Everyday is an Interview

One of the most difficult things for me to do is to let good candidates know that they did not get the job. I have already interviewed these candidates and I feel that they did very well and that they would be a good fit. Unfortunately for them, someone else did a better job during the interview process.  Most of the time, our HR department contacts the candidate and lets them know of our decision. It is not an easy job. 

In our district, our HR department communicates to all candidates our decision. First, I will give them the names of my top-choice candidate as well as a list of everyone that we interviewed for the position. The top-choice candidate will meet with the director of HR and the Superintendent of Schools for a short interview. The HR Director will then go through all of the contracts, benefits, tasks to be done, and check all requisite certifications, fingerprints, etc.. Then, if the top-choice candidate signs, the HR department will send out notifications to all of the other candidates to let them know that they did not get the job.

In certain cases, I feel that it is pertinent for me to contact the unsuccessful candidate personally. There are several reasons for this. In some cases, I already know the candidate through past work experiences or they might have been recommended by a colleague. I would rather tell these candidates then let them receive a form letter. In other cases, the candidate did so well, I wanted to personally let them know. In these cases, I will offer a recommendation on their behalf to any other institute that they are seeking employment. In two cases, I ended up hiring these “unsuccesful” candidates at a later date. I am confident that I would not have been able to hire them if I did not make the phone call letting them know of our original decision.

I never want to give bad news to good people, even when I believe that we have made the correct hiring decision. When I have in the past, I strongly believed that it was important for me to reach out and personally thank the candidate for their time and effort. I do not enjoy these phone calls, but it is the right thing for me to do.

Difficult conversations are never easy. It is important to decide when a difficult conversation is necessary and to take the actions (preparation) needed to have a productive conversation. Never sugar-coat your conversation, be honest, and never let the conversation go longer than needed. When you believe that you need to do the right thing, make sure that you do it well.

Every day is an Interview.

Out of all the Obstacle Course Races (OCRs) that I run, none is harder than the Spartan Beast at Mountain Creek, New Jersey. Not only do you go up and down… and up and down… and up and down the mountain, you also have 30+ obstacles to overcome. These obstacles are designed to challenge you both mentally and physically. When I fail an obstacle, I have to complete 30 penalty burpees. It is not fun, but I am not completing the OCRs for fun. I am doing them to challenge myself and to make myself better. My end goal each year is to beat my time from the previous year.

I ran the Spartan Beast at Mountain Creek this past Sunday (April 28th). It was a cold and rainy day, the course was muddy and slippery, and steep. I had a good start, but by the time I submerged myself in the freezing cold muddy water, the obstacle is known as the dunk tank, on a day that was already cold (41 °F) and wet, my good start was fading away. It took me a few miles to get my body heat back and I was slow during this stretch of the race. I finished the race one minute slower than the previous year. The race destroyed me, yet I was ok with the results.

Compared to my goal time, I was extremely slow. I put in the miles in training to complete the course, which laughably claimed to only be 12.9 miles long (more like 14.5). The ascensions were rough and my right knee ached on the descents. However, there was one big difference between the race last year and the race this year. Last year, I swore that I never wanted to do the race again. It took everything that I had inside me not to quit. This year, there was no feeling sorry for myself. There was no desire to quit. I knew that I wanted to give more, but that I mentally gave all that I had. Sometimes, it is the way that you persevere through the challenge that is more important than the actual time it takes to complete the challenge.

I want to run another Spartan Beast as soon as possible. I wish they occurred more frequently. I know that I have a lot of work to do to get to the time that I want, but I will study my training, make changes to my hydration, nutrition, and sleep, and I will get my target time… and I will do it with the right attitude.

As I am getting ready for another season of Obstacle Course Races (OCRs), I am pondering my improvement in certain areas. I focused a lot on my running form, endurance and upper body strength in the off-season. When I tested my self to see how far I had come, I realized that I still had some deficiencies in my upper body strength, especially with regards to pull up strength. I am definitely a little disappointed in myself as I expect more from my efforts.

I realized that I was going to do more burpees as penalties this season. The Spartan Race penalty for failing an obstacle is 30 burpees. I averaged 4-5 fails a race last year (Rope Climb, Anything with rings, spear throw, Twister, etc.). Each fail adds at least 3 minutes to my time as I complete the burpees. It sucks and I do not enjoy doing the burpees. I did not create the penalty, but I assume the burpees are to “encourage” us to succeed on the obstacle. Worst case scenario, a set burpees is an excellent workout.

So why is something that is good for us a punishment? It is similar to running laps when you make a mistake. As a former track coach, I find it laughable that a coach would have someone run laps because they made a mistake. Isn’t running supposed to be glorified in most sports as opposed to a punishment? In fact, I may want to run the laps as opposed to completing the task. If this is true, then the punishment is my way out.

I want to run a clean OCR race and complete each obstacle without issue. If I do not, it is ok, I can just do burpees. Is the punishment making it ok for me to fail?

I am terrible at climbing ropes. I can teach my son’s to climb a rope, but I have failed every time I tried to get to the top. Even with failing to climb the rope, I can successfully complete an obstacle course race, get my official time, and earn my medal. Instead of improving my rope climbing abilities, I can just rely on my 30 burpees to get me by to the next challenge. The punishment is not changing my behavior, thus the punishment is failing its purpose (to change behavior).

I may not want to do the burpees, but I can do the burpees, and I will do them because I still cannot climb the rope. At this point, after 9 obstacle course races, has the punishment become my enabler instead of my “changer-of-habits”.

Be careful of the consequences that provide you with an alternative to your failure. Do not rely on them to earn success. If you cannot climb a rope, instead of doing the burpees, try and try again. Do what it takes to be successful and stay away from things that enable you to fail.

Every day is an Interview

What did you do this past Memorial Day Weekend? Barbecues, Parties, the Beach, etc… For most of us, it is a long weekend and a chance for us to unwind and relax. But what did you do to remember those people who gave their lives for our country?

Memorial Day is a time to honor those men and women in the Armed Forces who gave died serving our country. They fought to defend the ideals that built this country. As Americans, we need to show respect and gratitude for their sacrifice on Memorial Day and demonstrate that the holiday is something more than just the start to the summer.

Memorial Day Weekend is usually when I finish all of the major outdoor projects that need to be completed before the summer begins. When I get everything done, I will relax, read, and watch the NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Tournament. I also sign up for, contribute money to, and complete the Murph Workout. This workout is named after Lieutenant Michael P. Murphy. Lt. Murphy died in Afganistan while trying to get support for his teammates while they were involved in a deadly firefight. For more information, go to https://www.navy.mil/ah_online/moh/murphy.html. Lt. Murphy was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroic and unselfish actions in this firefight.

To honor the memory of Lt. Murphy, I sign up for the Murph Workout, contribute money to the scholarship fund ($60) in his name, and complete the workout. The workout consists of running 1 mile, 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups, 300 squats, and then running another mile. All of this is done while wearing a 20# vest. It is not an easy task, but it can be done in under an hour (54:04 this year). I do not belong to a CrossFit Box, but many support the workout on Memorial Day. For more information on your local CrossFit Box, go to www.Crossfit.com.

The Murph workout is becoming more popular as more and more people are trying to complete it on Memorial Day. The money is raised for a worthy cause, people are challenging themselves, and people are honoring someone who sacrificed their lives for our country, our ideals, and for his teammates. The latter being the true reason for Memorial Day.

If you missed the workout and Memorial Day, you can still sign up to do the workout and contribute money to the scholarship fund at www.themurphchallenge.com.

Thank you Lt. Murphy, and all those men and women in the United States Armed Forces who gave the ultimate sacrifice for our country. Please do something to remember them every Memorial Day Weekend, if not everyday.

As I am getting ready for another season of Obstacle Course Races (OCRs), I am pondering my improvement in certain areas. I focused a lot on my running form, endurance and upper body strength in the off-season. When I tested myself to see how far I had come, I realized that I still had some major deficiencies & imbalances in my upper body strength, especially with regards to my pull up strength. I am definitely a bit disappointed in myself as I expect more from my efforts.

I realized that I was going to do more burpees as penalties this season. The Spartan Race penalty for failing an obstacle is 30 burpees. I averaged 4-5 fails a race last year… Rope Climb, Anything with rings, spear throw, Twister, etc.) Each failure adds at least 3 minutes to my time. It sucks and I do not enjoy doing the burpees. I did not create the penalty, but I assume the burpees are meant to encourage me to succeed on the obstacle. No big deal. A set of burpees is an excellent workout and I can do them without issue.

So why is something that is good for me a punishment? This is similar to running laps when you make a mistake in practice. As a former track coach, I find it laughable that a coach would have someone run laps because that someone made a mistake. Isn’t running supposed to be glorified in most sports as opposed to being the go-to form of punishment? What if I want to run the laps as opposed to completing the task the coach wants me to do. In this case, the punishment is not encouraging a change in behavior, it is encouraging failure.

I want to run a clean OCR race and complete each obstacle without issue. If I do not, it is ok, I can just do a set of 30 burpees each time I fail and then move to the next obstacle. Therefore, is the punishment making it ok for me to fail?

I am terrible at climbing ropes. I can teach my oldest son to climb a rope, but I fail every time I tried to do so myself. Even with failing to climb the rope, I can successfully complete an obstacle course race, get my official time, and earn my medal. Is it ok that I can just rely on my 30 burpees to get me by to the next obstacle. The punishment is not changing my behavior (to climb the rope), thus the punishment is failing its purpose (to change behavior).

I may not want to do the burpees, but I can do the burpees, and I will do them because I still cannot climb the rope. At this point, after 9 obstacle course races, has the punishment become my enabler?

Be careful of the consequences/punishments that provide you with an excuse to fail. Do not rely on them to earn success. If you cannot climb a rope, instead of relying on burpees, practice until you can do it, then practice until you can do it better. Do what it takes to be successful and stay away from things that just let you get the job done.

Every day is an Interview

Nothing pisses me off more than laziness. Some in my close circle might think that it would be more accurate to say that nothing pisses me off more than tardiness. That is only true if the person who is late was too lazy to call me and let me know that they were going to be late. Good communications can help me to solve someone’s tardiness, but nothing can solve someone’s laziness.

Yesterday, 2/20/19, we had a good snowfall for Western New Jersey. I was hoping for more so that I could try out my new snowshoes, but what can you do? The next morning, the schools opened on a 2-hour delay to give the maintenance staff time to clear the parking lots and sidewalks. Driving to work, it amazed me how many people took the time to clean their sidewalks and driveways, yet, they did not take the time to take the snow off of their cars.

Having snow on your car is dangerous to all of the other drivers on the road. As the snow goes flying off the roof of your car, it can do damage to the cars behind you, could cause the person behind you to swerve out of the way endangering those behind you, and it could cover the front windshield of those behind you. None of these are good scenarios.

How hard is it to sweep the snow off your car before you drive? They make brooms with soft brushes so that they will not scratch your car. Some say that they are too old and weak. Not a good enough excuse. If you are fit enough to drive, you are fit enough to ask for help when needed. Make sure that your car is safe before you drive. Others say that their car is too big and they cannot reach the roof. I am guessing that if you are not physically fit enough to clean the top of your roof that you do not need such a large car. New Jersey even made a law that requires drivers to remove the snow from their car before driving. Today, the law was not enforced and people were in danger.

Bottom line, if you are not going to get the snow off your car, please do not drive. No one wants to share the road with an excuse laden lazy driver who’s laziness is endangering everyone else on the road.

To all of you with snow on your car on the morning of 2/21/19, or any other day for that matter… you failed the interview.

We all need role models in our lifes. When I was younger, it was my father. Luckily, he still is a role model for me today. My wife is also a role model, as are my children, my staff, and pretty much everyone that I am around. Sometimes, these role models are examples of what not to do. Everyone can be a role model if you just patiently watch and observe.

If you effectively observe people for an extended time, you will eventually develop the ideal version of you. This version of you is extremely important to who you want to become. Without it, you do not have a true vision for your future self. You must develop this image in your mind and then work on developing yourself into this version of you.

Have you mentally developed the ideal version of you? If not, do so right now. Use this mental image to guide your actions. Do this over and over again until you become the ideal version of you.

When you get to this point, do not stop developing the ideal version of you. Just like your software, you must keep updating your ideal version of yourself. Let’s be honest, at 49, the ideal version of me is a lot different than when I was 4, eating Mr. Salty pretzels on a bench with a fireman’s helmet on my head. It is different than the ideal version of myself when I was a teenager dreaming of becoming a rock & roll guitarist. It is different than the version of me in my 20s, my 30s, and most of my 40s. It is different than who I was last year. Keep evolving as a person and keep evolving the ideal version of yourself.

Every day is an Interview.

One of the first things that firemen learn about fires is that it takes three things to make a fire.  First, you need a fuel source – something like wood or paper that is capable of burning. Second, you need an ignition source – the spark that starts the fire.  Finally, you need an oxidizing agent – the most common is oxygen – which keeps the fire going. Together, these three things make up the fire triangle. Remove any one of them and the fire can’t sustain itself and will go out.

Yesterday, my wife took our youngest son to the orthopedist to have a checkup on his back. The results were good, but unfortunately, my wife had to wait over an hour to see the doctor. To us, he is a good doctor, in a good practice who is worth the inconvenience of a wait. The annoyance of waiting is a good time to work on one’s self-control. My wife was put to the test.

In the waiting room was another mother waiting for her child’s appointment. As my wife described her, she was a sprinting whiner. She not only whined about everything, but she also spoke so fast that it seemed like she was in a speed race. When my wife relayed the story to me, she could not even recall what the sprinting whiner was complaining about, nor did my wife care.

As we were talking about the “challenge” of keeping one’s composure when confronted by a sprinting whiner, my wife suggested the whiner’s triangle. On the right side is the whiner, on the left side is the sacrificial lamb (i.e. the president, taxes, teachers, the weather, the spouse, the kids, money, etc.), and on the bottom, laying the foundation are the people who are not only listening, they are contributing to the whining. It makes for an explosive situation.

I once worked in a place that had a group of whiners. They would hijack the breakroom, faculty room, hangout room, etc., and provide the gloomy overtones needed for a negative environment. I would walk out of these rooms feeling awful. Once I realized what was going on, I stopped occupying these spaces. They were too negative. The “shocker” is the whining never got these people anywhere. Whining is not a solution. Instead, it is what people do when they want to feel sorry for themselves, when they want others to feel sorry for themselves, and when they have given up on finding a solution to their problems.

In the fire triangle, it is easy to remove one of the sides of the triangle. You can deprive a fire of oxygen, you can remove its fuel source, and/or you can remove the heat. Remove any of the sides and the fire cannot exist. With regards to a whiner’s triangle, you can change your attitude and focus if you are the whiner, you can remove the sacrificial lamb, or you can remove yourself as a member of the audience. If you cannot remove yourself from the audience, as in my wife’s situation, you can focus on your attitude and use the strategies needed to keep you from succumbing to the whiner’s triangle.

You cannot prevent whiner’s from complaining, but you can remove yourself from the whiner’s triangle. Start working on recognizing when you are part of the whiner’s triangle and learn how to remove yourself from the situation. This will make you happier and stronger. Once you have confidence in your abilities, try teaching others how to do the same.

While implementing the Everyday is an Interview philosophy, no matter how hard we try, we are going to have days when we do not live up to our purpose, our thoughts, and our potential. Our actions will not be in alignment with our purpose and we will not perform at our optimal level. When these days happen, what do you do?

I talked previously about coaching advice that I had received from those who have mentored and guided me. Looking back, I wish I started my coaching career in my late 40s when I had a better understanding of my purpose and my philosophy and also had the resolve to stand up for both.

One of the impactful bits of advice that I received was when I was on the bench as an assistant coach for a Varsity Soccer game. We were playing well, yet we were tied with a team that we were much better then. For some reason, we were just not able to put the ball in the back of the net. One could feel the tension building as the game went on. Then, with time winding down, we let up a goal. It was a mixture of great play by the other team and a slight lack of focus by us. The game was not over but everyone on our team had their heads down. The next words out of the head coach’s mouth were brilliant. Calmly and coolly he said, “Just respond. Think about what you are going to do next… and do it.” He did not forget his purpose and he did not panic. Despite losing late in the game, his actions were aligned with his purpose – to help his team get better every day.

These words were more important to me and my career than the results of the game. It had a far more lasting result on my life who I have become. I used these same words with many of my teams and colleagues.

You are going to have moments when your purpose, actions, and thoughts are not aligned with each other. What do you do? You just respond by thinking about what you are going to do next. Dwelling on the past will lead you to feel sorry for yourself and that is not aligned to the Every Day is an Interview Philosophy.

The next time that you have a setback, tell yourself to respond and focus on what you are going to do next. Let me know how it goes.

While implementing the Everyday is an Interview philosophy, no matter how hard we try, we are going to have days when we do not live up to our purpose, our thoughts, and our potential. Our actions are not in alignment with our purpose. When these days happen, what do you do? How do you respond?

I talked previously about coaching advice that I had received from those who have mentored and guided me. Looking back, I wish I started my coaching career in my late 40s when I had a better understanding of my purpose and my philosophy and also had the resolve to stand up for both.

One of the impactful bits of advice that I received was when I was on the bench for a Varsity Girls Soccer game. We were playing very well, yet we were in a scoreless tie with a team that we were much better then. For some reason, we were just not able to put the ball in the back of the net. One could feel the tension building as the game went on. Then, with time winding down, we gave up a goal. It was a mixture of great play by the other team and a slight mistake by us. The game was not over and everyone on our team had their heads down. The next words out of the head coach’s mouth were brilliant. Calmly and coolly he said, “Hey ladies, just respond. Think about what you are going to do next… and do it.” He did not forget his purpose and he did not panic. Despite losing, his actions were aligned with his purpose, to help his team get better every day.

These words were more important to me and my career than the results of the game. It had a far more lasting result on my life who I have become. I used these words with many of my teams.

You are going to have moments when your purpose, actions, and thoughts are not aligned with each other. What do you do? You just respond by thinking about what you are going to do next. Dwelling on the past will lead you to feel sorry for yourself and that is not aligned to the Every Day is an Interview Philosophy.