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Ruminations on Managing and Working With People

I've been thinking a lot about human resources lately.  It was one of my favorite parts of my MBA curriculum - learning how to motivate people, about all the mythes there are to being a good manager, how to affect change in the deeply embedded culture of an organization.  I've worked at really good places and really bad places and places that were kind of eh.  From that I've come up with my own 40,000 foot rules of managing and working with people.  Some may be a bit idealistic and don't think I don't realize that. But I don't necessarily think the ideal is bad place to start :-)

Set the bar high: Setting a standard isn't a bad thing.  People may resent it at first but eventually, they adapt.  When they start seeing the results of their higher standard, they'll start to live up to it on their own without being forced.  If you set the bar high, you have to give people a chance to live up to it.  This may require letting go of control and delegating responsibility.

Along with this comes treating people like they are responsible adults.  Understanding that there are differences at most places between non-exempt and exempt employees, but as much as possible avoid constricting rules that serve as nothing more than a "gotcha" as long as employees are delivering.  For example, one place I worked at implemented a timeclock for all employees, hourly and salaried. It was nothing more than something to prove that they were in charge and everyone knew it. After a while, a few of us who resented it stopped turning in the timecards (I stopped punching in and out entirely) and guess what - nothing happened.  Since they had no legitimate business reason for it, they ignored all the timecards they forced people to punch in on after the first week.  So they pissed people off and lowered morale, which in turn caused half a dozen people to quit within a  short time period...all to prove they were in charge.  It costs, on average, $60,000 to train new employees.  Do you think it was worth it? 

Offer incentives for great performance: I did a super incentive email campaign for Dartmouth a few months back and was given a $100 reward for it.  It was awesome!  $100 isn't that much money but it was the fact that my hard work was acknowledged.  Small things like that really make a difference with morale.  Even saying "Thank You" can act as an incentive.  I was talking to a friend of mine this past weekend who was telling me about busting her ass at work and she said: "You know, I just want to hear them thank me every once in a while."  It's the simplest thing, but oftentimes seems one of the hardest to put into practice.  Saying please when you ask for something and thank you when it's delivered can go a long way in making people feel as though you value their time and effort. 

If you're going to offer incentives, make sure you follow through with them.  One place I worked at use to always promise a day off and a BBQ if employees met a certain goal.  When they did meet it, there was never follow through on the promise.  After a while it got to be a joke and made the managers that kept promising it look inept.  If they couldn't even keep their promise to give their employees a day off, why should their employees trust them to keep any other promises they make? 

Don't freak out over the small things: Yes, we all want everything to be perfect all the time but life just isn't that easy.  It's OK to acknowledge that there are some things that go wrong that just aren't emergencies.  It doesn't mean that you think they aren't important or that you won't fix them.  It just means you're not going to needlessly upset people over it.  When you freak out, other people freak out and then the situation just gets blown completely out of proportion.  It also leads to people not wanting to work with you in the future. Take a step back, breathe and you'll probably realize that there's a pretty simple solution to the problem.

Sometimes a freak out is unavoidable.  Maybe you're having a stressful day and this thing hits and you just don't want to deal with it.  But you should never put that stress on other people.  Go out and scream in your car if you have to but when you meet with people, do it with a smile on your face. 

Acknowledge different working styles: One of the best things I've done at Dartmouth was take the PeopleMap workshop. It's all about the different working styles people have and teaches you how to communicate with people that have different styles than you do. It's really important to acknowledge that every person you work with has a different style and it may or may not be like the one you have.  That doesn't make their style less effective than yours.  It doesn't make them wrong. It's just different and you need to figure out a way to accommodate them and, perhaps more importantly, put them at ease.   

Never expect something of people that you wouldn't do yourself: There's grunt work in any organization - stuff that is a pain in the ass and most people would sooner stab themselves with a pencil than do. But someone has to do it.  Even if it's not really your responsibility, chip in every once in a while and show people you're willing to get your hands dirty. Pawning stuff off on people is easy.  Showing them you're willing to work beside them creates a true team atmosphere.  

This also goes for fun stuff, like presenting at conferences.  If you supervise people and they see you going and doing cool professional development all the time, but then you don't let them have the same opportunities, they are going to resent you for it.  

Above all, trust people: Trust is the biggest area I've seen lacking in any working environment I've ever been in - whether that be trust between a manager and an employee or trust between colleagues.  Trust that people are not trying to sabotage projects and that they do have the best interest of it at heart.  People's actions are often the true indicator of whether or not they really trust someone - words mean nothing.  You can say "I trust you" or "I'm empowering you" all day, but if you then go and undercut the person you're saying these things too, you aren't really empowering them at all.  People aren't stupid and they pick up on these things...and it usually doesn't sit well. 

Key Takeaways: 

1. Setting a high standard isn't a bad thing.  Reward people who meet or exceed it.   
   
2. Flying off the handle at every little problem only freaks people out.  Being a calming influence is a better way to put others at ease. 
   
3. Trust the people you work with and acknowledge that they may have a different working style than you.
   

So you want to hire an interactive admissions person...

This post is directed specifically at all the Directors of Admissions out there, who are considering the creation of an e-admissions person.  I've heard a number of titles for it: My former one was Interactive Recruitment Manager; another popular one is Electronic Communications Coordinator.  What you call it is really immaterial.  What's really important is finding the right person with the right blend of experience, and then treating the position as it should be within the context of the office.  

80% Admissions/ 20% Web: I always thought that the main reason I was successful in this type of position was the fact that I had previous experience as an admissions counselor.  I had worked directly with the students and their families and so understood their needs at all stages, done the recruiting events, and knew the cycle of the admissions process.  This type of position is primarily a marketing position and understanding the point of view of your audience is really key to developing any marketing program. This position should be pegged, at minimum, as an associate level position since you should only be putting someone with at least three years of admissions experience in it.  It's that experience that will make or break the person's success in the position. 

That being said, if you hire someone that doesn't have web experience you are doing nothing but setting them up for failure.  Typically, this position is responsible the admissions web presence and you can't maintain a proper web presence if you have no previous web experience.  Having a MySpace and a Facebook profile do not count as web experience.  The web is not magic - things don't just appear from nowhere.  They have to be built.  You wouldn't hire someone to paint your portrait if they had no painting experience and the same goes here.  If you insist on not heading this advice, be prepared to dedicate some bucks to professional development to teach the person what they need to know to be successful.  

This position is NOT a counselor position!  Yes, this person should have previous admissions experience but that does not mean that you should make them your go-to person when you need someone to do a college fair, work an open house or do prospect interviews.  Give the person in this position the respect they deserve so that they can focus on the task at hand.  Believe me, in the first two years of the position when the program is being built from scratch, there will be more than enough for the person to do without you overburdening them with "other duties as assigned." 

Pay them what they're worth: If you're lucky enough to find a person that meets these qualifications, fight for a salary that lines up with them.  When I originally started my former position, my salary was pegged at $36,000/year.  That was far too low.  I fought it and got it brought up to $42,000/year, which is still too low in my opinion given the unique skillset required.  The incredible thing is that I know others who currently have this type of position and they are making significantly less than I was.  That's not OK. I get that it's higher ed and that no one is going to get rich doing it...but I still work in higher ed now doing a very similar job and make significantly more. So yes, it is possible. 

Building a program takes time and involvement: If you are starting a position from scratch, be aware that it will take one to two years to get a program build and running efficiently.  These things take time and you have to give the person in it the latitude they need to get things in order.  One thing that will help them is to include them in all counselor-related meetings and trainings: getting them involved in the day-to-day office activities will allow the person to assess where your gaps are and how they can work to fill them. Just because they aren't a counselor doesn't mean they should be cut off from the counseling staff, a mistake I've hard of some offices making with this type of position.  It's not helpful and it just pisses the person in it off.    

Trust the person you hire: This may be the hardest part for most Directors - if you are creating this type of position you are doing it, at least partly, because you don't know how to do it.  That's ok.  Admit it.  It's OK not to know everything.  Now, hire a person that DOES understand it and trust them to do a good job.  When they give you a recommendation that you don't agree with, give them the benefit of the doubt - they are doing it for a reason.  There are nuances and best practices to this that fly directly in the face of many common admissions tactics.  Because of that, the person in the position is going to tell you that you can't do things that you want to do.  Trust them and then work with them to come up with an alternative solution. 

Key Takeaways: 

1. The person you hire should have at least three years of admissions counseling experience.  At the same time, you should never use them as a stand-in for admissions counselors - the position is completely different.
2. The person you hire should have previous experience building and working on websites. 
3. Trust the person in the position when they tell you things you don't want to hear. 
4. Pay them what they're worth. 
5. Give them the time they need to build a program. 

Using "International Talk Like A Pirate Day" for marketing

My boss got this email today...I wish more companies had the balls to be this creative: 

Fast Tip Friday: Don't Talk Geek (but talking like a pirate is OK...just for today)

Most of us can throw out every piece of computer/web jargon in book...but that doesn't mean we should.  A few years back I forced myself into the habit of explaining all but the most well-known concepts in plain English to my colleagues at all times.  When I used jargon, most of them didn't understand what I was saying and it was creating far too many channels of mis-communication.  It was my job to know the technical end and as long as my colleagues understood the concept, that was sufficient. 

If you're going to do an integrated e-marketing strategy, that inherently involves working with people who work with computers as a matter of function, but don't know them or the web like you do.  To many people, the web is still the unknown and can be a scary thing and if you talk to them in jargon they don't understand, that's just going to freak them out.  Coming down to their level in this area is an easy way to increase their comfort level so that they will be more receptive to your ideas and strategies.

On a separate note, today is International Talk Like a Pirate Day!  In honor of it, I give you this video that was making its way around my office yesterday.  Happy Friday!

When in doubt, use hot people in your Facebook ads

Typically Facebook ads that we run get anywhere between 0.05% and 0.3% click rates, with a high water mark of about 0.5%.  So you can imagine my surprise when I logged onto our account yesterday afternoon to see that the ads we started running a few days ago to recruit currents students to our call center were getting 1% click rates and were maxxing out the ad budget daily!

The key to this success?  I believe it's threefold: 

1. The ads feature pictures of real Dartmouth students and are targeted to the same population.  In other words, they are seeing people like them.
2. The ad has the salary for the job in it up front, and as I understand it the position is one of the higher-paid student positions on campus.
3. But of course the main reason these ads are working is that the kids in them are hot: 

I rest my case.  The best 150-character marketing copy in the word doesn't have nearly the impact of a pretty, smiling girl that might sit next to you in class :-)

OmniUpdate does it right

I got my free uwebd mug yesterday from OmniUpdate and I have to say kudos!  OmniUpdate gets it!  They understand that as a human being, I am selfish and don't want/won't use a mug (even if it's free) that comes with some crappy company logo on it.  Instead they sent me (and every other member of University Web Developer Ning Network) a mug with ZERO branding on it and free chocolate/candy/other yummy goodies!  The only sales pitch in the whole package came in the form of a 25% off coupon for implementation services, exclusively for people who got the mug.

OmniUpdate, I salute you!  You gave me something not only cool but useful and, even though it doesn't have your logo on it, I'm not likely to forget where it came from.