Fancy Brain Teasers Do Not Predict Success in a Job

Just ran into this article about Google coming to a conclusion about the [in]famous "brain teasers" method of conducting interviews: Not surprisingly, they found that asking these questions do not show any correlation to the ultimate long term performance of their hires.

I always found the questions to be a bit gimmicky - the most it showed was if the person being interviewed was quick on his feet or not; it didn't say anything about whether the quick thinking was right or not and whether it would lead to the solution. If you look at real life examples you'd find that most successful people are those that keep hammering away at the problem till they achieve a breakthrough. Other than in hand-to-hand combat situations, quick thinking is generally not the most important predictor of future success. Angela Lee Duckworth talked about this in an interesting presentation at TED - her analysis, after years of teaching math to 7th graders, has lead her to believe that it is "grit", and not IQ, that is a more reliable predictor of academic and professional success.

Another finding indicated that a successful hiring is a complete crap shoot! You may interview a person all you want, look at his GPA, talk to people who recommend him - it ultimately comes down what that person wants you, the interviewer, to think of him. You probably need a Master's degree in psychoanalysis to be able to cut through people's presentation to look into their souls and determine whether they'll be successful in your company or not. And even then you'd not be able to predict future circumstances that will influence their performance.

The best way to improve a person's performance depends, to a large extent, on the leader of the group. As I pointed out in another post, an inconsistent leader is a big killer of morale and productivity. Being consistent in your approach to management and instructions will encourage everyone to put their best foot forward, without fearing that you will later change your mind and all their work will come to a naught.
The other, not very surprising, conclusion was the disconnect between performance at school and long term performance in 'real life". Schools, I've believed for a long time, have not been designed to produce risk taking entrepreneurial members of the society. At the graduate school level, in the US at least, this mold is partially broken and people are encouraged think on their own but till you reach that level of schooling you are mostly encouraged to conform with the teacher's expectation - there is only one correct response to a problem and they are the arbiters of what it is!

In any case, I could go on and on on this subject but I'd encourage you to read at least the summarized conclusions and, if you have a bit more time on your hand, the full interview on New Your Times with Laszlo Bock of Google. Let me know your thoughts on the subject in comments either here or on my Google+ page.

So, What To Do When Your Boss Micromanages You?

There are bosses that delegate and then there are the ones that delegate... but still micromanage. As a manager at the second level these latter ones are the worst bosses to have. They will tell you what they need from your team but then they won't let you do your work - they would come in and start giving instructions to your team members, countermanding your own instructions, changing their mind the next morning and give new/different instructions... totally confusing, authority eroding and moral sapping!

In many such cases you feel you have three options:

1. Just give up and do what the boss says, in which case you are just another minion in the serfdom without any real decision making power. Of course your subordinates will then very quickly catch on to it and very soon you will lose any remaining authority you had over them - they will just go over your head to talk to the big boss, circumventing you entirely. Or,
2. You fight for your position. Although you do this tactfully because you don't want to antagonize your own boss, sooner or later the boss will tire of your constant bitching and complaining, even if you are right. In some cases, especially if you are right!
3. In either of the two cases the result will not be to your liking. So, of course, as a third option you can take the high road, stand tall, and refuse to bow down to the dictator. You give him an ultimatum - either he let you do your job or else...!

However, let's think about a fourth alternative. Maybe he has a reason to micromanage you. Maybe you do not inspire the confidence in him that will let him let you do your job your own way. Maybe he came in to manage an out of control situation and he doesn't yet know who he can trust to do their jobs right. If you think you know your job why not meet him half way? Schedule a couple of short meetings every day, maybe one early on in the day to discuss what you have on your plate and then another one mid afternoon to discuss your progress in the tasks assigned to you and your team. Know what's going on in your department and be ready to answer questions. Raise a flag if something is wrong or if there is too much on your plate. Bring problems to the table but offer a solution, too - they have enough problems of their own to keep them busy. Be a team player. Speak up - courteously - if you disagree but help the boss implement his strategy once he has made up his mind, even if it is not the one you sponsored.

But, before every thing else, learn to manage your stress. You won't inspire confidence in anyone if you appear stressed out and hassled to them.