Good Morning,
I wanted to write you my nocturnal reflections about the work we did yesterday, to clear up any misunderstandings and to give, if possible, a further contribution to our goal of finding people for your company who can provide that extra something, of creating a united team that is focused on achieving business goals, of having a peaceful and productive environment that is in line with your expectations and those of your customers.
Perhaps you have had the same reflections, but I wanted to take this chance to remind you that for the task of staff selection that you entrusted me with, particularly with regards to the manager position though this also applies in general, the goal was not to find the "perfect" person for your company (after all, perfection does not exist, not in this world), with extensive experience in this specific sector, and with fully developed technical and managerial skills for this field (otherwise the hiring selection would have been handled differently, and there would be no need to do a personality assessment for their attitudes and behaviors).
What we were looking for, were people with certain specific technical requirements (sufficient language skills, schooling, and experience) but most importantly someone with great human capabilities and social skills, willing to question themselves and self-evaluate, willing to learn continuously, to fit in with those who already work in the company and help them to improve, to have a good relationship with customers, to create a real team where everybody gives their best, where people help each other, to be surrounded by motivated staff who push to achieve both personal and business goals, and don’t get lost in gossip, complaints or criticism etc ... etc ...
And once you made a choice based on these characteristics, the need to assess the candidate’s compatibility with the team you already have, the empathy that you yourself have with the candidate, the social chemistry that develops...
This is because the foundation of any company is its people. Not its buildings, equipment, or scenery. It is the people who make the difference.
Indeed this was all covered yesterday, with you and the candidates, and we even made examples about this point.
One more example: I can have the most beautiful computer program in the world, but if my staff don’t know how to use it and, more importantly, don’t understand its importance, if they don’t see how useful it can be, if the data isn’t given to the right people, if nobody reads the results from the statistical analysis, or reads them but doesn’t use them etc ... etc ... then this computer program is effectively worthless.
On the other hand, I can have people who know nothing about a sector, such as the candidate yesterday who had never had any experience with spas, but suddenly found himself having to manage the largest spa in Europe. And despite knowing absolutely nothing about spas, still managed to carry out his role optimally and with great results. How is that possible? What’s the secret to his success? Nothing but his will, his determination, his discipline, his motivation. In other words, his human qualities, his attitude and behavior.
That is exactly what you yourself did to create your own company: you threw yourself into the playing field, without all the experience you have today, without all the technical skills, without the tools we now have available, but with a strong will, motivation, discipline, and an ability to dream out of the box and maintain clear goals.
Once we have chosen and hired people according to their human characteristics and attitudes we can, therefore, have very ambitious goals because we know that the people we have will follow us and fight with us, for us, for our goals which, therefore, must be very clearly defined (note: I do not know if you noticed, but all the people yesterday said they are goal oriented and want to discuss the objectives).
On the contrary, people who may be very respectable from a technical point of view, with impressive studies, fancy titles, and a résumé as thick as a textbook, but that lack the human qualities required, not only don’t create anything for us, but can actually destroy all that is good.
The experience with Randy is a good example in this case. Randy had all the technical skills, school requirements, experience, etc ... etc ... however, if evaluated with our method, he wouldn’t even be invited to an interview, because his attitudinal and behavioral characteristics were shown to be unsuitable.
To conclude, my conviction is that every person hired, with or without me doesn’t matter, must have, beyond some obvious technical skills required for the role (obviously you wouldn’t ask a dishwasher who only speaks Finnish to immediately become the manager of a New York restaurant), the correct attitudes and behaviors suitable both personally and in relation to the group, or we may select people maybe even very good technically, otherwise we risk hiring people who may be qualified technically, but are missing the “human” characteristics that the company needs to grow well and profitably.
I apologize if I’ve gotten a little too in depth in this letter, but I think that this too is part of my role and, above all, I am confident in my ability to convey my thoughts to you.
Have a nice day,
John
I received several answers, all really interesting and I therefore decided to consolidate them in a single article.
It seems that in deciding whether to continue with a start up or not, the following are the factors that should be considered:
I can immediately say that headaches are part of any start up and, more: they are that thing you have to cross in order to be successful. One of the main reason why many people in society have a weak financial condition is that they tend to abandon jobs and projects as soon as the first headaches appear. Many headaches = a lot of money. Or even better “If you want a business or a profession headaches free, you’ll stay poor”.
Lets see the factors that were indicated and that I found interesting:
ARE YOU STILL PASSIONATE? Do you still like it? Are you passionate about it?
CAN ITS VALUE INCREASE IN THE FUTURE? What is the long term value of the business? Is it possible tha even if it is giving you a lot of headaches, tomorrow its value will increase even more?
DO YOU HAVE THE NEEDED EMOTIONAL ENERGY TO CARRY ON? Do you still have personal energy that you can invest in this project?
IS IT PROFITABLE? DOES IT GENERATE CASH? For how long it will still be profitable?
DELEGABLE? Can you delegate it? (Can somebody else take care of it, while you work at other stuff?)
Last but not least:
What does your instinct say?
To all the above I think I can add one more, very important:
DO YOU HAVE THE RIGHT PEOPLE TO MAKE IT? Do you have the right people (or is it realistic to find/hire the ones that will be able to carry the business past the headaches). If the answer to this question is “no”, in my opinion you should sell right away.
I have to say that this exercise helped me understand that a factor I used to take into consideration was wrong:
If you give up, would you disappoint someone?
I am not saying this is totally to discard but, in talking with you, I came to realize that in the past my big attention to the above point has constituted one of my weaknesses as a business owner or as a person. Actually, often the very same people that I tried not to disappoint, have been the ones who left me in trouble. Much better to use the parameters listed above.
I will think a bit about this and will let you know my decision.
Thank you very much for your precious help.
Paolo Ruggeri
Some years ago the AARP (the organization that assists American retirees), asked several lawyers if they were willing to offer their services to retirees in difficulty at a special rate, about $ 30 per hour. None of the lawyers consulted accepted. At that point, the legal manager of the AARP had a brilliant idea: he asked the lawyers if they were willing to offer their services free of charge to retirees in need. In almost all cases the answer was yes.
What was going on? How was $0 more attractive than $30? The answer is that when money was mentioned, the lawyers measured the offer according to economic standards and thus determined that the offer was too low compared to market rates. When there was no mention of money however, they measured the offer according to their standards of social ethics, and were therefore willing to provide pro bono services for a good cause.
According to research by Dr. Dan Airely each individual lives in the middle of two universes that often end up colliding. One is "the Social Universe", where we cultivate relationships with others and which is governed by social/ethical standards ("I need to help him because he’s a friend of mine"; "I’ll do it because it’s the right thing to do"; "This is an important service for the community, so I should do it even if there’s no personal gain ... "). The other is "the Market Universe" which is characterized by the typical rules of economy ("my time is worth $50 an hour", or "if I have to work on Saturday, I want to be paid overtime").
According to Airely’s research, when these two worlds collide a very interesting phenomena occurs. First, there’s the fact that people are much more motivated to work for a “cause” than for money. When we begin to think with the rules of the market, social norms leave the discussion. Forever.
This tells us that when an entrepreneur abuses the use of economic incentives, by trying to monetize every single activity, this could lead employees who were previously willing to help the company for free (because they were dedicated to the company goals, because they felt they were part of a group ... ) to be guided solely by market rules, "if you don’t feed the jukebox another quarter, I won’t sing you another song ..."
This causes considerable damage.
Our own experience, which is further supported by Airely’s findings, shows us that a commitment to core values can be far more motivating than a cash prize at the end of the month. If you can make your employees understand the core values of the company, if you can give them a passion that needs more than just $ for fuel, you will unleash a power you didn’t even realize your company possessed.
You must also remember that the company shouldn’t be a purely commercial operation, but should also take care of the community around it and promote, both internally and externally, values such as friendship, mutual support, self improvement, etc. These priorities, if incorporated into the company’s core values, can be used to ignite the “social universe” reasoning in your employees.
So how do we reconcile the need for economic incentives with the importance of preserving the standards of relational ethics to motivate the people in our team?
Obviously financial rewards can be a useful tool, but you need to be careful with how you use them. Every so often reward people in an unstructured way, meaning without any standard system in place. Limit yourself to giving surprise bonuses, such as two or three hundred euro. Some studies show that awards like this, surprisingly, have a longer lasting effect on motivation than a monetary prize obtained on the basis of planned incentives.
Better yet, provide incentives that don’t have a clear price tag or that don’t single out individuals. Give away a vacation or leisure activities for the whole group (for example: take the whole company to the beach). Other studies show that awards like these have a deeper effect on staff motivation and promote greater team spirit.
Don’t turn your employees into jukeboxes. It’s obviously important that you help your employees earn money, and we essentially owe them that, but to allow them to become a simple jukebox could be fatal.
Paolo Ruggeri
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Summer may be starting to cool off, but OSM International is just getting warmed up!
In the next couple of months, we will be racking up the frequent flier miles. Not only will we be crossing the Atlantic 4 times, we will also be venturing across the Indian Ocean for a visit to Australia.
Just look at these awesome numbers:
In less than two months, OSM International will have traveled through 14 different time zones, helping entrepreneurs in 7 different countries, in 5 different languages, on 4 different continents!
And those numbers will just keep getting bigger.
Check out our itinerary below, and contact us at info@paoloruggeri.net to learn more about how you can get involved.
Sao Paulo, Brazil
2-3 September
Leadership & People Development Training
Rise, England
8 September
Managing Change in an Established Franchise
Bologna, Italy
10-11 September
Public Speaking
Sydney, Australia
18 September
How to Attract & Hire Accountable, Motivated, and Skilled Employees
Pescara, Italy
25-26 September
Leadership & HR Training
Miami, FL, USA
6-7 October
Basic Leadership & HR Training
8 October
I-Profile Test Training
Venice, Italy
14-15 October
Leadership Training
Sofia, Bulgaria
22 October
Leadership Training
Madrid, Spain
27-28 October
Basic Leadership & HR Training
To contact us for further information about any of these events, or about having Paolo visit your area, please write to info@paoloruggeri.net
Back straight. Chin up. Hands on hips in the confident Superman pose. Now smile… and keep smiling.
That’s not too hard is it? You may not believe in your smile at the moment, but even just pretending you do can make a great difference to your day.
Heroes still exist in the modern world, and they are the entrepreneurs of small and medium-sized companies. While everyone else is complaining about the worldwide financial crisis, these heroes instead choose to spend their time investing, innovating, promoting, marketing, and bringing home results.
Not many people recognize their true value. Shortsighted people and ignorant politicians define them as tax evaders, profiteers, rule breakers, people who get rich at the expense of others, but the truth is that if our country is growing and has wealth it is thanks to the investments and the efforts of these people and certainly not thanks to the financial maneuvers of this or that government.
No one ever thanks them, but most of the jobs that are created do not dependent on the latest government employment decree or act (which in fact often just complicate things), but by the efforts and investments of these individuals.
With rare exceptions, they receive no protection from associations as the latter prefer to support big business, but instead face everything alone. Indeed for them this is normal, because they have always had to rely solely on their own efforts.
The news and the media rarely speak of them unless they’ve been involved in something shady or dramatic. They are a silent majority who prefer to stay out of the lime light. Rather than finding themselves in a television studio, they prefer to be at the laboratory, attending a business fair, or in their store. Though 80% of the jobs in your city are very likely created by them, you rarely see them in a finance news special. It is rare, in fact, for someone to ask their opinion on what is needed to make things better.
There are plenty of people who are ready to accuse, to demand, to claim. Few however understand the great importance they have for our society and for our lives. In fact, if an exception is made for those who make a living in politics, there is probably no family in our country that does not owe at least part of its economic stability to a relationship with one of these companies.
Running a small business in our modern world is not easy. To do it you have to overcome a host of obstacles, most of which are irritatingly useless and created by those who, in all honesty, should be helping you: the bureaucracies and governments that impose absurd regulations and high taxation don’t always rise to the occasion. And if you add to this mix an educational system that tends to instill the younger generation with a distrust of all that is private and linked to entrepreneurship, then you shouldn’t be surprised at the overwhelming forces these small businesses need to confront every day.
Nevertheless they continue to invest in research, to innovate, to recruit and plan the future of their companies. This requires them to overcome unimaginable difficulties; lack of money, astonishingly late work hours, so much time spent away from their families.
We need to celebrate these people. They are undoubtedly an important asset to any country, but they rarely ever receive thanks. This is why I wanted to take the opportunity to sing their praises.
These are people who never retreat in the face of difficulty, who have the courage to sell, and for whom I have a deep and sincere admiration.
These people are special, and I owe a lot to them.
Paolo Ruggeri
As you can see from the map on the left (and below) OSM International is steadily making its way across the globe!
I enjoyed another successful visit to Lisbon where I presented “How to Generate Value” to a crowd of Portuguese entrepreneurs as part of the Lisbon Sessions. The group at www.entrepreneurs.pt continues to amaze me!
I also recently completed two presentations in Orlando, Florida, about change and how to manage change in an established business.
Meanwhile, in Italy, the I-Profile test is growing ever more famous. Il Sole 24 Ore, a leading business and finance newspaper in Italy, has written an article (in Italian) about us and our extraordinary tool.
And in the publishing world, our publishing company, Engage, has successfully launched our latest book Ottico di Successo by Paolo Valentini and Michaela Gariboldi (currently available in Italian). Just another example of how OSM can help business leaders, from all walks of life, share their knowledge and expertise with a wider audience.
Do you have a story that you want to share with your fellow entrepreneurs? Contact Engage Publisher to find out how we can help you!
What are we doing next?
Despite the lure of lazy, sunny days on the beach, OSM International will be dedicating the month of August to global expansion!
Upcoming events include additional visits to Spain and Portugal, as well as presentations in Bulgaria and London. And of course we have big plans for our USA home: Miami, FL.
Our goal is to completely fill the OSM International map, and one of those white spots could be the key to your professional success. Live the dream! Check out our partnership offer!
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"In life you can have whatever you want if you just help enough other people get what they want"
-Zig Ziglar
Your success is determined by the success of the people around you. This is the hallmark of every leader. This is the hallmark of every great man who has ever lived on this planet.
If you’re paying attention, there is a noticeable effect each time you help someone else win. Every time you help others to develop their skills and become winners, their skills become part of you. The more people you help, the stronger you become.
Don’t believe me? Look at Gandhi. Or Mother Teresa, the greatest example of leadership in the twentieth century. Perhaps she had no material value, but she did manage and control enormous wealth, leading an army of thousands of employees without even meaning to. All simply because she had helped others. Using this rule, from nothing, from a band of poor and dying, she created perhaps the biggest congregation that the Catholic Church has ever been able to create over the past centuries.
WHENEVER YOU HELP SOMEONE ELSE, YOU BECOME STRONGER YOURSELF.
The phrase above is certainly true, because the person you have helped now will become part of your network of alliances and as such "conspire" with you to help you succeed. However this is just one side of it.
There is also a psychological effect. Think about the last time you've really helped someone. How did you feel afterwards? Energized, happy, inspired. In fact, when you help someone to succeed in a business, a kind of transfer occurs and you in turn become more proficient in the same business you just helped with. If you are teaching a plumber apprentice the ropes, you too will become a better plumber.
Whenever I teach a business course, for example on the concept of ethics, if I succeed in giving an effective lesson to those present, something extraordinary happens to me: I, myself, feel that I have improved a bit more on the subject. It’s fascinating, by giving to someone else, you’re actually giving to yourself.
The world is based on a balance of give and take. You can never pull out of this world more than you have put in to it. If you want something, you in your turn have to give something. If you want to succeed, you have to give success. If you want to earn money, you have to give money, if you want to be loved, you must give love.
It may seem crazy, but if you can give success to someone else you will get success for yourself. You have money problems? Strive to make sure your employees and customers are earning money, and you'll see that, almost magically, you too are now earning money. Whenever you impress someone with excellent service, a small but important transformation takes place in your personality: you become stronger.
Every day I see entrepreneurs or managers who have built companies formed by people who are afraid or weak. Every day I see people who, despite having achieved economic success, have personnel around them who still haven’t prospered.
And the more I look, even accepting the rules of the free market and capitalist initiative, the more I realize that their "success" wouldn’t be enough for me. I can’t do without what is perhaps the most important rule: real success, is the success of the people around you. This does not mean that we have to fall back on a socialist mentality or create a large cooperative status. That’s already been tried and it didn’t work. Instead, we must realize the great mission that has been entrusted to each of us. Each of us has something to give this world. Each of us must contribute our piece of the puzzle in building a new world, maybe not utopian, but definitely better. And to do that, we must for a moment forget about OUR needs and look a bit more to those of our neighbor.
The world is waiting for your piece of the puzzle.
Paolo Ruggeri
Why is it necessary to speak to the soul of people within your company?
Because if you don’t communicate with emotion, the message will only be partially understood, or maybe not reach the other person at all.
People aren’t always receptive, they make mistakes and don’t operate optimally. The reason for this ineffectiveness is fear. People are afraid to make bad choices.
The fact is that to feel good you have to be courageous and dangerous. Dangerous in the good sense of the word. Dangerous because we are worthy of the name, because our decisions can really change things.
But how does this help me speak to the soul of someone? How is it possible to speak to an immaterial entity that does not physically exist? The soul understands only the language of souls. We must not communicate with others through the language of “check lists” or “turnover”. To really communicate with others we must speak to the soul by using its own language.
1) Elevate the importance of the message: according to Plato the soul is by nature a symbol of purity and spirituality, as akin to ideas. You must speak with purity, courage and love and sincere concern for others. You must have faith, that you understood how to believe in what is not seen.
For example, if we want to reduce costs, you cannot simply say "we need to reduce costs." If instead you say "Let's save resources in a way that will make a difference for other people" you're talking about the soul.
Saying "we need to make more new customers" may be ineffective, but if you say "Let’s get out there and improve the lives of as many people as possible in the whole world” you're talking with soul and the message will be better understood on a deeper level.
"Let's do more marketing" is no good. Instead, saying "Our ability to communicate with others is what gives human life significance” will more effectively transfer a message.
Simply put, you are giving an added value, an element of social importance to things that otherwise seem confined to the material world.
While one method dismisses employees ineffectively, the other proves that you really believe in the values you practice.
You must be consistent in message and expressed behavior.
2) Have radical faith: You have to be really confident in what you believe, because only true belief can transform what you think and say into reality.
3) Speak to the individual: To be effective, communication must talk to people not as they are, but as they could be. Understand the potential of who is in front of you. Get in touch with the best part of them, the purity that is the true soul of a person.
4) Speak from the heart: Talk about the things that make your heart pumping. To excite others, you must talk about things that make you, yourself, excited.
We live in eternal battle, that between the material universe and the spiritual universe. Keep the future in mind when you speak, because by doing so you have the ability to create and shape your surroundings.
Paolo Ruggeri
What have we been up to?
With the addition of Spanish and Japanese editions to our extensive publication of The New Leaders, we are continuing to take steady steps towards a worldwide introduction of our values and method.
And with OSM Kids, we will also be sharing that same message with young minds. Immortality is achieved when the youth of today embrace our values and carry them into the future, which is an investment we can’t afford to miss.
This past month we also made another trip to London for a presentation on Sales and Business Development for Market Makers. London is an amazing city filled with amazing people, and we plan on returning in the near future.
What are we doing next?
In addition to our regular courses throughout Italy, we will also be making a return trip to Lisbon on July 15. After the great success of our May event, we now look forward to another motivating and inspiring visit with the help of our partners from Portuguese Entrepreneurs.
We are also happy to announce that OSM is now ready for world domination, and we are inviting YOU to come with us as we sail to distant shores. If you are passionate about bringing OSM services and tools to your home area, we are ready to help.
By joining our ever growing list of successful international franchises, we can give you the support and know-how that will jump start your career in human resources. Have a look at our brochure (info now also available in Spanish), and contact one of our offices to get started!
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