Category: Writing & Ideas

Article written by Arar Han on Fast Company

It’s hard to do well, and it’s time-consuming, but the 360 feedback process cannot be beaten when it comes to providing a broad spectrum of real feedback to your employees about how they show up to their managers, peers, and subordinates. In a recent experience, I delivered 360 results to the members of a small team and counseled them through their understandings. I took away the following. In hopes that they will be of support to you in coaching your employees to be their best, I offer four broad takeaways.

1. HIGH-PERFORMING EMPLOYEES ARE RARELY SURPRISED BY THEIR 360 RESULTS.

It should not be a surprise that people who are doing well at work know where they stand in the team and are at least somewhat aware of their developmental opportunities. These people are a joy to coach. When I work with high performers, I find that the 360 conversation can usefully fine-tune their knowledge of what the organization values and what they might try in order to enhance their effectiveness.

In one such conversation, we discussed how the person wants to be a better communicator and how others agreed, but the focus was slightly different. She thought she should write emails to cover all the same ground but in fewer words; others thought she should home in on the main thing and leave the rest unsaid. The difference is slight but significant, and she left with the confidence that she could try something new that might actually help her show up more effectively.

2. B-PLAYERS SHOW RELIEF AT THEIR 360s.

This classic Harvard Business Review piece from twenty years ago still resonates today: so-called B-players form the backbone of all organizations. They focus on doing a good job and being good citizens. They aren’t the A-players who are high-talent and high-potential but often difficult to manage. They aren’t the C-players who bog down the team by underperforming. They are about average and are glad to contribute.

In my experience, these conversations are the easiest. The person comes in with a natural sense of anticipation and anxiety about what feedback they will receive. They carefully listen to the results and sometimes ask questions to better understand what things mean. They are relieved to know that they are doing fine.

My role in these conversations is to encourage people to keep working hard and suggest some practical ways of improving how they show up to the team and how to drive better results.

In one conversation with a young employee, we discussed the concept of a professional identity and how that might differ a bit from one’s personal identity. This fellow was habitually a few minutes late to everything, whether at work or in his regular life. I posed a question of whether his professional self could aspire to be five minutes early, while his personal self could do whatever he wanted. He brightened at this; the company didn’t expect him to become a different person, but to adjust his behavior on this specific thing just in the context of work. He understood what the stakes were; that if he stopped being late, his co-workers would no longer have lingering doubts about his ability to meet deadlines.

3. THERE ARE ONLY TWO TYPES OF UNDERPERFORMERS: THE ‘CAN’T DOs’ AND THE ‘WON’T DOs.’

The can’t dos might be pleasant people who are bought into the culture and really want to do well. But they are missing some critical skill that, in spite of their best efforts, they cannot call upon. The won’t dos are often not lacking in talent, but for some reason, they cannot bring themselves to leverage their skills to do the thing that their job entails. The two share one thing: in a 360 feedback process, they are surprised by what their colleagues think of them.

4. IN MOST CASES, THE CAN’T DOs AND WON’T DOs WILL END UP LEAVING.

While I wish it weren’t so, most do not take the news of their low performance well and choose to find another place to call work. I understand. Receiving feedback is a difficult and emotional experience, even when it is positive. But when you hold up the mirror to someone and point out the blemishes, it can be difficult to recover from the hurt and pain that always causes.

Even when they choose to stay, turning around an underperforming person is difficult. In my experience, a true turnaround is only possible when the job responsibilities can be adjusted to better fit the person’s skills (can’t dos) or when the 360 serves as enough of a wake-up call for the person to start trying harder (won’t dos). While I always hope that people stay - both for the practical reason of not wanting to lose the investments the team has made in their growth and development, and for the feel-good resolution of the redemption story - I have come to accept that it might be simpler for team and person to break up and each move on.

No team is perfect. While 360 processes are notoriously time-consuming and can be fraught with challenging emotions, they can help make better teams and improve results. If done well, they help teams grow by positively reinforcing helpful behaviors, negatively reinforcing the opposite and identifying when the professional relationship is simply not working well and may need to end.

Good feedback is a gift that is hard to come by. I hope you will consider carefully gathering and generously sharing good feedback with the people on your teams.

Article written by Arar Han on Entrepreneur

I like hiring entry-level people for the companies I manage. We select them to be willing, high-achieving and modest people. Then, we provide continuous coaching and feedback to train them into excellent junior managers. After that, we monitor their progress and promote them as appropriate. It takes time to make this flywheel work, but I believe that the effort is worthwhile. Companies built with capable teams like this become strong and stable perpetual growth engines.

Not every person we select becomes a winner, however. Statistically, even the best recruiters succeed only half the time. Based on my observation, folks who don’t work out in our system overwhelmingly struggle with the transition from school to the workplace. So much so that I’ve compiled a list of four resets that entry-level workers need to successfully complete in order to become a great bet for your company. Each quote is one I have personally said to someone.

1. “You’re not the star anymore.”

Every student is the star of their own education. Their work is their own work, their grades are theirs only, and the degree they earn is theirs alone. In a company, everyone is part of an organization that is trying to achieve goals together. Each person is a contributor to a team. What matters most is that the customer is satisfied. New recruits who get this excel. They lose their ego and become open to corrective feedback. They focus on the things that help the team win, and they rapidly progress.

2. “Little details are big deals.”

Entry-level people often come in with the sense that what they do doesn’t matter very much. So, when they sometimes forget to dot the proverbial i or cross the proverbial t, they may feel ashamed, but ultimately, they think it doesn’t matter all that much. But some of these little details are really big deals! Screwing up a zero as a data entry clerk may mean the company pays $100,000 for rent instead of $10,000 or that the client’s engagement ring gets sent to 100 Park Avenue instead of 1000 Park Avenue. People who realize that excellence must begin at the base of the organization take that sense of caring straight on up.

3. “It’s not about the money, yet.”

We offer a standard company rate for entry-level employees. Some folks try to negotiate for an extra couple of grand, and we say no because it would be unfair to everyone else to break the norm. These conversations rarely come to me, but some people do choose to not join our teams because we don’t match their other offer. That’s okay.

The best entry-level jobs afford one the opportunity to learn. Does the role give you access to good projects and continuous feedback? Do you get exposure to a diverse cross-section of the team and the clients? Are there opportunities for advancement if you perform well? If the role is one where the answer to all three is YES, that beats the extra $3,000 a year by a country mile. If people prefer the cash, I respect that. But we need people who share these early career values with us.

4. “Professional identity is a thing.”

I can’t tell you the number of times an entry-level person has told me that they’re scared to do a task they’ve never tried. My response? “Been there. How can we help your professional self overcome your fears and biases?” Who you are in the default mode doesn’t need to be who you are at work. It shouldn’t. You’re on the team to play an important role; you can’t just show up willy-nilly.

Just as plenty of introverts become excellent stage actors, and nerdy Clark Kent becomes heroic Superman, early career people need to hone their strengths and whittle away their weaknesses to become true professionals. We’re asking the very best version of people to show up for us and help the company succeed. Those who are successful with our teams manage themselves to do just that. And in return, we take excellent care of them.

Here’s a little bonus tip: Entry-level people who are coming in from an academic experience crave structured feedback. Why wouldn’t they? They are accustomed to getting their assignments graded, quizzes and tests to check their interim progress and term grades that confirm their performance. While it’s unrealistic for a company to provide new recruits with that level of feedback, a program of organized evaluations will hold the mirror up in a way they understand and will respond to. Even if it’s as straightforward as a quarterly sit down to formally discuss how your newest people are doing on the dimensions your company cares about, something is way better than nothing.

Early career professionals often show up a little raw yet full of potential. These four resets and some good feedback will have them on their way to becoming professionals that you and your organization can count on.

Article written by Arar Han on Inc

Early in my career, I worked as the special assistant to the CEO of a top U.S. public corporation. A pioneer in his field, I admired the CEO in many ways: he was a serial entrepreneur with a chain of inspiring wins; he spoke crisply and confidently to his constituencies; and he was a real human being, who made mistakes and wore his heart on his sleeve at times. When I came into my boss’s employ, I was determined to work hard, be indispensable to his agenda, and go on to make my own mark on the world.

Work hard I did, and after two years, my boss dispatched me with a full-throated letter of recommendation to a top business school. Fast forward many years, I got an announcement that he had (finally!) written a book about his work and life. “Do read the book,” he said, “You lived parts of it.” I joked that Michael Lewis’s latest was ahead of his in my reading queue, but that I’d get back to him when I picked it up.

Much of the book felt familiar. My starting role at the company was to be my boss’s ghostwriter for all kinds of pieces spanning both public releases and private missives; it would be fair to say I knew him well in the two years I was there. The sayings I learned to work into his draft writings, the ethos that defined his day-to-day dealings, and the issues that defined the circumstances around the company at the time all brought me back to my mid-20s.

And then I got to the part about the activist shareholder.

Not what I remembered

I remember this. I left for business school in the middle of struggle. The company’s stock was battered after a failed product launch and some other operational missteps. They were not fatal issues, but the activist was certainly wielding all they could to try and take control. I knew this at the time, and implicitly trusted my boss to handle them, as he always had. By now, I had seen him manage all manner of conflict, be it interpersonal, managerial, or competitive. I had accepted and absorbed that conflict is part of the CEO role, and assumed that he’d handle this one as he always did.

In the book, though, this conflict was different. My eyes widened as I read about my boss’s account of dealing with the activist’s machinations. As closely as I worked with him daily, monitoring his emails, traveling with him monthly to the company’s other office, and even working weekends when there was a big speech, I had no idea how the activist revolt really affected my boss. The despair and pain, and the sense of being at war that he felt - these came alive to me in a way they had not some 20 years hence. (And this was me! Fully on my boss’s side the whole time, doing all I could to be of professional support!) I felt a wash of embarrassment and guilt come over me, and I put down the book.

Heard the words, missed the meaning

The next morning, I tapped out a message to my long-ago boss: “I feel I could have been a better supporter had I known what all I have learned now, through my own education and through your book…I am sorry for being young and naive. Good thing you sent me to b school to learn a thing or two??!”

There’s a phrase I like: “heard the words, missed the meaning.” It comes to mind now, as I reflect on having been so close to the action and not really having understood the life or death battle I witnessed. Turning the experience around to my own life as the co-head of a team trying to make its mark on the world, it dawns on me that nobody really knows what it’s like to be me either.

When COVID-19 hit as we took control of a travel company, and the next two years became a daily existential crisis for the firm, nobody really got it. I mean, they saw what was happening all around, but the unique set of pressures that my cofounder and I were subject to - the investors whose money we had raised to acquire the entity, the creditors who wanted to know when they’d be repaid, the customers demanding refunds that the company didn’t have the funds to execute, the employees who wanted severance packages exceeding the cash on hand, and the family at home going stir crazy in lockdown - these were ours alone.

And that’s okay. As badly as I feel about not being a better supporter to my CEO boss, I also realize in my own version of the role that nobody needs to share in the pain that is sometimes the top job. Nobody needs to know that the glory they imagine of the C-suite coexists with painful conflict. What they need to do is to focus on their own roles and do them well. They can leave the existential headaches to the big boss, just as I did.

Article written by Arar Han on Inc.

Managing an unresponsive employee in a virtual organization isn’t easy, especially when employees are working in different time zones and countries.

As co-CEOs of a virtual organization, my partner and I often grappled with these issues. Here’s a fictionalized account of a real-life management situation we faced and how we handled it. My insights might help you manage a similar situation.

Virtual teams need quick responses

Jerry is a founder and CEO based in Tokyo. He leads a virtual team, with department heads based in Virginia, Texas, and Italy. Each department head also leads a virtual team, in too many places to map. Those employees directly interface with clients.

Jerry has a 24-hour turnaround policy for all internal communications. Anytime one of his direct reports pings him, he gets back within the day or the next morning.

Lately, Jerry has been frustrated by the slow responses from Marie, head of sales in Virginia. Recently, Jerry had a question about the company’s largest account, which is managed by one of Marie’s account executives in India. Jerry asked Maria for an answer by the end of her workday, giving her almost eight hours to respond.

When three workdays passed without an answer, Jerry emailed Marie. “What’s the word on the Providence account?” he asked. She responded within 10 minutes: “Oh my gosh, sorry! I haven’t heard back from Kellen, the account executive. Let me ping him.”

Another day passed, with no follow up. Jerry weighed his options about what to do next.

Slow responses create doubt

Does Jerry’s frustration over waiting for an answer on email sound familiar? It probably does; even though average response time for a work email is 3.5 hours, many responses exceed that, leading to feelings of impatience and frustration. And yet we can all agree, as 81 percent of people in an Inc. survey indicated: It is a reasonable expectation that work emails be responded to within a day.

The Providence account took a backseat while Jerry helped close a new major account, but his euphoria faded as he realized: It was nearing a full work week since his inquiry to Marie.

He could ping Kellen directly but that would violate the chain of command.

He decided to write Marie again: “Where are we on this?” She replied right away: “Ack let me track him down…”

Another day passed. An exasperated Jerry was starting to have questions about Marie. “Why can’t she get him to respond,” he fumed. “Is Kellen shirking other duties? Is this how Marie manages her entire team?”

Slow responses may signal bigger problems

Jerry called Marie; it was 10 p.m. in Tokyo, and 9 a.m. in Virginia. Marie answered on the first ring, “Hi Jerry, I still don’t have an answer from Kellen.”

When Jerry asked if this was typical, Marie explained that Kellen recently broke up with his girlfriend; since then, his once stellar performance had fallen off the cliff.

These two-layered management problems drove Jerry nuts. Marie has always been responsive to Jerry but her ability to respond to Jerry has been impacted by the lack of support from Kellen. Typically, the virtual setup does not adversely impact Jerry’s communications with Marie. But it is affecting Marie’s ability to manage Kellen.

Marie needs Kellen to return to his usual form, and pronto. But Kellen who is 26, is a sensitive sort, and she is worried about pushing him. She knows that mental health issues are at the forefront for Generation Z, and for his part, Kellen has been open about his previous difficulties. Marie wants to push Kellen for better performance but knowing that he is struggling in his personal life, she doesn’t want to cause him to quit.

My advice for Marie

Kellen is on Marie’s team, managing the company’s largest account. The company can’t afford to have him operating at less than top form. I’d advise Marie to figure out who will tackle the work while Kellen is struggling. Is there another account executive who can step in? If not, can Marie pick things up herself?

At the same time, Marie must manage the person. It has been a month: That’s a long time for Kellen to be performing nominally at work! I’d recommend that Marie find a way to offer Kellen some time off, paid or unpaid. Marie is rightly concerned about his state of mind. She should consult with the company’s Human Resources or equivalent managers before proceeding, with care.

Final thoughts

If this trio were co-located, this time-delayed communication breakdown would be hard to imagine. But in today’s email-centric, virtual office setting, these wait times are sometimes inevitable, potentially putting your business at risk.

In this case, Marie used her next one-on-one with Kellen to express her concern for him and to emphasize that the team was relying on him. When she asked how she could help, Kellen told her that he needed an open-ended mental break from work. Marie told Kellen the payroll and benefits manager would be in touch. She took over the Providence account herself, planning to keep it until Kellen either returned or his replacement was hired.

After six weeks, Kellen officially resigned to become a guide for a safari in South Africa.

If you find yourself in a similar predicament, I encourage you to:

1. Be persistent in discovering why a delay is occurring, and to separate out the work and the person in your approach to a solution. This guide offers a nice checklist to getting teammates like Kellen back on track.
2. Use Performance Improvement Plans sparingly. In Kellen’s case, I’d recommend not using one. Here’s why.
3. Be cognizant of the possibility that you might lose an experienced and well-trained employee by actively managing their underperformance.

While these situations can be sensitive, your deft management will help your team find its way.

The digital nomad revolution is in full swing, and talented Americans can be found all over the world. They tend to be college educated, with a variety of skills, including global travel, and often have a dose of worldly practicality that makes them easy to work with. How do you find the ones who are right for your organization? Here are some of my tips from a year of hiring expats in Asia.

1. Understand why the candidate is an expat.

As they say, migration always involves both push and pull factors. Why did they choose to leave the United States? Why did they choose to be where they are? Their answers will give you a sense of the person’s priorities and life direction and help you understand whether they are long-term expats or whether they will return stateside eventually. Then, you’ll be able to match them to your needs, whether for a reliable short-term need, for a longer-term person who is mobile or for something in between.

Warning: Bear in mind that if the candidate is simply passing through a country and is looking for the job to finance their globetrotting, they may have neither a reliable place to work nor consistent access to the Internet. If those are key to the work, that candidate may not be a good fit.

2. KYC: Know your candidates.

This means understanding their legal, working, and banking status in the country. Generally speaking, there are three factors:

• whether the person is legally in the country (visa status)

• whether the person is permitted to work in that country (work permit)

• how the person expects to be paid (i.e., to a U.S. bank account, to a foreign bank account or another way)

Make sure your HR and legal advisors are aware of the candidate’s location so they can help determine what work arrangement will be best, direct hire or contractor (US-based address or foreign).

In the case of direct hires who are sanctioned to work in the local market, you may want to use an employer of record as the local market hiring entity to make sure you are withholding taxes according to local law. If the candidate is passing through the country and not permitted to work in that country, you may be better off having them be a contractor who is paid like a regular U.S. contractor. Keep in mind that the United States asserts taxation rights to all wages that Americans earn worldwide.

Don’t forget to research the local rates that apply. The United States is one of the most expensive labor markets in the world. That is perhaps why you are looking abroad for talent. If you hire an expat, make sure you are aware of what the prevailing local market is. Maybe you pay that rate, maybe more. Either way, the gap is enormous, so don’t be caught unaware.

3. Assess, assess, assess.

If you are hiring an expat, chances are you are not going to meet in person much, if at all. You may not even have much overlapping work time. This makes it all the more important that you can rely on them to do the work that you ask of them, and well. So what is it they need to do? Start with basic skills like typing speed or writing formulas in Excel and ask them to send you the results. Do you need them to serve as a contact center agent? There are well-qualified formal assessments for that and many other roles.

Make sure you check all references thoroughly. Is this the type of person who will assiduously check deadlines to make sure that they don’t accidentally set them to the wrong time zone? If this person loses Internet in their Airbnb, will they go and buy a SIM card to make sure they don’t miss your scheduled Zoom meeting? Or might they be unreliable? You will want to know these things and stay far from those who will be difficult to manage.

4. If things don’t work out, cut bait quickly.

A simple rule for distance hires is that a missed meeting or deadline without advance warning is grounds for immediate termination. You may ultimately not exercise this option, but make sure that your candidate is aware of the standard for success prior to hiring them on. You don’t want to get into a situation where you are waiting and wondering what is going on.

In short, the candidate must be a professional. If they show behaviors that are problematic during the vetting process, don’t advance them. When the entire hiring process is virtual and distanced, every little thing means a lot, and candidates should be aware. Even small misses are big misses in context. Be decisive and move on when you see something you don’t like.

5. Establish routines that fit the working relationship.

Is the new expat hire 16 hours ahead of you? Will you never see them live, even on a screen? Find a way to do a daily check in, or whatever cadence makes the most sense. Even if they are halfway round the world, they are part of your team and you’ll want to integrate them into your regular routines, lest you forget about them and they start drifting off into space.

The world is full of well-qualified expats who could become great remote members of your team. The keys are to understand their priorities, what is making them tick, the local markets where they’re located, and to get into a positive pattern of working together. With the right expats on your team, you might fill a critical need with a strong worker who requires little management and is even cost-effective.

Article written by Arar Han on Forbes

When my father dropped me off at college, one of the first pieces of advice he gave me was: Become friends with your professors. When I got my first job, he was similarly terse: Try to become indispensable. This is a lesson I’d encourage all new college graduates starting their careers to consider.

Thinking back, these stand up well over time. I think about this career advice often when entry-level people join our team. Many observations have already been made about this generation of workers, such as how mental health is a top priority for Gen Z or that they’re often collaborative and value authenticity and flexibility. Others have shared criticisms. For example, Jodie Foster humorously bemoaned young Gen Z actors in an interview with The Guardian.

Each previous generation seems to find the next one to be somewhat disappointing. I don’t have much to offer in the way of generational truths, which I think are best described while looking in the rear-view mirror. But I do observe that the workers of today seem to have grown up like they’re on The Truman Show, the comedic drama from 1998. I imagine growing up with the internet and social media must forge a high level of self-consciousness. I am sympathetic to those who feel perpetually in the limelight. It must be exhausting to feel observed all the time.

So, when entry-level people show up to work for one of our companies, I anticipate a high sensitivity to and concern for how their choices and behavior might be perceived by their peers or through the lens of a smartphone.

In any case, I’ve found most new workers don’t come into the workplace naturally oriented toward being “indispensable.” That’s because “indispensable” implies that you’re not the central hero - something else is. And to be indispensable, that “something” - whether it’s your boss, the company or its mission - has to feel it can’t progress without you. You’re becoming an essential part of a broader whole.

I always hope our entry-level workers become indispensable to their colleagues, their managers and to what it is the team is trying to accomplish together. Being needed in the workplace is a vital rush. It gives purpose and meaning to why you were asked to join a team in the first place. And as I see it, no team can be the best version of itself without everyone being indispensable together - to one another, to clients and to all those their organization serves.

So, how do you become indispensable?

First, you show up and on time. It’s hard to imagine anyone essential not being there when needed. Be there and be ready every time you go into the workplace (or log on if you’re in a virtual role).

Second, do your best to fulfill the things you are entrusted with. Are you at a call center? Then this means picking up promptly and delivering the service the customer is asking for. Are you in an outside sales role? Then this means following up on your leads enthusiastically and with a dedication that defies all the “noes” that inevitably come with the job. In other words, strive to be really good at what you do.

Third, look for ways to do a little more to help your team get better or go faster. Maybe you are a writer for a publication, and you happen to catch an error in someone else’s work. Do you say something, or do you let it slide since it’s not yours? It’s up to you, but I believe the indispensable sort tries to make their environment better in the small ways that count. I think of it kind of like how folks who pick up other people’s trash at the park or run after someone who leaves behind their hat make the world a bit better.

A wonderful thing can happen as this cycle repeats: People start anticipating that you’ll be there, that you do a job well and that you’re helpful. You become essential to them. You become an indispensable part of the team.

Then, throughout your career journey, you’ll have the know-how to be a winner at your next stop and the one after. When you become the boss of your dreams, you’ll have the opportunity to impart this same message to those just starting out.

Find what you believe in to reach your max potential.

You don’t want to be indispensable to just anything, though. If you’re going to work hard and try to make a difference, do it for something you believe in or that plays to your natural strengths.

For example, do you have a heart for people’s well-being? Look for roles that would provide help for others, whether because the company exists for that reason or because your role directly interfaces with people. Are you good with numbers? Consider seeking out roles that provide ample opportunity to engage with math. You might be surprised at the range: Statisticians, accountants and math teachers work with numbers, but so do sales managers, nutritionists and digital marketers.

One more thing: Lots of people say that when you’re just starting out, any job will do. I disagree. While you’re learning new skills and becoming part of a team, it helps to do it as part of a team that has positive energy and values hard work. Otherwise, you might find that you start absorbing the negative energy and bad habits of the place or become cynical about work. Neither will set you up well to perform to your highest potential.

So, for new college graduates, go forth and join a team that needs you to be indispensable. Congratulations on your many achievements so far and for all the ones to come.

And for current leaders, remember that this cycle of being indispensable begins with you. Value your entry-level workers as real contributors, and set the expectation that their contributions are just as meaningful as those of more experienced workers. When you do so, this virtuous cycle can begin.