Munger and Buffet on hiring, more focus on you and behind the scenes - The Manager
CULTIVATED MANAGEMENT
Cultivated Management Newsletter - Edition 16
Howdy. I do hope you've had a pleasant weekend and are all set for a great week ahead.
As you may notice I'm changing things around here on the newsletter and my blog.
Why?
I got distracted with focussing on management talk too much and became boring. I spotted it, you probably spotted it and it's not right. Although my business offers management consultancy it turns out most of you signed up because you're interested in becoming more effective at work and personal development topics. So I'm switching to focus more on that!!
I'm also going to be reducing the length of the articles in the newsletter and instead focus on short and sharp articles to quickly digest.
You'll also notice a new design in the newsletter - all about keeping things simple and easy to read.
Thank you to everyone who has given me feedback.
Let me know what you think by hitting reply and leaving your thoughts. I respond to every email.
Cheers
Rob
Integrity
Integrity is essential. Always has been. Always will be.
Being someone with a deep positive character is essential. Someone you can trust. Someone you can rely on. Someone you enjoy working with and being around. Someone who will do what they say they will. Someone who will do the right thing and be the right, honest, caring and respectful person. That's true character. And it's about integrity.
I love the way Warren Buffet and Charlie Munger talk about hiring and what they look for in employees. It sums up entirely what the modern employee should strive for, and the modern manager be hiring for.
"We look for three things when we hire people. We look for intelligence, we look for initiative or energy, and we look for integrity. And if they don’t have the latter, the first two will kill you, because if you’re going to get someone without integrity, you want them lazy and dumb. I mean, you don’t want a spark of energy out of them. So it’s that third quality. But everything about that quality is your choice.” - Warren Buffet and Charlie Munger
Integrity requires holding tight to your character and values and principles. And that, surprisingly, can be really hard in some work places. But it's worth it in the long run.
Rob..
Interesting Internet Finds
Here's some interesting reading for your week ahead:
The CIPR have put together a super reading list from their regular book club on Amazon.
A cool Chrome extension that searches your local library for the books you're browsing online. I'm running this extension. So when I visit a book on Amazon it pops up a little box with the lending details from my local Winchester library!
Is your leader ruining employee retention?
"The personalization of learning creates the opportunity for more depth and authenticity, whereas “personalized learning” seems to be more about knowing the “stuff”. - Good article on why learning should be tailored to the child (or employee)
Convert your standard CV to stand out like a C-Level.
Seth Godin on what you choose to see.
The tragic human side of disruptive technology. Are services like Uber increasing competition, bankruptcy and suicides?
How managers can help with mental health in the workplace.
How to stop worrying.
Every few years or so I sit online tests to see if my DISC or Personality tests give different answers. As I change I wonder how my preferences and skills are changing. Here's a good one I found the other day. Nothing much has changed for me... :)
Although this article is very much about sending sales emails - the lessons inside count for emails at work too!
I'm a fan of the Raspberry Pi - here's some cool uses for it with tutorials and geeky stuff.
Why people leave their jobs - even if they really like their job!
Kids perform better in tests if they are dressed like Batman.
New content from me
Here's some new content from me this week:
You're Making Positive Change. Right?
Life as a manager can be hard. It will change you. For better or worse. One question you should be asking yourself on a regular basis is - am I becoming a better person?
People have good ideas. How do you surface them?
In this post I discuss how to surface ideas from the very people who have the best ideas - your employees!
If you don't trust them - tell them
In this post I discuss how not trusting an employee can lead to a negative environment. Have the tough conversation instead.
Agile is chaos for some
In this post I look at why agile is chaos for some people, but the right thing for others.
Why you should seek feedback
In this post I look at why you should always seek feedback even if the truth hurts
Behind the scenes
A few of you were keen to understand what it's like moving from employee to company director (of one!) and a little more from behind the scenes. I used to share a lot more from behind the scenes but didn't think you were interested!!
Let me know what else you'd like to see in this section and I'll see what I can do - I won't be able to share everything I do :)
Last week I was invited to Sparta Global in Richmond, Surrey, to do my 10 Behaviours Talk. What a great team and they really are doing some fabulous work in training and coaching the next generation of consultants and IT wonders. Great fun.
Here's a link to Lexie's LinkedIn Post where I borrowed this image from.