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# People Person or People Pleaser? How to spot the difference
by  | May 3, 2023 | , , , , , ,  | 
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  ›    ›  **People Person or People Pleaser? How to spot the difference**
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## When is a focus on people just too much?
### Learn how to spot people who are just “too nice”
Since I first became involved with the assessments at Strategic Talent Management, a little over two years ago, I noticed that the overwhelming majority of assessment takers were (and still are) far more focused on people than production and planning. If you aren’t familiar with , one thing we measure in addition to behavior and motivators, is one’s capacity for understanding people, production, and planning – three things that are important in any job. In an ideal case, we like to see an equal understanding and focus in all three “P”s, yet most people are showing a very strong understanding of and focus on people, and substantially less focus on and understanding of planning and production.
Since I was relatively new and didn’t have almost 30 years of assessment results to compare, I approached Art, CEO and Founder of STM, and asked if this was normal. We did a little bit of digging and ultimately chalked it up to COVID and how the pandemic has accelerated the adoption of a more people-centric attitude and approach to business, for many people. Even before COVID, relationships were already on the rise. In 2018, Art conducted a  where he analyzed all the job applicants STM had ever assessed. He found that Millennials were 75% more likely to value teamwork and supporting others over non-millennials.
Having a good understanding of people and relationships can be critical in almost any professional role. In a Culture and Management study we recently completed, we noted the owner’s propensity to be helpful and team oriented works because that is how you win over people’s hearts and loyalty. However, in more of a “doing” or project management type of role, if production and planning suffer as a result of being overly focused on others, you can certainly run into trouble.
Let’s say you’re looking to hire for a position that requires a strong focus on detail, organization, and efficiency – a project manager, for example – how can you try and screen out individuals who may be overly focused on people and not likely to meet your standards set for detail, organization, and so on?
1. **Be aware of your own biases.**
   If you, the interviewer, are super friendly, outgoing, and so on, then you will be biased towards candidates who have those same behaviors. But the key is to look *beyond* behavior and to understand a candidate’s *attitudes* towards people, production, and planning.
2. **Be clear about your expectations.**
   You must know exactly what you are looking for in the position you are interviewing for. If the position must deal with a particularly tough customer or is taking over a team that needs lots of direction and hands-on management, then you may need someone who is tough but fair.
3. **Ask the right interview questions and know what answer you need to hear.**
   Asking questions about people, managing tasks and details, and planning and organization can be a good place to start, but the key is to be structured. You must know why you are asking a question and what answer you are looking for. What type of answer might indicate that they lack some understanding in a certain area? What type of answer could indicate that they really get it? Let’s look at some of our favorite questions that we routinely recommend to our clients below.
**SAMPLE INTERVIEW QUESTIONS**
* *How do you determine when it is appropriate to stick to a plan or do something differently?*
  Does it sound like they have a practical, objective approach to following a plan? Or does their answer suggest that they will change the plan often, especially if it is better for the people involved, potentially risking that the project goes completely off track?
* *How do you manage your time so that you can be helpful to others but ensure all your work gets done accurately and on time?*
  Here you want to listen for clear and specific tools and techniques that they use which would indicate that they know how to prioritize their own time and responsibilities and keep things on track.
* *Describe a situation when you went above and beyond for a client or colleague. How would you feel about doing that regularly?*
  Do they preach that they are always willing to go the extra mile for whoever needs it? That could be a red flag that they prioritize the needs of others at the expense of their own work or overextending the company’s resources.
Asking questions about how they handle conflict is another good tactic. If the role has a strong project management component, they need to be able to put their foot down and not be so worried about upsetting people in the process of holding them accountable.
* *Do you prefer to avoid conflict situations or face them head on?*
* *Do you often find yourself taking on the role of “peacekeeper” on a team?*
* *Give me an example of a time when someone didn’t follow through on a commitment to you. What did you do about it?  How do you make sure that others around you follow through on their commitments?  How do you ensure that you do?*
In all these responses you do not want to hear that they always avoid conflict and play “peacekeeper”. On the last question, you want to hear clear and specific examples of how they hold people to account for their commitments and responsibilities.
To recap, these questions are designed to help you screen out the *overly* people-focused individuals who may not be suitable for your highly task-oriented role. Remember, it’s okay to care about other people, but sometimes we really just need someone to focus on the details and make sure things get done according to plan. So, if you have a candidate who you feel in every sense is a rockstar but they might be a *bit* too focused on relationships, that isn’t necessarily a show stopper. In today’s tough hiring market, it may be worth investing in some type of  for the candidate to bring more balance to their style.
If you want to be sure that a candidate is not overly focused on relationships, take a look at .
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# Think Twice About Poaching Employees
by  | Mar 22, 2023 | , , , , , , , , , , , ,  | 
  ›    ›  **Think Twice About Poaching Employees**
You’ve heard of it, you may have done it, or you may have had it done to you. What are we talking about? Employee poaching! In this tight employment market, this is a common and tempting practice, but what are the pitfalls and how can you prevent having your employees scooped up by your competitors?
### The Dangers of Poaching
There are endless articles circulating the internet about “how to poach currently employed candidates”, “the ethics and etiquette of employee poaching”, and so on. We get it, sometimes it’s what you feel you need to do to fill the empty seats on your team. Many of our clients have even had us assess candidates they were trying to poach from another employer. But let me tell you, the results were never pretty.
There is one commonality among all the soon-to-be-poached candidates that we’ve assessed in recent months, and that is a low future focus. The assessment results indicated that these individuals had not taken the time to think about and plan for their future. They didn’t have clear goals, and they were generally pessimistic about their future direction. Not only does this result in low energy and drive to perform, but it is clearly a factor that makes them an easy poaching target. Why? Because if you don’t know what you want or don’t have your sight set on something, you will be attracted to any interesting opportunity that comes along – hence why these individuals were interested in the offers of our clients.
Some of these individuals even had the skills and competencies to do their job well and were highly engaged with the work they were doing for their current employer. So why were they even considering leaving their current position? The answer again is low future focus. If they are not committed to their current employer, you can’t expect them to be loyal to you!
So, what did we tell our clients about these individuals? Of course, everyone is different, so the narrative was never exactly the same. But the number one concern we pointed out to our clients about every one of these candidates was “if you do not work on goal setting and related planning to boost their clarity and focus on their future at your company, there is a high risk they will be just as easily poached from your company or be susceptible to a counter-offer from their last employer”.
### Poaching Prevention
Now you may be wondering how you can reduce the risk of your own employees being poached by another company. Here are a few tips to help with that:
* **Hire the right people in the first place.** There is a lot that goes into defining the “right” employee, but the factors we typically consider at STM are
* Whether or not they have the competencies and attitudes required to do the job
* How well they fit your culture
* How clear they are about their future direction and how well their goals align with what you can offer them at your company.
* **Talk to your employees often.** Do you know what your employees want in their future? Have you discussed with them a path to get them there? Do you know what they’re struggling with day to day that’s having a negative impact on their satisfaction and engagement? Talk to your people! If they’re not on the path they want to be, or they’re unhappy in their role, not talking to them is a missed opportunity to course correct before they leave for your competition.
* **Employee surveys.** Not every employee feels comfortable raising their concerns one on one. An anonymous survey can be a great way to take the pulse of your employees and identify things that may need to be improved within your company and help you increase engagement across the board.
Again, “poachability” does not always correlate with dissatisfaction with one’s responsibilities and duties, poor company culture, or a bad manager. But it almost always has to do with lacking a clear vision for the future. So have these conversations about future goals and expectations before you hire to make sure new employees are driven to achieve their goals at *your* company. Keep these conversations going to ensure obstacles do not pop up along the way.
## Has poaching been a concern for you? Need help defining a clear vision for the future?
Get in touch with us! We’d be happy to answer your questions, help you define your vision, and help you with your employee poaching issues.