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Archive for June, 2010
Monday, June 14th, 2010
 When asked about leadership challenges in today’s ever-changing marketplace, Mike Sipple Jr’s first comment is, “CHANGE is the new NORMAL!”
During a recent discussion about leadership and talent challenges, Jr. shared his perspective…
- Employee engagement. Everyone is talking about it…very few are taking action. Leaders need to ensure their best people are highly engaged and have a sense of security, ownership, camaraderie and excitement for what their organization is about and the impact they are making. Today too many leaders have one foot in and one foot out of the proverbial revolving door. If leaders can get their employees truly engaged and ignite passion by involving them in the business and nurturing relationships both professionally and personally, it will help minimize disengagement and the revolving door syndrome.
- Dealing with the uncertainty and communication. Leaders need to have clear and concise communication to build trust and engage and motivate their employees, yet so few do this as they may not be 100% certain about the details. We encourage our clients to communicate versus leaving their leaders in the blind. By maintaining a high level of commitment to communicate, they create more security, resulting in higher levels of trust for employees. As Stephen M.R. Covey states in his book Speed of Trust: ”…trust is the one thing that changes everything. You want to make an impact on your organization and the leaders who run it….focus on building trust.”
- Leaders need to look at and consider new ways of doing things. They should ask, Who are we? Who do we sell to? What should we focus on? They may need to look at distribution channels, sales channels, client diversification and more. It’s possible that changes need to be made – perhaps changing the mix of product/service offerings, remaining with core expertise, forming alliances with other companies to outsource/partner to deliver the best quality and value to clients. Strengths should be considered and creatively leverage.
What do you see as the major challenges facing leaders today?
I invite you to share your thoughts and comments with us…
Mike Sipple Jr. is Vice President of Centennial, Inc., an executive recruiting, talent strategy and career coaching firm. Mike is passionate about attracting, recruiting, developing, engaging and retaining top talent for changing and growing organizations. As a second generation recruiting executive this business is thought to be a calling!
Learn more about Mike and his organization by visiting visit www.centennialinc.com.
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Tags: employee engagement, employment brand, innovation, Leadership, recruiting, talent engagement
Posted in Employee Engagement, Employee Retention, Employment Brand, Hiring & Recruiting, Leadership, Social Media, Succession Planning | 1 Comment »
Monday, June 7th, 2010
 Branding yourself is, of course, very important. As a job seeker, you must know what your key skills are and how to articulate them and show value. But, there’s really so much more to it than that. Consider this analogy…
You need a new suit for an important meeting. You go to a store that you know will have suits. You go to your size and you buy one off the rack, thinking that these are the only options, and you need to make one work. Will the suit fit and flatter you? Maybe, but probably not as well as it could. 
On the other hand, if you decide that you want the best, most flattering fit – the one that makes you look and feel your best –then you go to a custom clothier. You bring your spouse to get a second opinion. You look at cut, colors, patterns and textures. You get it tailored to precisely fit your dimensions. This suit will make you look fabulous and will help to highlight your best features!
Your job search is analogous to this suit-selection process, and you shouldn’t assume that all the best jobs are there “on the rack” just waiting for you. Sometimes you need to do a little creative thinking outside the traditional box (tailoring, if you will) to identify the best options and ultimately get the best fit.
If all you’re doing is going to the rack (these are the job boards) to see what’s there, you’re doing what everyone else is doing, so you’re probably going to have difficulty standing out from the crowd.
If you embrace a custom solution – one that’s tailored specifically to your network, your skills and experience, and your career goals, then you’re much more likely to find success. By leveraging unique strategies and techniques, you will, by default, be viewed as more unique.
Most people were never taught how to do any of this, and most people look for the path of least resistance. We help you get out of comfort zone and get better results. It’s like the old saying goes, “If you’ll do the things others aren’t willing to do, you can have the things others aren’t able to have.” That’s how you stand out – by being clear, concise and strategic.
Thoughts shared by Mike Lynch, VP of Career Coaching, of Centennial
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Tags: branding, career coach, Career Coaching, career search, career strategy, Interviewing, job coach, job coaching, job search, job seeker, messenging, networking, passive candidates
Posted in Career Coaching, Executive Coaching, Hiring & Recruiting, Interviewing, Networking & Connecting, Recruiting & Executive Search | 1 Comment »
Friday, June 4th, 2010
June 4th 2010 was Mike Sipple Sr., President, and Centennial’s 35th Anniversary! On a day of celebration Mike Sr. wanted to share feedback to a question that regularly comes up with client companies. This is the area of engaging and on-boarding talent…it happens to be an area that he has been personally passionate about since 1975!
The question he often asks leaders is, “Once you get the right talent and leadership on-board what do you do next?”
Too many executives and business owners look back at him and say, “I do not know – I just want to get them on our team.”
When asked this recently he shared, “If you’re already being proactive with recruiting, in terms of attracting talent into your doors, I would suggest you consider the next steps in the process, which many companies tend to forget (but they are, indeed, part of the recruitment process!)
1. I would recommend you do a culture survey. Find out what people think internally. Many companies can attract “A” talent, but they can’t retain them. It’s critical to find out why you’re either able to keep talent or why you lose them. You need to get the ideas and opinions from people on the inside who know these answers.
2. You should be intentional about putting your best foot forward and being proactive – not reactive – in the process. Many companies forget that the “attracting” process still needs to continue after a candidate is in the process. If you like a candidate, you need to have what I call “your selling and attracting shoes” on.
3. You need to develop formal processes to keep the attraction process continuing without unnecessary delays. Internal delays can keep a process from moving forward. Unfortunately, the “A” talent may have multiple offers and opportunity with the ability to choose from the best.
4. You need to be sure what you promise in the recruitment process is what’s being delivered to the new employee. Recruiting and attracting talent continues during the on-boarding process and should be a key part of new job assimilation for three to six months to be sure the transition is smooth. So many companies lose people within the first six months, and it’s often due to un-kept promises or surprises.
5. There needs to be a process for on-boarding that follows people through these early phases of their employment and ensures that they’re feeling good about their decision. This should include that all expectations are being met from both sides. This is the time to lay a solid foundation of trust, communication and engagement.”
We encourage you to provide your thoughts and feedback with on-boarding/assimilation.
- What have you have seen or experienced that makes a difference?
Let’s ensure we don’t just hire talent but engage and retain those we worked so hard to identify and recruit!
Warmest Regards,
Mike Sipple, Sr.
President
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Tags: annual reviews, assimilation, attract, attracting talent, best places to work, Corporate Culture, employee engagement, employee retention, employee reviews, engage, engaging employees, job anniversary, new job assimilation, on-boarding, on-boarding talent, onboarding, onboarding new employees, onboarding talent, recruit, retain, retaining talent, retention, talent attraction, top company culture, top places to work
Posted in Employee Engagement, Employee Retention, Employment Brand, Hiring & Recruiting, Interviewing, Leadership, Motivation & Inspiration, Networking & Connecting, Recruiting & Executive Search, Succession Planning | No Comments »
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