What do YOU think but do not say?

In one of the more memorable scenes (of many) in the movie Jerry Maguire, Jerry stays up all night in a hotel room writing his "manifesto." It's all the things he thinks about business and taking care of customers that he thinks no one talks about.

He titles his piece "The Things We Think But Do Not Say" and distributes it to everyone in the company the next morning.

Then, he gets fired.

Movies and real life intersect sometimes just at the borders, and sometimes one seems to overlay the others.

I've had many amazing conversations with business owners and senior executives about what their true core values are, but which for some reason they haven't shared.

It can be liberating even to write them down.

So, if you haven't written your own version of the things you think but do not share, I strongly encourage you to get a fresh journal and write them out (do it longhand, not on a computer, as there is a huge difference in terms of how the brain works to write by hand as opposed to typing).

Even if you share it just with yourself, you might be surprised at how powerful an exercise it is.

The Facebook Page as Pre-Hire Tool: Comedy

The furor over the recent practice of some public and private companies requesting social media passwords of job applicants reached Capitol Hill this past week, as lawmakers questioned whether this violates Federal law.

According to a New York Times article, Facebook has already said it violates their own policies related to the sharing of passwords.

What’s hilarious is that any employer thinks that viewing someone’s Facebook page will somehow give them information that is differentially relevant in the hiring process. Their assumption, of course, is that they’ll find something there to DISQUALIFY the applicant, not material that would support them being hired.

If a prospective employer BEGINS a relationship from a position of mistrust by asking for a Facebook password in search of dirty laundry, the relationship is over before it started.

Aside from the instant breach of trust and the legal minefield of making hiring decisions based on information in someone’s Facebook profile, there’s the implied question I asked above about whether or not the contents of someone’s Facebook page is “differentially relevant” in the hiring process.

“Differentially relevant” means that the information you get from a Facebook page would differentiate a good hire from a bad hire.

Think about this: People behave in a manner consistent with their own personalities across a variety of situations (for example, people who spend a lot on non-necessities for themselves are often generous to friends and family, also).

If an employer has an effective hiring process set up, then they’ll learn everything they need to know about the applicant using valid and reliable measures.

Without snooping around someone's Facebook page.

Even something as mundane as a person’s resume tells you a huge amount about how they organize information, how they prioritize, how they communicate, and whether or not they have a tendency to fib a little. Or a lot.

Everything they do while in your office is relevant. What the applicant says to your receptionist in the waiting room is far more telling about how they behave in a professional environment then whether they went o Uncle Phil’s barbecue last Sunday and posted the pics on their Facebook page.

And if you use valid and reliable pre-hire screening tools, you learn where the applicant stacks up against thousands of other people who completed the exact same questionnaire.

A well-planned interview is the best sample of a person’s behavior. I’ve seen the top candidate for an executive position blow the interview by – as he made what he thought was a great point -- tapping the knee of a senior executive conducting the interview.

Another applicant repeatedly pointed at the interviewer – much like you’d point at a child to make him stop misbehaving – and lost the chance at a great job.

All of this is to say that there is a huge amount of relevant information available to employers who know how to conduct an intelligent and thoughtful assessment process.

If they’re so desperate for disqualifying information that they’re badgering applicants for their Facbeook passwords, then I imagine the hiring process is only one of their business problems.

Think about that.

5 Simple Time-Saving Listening Tips

A word is worth one coin; silence is worth two. – The Talmud

Years ago, I had a colleague at work who planted his Jumbotron-sized computer monitor on his desk so it blocked his view of anyone sitting across from him.

He might as well have taped a sign on the back of the monitor that said, “I’m playing solitaire while you’re talking.”

What amused me about his setup is that he gave the pretense of caring when someone came into his office to chat. Still, though, he spent as long as they needed going through at least the theater of listening.

This wasted his time and theirs.

Even if you don’t have a huge computer monitor on your desk, when you’re not listening as effectively as possible, you’re wasting time, too. And if the conversation between you and someone else takes half an hour, it actually wastes an hour’s labor (your time and theirs).

Here are 5 simple and proven techniques for radically improve your listening (and optimize the time you spend doing it!):

1. Clear your mind. You can’t effectively think about your last conversation, your next email, and what someone is saying who’s sitting right in front of you. If you find it difficult to clear your mind, tell yourself, “I’m here to listen to whatever this person has to say, and I’m focused just on that.”

2. Clear your desk. Remove anything unrelated to the meeting or conversation you’re about to have. Turn off your computer monitor (yes, it has an on/off button!) and sit on the same side of your desk as the person with whom you’re talking.

3. Imagine what they’re saying. Harry Beckwith, author of You, Inc., said because we think in images, it’s helpful to imagine what someone is saying when they talk to you. Even if you’re not familiar with what they’re describe, try to visualize what they’re describing.

4. Pause for a second. Beckwith also suggests that you pause for a full second after the other person finishes speaking before you speak. This shows them you heard every word. It keeps you focused on what they were saying, not what you want to say. It adds needed space to the conversation.

5. Time-limit the conversation. Set a limit for the discussion before you begin. I almost always suggest one-on-one meetings of 30 or 15 minutes. Why does this improve your listening? Because it’s easier to focus when you know how much time you’ll spend listening. You're much less likely to drift when you know you have to focus for 15 minutes than when there seems to be no end in sight to the discussion.

Combine all five and you’ll not only listen more effectively, you’ll encourage others to share more with you and do so more efficiently. And in business, as you know, time is money. So is listening well.

If you have listening techniques and tips you typically use, post them below!