119. There’s no use beating a dead horse

Hi Gerard,

To come back to my daughter(s), during my vacation in Florida I saw a T-shirt with the slogan DADD, with the subtitle “Dad’s Against Daughters Dating”, I think my oldest daughter feels that I very much agree with the text on the T-shirt and that’s why she avoids conversations with me.Anyway enough about my personal fears and I will get back to your question about people with question marks or exclamation marks. Everyone prefers colleagues in their business who are walking around with question marks. And so do we, because we often spend more time and energy on people who walk around with exclamation marks trying to change them. However, I notice more and more that I cannot change people. I believe more in facilitating and coaching possibilities and opportunities for everyone in the company. There are always colleagues who do not want to not go along with this and see threats everywhere around them. Threats to their position because they think change is undermining their position if they believe that a company should not create conditions where everyone feels comfortable. I used to try and energize these people, but I’ve learned that you cannot make everyone feel at home. I want to move forward with the business and everyone is welcome on this ride, but I’m not waiting for people who are not prepared to get involved. So that’s basically the answer to your question, I let them go. Maybe this is weak, but I have come to the conclusion that this is best.

For the other group, the group of colleagues who are walking around with question marks in their eyes, we try to be stimulating. In the sense, that everyone has the opportunity to come up with ideas and to perform and to take responsibility. We try to organize joint activities for colleagues. And if they want to receive training, they are welcome. And, it is indeed motivating to work with a group of people who pick up the positives.

When selecting new colleagues, we try to keep that in mind. We are looking for enthusiasm. And now I am moving into your specialty. Hiring good people is not a science, otherwise every company would have the same procedure. Ours is actually very simple, there are three interviews with the candidates, which are conducted by different people in the company. There is a discussion about the job and company, the candidate’s and our expectations and the future plans of the candidate .Only when everyone gives high marks, do we hire a candidate, and this process has a high gut-feeling content. How do you do this in your business?

Regards,

Erik