

You should end your answer with a statement such as ‘do you think these qualities are what you are looking for from a successful candidate?’

It plants a seed in the mind of the interviewer that you are.

If they reply that they were expecting other qualities, then discuss them and offer examples of how you have these and examples of them in action. You need to leave the interviewer in no doubt that you have the skills and can demonstrate this with relevant examples.

Q9. Why do you want to leave your current job?

A. Negative connotation and expectancy that you will say something negative about ex-employer or ex-employee. Resist the temptation and keep the answer upbeat concentrating on the advantages of what the new job would offer. You could mention the increased salary but do not dwell on it, emphasize the other benefits first.

“I enjoy my previous job and as I have demonstrated, I make a solid contribution which is appreciated. However I am looking for more experience, a greater challenge / increased responsibility / more dynamic organization that this role offers.”

Make sure you have a list of reasons for joining this company.

You need to reply using one or a combination of the following five replies:

Challenge: You need a new career challenge.

Traveling: The commute to work was taking too long or I was constantly being asked to travel with work.

Career: I had reached the likely top and there was no room for advancement until someone else above me left.

Money: You feel you were not being paid what you were worth.

Security: The organization was unstable and my role may have been at risk.

Q10. What, as an organization, can we offer that is better than your current employer?

A. It is asking for a direct comparison between your current employer and your future employer.

An interviewer wants to hear that you are a valued member in your current / previous role. You have worked for an organization that has trained you to a high level and you have been providing a strong contribution to their skilled workforce. They hope to leverage these skills in their organization.

A typical answer which deals with such a comparison should be…

‘My current organization has been a great career move for me. I have learned many new skills (eg. x). There is a great team ethic and I feel I have made a strong contribution to their sales team / office / project team etc.

However, I see your organization and the role it offers as a new challenge which can leverage my skills and allow me to challenge myself and set new goals and further my career in a way that the current organization perhaps doesn’t offer.”

Of course, this answer needs to be tailored to meet your particular circumstances. Start by listing what you like about your current organization and the experience you have gained. Compare this with the list of skills and benefits you expect to find in the new organization. Use this list to tailor your answer.

Stay clear of talking about money. The sub text of this question and so many others like it is the interviewer is asking ‘What’s in it for me?’

You should be replying “I am making a contribution and this is how…” include examples of how you can make the contribution, which backs up your claims.

By saying you want to leverage your skills in the new role and show how you can make a strong contribution is precisely what the interviewer wants to hear.

If you say or even imply the reason for the new job is that you are looking for more money or additional benefits, then this does not imply you are making a contribution to the new organization.

You are in fact saying “what is in it for me” and does not address the interviewers needs!