The foundation of almost every productive team is a strong leader. As a business owner or manager, it is important to establish effective leadership techniques to operate your team well. Your employees will be looking up to you to create boundaries and unify the group.

If you are not acting as a strong leader then it is time that you start! Here are a few leadership techniques to build a great working team.

Stay Consistent

Consistency is key. A consistent leader is more trustworthy and creates clearer expectations for the team to make decisions. To be consistent, you must reward the same behaviors, discourage other behaviors, and treat every team member equally.

Use Thoughtful, Concise, and Accurate Communication

Communication can dictate the success of almost any type of relationship. Make sure that you are using thoughtful, concise, and accurate communication when you relay any type of message with your team. This includes emails, phone calls, and in-person discussions.

Publicly Reward Hard Work

Public acknowledgement reassures employees that their hard work is being noticed. Reward your employee with a bonus, PTO, or gift when they perform superior work. See our article on employee rewards for more ideas.

Be a Good Example

Live by example! I am sure that is a phrase you have heard before. If you want your team to arrive on-time than you must arrive on-time. As a leader or manager, the team is looking at you to set the expectations for the company.

Encourage All Opinions and Ideas

Do not discourage employees from expressing their ideas, concerns, or opinions. Different perspectives can create new ideas that benefit the company.

Establish the Goal of Working as a Team

Setting goals is imperative to evaluate the performance of your team. Your goals should be according to your organization’s needs, such as cut costs, drive skills, or increase revenue. Defining goals can help your team work together toward a common objective.

Use the SMART framework to create achievable goals:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Relevant
• Time-Bound

Create Ground Rules for the Team

When multiple people spend 40+ hours together, there needs to be ground rules. Your ground rules help create unison and clear expectations for your employees.

Examples of Ground Rules at the Office

• Be on time
• Every team member has the right to make a suggestion
• Dress code

Remain as Transparent as Possible

Your employees want a leader that they can trust. If you withhold information or lie you will jeopardize the relationship with your team.

Show You Care

To be viewed as someone who is a leader they want to follow and be loyal to you need to show that you care about them as well. Spend a little time to get to know the people on your team and what drives them. Once they know you care about them, they will care more about helping you achieve your goals as well.

Leadership habits can determine the success of their team. If you are a manager or business owner, evaluate whether you are practicing strong leadership techniques. A few changes may improve the cohesiveness of your team, therefore helping you reach your company goals.

Stress affects everyone. The trick is learning to deal with our stress so it doesn’t hinder your daily life.

If you are facing stress at work then you are not alone. The average business professional has 30 to 100 projects on their plate. Within those projects, we are interrupted seven times per hour and distracted 2.1 hours per day. Fortunately, there are methods to manage your stress to work more productive work days.

Learn how to decrease your stress level with the following tips before stress becomes a serious problem:

Schedule Your Day for Productivity

Working 10 hours per day is not always the most productive method of working. We get tired, frustrated, and distracted. Your day will remain more focused if you take breaks throughout the day. Plan your work activities in 60-90 minute blocks, then take a break. This may sound contradictory but without breaks, your productivity goes down and stress level increases. You can maintain a much lower stress level if you schedule breaks.

• Take walks
• Do a breathing exercise
• Stretch at your desk

Sleep Well

If you are not sleeping well then you will not receive the rejuvenation that relieves stress. The American Psychological Institute reports that the average American receives 6.7 hours of sleep which is less than the recommended 7-9 hours. Also, 42% of adults report their sleep quality is poor to fair and 43% report stress keeping them awake at night.

If you have trouble falling asleep at night, practice a breathing exercise. Inhale as you count to five and exhale as you count back down from five. This exercise can decrease your heart rate to help you relax.

Eat Right

During times of stress, we often seek out “comfort foods”. Ironically, these high-fat foods can make us feel lethargic and less able to handle stress. The best solution is to eat high-fiber, low fat foods that boost our immune systems. These foods can help keep us energized throughout our work day.

Foods to Include:

• High-fiber, carbohydrate-rich foods
• Fruits and Vegetables

Foods to Avoid:

• High-fat foods
• Caffeine
• Sugar

Eliminate Interruptions

When your phone is ringing, mailbox is full, and voicemail light is blinking, it can be easy to get stressed. To eliminate your interruptions, you need to anticipate their occurrence. If you learn how to handle interruptions then you will probably notice an increase in productivity.

Tips to Eliminate Interruptions

• Use an official ticketing/request system
• Retreat to a quieter workspace
• Overestimate the time that you will need
• Tell visitors that you only have a few minutes if they interrupt you with a question
• Write down your daily tasks

Laugh!

Sounds silly? Well sometimes silliness is the best medicine. Laughter lowers blood pressure, reduces stress hormone levels, and triggers the release of endorphins. You can create a more relaxed feeling that shakes away tension.

To build up a chuckle, keep a funny photo, meme, or even favorite YouTube comedy clip on demand. Laughter is a good reminder to not take life so seriously.

Meditation

“Meditation put you on the fast track to being happy” says Ronnie Newman, director of research and health promotion for the Art of Living Foundation. When our bodies are stressed, we experience increased breathing rate, blood pressure, and pulse. Meditation trains our bodies to relax in high stress environments. Achieve this state of relaxation leads to an enhanced mood, lowered blood pressure, improved digestion, and reduction of everyday stress.

Meditation Practice

Sit quietly with good posture and eyes closed for 10-20 minutes, while visualization a relaxing image. You can also incorporate the breathing exercise described in the Sleeping Well section to help you relax. Do this meditation practice before work to prepare yourself for the day.

Stress does not have to control your life! Your work can be much more fun and interesting if you relieve the distress that is making your work suffer.

Meetings are a powerful tool that can increase the productivity of your workplace. However, many managers fail to organize efficient meetings.

If you are a business professional than you probably have experienced a poorly run meeting. After all, the United States holds 11 million formal business meetings per day and $37 billion is wasted in meetings per year. If you are a manager that is organizing meetings, it is important to know how to deliver meetings that benefit your company.

The following tips can help you create more effective meetings in the workplace:

Know the Objective of Your Meeting

A meeting must have a specific goal. Ask yourself these questions:

“What do I intend to accomplish?”
“Are you alerting people to a change in management or a shift in strategy?”
“Are you seeking input from others on a problem facing the company?”
“Are you looking to arrive at a decision on a particular matter?”

Before you arrive at the meeting, know your objective and present it clearly to your employees. If your objective is a status update, consider if it can be sent over email.

Create Written Agenda in Advance

A written agenda is a great method to prevent vague intentions. Provide the written agenda to employees a day in advance. It should include:

• Goal of Meeting
• Topics to be Discussed
• Materials/Documents that Could Give Employees a Better Idea of Meeting Background

Try putting your agenda in a template if you have weekly meetings. Templates can save hours in preparation time.

Stick to a Time Schedule

Time is money. Stick to a time schedule to ensure that you address each topic in a timely manner. Meetings can easily become careless, unfocused, and filled with “small talk” if you do not create a time schedule.

Your timeline should an outline of your agenda with the certain amount of time for each topic. Remember that you are paying your employees for their time so do not waste your own money.

Ban Technology

Engaging your employees will probably be one of the most difficult things to accomplish in your meetings. If people are bringing their smartphones or tablets into meetings then they will not be focused on you. They could be checking their emails, sending texts, and even on Facebook. Eliminate the technology to eliminate the distractions.

Start on Time, End on Time

Time is limited. Your employees will appreciate if you can respect their schedule. Make sure to start and end meetings on time. This way, people will be more respectful of your meetings and make more of an effort to attend.
Tip: Do not schedule meetings longer than an hour. Sixty minutes is generally as long as people can stay engaged on a topic.

Make sure that you are running efficient meetings. Your employees will appreciate it, and you can increase the productivity that a great company requires.

There are many deeply personal reasons to change your employment situation. However, from a purely strategic point of view, there are four good reasons to change jobs within the same (or similar) industry three times during your first ten years of employment:

Reason #1: Changing jobs gives you a broader base of experience: After about three years, you’ve learned most of what you’re going to know about how to do your job. Therefore, over a ten year period, you gain more experience from “3 x 90%” than “1 x 100%.”

Reason #2: A more varied background creates a greater demand for your skills: Depth of experience means you’re more valuable to a larger number of employers. You’re not only familiar with your current company’s product, service, procedures, quality programs, inventory system, and so forth; you bring with you the expertise you’ve gained from multiple companies.

Reason #3: A job change results in an accelerated promotion cycle: Each time you make a change, you bump up a notch on the promotion ladder. You jump, for example, from RA Sr. Specialist to RA Manager; or RA/QA Manager to RA/QA Director.

Reason #4: More responsibility leads to greater earning power: A promotion is usually accompanied by a salary increase. And since you’re being promoted faster, your salary grows at a quicker pace, sort of like compounding the interest you’d earn on a certificate of deposit.

Many people view a job change as a way of promoting themselves to a better position. And in most cases that is true. However, you should always be sure your new job offers you the means to satisfy your values. While there’s no denying the strategic virtues of selective job changing for the purpose of career leverage, you want to make sure the path you take will lead you where you really want to go.

For instance, there’s no reason to change jobs for more money if it’ll make you unhappy to the point of distraction (i.e. longer commute, no new challenges, difficult boss). On the other hand, if a job represents several other aspects that would improve your situation, then taking a job for the same money would be a good move.

The “best” job is one in which the key aspects of the job match up well with what you value in a job; whether that be career growth and advancement, smaller/bigger company environment, shorter commute or more money. Working with a Recruiter that takes the time to learn what’s important to you and matches new opportunities with your criteria in mind can help ensure that your next move is the right move.

Communication is one of the biggest complaints candidates have throughout the recruiting and interviewing process, and is one of the key reasons you may be missing out on some of the best candidates. It is important to use a recruiter who establishes a strong communication system with employers and candidates and keeps both sides informed at each step of the process. This can prevent you from losing valuable candidates.

Important Steps to Remember

Your recruiter should be following up with candidates after an interview and providing you feedback from the candidate’s perspective.

Many recruiters tell their clients, “I will let you know when I have news,” but that is not good enough. Your candidate should hear from you within 1-2 days to do a debrief of their interview experience. It is respectful to the candidate and keeps them engaged with your position, but also gives you valuable feedback on how your company and interview team are being perceived by candidates. It is also the first chance to identify and clarify any possible “miscommunications” that may have come up during the interviews.

Many recruiters or hiring managers choose to use email to follow up with candidates, and that is certainly a good option and better than no contact with them at all, but you get a much better picture of where things stand by having an actual conversation with the candidate. That is where a good recruiter can use their relationship with the candidate to get honest feedback for you on the interview and also see if they are interviewing elsewhere and if there may be other competitors for this candidate.

If you choose to use an email to follow up with candidates after an interview, here is a template that you can use to follow-up on an interview:

Dear [X],

We would like to thank you for coming in to interview with our team. We are in the process of collecting feedback from all of the interview team members to let you know their decision, and it may take a few more days to hear from everyone, but I didn’t want you to think I had forgotten about you.

You may have questions for me, and I hope you’ll let me know if that is the case. I will be in touch as soon as the interview team’s feedback is complete, but I am always happy to answer your questions in the meantime.

Thanks and have an outstanding day!

Yours,
[X]

This simple email made a positive difference in the candidate’s interview experience.

The stronger the candidate, the stronger the expectations. Make sure you are using a recruiter that builds a strong communication system with your candidates.

Jeff King of RQ Focus follows through with each candidate to make sure you know how the he or she feels about your company and opportunity, and helps you prepare an offer for your chosen candidate that is fair and will be accepted. His professional methodologies help ensure that you hire the highest-quality candidate.

Since Recruiters are paid strictly on a commission basis, we are constantly evaluating our workload to determine where we should be focusing our efforts. We do this for two reasons: 1) to ensure our client company’s needs are being met, and 2) to ensure a placement is made, and a commission is earned.

The elements of a search assignment that we use as a basis of our evaluation are as follows:

• An urgent need to fill the position.
• A well defined and realistic idea of the job candidate you are looking for.
• An open line of communication with the hiring manager.
• A commitment to work as a team to attract and hire top talent.
• Prompt return of phone calls and feedback on job candidates submitted and interviewed.
• A fair and competitive salary is being offered.
• The company is attractive to potential job candidates.
• A fair fee agreement has been signed.

When we receive a job order, we evaluate these elements to categorize the search into one of three classifications:

“A” Search – This classification means the search contains all of these elements. This type of search will get our full attention, meaning we will:

• Conduct a thorough search of our database of current, qualified job candidates.
• Conduct a search of our database of job candidates we know that have the right background, but are not yet qualified job candidates.
• Tap into our networks for referrals to qualified job candidates.
• Cold calling into competitor companies to lure their employees to your opportunity.
• Give weekly updates as the search progresses.

“B” Search – This classification means there are some elements missing, but it’s still a pretty good search. It will still get our attention, but takes a back seat to the A searches. For this type of search we will:

• Conduct a thorough search of our database of current, qualified job candidates.
• Conduct a search of our database of job candidates we know that have the right background, but are not yet qualified job candidates.
• Keep the position in mind as we recruit for our A client companies.
• Submit job candidates only after our A client companies have had first right of refusal for them.

“F” Search – This classification means most or all of the elements are missing. It’s not important to the client company, so it’s not important to us. For this type of search we will:

• Keep the position in mind as we recruit for our A and B client companies.
• Submit possible job candidates only after the A and B client companies have had first right of refusal.

ACTIONS THAT LOWER A CLIENT COMPANY’S CLASSIFICATION

Let’s elaborate on some of the search elements listed above, and how a client company’s actions can reduce the attractiveness of a search assignment.

Prompt Feedback on Job Candidates

If it takes more than 2 or 3 days to get some initial feedback on a job candidate, it can kill the momentum and interest the Recruiter has worked so hard to instill in the job candidate. It also tells the Recruiter that filling this position is not urgent. Also, the better job candidates usually have other options. There is ALWAYS a need for top talent and they will most likely choose to go to a place that shows interest in them and appears more organized during the interviewing process.

Bottlenecks in Communication

If a Recruiter is told “you have to direct all communications through HR”, in most cases that will drop the search to at least a B level search, if not an F. This is not an insult to HR departments, but is more indicative of the problems with this type of approach. The person in HR is usually a lower level person that may not fully understand what a hiring manager is looking for in a job candidate, and probably also has several other open requisitions on their desk, as well as other duties outside of the recruiting process. Often times these people are overworked and outside of their area of expertise. It’s inefficient to ask them to funnel the appropriate job candidates to you when they might not know what that job candidate looks like, or how to select them.

Also, as part of matching a possible job candidate to a company and job, a Recruiter needs to have some contact with the hiring manager to get a feel for personality fits and departmental culture (management style, departmental priorities in the coming months, etc.). HR should certainly by kept in the loop in all communications and activities with the job candidates, but if that is the ONLY communications allowed with a client company, it is extremely rare that that client company will ever get to the “A” priority.

Too Much Authority in the Wrong Hands

In cases where a lower level HR representative is given the authority to review job candidate resumes, or conduct an initial phone interview, and then make the decision of whether or not the hiring manager will even see the job candidate’s resume, we will decline the search 90% of the time. This may seem like a stream lined approach to recruiting, but it often backfires in the following ways:

• VERY few people in the lower levels of HR have a strong enough understanding of the roles of Regulatory, Clinical, and Quality to be able to decide who is a good job candidate and who isn’t.
• An HR employee or contract Recruiter intentionally stalling on a Recruiter’s job candidate to see if they can find someone stronger by themselves to preserve job security.
• An HR employee showing favoritism for a particular search firm’s job candidate because they like that search firm better, or got a nice gift basket from them.

The hiring manager misses out on some very good job candidates and is unaware any of this is going on. The Recruiter can move on to another search assignment, but the client company’s job remains open.

If One Recruiter is Good, Maybe Five Would Be Better

Don’t count on it. You may be thinking that you will have more eyes and ears in the market looking for you, however, there is a limited supply of job candidates in the Regulatory, Clinical, and Quality fields, and even fewer that are considered top talent. If several Recruiters are calling the same people, two things will happen; none of which are good for you.

First – the qualified pool of job candidates will begin to wonder what’s wrong with that company, thinking that they are really desperate needing so many Recruiters because:

1. The opportunity isn’t very appealing.
2. The company must be disorganized.
3. The job opening has an overwhelming workload, and no one else wants to step into that situation.
4. The company is looking for just any “warm body” to fill the position.

Second – the Recruiters will hear that these job candidates are getting calls from several other Recruiters for this position, and they will immediately drop them to a B or F level search.

You may think you have 4, 5, or 10 Recruiters out there working for you when in fact you have 4, 5, or 10 Recruiters that have placed your search on the back burner and have moved on to searches that have a better chance of being filled.

Cutting the Recruiter Out of the Interview Process

This is one that really makes no sense and, luckily, doesn’t happen too often. The Recruiter submits a job candidate you like and you want to interview them. You decide to handle setting up the interviews and contacting the job candidate yourself, without involving the Recruiter. It sends the message you don’t trust the Recruiter. Even more important, you shut yourself off to the inside knowledge the Recruiter has already obtained during their screening process to see if the job candidate is right for your job. For example, we inquire as to whether the job candidate is motivated by salary, title, a new set of responsibilities, etc. Job candidates are less guarded about discussing their concerns with their Recruiter than they would be with a potential employer. If the job candidate gets hired, you still have to pay the Recruiter’s fee – why not get the absolute most for your money? Let the trained Recruiter do their job and earn their fee.

Deteriorating Facilities

You may think this is not very relevant to the decision-making process for a job candidate that is considering an offer from a company, but it’s actually in the top 3 or 4 factors on their list. A job candidate is not only looking for a good opportunity, with a chance to progress in their career, but also a pleasant place to spend 40+ hours a week of their lives. If the building is run down, dimly lit, and depressing, you are fighting an uphill battle in the war for talent.

When we have a job candidate turn down an offer, and the money, title, and scope of responsibilities are all in line with what they are looking for, the next reasons that come up are either the commute, or the facilities. After a job candidate’s first interview, we always ask them if they can picture themselves working for the company. If they say “not without getting a good shrink”, you will have a difficult time getting them on board and offering more money probably won’t do the trick.

Reverse the roles for a minute and consider this. If a job candidate came in to interview for a job wearing ripped jeans and a tee shirt with their favorite band on the front, and had little life to their personality, chances are you would pass on that job candidate. Even if they have the perfect background for the job, and you also have another really good job candidate (but not quite as good as the sloppier job candidate) that is in contention for the job, who showed up dressed much more professionally, you will most likely choose the one that made the better impression. It’s no different for a job candidate considering a new job.

Too Many Decision Makers in the Interview Process

The more people involved in the interviewing process that get to cast a deciding vote, the more likely the job is going to remain open for a very long time, or possibly never get filled. While you will want the job candidate meet with all of the people that are considered critical, and the people they will be working directly with, you should try to limit the number of people that can cast a “deciding” vote to 2 or 3. Any more than that and you significantly decrease your chances of getting a unanimous approval.

If you’ve had some difficulties getting results from recruiters on past searches, maybe you can look back and see where some of these elements may have contributed to the poor results. Or if a recruiter was doing a good job for you and then stopped producing, call them and ask if anything has changed on your search. Sometimes things are going well with the recruiter and the hiring manager, but they keep running into roadblocks or getting different instructions from HR (or vice versa) causing enough confusion and conflict to lower your search ranking.

Of course, it could also be that you were choosing the wrong recruiter for the job. But that’s a discussion for another article.

If you have comments or a story to share, we would love to hear them. And if you have questions, we would love to hear them too.