What Color Is Rain?

Somebody Hired These Characters!

I have employed some real characters in my career.  Hung over, combative, and lying thieves have been a part of my employment ranks in the past.  People never cease to amaze me.  That is what makes all of us so interesting.  All of us can produce a laundry list of human foibles that we can show each other about the troubled times we shared with some past employees.  We all have discovered interesting human behavior that somehow found its way into our daily grind.  It seems that many of those troubling employment experiences usually appeared when we least expected them.  They also seemed to appear when we least needed them to appear.  Human strangeness sometimes shows up in small surprises when the timing is at its worst.  It is that kind of surprise that helps muddy up the wet water of business challenges.  I hate the thought of swimming in muddy water.

I remember how often human foibles used to shock me.  Years ago, the surprises they brought were very distracting to me.  Now, I just gloss over them and keep moving on.  I have discovered better ways to prevent strange human behavior from distracting me away from my business goals.  I have learned how to manage the rain better.  If I plan a picnic during a possible rain storm I come prepared to manage how it falls.  The same rules apply when I hire someone who offers me a chance to see the short side of their personalities.  I come prepared to manage what possibilities may occur.  I prepare for potential rain.  I carry some very good umbrellas in my business hiring practices.  So should you.

Some business owners hire people for reasons other than what they should be using.  Sometimes owners hire a friend or someone they know who needs some help instead of finding a person who best fits what needs to be done.  Every good business model should have a clear idea about how it needs to perform its hiring practices.  Every business model comes face to face with some very clear employment needs.  Not always do business owners respect the proper ways to manage these needs.  Performing proper hiring practices is a process that is not always placed at the front of the line.  Sometimes we hire a friend.  Sometimes we hire a person we met or know and they just need some help.  Sometimes we simply do not want to spend the proper time going through the long process of screening people for our next hire.  Eventually these kinds of hiring practices come dangerously close to the edge of wrong human placement.  Our business model will eventually discover the bruises it feels as it travels along that muddy trail.

Rain can become dark, sometimes.  Rain usually looks kind of gray, too.  We might not be able to describe the color of rain but we know it often comes with a gray-colored feeling.  When we hire wrong people our business model discovers its need to use umbrellas.  Wrong people placed to work in wrong environments can eventually develop some stormy outcomes.  A business model that does not take great care in the way it employs its staff is a business model flirting with the high potential for disastrous outcomes.  Many owners make this simple business mistake.  They hire the wrong people.

What can make matters worse, some business owners try to place some of their best people into positions that are not the best fit for those people to perform.  It often comes down to the simple fact that some owners try to make their best re-bounders do the three-point shooting while at the same time, expect their best three-point shooters to go learn how to rebound better.  It is silly stuff to watch happen.  I have seen managers try to take a great salesperson away from their particular area of expertise and try to teach them how to manage the accounting books, too.  It is silly stuff to watch happen.  Some leaders know exactly what I mean.  I have made that simple mistake myself.  The outcomes are not often very good.  Make sure you get the ball into your ball handlers hands.  Make sure you place your rebound specialists near the underside of the basketball rim.  Be smarter about how you design the use of your hired help.  They perform better when they are doing what they are good at doing.

Maybe One Of Them Is Your Best Friends Son!

Try not to get too wrapped up with the stupidity of politics.  We have a tendency to try to respect our politically correct stances.  We try to honor as much of the 'good' politics as we possibly can stand.  Unfortunately, there is not too much good about practicing politics in a leadership role.  Your business model does not love politics, people do.  Politics and business models do not mix very well.  Try very hard to keep them separate.

Your business model loves to be treated with more respect given for the pure fundamentals it requires long before it favors questionable moves that serves a political 'call' or 'payment'.  Practicing politics in the employment ranks brings on some very colorful rain...dark gray.  There is no real bright sunshine moving around inside the unruly demands of the political procedures practiced by leaders of business, especially if the politics include the rank and file of employees.  Refrain from practicing politics with your employees.  It will eventually bite your business success efforts.  It is dangerous territory.

I was listening to a retail manager talking to a construction company owner the other day on the phone.  The manager had called the construction owner on the phone.  He was trying to encourage the construction owner to hurry up and submit his bid proposal for some remodeling work being planned.  The nature of the conversation was simple.  Several bids were already submitted and this construction owner had not sent his proposal in just yet.  The manager described to the construction owner how his 'friend' needed to hurry up and get his bid submitted.  It was obvious by the nature of the conversation that the construction owner was the managers dear friend.  The purpose of the call to his construction friend was for the manager to stimulate the process for his friend to get his bid submitted.  The manager described to his construction friend how the decision to select the contractor was almost ready to be made by his boss.  He asked his construction friend to hurry up and get his bid submitted.  He also described how he could convince his boss to select his friend if his bid was submitted.  The conversation was very interesting.

People.  This is how politics works.  The truth of this process is not pretty.  Number one.  Every other contractor who did right by the bidding process is immediately eliminated.  They are unfortunately not part of the friendship stream inside the relationships of the manager in charge.  In other words, the one contractor who is in the friendship stream and who is not also doing his bid proposal work correctly is being rewarded.  He is the 'friend' so he gets excluded from the rules of the bidding process.  How does that kind of process ever come out right?  Think about this process.  Those other contractors who followed the bid submission rules properly will never be considered in the awarded schedule of work.  They are not part of the friendship stream.  Like I said...the truth of this process is not very pretty.

Let's jump into the 'honest' evaluation seat for a moment.  Let me see, because you are my friend you do not need to follow the rules.  Right?  I mean you were just told that even though you have not followed the rules of bid submission, you still may be able to receive the awarded bid...because you are my friend and I can convince my boss to award you.  You also recognize that you do not need to follow the rules to be rewarded, because you are my friend.  Right?  Who does not see this view?  Now let's take this 'political' process down the path a little bit further.  You get the bid.  Nobody seems to care about how much friendship played into the role of the selection process.  It went unnoticed.  We lucked out.  Let's also say your bid was not exactly the lowest bid submitted, but was still convinced to be accepted...as promised by me, your friend.  Now you owe me something, don't you?  I can squeeze you if I need to.  Remember, you are not my boss.  I already have a boss I am trying to please.  This is exactly how politics in business plays out.  'Politics' in business does not always play out fairly.  Heck, what did we expect...it was not initialized fairly!  People.  This is how politics works.

Guess what?  I have remodeled many times in my lifetime.  It never turns out perfect.  Remodeling usually finds its unforeseen challenges somewhere in the process.  Guess how that will pan out for the 'friends' in this relationship?  The manager and his 'boss' will win.  The contractor is in trouble with the quiet leverage that was used to employ his services.  He will be expected to do some costly 'extras.'  Boy, how I really look forward to having good friendships like this one may turn out.  Nothing looks very pretty in the set-up process of mixing politics and business.  The rain is very gray in this kind of set-up.  Be careful how you hire people.  What color is your friendship rain?  What color is your business acumen?  How gray can they remain before you need an umbrella to protect you?  Get very serious about how you hire who you hire.  Learn how to respect your business model demands, not your personal desires.

It takes time and honesty to select the right employees.  The right employees come with the proper coloration's.  The place where you set them off to do the work you hired them to do will determine how well they will perform.  Get very good at making the best choices for the selections your business model needs to have matched.  It has nothing to do with friendships.  It has all to do with respect and the proper management you employ for the improved relationships you direct.  If the hiring process goes sour, look around to find your mirror.  That is where I usually find my villain.

What color is rain?  If you hire people, make sure your rain is not gray, and for goodness sakes, get away from the political mud.  It is very difficult to swim in.  In the meantime, do not expect much more than a little mud coming from the political procedures you use to employ the people you hire.  Swimming in mud is rarely fun.  Make sure you produce clear-colored rain.

Until next time...