/page/BizThoughts

Creating Rock Stars

You know what’s better than hiring rock stars? Creating your own.

This entry is the third entry of a three-part series on rock stars.

The Rock Star Series

How to Hire Rock Stars
How to Manage Rock Stars
How to Create Rock Stars

Creating rock stars is definitely possible. And cheaper. Also, internally-grown rock stars tend to be more loyal than those from the outside, since they appreciate the investment you’ve made in their careers. Hiring outsiders can cause dissatisfaction amongst the current staff too. In short, it is much better to grow your own rock stars than to hire them.

Once you know how to do this, you can replicate the formula throughout your organization. So instead of giving you fish, now I’m going to teach you how to fish.

Hire individuals with potential: There are several elements hiring managers typically seek: current skills, relevant work experience, personality fit, and innate talents. When hiring individuals with the potential to become rock stars, emphasize innate talents & personality fit and deemphasize current skills & relevant work experience. A talent is an aptitude with which an individual is born. Look for a talent that is relevant to your role. The right personality fit includes not only a cultural team fit, but an eagerness & ability to learn, a comfortability with making mistakes, a passion for the work, a strong sense of integrity, and the inclination to be proactive and take initiative. Skills & experience can be gained later. Note that there’s a slight bias towards younger employees here, but I’ve always been a believer that you can teach an old dog new tricks.
Identify good teachers and mentors: Good teachers and mentors are hard to find, perhaps just as hard as finding rock stars. Also, rock stars don’t necessarily make good teachers, and vice versa. A good teacher is someone who can break down the fundamentals in a meaningful & digestible way, apply those concepts into actionable & real-world situations, and understand each student well enough to educate them in their particular learning styles. Teachers should also have enough subject competency that the students respect their knowledge. If such individuals don’t exist, ask for volunteers amongst your rock stars and send them to training on how to be effective mentors. Self-motivated individuals make the best mentors.
Offer lots of training opportunities: If you don’t have good teachers on staff, seek out group training opportunities outside of your organization. Not all workshops & seminars are created equal, so it will take some effort to find the good ones. The effort will be worth it though. Workshops & seminars aren’t the only options. In the software development world, paired programming, code reviews, and project post mortems can also be extremely helpful. One more tip: asking someone to hold a workshop can also be an effective training tool for that person. Sometimes, the best way to learn something is to teach it to someone else.
Set up a mentorship program: While you seek out group training opportunities, establish a mentorship program with your willing & able mentors. Personally, I think formal mentorship programs aren’t organic enough to grow rock stars. They do a fair job transferring skills, but don’t imbue apprentices with rock star habits and mental models. For that, you need something with deeper involvement. Proximity, exposure, and having someone officially in the role of the mentor is important. In the software development world, paired programming can do this, as can shadowing and being placed on the same projects. Mentors & apprentices should have some kind of regular dialogue, though I’m undecided about the effectiveness of structured lesson plans and goals. Feedback from both parties is essential, however, so the mentoring relationship can grow.
Cultivate a culture of learning: Your apprentices need time to learn the right chords and practice their arpeggios before they can become full-fledged rock stars. This requires an environment that encourages education, such as tolerating mistakes, celebrating achievements, sharing lessons learned, and solving problems collaboratively. Learning is and should be fun; if your fledglings are enjoying their apprenticeships, they’ll become masters very soon. Books like The Fifth Discipline can also offer more tips from an organizational standpoint.

How do you create rock stars in your organization?

The Rock Star Series

How to Hire Rock Stars
How to Manage Rock Stars
How to Create Rock Stars

Ellen DeGeneres’ iPhone Commercial

Now for some Friday fun.

Have you seen Ellen DeGeneres’ new commercial? It’s on the iPhone (AAPL). Check it out:

Hilarious huh! Apparently, Apple didn’t think so. They contacted Ellen and told her so, prompting this apology.

Tsk tsk. Such sour grapes.

How to Manage Rock Stars

Now that you’ve hired a rock star, what do you do? After writing about the recruiting process for rock stars, I decided to expand to a three-part series. This is the second topic on my series about rock stars.

The Rock Star Series:

How to Hire Rock Stars
How to Manage Rock Stars
How to Create Rock Stars

Contrary to popular belief, dealing with rock stars isn’t necessarily easier than poor performers, and certainly not easier than average performers. In order to keep your rock stars productive, on your team, and still jamming out hits, you’ve got to manage them differently.

A quick word about my management style. I use what I call a talent-driven management style, adopted from books like First, Break All the Rules & Now, Discover Your Strengths, the latest management research, and my own experiences as a people manager. My techniques are biased to my particular style and may not work in all situations, though they’ve worked well for me.

Rock stars need to be managed differently: Despite what you might think, you shouldn’t manage everyone on your team in the same way, just like you shouldn’t raise all of your kids in the same way. Every individual is unique, with different motivations, working styles, and temperaments. So really, this tip is good for everyone on your team, not just the rock stars.
Rock stars need effective work environments: Those who were rock stars at previous companies may have reached that status because of the environment there. Try to replicate as much of that environment as you reasonably can, while giving them opportunities to learn how to best work in your environment.
Rock stars need interesting & challenging work: A large reason why rock stars are rock stars is because they thrive on challenging work they care about. Align them with work that matches their personal passions. Make sure you give them a steady stream of such work to keep them motivated. Grunt work may be inevitable, but be aware that rock stars are more apt to leave if they become bored because there are so many opportunities for them elsewhere.
Rock stars need to be monitored closely: You don’t want to lose any of your employees, but you especially don’t want to lose your rock stars. Check on them every so often, both from a workload standpoint and a personal standpoint. See how they’re doing and how they’re feeling. It does mean more work from you, but if they are happy with their jobs, they’ll remain productive. However, be careful not to hover over or micromanage them.
Rock stars can be used to train others: With all that knowledge & skill in their heads, why not try to spread it around? If they are willing and able to, ask your rock stars to hold workshops and seminars for the rest of your team. Knowledge sharing can be very powerful, both in building relationships, providing recognition, and increasing the productivity of others.
Rock stars need to be recognized: Most people enjoy recognition as a reward, and rock stars are no different. Asking them to hold training sessions is one way to recognize their expertise. Giving them positions of authority is another, such as team lead, planner & architect, project evangelist, etc. Awards and monetary compensation are other good methods.
Rock stars need to be inspired: Since they have so many employment options, if they are not doing something that they are passionate about, don’t feel a genuine concern for their welfare, and are not being rewarded appropriately, they will leave. You need to give them a reason to be loyal and inspire them to stay. If you can do that, you’ll have a rock solid team.

How do you manage your rock stars?

The Rock Star Series:

How to Hire Rock Stars
How to Manage Rock Stars
How to Create Rock Stars

How to Hire Rock Stars

I’m sure you want them. Rock stars, I mean. Whether you’re a start-up or a large corporation, you need the cream of the crop on your team. So how to you find & hire these elusive stars?

I don’t mean to brag, but…

<brag>
While I was an engineering manager at Yahoo! (YHOO), I was constantly involved in recruiting activities. I did it before I was formally a manager, I did it as a hiring manager, and I did it to help other teams. I quickly realized that I had a strong fascination for the art of recruiting. Who knows, maybe I was a recruiter in a previous life.

During that time, the developers I hired won Superstar awards (an internal award given to only a select few every year) and became managers, directors, & architects. Some even went on to form start-ups.

I devoted a lot of time studying the process, and art, of recruiting. So I think I have a fair bit of knowledge about how to hire rock stars. Looks at fingernails, rubs them on shirt. Ahem.
</brag>

UPDATED 5/5/2010: I’ve turned this entry into the first part of a series.

The Rock Star Series:

So how does one find and recruit rock stars? Here’s how.

Rock stars usually hang out with other rock stars: This is no secret. Like-minded people tend to associate with each other. That’s why employee referrals are so powerful. But when referrals aren’t bringing in enough candidates, look at where your rock stars spend their time. If you’re hiring software developers, do your rock stars frequent particular forums, mailing lists or open source projects? Check them out for more potential rock stars.
Rock stars aren’t always the best judge of rock star quality: In direct contradiction to the previous tip, sometimes rock stars aren’t able to reliably tell you if other developers are true rock stars too. This isn’t always the case, but on occasion, likability usurps actual abilities. I’ve known a few stars who’ve highly recommended their friends, only to find that their friends aren’t that great.
Rock stars may have particular personality patterns: Get into the heads of your current rock stars. Interview them to understand their temperaments, core values, points of view, motivations, backgrounds, etc. Look for broad patterns. These findings can be a template from which to do your candidate evaluations. But be careful not to follow such patterns strictly. For instance, the rock star developers I hired tended to have strong analytical dispositions, yet have artistic hobbies. Many were also introverts, though I didn’t make that a pattern to follow, because I’ve hired extrovert rock stars as well.
Rock stars already have jobs: You’ll rarely find a rock star posting a resume on Craigslist or some job board. Rock stars are almost constantly employed. So you’ll have to find a way to woo them from their jobs, which isn’t easy – especially if the rock star is loyal and excited about the current position.
Rock stars need to be wooed by other rock stars: If you are a recruiter or middle manager, you’ll have a hard time attracting rock stars from their current jobs. What you need is a rock star from your team who can speak the same language as the candidate. Rock stars need to be impressed by someone they respect. Exceptions exist, of course. Well-known industry visionaries can have a lot of clout over candidates of any background.
Rock stars can be expensive: This isn’t always the case, but the law of supply and demand, coupled with small social networks within industries, means rock stars may constantly be getting offers. Be prepared to pay them well enough so competing offers don’t lure them away. Money isn’t and shouldn’t be the main reason they are coming to work with you, but you’ll need to compensate them competitively.
Rock stars need to feel passionate about their work: Some of the best rock stars I know really care about their discipline. That’s why they are rock stars. More than money or stock options is the promise your company offers. It has to match their passions on some level. Learn about the candidates, read their blogs, and find out what motivates them. If you’re trying to attract a social media rock star to your internal banking product, for instance, then you may want to spend your resources elsewhere.
Rock stars are the sum of their talents & their environments: It’s true. Rock stars are so good at their jobs not just because they are talented, but because they’ve optimized their workflows for their current work environments. If you’re lucky enough to attract a rock star, don’t expect them to hit the ground running. You’ll need to work hard to set up a similar environment and be patient while they learn about your company, your people, and your processes. Do this while you’re waiting for the paperwork and background checks to be completed.
Rock stars need to be hired right away: So you’ve found a rock star who’s willing to come work with you. What are you waiting for? Cut through whatever red tape is in your way and get the star into your office now! Start-ups will have an advantage over large corporations here, though if you know the right people, it’s possible to get the star into your corporation quickly.

What have you done to hire rock stars?

The Rock Star Series:

Like Fraud: Don’t Like This Post

Whatever you do, don’t Like this post.

Seriously, don’t. Otherwise, you’ll end up Liking a very different site other than this one.

This is an example of possible Like fraud. If you know HTML, this is surprisingly easy to do. Just grab the code from Facebook and modify the “href” parameter, like this:

<iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.url.com&layout=standard&show_faces=true&width=450&action=like&colorscheme=light" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowTransparency="true" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height:px"></iframe>

That means you can take this part of the code (in bold):

href=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.url.com

and swap in whatever URL you’d like. The poor unsuspecting user who clicks on that Like button is now a fan of whatever URL you placed in there, like NaughtyNurses.com.

Furthermore, you can include some metadata to change the text of what appears in the activity stream of the PUU. Facebook gives developers two ways to do this: one with their XFBML tag & JavaScript SDK, and one using meta tags (shown below):

<meta property="og:title" content="Title of Content"/> <meta property="og:site_name" content="Name of Site"/> <meta property="og:image" content="http://www.url.com/img.jpg"/>

Though I haven’t tested it enough to confirm this, I believe the image you can associate with the Like button (which must be 50×50 px in size) can appear in the PUU’s list of Fan Pages.

Pretty easy, huh?

I have a bad feeling Facebook’s Like buttons will be abused like this. It’s just too easy to do. Since their code is embedded within the sandboxed environment of an iframe, it won’t be easy to protect users from Like Fraud either. But hopefully the developers at Facebook are aware & looking into this.

P.S. I originally embedded a rather risque URL in that test Like button. But I’ve replaced it with a URL to my web development agency, WebMocha, so I don’t get anyone in trouble and have something like, “John likes Naughty Nurses” appear in their activity stream, hilarious as that would be.

So if you want to test this hack out, feel free to safely click on the Like button. What you’ll see on your Facebook wall is something like “John likes WebMocha: Web Development Done Right.” I promise we won’t do anything malicious with your endorsement of our agency. Or will we? Muhaha. Just kidding!

Make Every Tweet Useful

Constraints can conduce creativity. That’s part of the fun of crafting a 140-character message, in my opinion. It’s like a haiku. Within its limitations can come great beauty.

I’m not saying my tweets are beautiful. Far from it. But since I’ve begun tweeting, I’ve thought carefully about each message. And more than that, I’ve also tried to follow this rule:

Make every tweet useful.

To me, this means more than describing what I had for lunch or how I had a bad day. Something beyond pointless babble, basically. Something hopefully useful, meaningful, and can provide someone with value. Perhaps an insightful quote (I have a thing for great quotes). Perhaps an interesting link. Or perhaps a business idea.

It is relatively easy to craft a useful standalone tweet. A reply within a conversation is tougher. Since it can be difficult to discern conversational context from a single tweet, sometimes Twitter feels like a mess of private conversations. The current remedy is to manually hunt around to determine what was written before and after a particular tweet in a conversation. Some tools try to alleviate this, but I haven’t found one that does an effective job yet. (If you know of one, please let me know.)

Without that conversational context, I’ve purported to make replies useful as well. To me, this means trying to avoid empty responses like, “Thanks!”, “LOL”, or “:)”, and trying to provide some kind of context if I reply to someone. This isn’t always possible. When it’s not, I try to craft my reply so if readers click on the “in reply to…” link, they’ll be able to catch up quickly.

It’s already tough to squeeze a useful message in 140 characters. Doing all of this on top of that is even more difficult. But I like to think that these constraints encourage me to think creatively. And hopefully, all of this makes my tweets more useful to my followers.

P.S. I should mention another constraint. I try to keep my tweets at 126 characters, not 140. This gives room for a potential retweet. If someone were to retweet me, they would likely add a: “RT @mikeleeorg”. That’s 14 characters. Subtract that from 140, and the space I have left is 126 characters.

Ah, the fun of constraints!

Why Apple Will Not Always Build Great Products

When I look at an Apple (AAPL) product, I just want to say, “How you doin’?“ That’s because Apple makes some damn fine-looking products.

Last week, I stated my theory as to why this is: Apple prioritizes product design over all else. When compromises in features or manufacturing cost need to be made, they uphold the beauty of the design first and foremost.

However, I don’t think this will last.

Their paramount emphasis on design comes from having an influential and high-ranking design champion: Steve Jobs. If a product VP dares suggest a design alteration to lower the cost for consumers, Jobs would probably lash back. He’s already known to be a critical micro-manager, so I don’t think this is a stretch.

What this means is the DNA of Jobs is closely interwoven into Apple’s products. So close that building an Apple product without him might be impossible. When Jobs departs, I don’t think Apple will continue creating such elegant and visionary products anymore. And no, I don’t think any of his possible successors can do the job.

For better or worse, Jobs is a product visionary, not an organization builder. As Jim Collins concluded in his book Built to Last:

If you’re involved in building and managing a company… think less in terms of being a brilliant product visionary or seeking the personality characteristics of charismatic leadership, and to think more in terms of being an organizational visionary and building the characteristics of a visionary company.

I could be wrong, but I don’t think this has been Jobs’ focus. Apple’s product design process is intrinsically tied to Jobs. Without him relentlessly prioritizing design above all else, the company won’t be the same.