Category Archives: Career

The Strong CEO

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As CEO, you are much more than a simple boss. As the figurehead of your company and guiding light for those in your employ, dozens if not hundreds of people will look to you for stability, and you must remain steady. But what makes a good CEO compared to a bad one? I’ve gathered some excellent tips for the budding CEO to ensure that they remain the face of their company and not the heel.

To lead, you need a goal, a vision. Without a plan for the future, how can you expect others to follow? Whether it be demonstrating your company’s value to investors or interacting with customers, a CEO with vision is a CEO with gravitas. Have a goal and believe in it, relentlessly. If someone were in an elevator with you and asked what you do, before they disembark you should have an investor. Passion is contagious, don’t be afraid of sharing it.

Scott MauriceAs CEO, your role is constantly evolving with the times. It’s your responsibility to adapt and grow with trending technologies. Incorporate new and unique ways to do business into your business, and rather than being crushed under the wave of emergent technologies, you rise above.

And finally, remember to be a mentor as well as a leader. A CEO who is all business is more likely to inspire fear than admiration in the eye’s of their employers. Don’t take this as a suggestion to be best friends with your coworkers. To remain impartial, a slight barrier must be kept between you and your associates. However, should an employee come to you for advice, don’t turn them away. They sought you out because, to them, you are a figure of authority. Don’t shirk your responsibilities, embrace them.

How To Win Your Interview

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So you’ve sent in your CV with a beautifully-worded cover letter, hoping to get that job of your dreams. Then the day comes and your phone rings with the promise of an interview, but your stomach sinks to the ground. For some, getting through an interview is the hard part. Anyone can apply for a job, but how can you convince them, show them that you are deserving of their time and effort? Below are some simple ways that you can stand a little taller in your next interview.

Though it may seem painfully obvious, you need to keep track of where your application is heading. From a business perspective, they deal with hundreds of eager applicants on a daily basis, each vying for the seat you’re aiming for. To enter an interview without knowledge of the company not only demonstrates a lack of forethoughtScott Maurice but can offend the hiring manager who selected you.

Remember, an interview is a short window you have to show the employer what makes you so pivotal to the future success of their company. As dramatic as that sounds, it is important to present yourself in the best possible light. Though the questions you’re sure to be asked are the purview of the interviewee, try and limber up your memories. Elaborate on your experiences when asked, and show a depth of understanding. If you prepare too stringently, you run the risk of boxing yourself in. Stay loose and you’ll be prepared for any question thrown at you.

Be honest with yourself and the company. Everyone, whether your fellow interviewers or potential coworkers, are prepared for the typical interview responses. No one’s weakness is “working too hard,” and giving an answer as rehearsed and banal as that will do little but expose a larger, glaring weakness. To join a company is to make a silent agreement between you and your employer. Don’t be afraid to show your flaws, because what are flaws but opportunities for improvement? To grow within a company is to grow WITH a company, and nothing builds loyalty more than that.

The Most Important Job: Balancing Fatherhood with Workplace Leadership

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Scott MauriceOver the course of the last few decades, our society has witnessed dramatic leaps and bounds in regards to women in the workplace. It is no longer a unique or uncommon occurrence for mothers to hold down full-time occupations in the field of their choice, as a culture that once sought to limit their sphere of influence to domestic spaces evolves to more wholeheartedly support women’s professional aspirations. However, it remains far from easy to “have it all.” An enormous body of literature covering the challenges of reaching your highest potential both at work and at home already exists. In fact, this sort of research is only growing when it comes to that specific half of the household. When it comes to men though, the available insight becomes much murkier.

At the same time that women have been making some serious strides in their places of employment, the other side of the equation has also shifted. Men are increasingly vocalizing a serious desire serve as more than just a breadwinner – fathers want to be present in their children’s live as well. Now that dual-income families are comfortably in the mainstream, it is only natural for caregiving responsibilities and opportunities to split more evenly. This parallels the more and more equal breakdown of moneymaking duties. A recent report found that today’s dads already spend as much as three times more time with their offspring than dads did in the 1960s.

In response to this reality, more employers are adapting and expanding policies that support things like paternal leave. Both genders should be fairly encouraged to do well both at work and as heads of their family. This charge has been led by certain industry leaders, such as Netflix (who recently announced an unlimited paid leave policy for both men and women). Microsoft, Google, and Facebook are also leading the way with exceedingly generous frameworks for parenthood in place relative to what is usually found in corporate scenarios.

However, the real obstacle now is tweaking mindsets so that workers are confident in actually taking advantage of these new policies. Research indicates that both men and women have trouble believing that extended family leave does not seriously impact their position or status at work in a negative fashion. It will take time to hit a critical mass of people who not only display a clear preference for employers who offer these policies, but also use them. Until then, efficiency is key. Give employees the flexibility and autonomy they need to strike the perfect balance in their lives. When one is thriving in one aspect of life, the other is likely to blossom into greater success as well.

Invert the Interview: 3 Red Flags That Mean You May Want To Walk Away Now

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Scott Maurice Interview TipsAs previously discussed, the first step to a phenomenal interview is setting the standard for what defines success for you. Ideally, you have engaged the interviewer on a human level, you are exceedingly prepared, and you conclude the role is a great fit for your skillset and desired career trajectory. However, even when everything in the interview is going excellently, you should always be looking to expand your understanding of the opportunity. If you going to commit to a company professionally, it is always best to fully understand exactly what kind of situation you are choosing to enter. Companies have an automatic interest in selling themselves, so to speak, to the best candidates and saying what they need to say to attract to talent. This can sometimes mean that for a clear picture of what goes on at the organization, you will need to read between the lines. Here are three big things that might mean you need to dig deeper before signing on any dotted lines.

Competency Gaps

In almost all interview structures, you will be given the chance to speak to company leadership and your potential managers. If at the end of those meetings you walk away believing (or even just suspecting) that you could do their job better than them for whatever reason, definitely reconsider the role. Maybe you were deeply unimpressed by the person who would be overseeing your – or perhaps they were fine but your qualifications and experience are just obviously more impressive. Regardless, signing up to work under someone you do not fully respect is a surefire way to create some uncomfortable situations moving forward. Instead of that, lay the discomfort out flat during pre-hiring chats. Press these individuals on the story of their own upward mobility and ability to execute, while you evaluate if this is someone who actually is qualified to oversee your professional development. Harp on advancement opportunities, making it clear that you need to know they will be able to get you to where you want to go.

Compensation Acrobatics

Be very wary of ownership compensation. Equity compensation has recently skyrocketed in popularity, surely buoyed by over-sensationalized media coverage of tech billionaires and starry-eyed optimism of start-up culture. The company posits that rather than pay you what the market says your input is woth, they will make up the difference in equity. This is a very different situation than offering market-competitive wages and relying on equity to put the offer over the top as compared to other players in the industry. This could be indicative of financial distress, so when you hear those words, be sure you have personally evaluated their financial projections closely. Then, you will have two options. You can either politely walk away or become more aggressive, holding their feet to the fire. When they offer you compensation packages that pay below what the market would suggest is appropriate, what you hear as a potential hire is that they are choosing to give something which has no guaranteed value over actual money. Basically, they are underpaying you and crossing their fingers…at least, that is what you are hearing. Put the onus on them to tell you more about the financial power of the company, as well as how they are going to do more than just say you and the position you would hold are valuable. How will they show you it is valuable?

Watch That Workload

Always be careful when you hear a company casually extricate itself from the way in which employees handle workloads. Organizations love hiding this kind of structural issue as a sort of cultural characteristic, and it is particularly common in government, nonprofits, and education.  These places adopt an entitled philosophy, in which it is such a privilege to work there. As such, they fall victim to “hero syndrome.” This means that when you ask shining examples of excellence, everyone points to the individual who is always staying late and going way above and beyond the call of duty.

This might seem counterintuitive but, more often than not, this is a bad sign. When a company extols the virtues of an employee who “just gets it done,” even when that mean he or she is donating dozens of extra hours per week, it means they are way to comfortable avoiding the real issue at hand. That would be, “why does this person need to work so hard just to excel here in the first place?” Poor planning, disorganization, inefficiency, terrible communication, or uninvested leadership can all play a role in how so much comes to be asked of employees just to get the job done. To avoid finding yourself in that kind of scenario, take the control back in the interview and stop them in their tracks. Be authoritative. Question why it is they value employees who give up their free time and throw off their work/life balance to accomplish something that could, should, and would have been finished on time if there had been a contingency plan in place. What actions is the company taking now to avoid having to ask the same overextension from their employees on such projects in the future? Really drill them directly – you want to commit to a company who is able to actually follow through on their commitment to supporting you.

Invert The Interview: How To Ask Questions That Conquer

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Scott MauriceIt happens every time. The hiring manager and you have closed out a fairly traditional and unsurprising back-and-forth. Hopefully, you did your due diligence and excelled thus far. Every question he or she threw in your direction was an opportunity for you hit a homerun, and you managed to accomplish exactly that. Then, the HR representative agrees to open the floor to questions. You are somewhat tempted to sit back and relax, resting on the laurels of your great answers up to this point. Whatever you do, resist the urge to slip into autopilot. This moment is as make-or-break as any other in the interview scenario.

Just because you are the one asking the questions does not mean the dynamic will change without a concerted effort on your part. Step one is to refuse to lob him or her the easy ones just to coast at the same frequency you have already established. This portion of the conversation can (and should!) be much more than just a formality. So eschew the old interview model. Do not ask the polite questions you know you are “supposed to ask.” What does that really achieve for you and your professional success in the long term? More likely than not, it won’t be much.

Instead, ask yourself prior to the interview what it is you even need. Do you just need a job? Do you need to know if you can tolerate this one, or is it important for you to now that you will sincerely love it? Could you stand to benefit from some overall career advice? Identify how you can most effectively leverage this chance to sit with an official representative of this company for your own benefit, and then execute once you two are face-to-face. Walking in with an agenda almost always throws the interviewer off and sets you apart. Even though the contrived interview has come to be accepted as fact, it definitely does not need to be.

Every question you ask will be evaluated and scrutinized. So, ask questions that can help you out in two ways – illustrate your capability to dominate in a professional environment and extract the kind of information from a person that you could never get from a website or brochure. To do this, you will need to prepare and tactfully deliver strategic inquiries. Instead of just asking if the workplace is “fun” so that the HR manager can spoon-feed you the company line about culture fits and happy hours, dig deeper. Figure out what “fun” means to you, and then ask questions about that. On the flip side, remember to demonstrate your value as well. If you want a workplace with a mentoring program, and this one lacks it, could you be the one to start it after you were hired? Those sorts of follow-ups are fantastic indicators of leadership and investment on your part.

This is easiest when you set your mindset accordingly beforehand. At the beginning of my career, I was ready to move into my next opportunity and lined up about a dozen interviews. I accepted an offer from the third company with which I spoke, but then needed to figure out what to do with the rest of my scheduled conversations with different potential employers. Once I knew that I already had a job, I totally transformed the way in which I approached those talks. Instead of over-stressing impressing the hiring manager, I finally prioritized learning. And, just like that, I abandoned the back-and-forth interview in favor of real conversations that would add real value to my professional success.

Co-opting the interview situation into one that is beneficial for you requires planning and commitment, but the payoff is well worth that time and effort. It’s a chance to improve your skills in relationship building, negotiations, research, and more. Walk in with your head held high and eyes set on the prize, which should almost always bigger than just the specific job on the line. Put your career first in the conversation, and you will be surprised by what you stand to learn.