Philadelphia Business Journal Columns
Eric Herrenkohl has been a guest columnist for the Philadelphia Business Journal since January, 2012. Archives of articles that have been published are listed below. Eric's latest columns are available as premium content on the Philadelphia Business Journal website which can be accessed by purchasing a subscription.
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How to avoid the alligators
Published September 28, 2012
I conduct reference checks early and often as I lead an executive search. Here’s why.
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Who is on your farm team?
Published August 24, 2012
Fred Christen runs Hallmark Stone, a kitchen and bathroom countertop fabricator that serves many of the large home improvement stores in the Midwest. A number of years ago, Fred got sick and tired of never having a strong supply of qualified candidates for his manufacturing facility. It always seemed that his managers were short staffed or were trying to hold onto weak performers because they had no one to take their places.
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Don't surround a Great Dane with Chihuahuas
Published July 27, 2012
Several years ago, my wife and I ran into a young woman with whom I have worked in the past and whom we also know socially. She has always been a terrific performer, and at this point in her career she was one of 400 financial analysts working for a large company here in the Philadelphia area. We got to talking, and I asked her how things were going at work.
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Don't be held hostage by toxic employees
Published June 29, 2012
Two partners at an architectural firm once hired me to help them coach and develop their people. The partners in this firm wanted to spend more time finding new clients and opening up new markets for the company. Instead, they found themselves spending most of their time managing current clients and putting out fires that other people should have been handling. They wanted other people to take more responsibility for daily operations so they could focus on the future.
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Sponsoring events that attract A-Players
Published June 1, 2012
For me, there is nothing like competing in a bike race in terms of excitement, adrenaline rush, feeling fully alive, and having a lot of fun.
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Finding and hiring the best on-campus talent
Published May 4, 2012
The on-campus recruiting season is kicking into high gear. I recently read that the National Association of Colleges and Employers says companies plan to hire 10 percent more new college graduates this year compared to last year. Maybe that’s true for your company too? If so, you need to know how to find A-Players among the green talent.
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An arm around the shoulder and a punch in the chest
Published March 23, 2012
Every March, our family begins another journey to October, following the ups and downs of our favorite baseball teams, Little League or Major League. To celebrate, I’m reminded of a Sports Illustrated article on baseball that helps us learn how to motivate our A-players and encourage our potential stars to fulfill their potential.
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Simple interview questions that reduce hiring mistakes
Published February 24, 2012
A client of mine does a great job of using simple questions to uncover if potential new hires have a critical skill. He is the CEO of a retail business and is the “last line of defense” before the company hires a new store manager. He always asks these people, all of whom have retail experience, “What were the typical problems you ran into in your current or last retail management role, and how did you solve them?” He doesn’t really care what problems people describe. However, he is very interested in how people responded to these problems. He wants to hear that people have a strong sense of urgency in confronting and solving problems. He and his company believe that without this natural tendency to solve problems quickly, a person cannot succeed in running a retail store.
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Searching for hires in all the wrong places
Published February 10, 2012
Here’s a great story about hiring better people by changing your recruiting focus. A large accounting firm had an office populated with partners who, years before, graduated from Ivy League schools. They, of course, wanted to hire younger accountants out of the same prestigious institutions. However, things had changed since these partners were young college grads. These accounting jobs were not as coveted as they had once been.
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How to turn a B-player into an A-player
Published January 27, 2012
I once worked with a consulting firm that employed a senior consultant named Jim who possessed strong technical skills, high integrity and a great work ethic. However, to say that Jim lacked people skills did not do justice to his limitations in this area. Forget selling new business. If you left this guy alone with clients for 20 minutes you were putting that client relationship in jeopardy.
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