The world today is one of nitch marketing and personalized mass consumer products.

The marketing folks are using customization/value-add/service/quality to sell to the individual and to capitalize on tiny segments of the market. The result is a surge in the ‘my way’ mentality of consumers, i.e., people.

OK, so what does all this have to do with your ability to do your job as a manager?

A lot, fortunately or not, depending on you and your MAP.

The mentality described above is the same mentality that you need to appeal to when hiring and with so few openings it’s more critical than ever to hire the right person at the right time and for the right reasons.

In spite of the economy and the abundance of candidates, to get the person you want you’ll need to sell—the job, your company, yourself, your team, corporate culture, everything—to candidates, just as they’re selling themselves to you.

You can make your staffing life easier by doing two things.

First, be sure to write a really complete req, not, as I’m fond of saying, a wreck.

Next, determine your position’s niche and identify the characteristics of that market. Here’s an example of what I mean; match the following programming jobs

1. upgrades
2. advanced development
3. maintenance

with the correct mentality

1. bleeding edge
2. tinkerer
3. improvement

Once this is done you can make sure that both the req and ad target the correct candidates, saving yourself time, energy, money, and nerves—not to mention looking like a hero.

Answer: 1-3; 2-1; 3-2

Image credit: flickr

Phil Gerbyshak over at Slacker Manager has a great post yesterday; talking about how your presence is the best present you can give your team and three ways to do it.

I agree with everything Phil said, but I think presence should be taken a step farther and woven into the fabric of your corporate culture.

Your undivided presence when interacting with your people is an absolute necessity when managing today’s workforce if you have any interest in improving productivity and increasing retention.

But what about your team’s interactions with each other and with other parts of the company?

If presence is about paying attention, paying attention is about respect.

Respect is what people should have for each other.

Respect doesn’t just travel down, it travels in all directions.

Respect has nothing to do with position, title, degrees, seniority, salary or other business trappings.

Multitasking when you are interacting is about disrespect.

Which does your culture endorse?

Image credit: sxc.hu