The top 3 red flags a 63-year-old CEO sees in employees
This is a snippet from the weekly CNBC Make It Work newsletter, written by Megan Sauer.
Founder and CEO Deryl McKissack has experience spotting toxic traits.
The 63-year-old launched the business McKissack & McKissack in Washington, D.C., with $1,000 from her savings in 1990. In the early years, she churned through employees who weren’t the right fit as the business struggled, McKissack says.
Finding the right talent helped grow the company, she says. McKissack & McKissack now brings in $25 million in revenue per year, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It.
Three red flags stand out most when McKissack hires employees or evaluates current talent:
- People who lack integrity. Alarms go off in McKissack’s head if she hears managers don’t give teams proper credit, she tells Make It. Neglecting to do so can erode trust between teams, she says. Experts agree. Heidi K. Gardner, a professional leadership advisor and distinguished fellow at Harvard Law School, calls out workers who pass off other people’s work as their own. It’s unethical, and it gives off the impression that you don’t respect your colleagues, Gardner told Make It last year.
- People who are hard to be around. McKissack needs to appreciate her employees’ personalities because, she figures, if she doesn’t like being around you, chances are, neither will clients. Being warm and inviting at work can potentially take you further in your career than your capabilities and credentials, self-made millionaire and entrepreneur Steve Adcock told Make It in April. “Your personality will get you 10 times richer than your intelligence,” he said.
- People who don’t live up to the company mantra. McKissack has a three-word mantra for her business: humble, hungry, smart. She picked it up from business management expert Patrick Lencioni’s book, “The Ideal Team Player.”
Hiring, and keeping, employees who embody those three characteristics turned her firm into a workplace full of engaged employees, she says.
Check out the full story for more on why these 3 employee red flags stand out the most, according to McKissack.
Meet The Author, Bill Forster
My passion is supporting CEOs with creating a high performance culture, results the right way. It must start with trust.
As a decisive executive leader and successful entrepreneur, I have built an exceptional track record of revenue and profit growth for manufacturing and service-related businesses across five continents. With more than thirty years of P&L experience, including turnarounds and lean environments, I have led the revitalization of operations systems while dramatically impacting the growth of sales and improving profitability.
I have worked for some leading names including Astec Industries, Atkins. Dave & Buster’s, BHPB, Global Quality Ingredients, Bunge, Key Surgical, Kohlberg & Co., Nellson, Potash Corp, Smithfield, RMH Foods, United Suppliers, Water Street Capital, McDonald’s, Domino’s, Pizza Hut, Del Taco, Checkers & Rally’s, Wendy’s, Mott’s, Captain D’s, Rich Products, Dr Pepper, Mosaic, Eat’n Park, Popcorn Indiana, and Cadbury Schweppes, and was a field consultant and owner operator with Chick-fil-A. My knowledge has been acquired from years of frontline exposure across the global value chain in food manufacturing and processing, quick service restaurants/casual dining, and hospitality as well as the chemical, pharmaceutical, printing, publishing and broadcast media industries. My consulting engagement experience includes chemical leaders such Albemarle, Cytec, Flexsys, CPFilms, Saflex and Solutia in addition to pharmaceutical pioneers Bioscrip and Novartis.
