Let the Newbies Know the Truth
Too
many youngsters are entering the workforce with delusions of their own
grandeur. It is vitally important that they're checked into reality before you
hire them.
BY HOWARD
TULLMAN, GENERAL MANAGING PARTNER, G2T3V AND CHICAGO HIGH TECH
INVESTORS@TULLMAN
Photo: Getty Images
New employees need a simple, straightforward,
cohesive and consistent introduction to your business, your company's culture,
and your work philosophy if they're going to be successful --especially if
they're going to be mostly remote.
Simple doesn't mean dumb in this case, but it
does mean short and sweet.
Straightforward means telling it like it is
and letting the chips fall where they may. You're much better off filtering out
newbies with attitude and entitlement problems at the outset - and maybe even
losing a few prospects in the process - rather than inviting fundamentally
unhappy and chronically dissatisfied folks into your shop.
Cohesive and consistent means that, in this
painful age of constant management contortions --- as business owners try to
please everyone, be politically correct, and ensure that everyone's opinions
matter and that they all get a vote on everything -- your public pronouncements
and positions actually do have to align with and be supported by the day-to-day
rules and ways you run the business. 02:43
Having personally hired hundreds of employees
over several decades, I've never seen such an influx of confused and deluded
young people looking for a workplace that simply doesn't exist. Sadly, they've
been primed and "woke" in academic bubbles that have set utterly
unrealistic expectations. They've been overwhelmed with media imagery and
fantasy articles about work-life balance and doing just what you love; they've
been inundated with social media junk and the fake lives and lies of
influencers; they've been told repeatedly that they're now in "the
driver's seat" in terms of employment negotiations and smothered by all
the other online noise and clutter that sucks up far too great a portion of
their lives.
There's no escaping this stuff and any
entrepreneur who's looking to hire these kids has to try to help straighten
them out so that they actually know what they're signing up for and, if it's
not right for them, they can do everyone the favor of bailing out and going
elsewhere. These aren't likely to be quick or easy conversations, but they're
essential for any business that's hoping to find the right talent and the right
fit for them and, at the same time, grow quickly. Getting hiring right - right
at the start - is the name of the whole game. Otherwise, you'll be dealing with
a constantly revolving door and treading water.
There are many different messages and
approaches that might work in situations like this, but I've found five ideas,
attitudes and thoughts that consistently appear in the most successful
conversations. There's no magic to the syntax - whatever words work best for
you will get the job done.
(1) You have to commit fully to the work
and put your whole self into everything you do -- do it with a vengeance. Don't
come to work merely to do a decent job; there's no room these days for
"whatever" or adolescent indifference. Work matters. There are no
easy jobs; there are only graceful ways of performing difficult ones. Be proud
of what you're doing and why you're doing it. No wobbling and no white lies.
Don't say "maybe" when you want and need to say "no." Don't
try to do things cheaply that you shouldn't do at all. If you're constantly
hedging your bets, then, even on your best days, your results will still be
mediocre. Band-Aids and duct tape solutions are the worst bets you can make. If
you can't do it well, do something else.
(2) Everything today is about time,
which is our scarcest and most precious resource. You can't afford to dawdle
because speed is what sets the best players apart. You never get back the time
you waste in not making a fast and final decision. Especially in times of
radical and rapid change, the faster you decide, the more likely the chances
that your choices will be successful. In any moment of decision, the best thing
you can do is the right thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing. Any
decision is better than no decision.
(3) No one is irreplaceable, but the
best and most successful people are invaluable because they're the ones others
turn to when there's a problem. The people you can always count on to be there
and help - the ones you tend to run to, not away from, in a crisis. You want to
be someone's first stop when they need help, and not
their last resort. This isn't something that happens
automatically or overnight - it's something you build, nurture, and demonstrate
throughout your career. You make your passion and enthusiasm apparent, you're
always available and up for the next challenge, you do your homework and put in
the necessary time and effort, and you don't quit. When the chips are down and
the fat's in the fire, you want to be the one who people can count on.
(4) Learn to let things go. Not
everything can be fixed, finished or saved. Sometimes you don't even get to
understand everything. Some things aren't problems to be solved, they're
situations that we need to learn to live with. Mistakes happen to everyone
unless they're sleeping. The trick is not to dwell on them. Fix them, learn
from them, make the best of them that you can, and move on. Don't be a prisoner
of the past. The best athletes have "in game amnesia" - they forget
their past flops, the missed shots, and the officials' bad calls so they can
focus 100% on the present and make their next shots count.
(5) It's okay to fail sometimes as long
as you gave it your best, asked for help when you needed it, didn't try to hide
the problem, and ultimately owned the whole mess. But it's never okay to quit
in the middle and leave people in the lurch. We want to give people permission
to fail without accepting that those failures are warranted, unavoidable or
inevitable. Tell them to save their breath and give any alibis, sad stories and
painful explanations to someone else. There's no such thing in the real world
as a good excuse.
The bottom line is pretty simple. You can't
build a real business without a solid foundation based in truth. Telling people
only what they want to hear or half-truths about what life in your business is
really like isn't doing anyone a favor. Lies mortgage your firm's future while
the truth will set you up for long term success.
MAR 29, 2022
The
opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of
Inc.com.