Everyday is an Interview

Today, my wife was telling me about an article that she read in the paper. The article had her dumbfounded. The thesis was that the Tuna Industry is blaming millennials for the fact that their sales are down. I laughed at the ridiculousness of the idea. Clearly, this is an industry that is going to fail real soon, simply due to the fact that they are not taking ownership of their circumstances. Instead of taking ownership, they choose the easiest group to pick on, the millennials.

Important Note: I am 48 at the time that I am writing this, none of my family members are in their 20’s, and none of my staff act as the stereotypical “millennial”. For the purposes of this article, Millennials are defined as “a person reaching young adulthood in the early 21st century” ( Dictionary.com)

Please do not get me wrong, I am not standing up for the millennials. In fact, I am not standing up for any group, including mine (Generation X – pretty cool name though, especially as a fan of Billy Idol)

What I am standing up for is taking ownership of failure. I want to be surrounded by people who take ownership of their failure, who do not blame others for their misfortune, who are willing to learn from their mistakes, and are ready to grow and mature.

How is it even remotely possible that an entire industry can be brought down by one age group? Is it because the millennials have decided to stop eating tuna? Is it because there is too much mercury in tuna? Is it because the quality of fish has decreased due to ocean pollution and overfishing? Are the millennials the only ones who have decided that eating too much tuna is bad for them? My wife and I are both Generation X-ers. We make sure that we keep our seafood intake at safe levels. Did the Tuna Industry mean to leave us out or are we just outliers?

Successful people take the blame for their misfortune, make corrections, and reinvent themselves. They don’t blame the millennials for their spot in this world. In the case of the Tuna Industry, they need to focus on the real problems, which are not the millennials, and figure out new solutions to their declining sales. If not, they should call up Toys R’ Us, Blockbuster, and Borders to find out what to do when you are no longer relevant.

Every day is an Interview

In great tragedy, you find out the character of the people around you. This is when it counts. We recently had a devastating loss to our team. It was sudden and none of us were truly prepared for it. It was unfair to our colleague and her family. I was proud of my team and how they rallied together to get through the loss (Truly, we will never get over the loss of our friend and colleague). I was proud of how we supported the family while they were in the hospital. I am proud of our numbers at the wake and at the funeral. I was proud of how we supported each other. I was proud. For a time, all of the jealousies, squabbles, and conflicts that are part of working together were forgotten. Everyone supported each other. It is in time of tragedy when you will find out if the people around you can pass the interview. My team passed with flying colors. Can your team pass that interview? Let’s hope you never find out.

RIP M.T. 11/27/2018

Every day is an Interview

I do not believe in Most Valuable Anything awards. Why? Everyone in my life is valuable. If they are not, they should be gone. Why does one have to be recognized as being more valuable than the others? There is always a compelling argument for the other guy. Someone deserving is always left out. I have several colleagues in my department who are worthy of the MV-Anything “award” on a daily basis. If I pick only one, other deserving employees will be left out. Instead of creating an environment of rewards, MV-Anything awards tend to create an environment of “Why Not Me.” People then tend to focus on the award instead of the quality work and effort that would make them qualify for the award. Someone wins, but others continue to lose. It creates an environment of bad intentions and bad attitudes that is a breeding ground for “loser” attitudes. All our employees are valuable, even the ones that are filling in for our permanent employees.

Example

In education, you must have a teacher in the classroom that is certified to teach the material. There is very little wiggle room. Over the past 2 and a half years, we have had over eleven extended leaves that needed long-term substitute teachers in my department of 31 staff members. Most were due to joyous additions to a colleague’s family. Others were due to unforeseen circumstances that had to be addressed. The certifications needed to teach in the science department are very hard to fill. I was lucky enough to find a candidate who was transitioning back to the workforce that had experience as a college professor and as an online educator. The former appealed to me because of the depth of her content knowledge. The latter appealed to me because we were moving to a new online structure in our school district and her expertise would be valuable. In the last 2 and a half years, this candidate has filled six long-term substitute positions. Two of them were even outside of her expertise. However, according to the NJDOE, the positions were short-term enough that she could fill the position. She was truly a part of the department and a part of the district. She was our outstanding long-term substitute teacher.

In all six cases, the candidate knocked it out of the park. So much so, that I recommended her to various other schools who were looking for a full-time teacher. She was always a finalist, but she never got a job offer. One day, a position suddenly became available in our department. Right away, we thought of our outstanding long-term substitute teacher. However, this was going to be a difficult position to fill because it would not turn into a full-time tenure-track for some time due to contractual obligations and state regulations. On the same day that we told her about this position, that it might turn into a full-time tenure-track placement, she got an offer from another school for a full-time tenure-track position.

We wanted her for our district, but we could not offer her the job, a letter of intent, etc. for over two months. There was nothing that we could do to guarantee her the position. She had an offer and a contract on the table from another district and only our word that we were interested in offering her the position, but at a much later date.

She chose us. Why? First off, the other school took over a month to make their decision when they told her that they would have a decision within a week. Never over promise and under deliver. If you are stuck in this situation, communicate the issues so that all parties know what is happening. Second, she loved our staff and students. Everyone treated her as a professional, included her in their activities, both in and out of school. She had made many relationships with people within the district. Third, we made her no promises that we could not keep. If we gave her a letter of intent to hire, it would be meaningless as it was not recognized by our Board. Either the Board hires you or they don’t, there is no middle ground. I told her that I wanted to hire her after her first long-term substitute job, but that we did not have any openings for her certification. I do not encourage an environment of firing one person for another. It does not bode well for the culture of the workplace.

Every day is an interview, this is why the candidate works for us and why the candidate chose us. I am glad that we both passed the interview.

Everyone tells me that first impressions are the most important thing in an interview. They are important and they set the tone, but what about after the interview? What then? Does a person’s career ride solely on the first impressions that they make? First Impressions might get you in the door, but in my world, the impressions that you make every day keeps you employed.

Don’t get me wrong, I am a big fan of first impressions. It is important to me that people comport themselves in a manner that makes me want to spend my time with them. First impressions set the mood for the interview. If I get a bad first impression, it is hard for me to overlook it and thus, it will affect the interview. Bad impressions leave me wondering what the problem is. Is it me? Is it them? Do they really want the job? Am I wasting my time?

When I meet people for the first time, I want the impression that I make to set the tone. I want the first impression that I make to be based on a firm handshake, a confident voice, the fact that I look people in the eye when I both speak and listen, that I am calm and relaxed, and that I am fit. This is how I act every day. They can find out the rest later.

First impressions come and go. When I look at my best staff members, I cannot remember the first impressions that they made. I have no recollection. They must have done something right if I hired them. Regardless, I do remember what they have done recently, especially with regards to their students, our school, their colleagues, and the community. The most recent impressions that they have made on me make them the valued employees that they are.

To me, the most recent impressions that you have made are the ones that count the most. I will remember your latest accomplishments more than I will remember what you did the first time that I met you. Don’t rely on your previous accomplishments. It is important to build on them and create new impressions that will help those around you form an image about who you are today, not who you were yesterday.

Every Day is an Interview

PS – Remember that the first impression that you will make on me is the one that you make on my secretary,  Not only will she call you to set up the interview but she will meet you at the door and direct you to the interview. Don’t mess it up.

Each year, at the beginning of November, we have our windows and foyer lights cleaned by an outside company. Though we try to do most of the work on our house by ourselves, there are some jobs better left to professionals. We hire All-County Windows each year. The team that they send out is always professional, skillful, personable, and polite. We are even looking to expand their role next year and have them power wash our house on an annual basis. I tried to do the job, but I cannot get high enough to power wash the second floor. Anything involving heights, a ladder, and my coordination is best left to the professionals. Because of my efforts to do the job myself, there is a clear line between the clean part of the house and the “needs-to-be cleaned” part of the house. It bothers me, which means that it really bothers my wife.

This morning, All-County Windows came to our house. As usual, they did a spectacular job. When the team leader was preparing the bill, one of his colleagues asked if he could wash the front storm door. He was concerned that they might have left a smudge while entering and exiting the house, but he did not want to touch any part of our house without our permission.

Of course, I said yes. I was willing to, and I expected to, pay for the extra job. However, when I received the bill, it was exactly what we agreed when we originally scheduled the job. I asked if they wanted to charge me for the door. The team leader replied that it was a courtesy that they did to make sure that everything was perfect before they left. This is why All-County gets my money each year and why they are going to get more of our money next year. They are the company with the workers that we want to associate with, the type of people that make us better. All-County Windows and their team passed the interview.

These days, the stress level has been high at work. I just ended a rigorous two-month workflow and a new one has just started. Though not as rigorous, the end results of this time period will have a large influence on our future successes. Where the last workflow required that I get a lot of tasks done in a short period of time, this one requires a lot of thinking, analyzing, and long-term planning.

One of my staff members came by my office this morning and asked if they could schedule some time with me. I told them to come in, however, my tone was short and it was obvious that my head was in a different place. When they recognized that I was stressed about being busy, he offered to come back at a later time. I encouraged him to stay. Again, my tone was short. I was clearly letting my staff member know that I had “more important” things to do. I was failing the interview.

The way that I acted was not aligned with who I want to be.

The way that I acted was not aligned with my purpose.

The way that I acted is the reason why I failed the interview.

There was no alignment between who I want to be (purpose) and my actions

Fortunately, the staff member stayed and we had a productive discussion. Shortly into our meeting, I realized that my original actions were wrong. I changed my attitude and started to listen with patience and understanding. It drives me nuts when I act as if I am too busy and I cannot be interrupted. Nothing I have ever done at work has been so important that I cannot be interrupted. However, I assign self-importance to my role and I act as if I am the most important person at work.

I am sure that my staff member noticed my original actions. I feel bad for letting the stress get to me. I really feel bad that I acted as if I was the most important person in the room.

However, I do feel glad that I recognized my mistakes. I will make continue to make corrections so that next time I will recognize that I feel stressed and I will act according to my purpose as opposed to my stress level. If I am to be an effective leader, I have to make sure that I act as if others are the most important person in the room. This is the only way to pass the interview.

Giving up control and delegating work to others is one of the hardest things for me to do is to in all areas of my life. I am always concerned that the tasks will not be done as they should. When I am good at delegating, I can clearly communicate my expectations for the project. When I feel good about my communication, I can walk away and not have to micromanage the project. If I have done a good job of selecting my colleagues communicating with them, the project should turn out exactly as I expect, if not better.

This is easier to do at work than it is at home. What my children need is freedom, not control. I struggle with this on a daily basis. When I take a hands-off approach with my sons, I feel that I am being a bad father. I feel that I am not providing them with the guidance that they need to keep them away from the same pitfalls that I fell for when I was there age. Thankfully, they are doing better than I did at their age. When I try to apply more control to what they are doing, it is usually a miserable failure. My kids are good at what they do only when they decide that they want to, not when I decide that they want to.

I struggle with letting them take the time they need to determine if they want to do something. As an example, for years, I was in terrible shape in my 30s and early 40s, even though a portion of my salary depended on getting others, mainly teenagers, into great shape. I try to do the same with my children, getting them into great shape, not realizing that when I was their age, my parents gave me the space to figure things out. There were plenty of times that my parents thought that I took too much time to figure things out. Yet, they were patient, waited for me to make a decision, and then provided me with the guidance needed to be successful. In order for me to do this with my sons, I have to willing to give up control.

Control is a double-edged sword. You want to take responsibility for everything that happens in your life. You have to be willing to relinquish control at work by delegating tasks to others. Delegating only succeeds if you have great communication skills and you have selected the right people for the job. You have to relinquish control with those who you are helping to grow, i.e. your children. You have to let them steer the ship, lead by living a good life, provide them with guidance after they have made their own decision, and then hope that they make the right decisions. Easier said than done, but those that can get it done will lead others to success.

I do not believe in Work-Life Balance. It makes no sense to me. Sometimes I live a balanced (work-life-family-workout-self-music-reading-writing-everything else balance) life. Other times, work takes over. Other times, my family takes over. I believe in a Work-Life Flexibility that is based on knowing your priorities and acting on them.

At times, work is going to take precedence. The opening of a new school year is an incredibly busy time. No matter how much you have done as an administrator over the summer, there are always challenges that need to be addressed once your staff arrives and then your students arrive.  These challenges are going to bleed into your family time, your workout time, your hobby time. Eventually, something has to give. My wife and children understand that there are many demands on my time, many late night phone calls, and many issues that need to be addressed outside of the traditional workday. My workouts suffer, but I still work out. My family time suffers, but I still connect with them. The balance is truly shifted towards work, my priority at the time, and that is okay. (Author’s note: I am not perfect at this and I realize that there are times when I need to put work aside to prioritize my family)

Other times, my family comes first. Whether it is a trip to the shore or a vacation destination away from home, I do not check my email, work or personal. I do have my cell phone with me. Everyone I work with has my cell number. If they cannot find it, they can contact my secretary who will decide whether to call me. While on vacation, she has called me once. No one else has ever called me. The schools that I work for are still standing. The selective programs that I have started and continue to coordinate are still surviving.  Our students are still successful.

There are times when I need to concentrate on work, or on my family, or on my music, or on my Taekwondo. I have to be flexible enough to know which one is the priority and act on it.

If you are searching for work-life balance, what is going to happen when your priorities are not balanced? You have to understand your priorities. Everyone has multiple priorities. Which one is the most important priority at the time is the one you focus on. Everything else has to come in second. You need to recognize what your true priorities are and be flexible with your other priorities.

I believe in doing what it takes to accomplish those things that are important to me first, then start working on the rest. I do not strive for a balance, I strive to focus on my priorities

Every day is an interview

How many times have we hear the phrase “Do the Right Thing”. Plenty, I am sure. Doing the right thing is at the core of Everyday’s an Interview Philosophy.

Several times at work, I have had to deal with extremely stressful situations. This year’s start of the new school year was no exception. It was one of the most stressful that I have had in 26 years of education, the last nine spent as an administrator. When I was putting together my notes for the opening day presentation, I realized that we had four new initiatives going on in the department. It was way too many to handle comfortably. We planned diligently, but one of the initiatives did not go well. 

After going through the opening day workshops on Thursday and Friday, we went home for a long weekend. I could not sleep Friday night. I never have a problem sleeping. I am very regular in my sleep times. Something was wrong and I had to figure it out fast.

The issue that kept me awake was that our new digital textbook teacher rollout did not go well. This was an initiative that accounted for over a third of our operating budget for the academic year. While reviewing the technology for our two new digital textbooks on Friday, we realized that our Academic-level textbook’s technology was not performing as well as it should. My staff was not happy and they were starting to blame people. (Aside – I am never happy when people start to blame others, but I am really unhappy when blame is sent around and no one has a solution.) Everyone was frustrated and no one had an answer. The textbook company’s customer service was closed for the long weekend and nothing could be done until Tuesday when the students reported to school. 

It was a three day weekend, one that I was looking forward to, but on Friday night, I could not sleep. I used Box Breathing, my go-to anti-anxiety strategy, and I visualized what the future should hold if I did the right thing. I fell asleep pretty quickly. The strategy of box breathing and visualization is something I learned in my self-improvement studies. (Email and I will send you the book, the author, and the podcast). When I woke up on Saturday morning, I realized that I had to solve the textbook problems right away. That morning, I made a few phone calls, got our salesman on the line, and listed everything that needed to be fixed, the timeline it needed to be fixed by, and how important this was to possible future sales. It was the weekend, but his people needed to get it together. Our students’ successful start to the school year was dependent upon it.

Being where I was physically and mentally, I knew that I needed to sleep and recharge that weekend, and so did my family. However, in order to sleep and relax, I needed to do the right thing and work for part of the weekend. When I returned to work, the staff was happy that the solutions were being developed and that some of the fixes were already implemented.  It still did not go as smoothly as I hoped and there were a few challenges that still had to be overcome. My staff was great, worked through them, and in one case, one of our teachers developed the solution to one of our problems that their customer service could not figure out. Next time, I will make sure that she collects a consultant’s fee.

When you have anxiety, it usually means that you have something to do that you and it is bothering you deep down. It takes time to find the reason for your anxiety. It is important to take the time and figure out where it is coming from. Do the right thing, find the problem, address the solution, and make sure that your actions are aligned to your purpose. When this happens, you are ready to live the Everyday’s an Interview philosophy

When coaching people through the interview process, I find that most of my mentees have the wrong focus. They are solely focused on getting the job and they feel that the best way to get it is to make the interviewers like them. This is all well and good, but in reality, it is only part of the process. They forget that they are also interviewing the company, school, university, institute, etc., that they are applying to.

I am lucky enough to work with a lot of new teachers while they are going through the interview process. One of these teachers was working as a leave replacement for us for two months. During this time, she was interviewing at other schools looking for a long-term (tenure-track) contract. A few weeks later, one of our teachers announced her retirement. Our leave replacement teacher successfully interviewed for the job and received a long-term contract.  Being the professional that she was, she wrote to all of the schools that she was also interviewing with to let them know that she received a long-term contract and that she would not be continuing with the interview process at their schools.

As expected, most of the schools wrote her a thank you letter that congratulated her on her new position. One did not. Instead, the principal of the school wrote her a scathing letter asking her how she could have done this to him. She was a finalist and he trusted her to take the job if he offered it to her. (This job was a leave replacement and it was not going to lead to a  long-term contract). Our new teacher was upset and did not know how to respond. I advised her not to respond at all and to move forward. As we talked further, she felt bad that the other principal was mad. She had the wrong focus. Instead, I asked her if she would ever want to work for this guy or his school district. She said no. Good answer. At this point, she started to realize that she was not just interviewed by the principal and the school, but that she had the power to interview both the school and principal as well. In her eyes, they clearly failed the interview. During the interview process, she was so focused on getting a job that she did not pay attention to the signs that told her that she did not want to work there.

In order to maximize your success, you must never forget that you are also the interviewer at all times, no matter what.

We later hired another teacher, who worked for the same principal that wrote our successful candidate the scathing letter. She too got a scathing letter. None of my mentees will ever get a recommendation to work in the district or for that principal. Every day is an interview and he, and the school district that hired him as a leader failed.