Upon a friend's recommendation, I read Who: The A Method for Hiring by Geoff Smart and Randy Street. It was a quick, no-nonsense, super-specific book outlining exactly what you need to do hire A players for any team.

What I liked:

• Lots of details, down to specific questions and language
• Interesting and vivid examples
• Concise and to the point

What I didn't like:

• Not enough depth, alternatives, and ideas in the section on sourcing candidates
• Not enough information about how to apply and adapt the A method to different industries that may require industry-specific questions (like tech)

Overall, it was a great read, and I intend to put it into practice in the future. Below are my main notes on the book.

Introduction

• "Who" is more important than "what"
  

4 problem areas of hiring

• Lack of clarity on needs
  
• Lack of candidate flow
  
• Lack of trust in ability to differentiate candidates
  
• Letting slip candidates you really want

Ch. 1: Your #1 problem

• "Voodoo" hiring methods are what 90% of people use (gut instinct, non-structured interviews, random rules of thumb, intimidation and games, etc.)
  
• Finding A players is key
  
• Hiring wrong is much worse than waiting
  
• A player definition: someone who has 90% chance of accomplishing what only top 10% could accomplish
  

4 steps of A method

• Scorecard
  
• Source
  
• Select (structured interview)
  
• Sell
  

Ch. 2: Scorecard

• Blueprint for success
  
• Mission
  
• Outcomes
  
• Competencies
  
• Must define clearly what you want
  
• Mission is short exec summary of job
  
• Don't hire the generalist; hire the specialist
  
• Outcomes: 3-8 main specific points with numerical targets
  
• Competencies ensure behavioral fit
  
• Competencies define how you expect candidate to behave
  

Competencies (examples)

• Efficiency
  
• Honesty
  
• Organization
  
• Aggressiveness
  
• Follow-through on commitments
  
• Intelligence/quick learning
  
• Analytical skills
  
• Attention to detail
  
• Persistence
  
• Proactive
• Ability to hire A people
• Ability to develop and improve people
  
• Flexibility
  
• Calm
  
• Strategic thinking
  
• Creativity
  
• Enthusiasm
  
• Work ethic
  
• High standards
  
• Listening skills
  
• Openness to criticism
  
• Communication
  
• Teamwork
  
• Persuasion

• Use competencies as checklist during interview
• Cultural competencies
• Gather team in room and ask for one-word descriptions of company culture
• Use scorecards after hire and every year to define and track outcomes

How to create a scorecard

• Mission: 1-5 sentences on why position exists
• Outcomes: 2-3 outcomes specific
• Competencies: identify 5-8 for specific job and 5-8 for overall culture
• Test scorecard against business plan and current employees

Ch. 3: Source

• Recruiting should be a constant activity
  
• Identify "who" before they're needed
  
• Ads are bad for generating good candidates
  
• Ask for referrals from personal and professional networks
  

Top 5 methods

• Source from professional network
  
• Source from personal network
  
• Hire an external recruiter
  
• Hire a recruiting researcher
  
• Hire an internal recruiter

Sourcing

• Ask everyone you meet: Who are the most talented people you know that I should hire?
• Call new people you get referred every week
  
• Referrals from employees
  
• Advisory board that can introduce you to people
  
• External recruiters: must understand what you do and who you are
• Recruiting researchers: won't conduct interviews but will source candidates
• Sourcing systems: system to track every candidate
• Schedule 30 minutes every week to call top talent
  
• "Sue said you and I should connect. I understand you are great at what you do and I'm always on the lookout to meet talented people. Even if you are content with what you do, I would love to get the chance to talk."
  
• At end of call ask, "Now that you know a little about me, who are the most talented people you know who would be a good fit for my company?"
• Make a list of most talented people you know
• Call at least 1 per week and ask them who are the most talented people they know
  
• Add sourcing as an outcome for your employees; offer referral bonuses to employees
  
• Offer referral bounty to outsiders
  
• Use external recruiters and researchers who know your company
  
• Keep a sourcing tracking system
  

Ch. 3: Select: The 4 interviews for finding A players

• Screening interview
  
• Topgrading interview
  
• Focused interview
  
• Reference interview

Screening interview

• Phone call to remove B and C players
  
• No more than 30 min
  
• Only structured interview
  

1. What are your career goals


2. What are you really good at professionally

• Get 8-12 strengths with examples
  

3. What are you not so good at or not interested in doing professionally

• Push for real area for development
  
• If give cookie cutter weakness answer, say, "That sounds like a strength. What are you really not so good at?"
  
• If need to, say, "If you advance to the next stage of our process, we will want your help in setting up some reference calls with bosses, peers, and subordinates. OK?" And then ask, "How would they answer about your weaknesses?"
  

4. Who were your last 5 bosses and how would they rate you on a 1-10 scale when we talk to them?

• Ask for details and reasons
  
• Looking for 8-10 rating; 7 is neutral; 6 or lower means screen out
  
• Give overall plan for interview at beginning: spend 20 minutes getting to know them and then 10 minutes answering questions about the company

• Compare call results to scorecard
  
• If any hesitation, screen out
  
• Get curious; start additional questions with "what/how/tell me more"
  

Topgrading interview

• Use data and patterns of behavior
  
• Go through past jobs and ask the following questions

1. What were you hired to do?

2. What accomplishments are you most proud of?

3. What were some low points during that job?

4. Who were the people you worked with?

• Boss name and spelling
  
• What was it like working for him?
  
• What would he say were your strengths and areas of improvement?
  
• TORC framework: threat of reference check
  
• How would you rate the team you inherited on an ABC scale?
  
• What changes did you make?
  
• Did you hire anyone?
  
• Did you fire anyone?
  
• How would you rate the team on an ABC scale when left it?
  

5. Why did you leave the job?

• A players leave job when they want to grow
  
• B players nudged out

• Ask these 5 questions for every job in past 10 years
  
• First divide resume into chapters of 3-5 years
  
• Ask above questions of each chapter in chronological order
  
• Topgrading interview takes 60-90 minutes
  
• Conduct interview with a second interviewer
  

"Thank you for visiting us today. We are going to do a chronological interview and walk through each job you've held. For each job, I'm going to ask you 5 core questions: What were... (and repeat all of them). At the end of the interview, we will discuss your career goals and aspirations. At the end you'll have a chance to ask me questions. 80% of the process is in this room, and if we decide to continue, we will conduct reference calls. Finally, while it may seem like a lengthy interview, the time will go by quickly, and I will want to make sure you're able to get across all the important stories and examples of your past. I will be in charge of our pace, sometimes going deeper into a subject and sometimes keeping us moving along. I'll make sure we leave enough time to cover your most recent and most relevant experience. Do you have any questions about the process?"

Master tactics

1. Interrupt the candidate

• Use reflective listening
  
• Match mood and tone and say, "Wow, that sounds like (insert words they said).... Now, you were just telling me about the (what you want to hear)...."
  

2. 3 P's to judge results

• Ask for performance compared to previous year
  
• Ask for performance compared to plan
  
• Ask for performance compared to peers
  

3. Push vs. pull

• People who perform well pulled to good opportunities
  

4. Painting a picture

• Go into enough detail so you can actually see picture of how they would behave
  

5. Stopping at stop signs

• Notice inconsistency between words and body language and when it happens get curious and ask deeper questions
  

The focused interview: Getting to know more

• Involve other team members in the process
  

1. The purpose of this interview is to talk about (specific outcome or competency).

2. What are your biggest accomplishments in this area in your career?

3. What are your insights into the biggest mistakes and lessons learned in this area?

• Like behavioral interview but focused specifically on scorecard outcomes and competencies
  
• Split up competencies to several interviewers, 30-45 min each focused interview
  
• At least one cultural fit interview per candidate
  

Typical interview day

• 8:30-8:45: Team meeting (scorecard, resume, responsibilities)
• 8:45-9:00: Greet and orient to day and company
  
• 9:00-12:00: Topgrading interview (hiring manager and 1 colleague, 90-180 min)
• 12:00-1:30: Lunch (team members not interviewing take to lunch, informal)
• 1:30-4:30: Focused interviews (1-3 team members conduct focused interviews on their assigned portions of the scorecard)
• 4:30-4:45: Host thanks candidate and explains next steps
  
• 4:45-5:30: Candidate discussion
  
• Examine strengths and weaknesses on scorecard according to gathered data
  
• Hiring manager decides whether to proceed with reference calls or terminate process
  

Reference interview: Testing what you learn

• Never skip

1. Pick the right references

• Not just the list they give

2. Ask candidate to set up reference call schedule

3. You do 3 interviews of bosses and ask colleagues to do 2 interviews of colleagues/customers and 2 interviews of subordinates

Reference interview questions:

1. In what context did you work with candidate?

2. What were their biggest strengths?

3. What were their biggest weaknesses back then?

4. Rate their performance on a 1-10 scale. Why?

• 6 really means 2
  
• Look for discrepancy with self-rating
  
• Need 8-10
  

5. Candidate mentioned he struggled with (x) during that job. Can you tell me more about that? Candidate mentioned u might say he was (weakness). Could you tell me more about that?

• Ask for multiple examples, be curious
  
• Find out how candidate interacts with much lower subordinates
  
• Reference who hesitates is bad; get curious and find out why
  
• Must be an enthusiastic reference to be positive
  

Rate candidate on Skill-Will

• Skill: for each scorecard outcome, give an A if has 90% chance of making it
  
• Will: ABC rating on each scorecard competency
  

Red flags: When to dive beneath surface

• Does not mention past failures
  
• Exaggerates answers
  
• Takes credit for others' work
  
• Speaks poorly of past bosses
  
• Cannot explain job moves
  
• Has never hired or fired
  
• More interested in comp and benefits
  
• Self-absorbed
  

Behavioral warning signs

• From the book: What got you here won't get you there
  
• Winning too much; desire to win more important than results
  
• Too much about me and my ideas
  
• Bad mouthing colleagues
  
• Blaming
  
• Making excuses
  
• Excessive need to "just be me," "way I am" (instead of open to adapting and learning)
  

Decide

• If you have no As, go back to step 2 (source)
  
• If you have an A, hire him/her
  
• If you have multiple As, rank them and hire the best
  

Ch. 5: Sell: The top 5 ways to seal the deal

5 F's of what candidates care about

Fit

• Where we are going
  
• How you fit in
  
• Explain how they fit in and what you learned from interviews on their fit
  
• Explain fit from their perspective on how this fits in their goals
  

Family

• Helping make job transition as smooth as possible for all involved
  
• Recruit spouses and personally welcome family
  

Freedom

• Autonomy to make own decisions and not be micromanaged
  
• Left alone to excel
  

Fortune

• Stability of company and financial upside
  
• Rarely the key motivator
  
• Link bonuses to scorecard performance
  

Fun

• Work environment and personal relationships candidate will make
  

5 ways of selling


1. When you source

• Understand where someone's interest in 5 F's is
  

2. When you interview

3. Between offer and acceptance

• Don't leave alone so can "think"
  

4. Between acceptance and first day

• Celebrate acceptance with gift and balloons
  

5. During first 100 days

• Early months critical

Ch. 6: Your greatest opportunity

Installing the A method in your organization

1. Make people the top priority
2. Follow A method yourself
3. Build support in team
4. Pass clear vision to team based on A players
5. Train team on best practices
6. Remove barriers/policies in way
7. Implement new policies and scorecards including recruiting A players

• Every job requisition requires a scorecard
  
• Every scorecard includes reaching "90% A" language by a certain date
  
• Every offer preceded by topgrading interview 
  

8. Reward those who use A method
9. Remove managers who are not on board
10. Celebrate wins and plan for more change

Legal cautions

1. Relevance

• Do not reject on basis of irrelevant info
  

2. Standardize process across groups

3. Standardize language used

4. Avoid specific discrimination questions that are illegal

I recently discovered Leninade soda, and it was the highlight of my day. The soda was alright, but the bottle design was hilarious -- so many little nuanced jokes and plays on words.

My wife also recently found Russian Guy/Girl Problems (and their respective Facebook groups: M/F), and we laughed literally for 45 minutes straight the first time we reviewed those sites. (We later contributed a handful of our own nuggets of wisdom.)

There's just something so funny in our experiences that are so different from mainstream American family lives. Laughing at ourselves about these differences unites us together and helps us feel like we're not alone in fending off bags of food from our parents or extra jackets to wear. I believe that every culture has these little "weirdnesses," and I'd love to hear how other cultures might be similar to or different from Russian in their attitudes towards food, children, dating, etc. I would bet the similarities outweigh the differences.

So off the top of my head, here are my top 10 "common" Russian experiences ("problemi") that resonate with me most. Not everything I list is my own personal experience or representative of my family; some of them are, and some of them are more general impressions I get from talking with friends. Leave a comment to share your own experiences (or your reaction).

1. Exotic food. The top concern of any day, any person, any babushka. What did you eat today? Everyone eats these foods at least weekly; how could you not? 

• Ikra (caviar)
• Borscht (beet soup)
• Salat olivye (potato salad)
• Kislaya kapusta (cole slaw)
• Katleti s kartoshkoy (meatloaf with potatoes)
• Jarkoye (meat with sauce)
• Hren (horseradish)
• Yazik (cow tongue)
• Plof (rice pilaf)
  
• Holodets (chicken jello with eggs)
• Vareniki (dumplings)
• Puree (mashed potatoes)
• Grechnivaya kasha (buckwheat)

2. Vodka on the tables at parties (like weddings). You know it's a Russian event if there are several bottles of liquor on every table. Waiters are too slow to keep up with the Russian pace of drinking, so it's a self-service policy. Oh, and don't forget plates of food stacking on each other no less than 3 levels high, and obnoxiously loud music in the Russian nightclub (and crowds of people who should shower instead of using cologne prior to going out).

3. Hyper-involved parents. Until you are 100 years old and both of your parents have passed away, you can expect your phone to ring at least 3 times per day with urgent inquiries into your health, location, recent food consumption, and plans for all of the above for the next 2 hours until the next call. I know people who are 50, 60, 70 years old and whose parents are still calling to see if they got to their destination safely. This is obviously charming and well-intentioned, and it warms my heart to feel loved. But sometimes, it's a bit too much (like when your mom texts you on a date asking you if you brought a jacket).

Every detail of your life becomes a source for panic. One of my favorite worries is the skvaznyak (draft), like when there's a window or door open and some slight breeze coming through the house. This can sometimes be cause for the loudest yelling you've ever heard.

4. Super strict laws on relationships. Sure, they'll entertain your fancies to date people you want to according to higher-level traits like "personality," but this is all a sham; all that matters in the end is that you date someone of the same ethnic background and without question religion. Oh, and you must get married soon and have kids.

5. You can have any job, as long as it's lawyer or doctor.

6. Your mother's only happy if you're fat and hot. (Feeding you enough and ensuring you are warm are the top concerns of every mother.)

7. Clothing should be nice, upscale, and certainly not raggedy or "street"-looking. After all, you never know who you'll run into from the "community," and you can't embarrass the family. We even have a saying for when we see each other: "nashi lyudi v Hollywoodi" (our people in Hollywood -- but it rhymes nicely in Russian). Oh, and don't forget to take a jacket (even if it's 100 degrees or you're in Las Vegas).

8. Family respect is as important as if you're an Italian mafioso. Daily phone calls to all family members and weekly visits are the norm. Every time you visit someone, you fix their VCR programming, internet, and check their mail and bills. That's just what family members do for each other. Oh, and they make you sit down for "chai" and eat. The "You're not hungry and you're vegetarian? OK, I make you lamb" part from My Big Fat Greek Wedding is exactly what I'm talking about.

9. Don't you dare break a superstition. Too many to keep track of; I keep learning new ones every year I had never heard of. Here's a sampler:

• Not allowed to cut your nails after it's dark.
• Can't come home after you left. If have to come home because forgot something, have to look in the mirror.
• Can't wear clothing inside out. If you do, have to step on it three times.
• Can't step on someone's foot. If you do, they have to step on you back.
• Must sit down in silence before a trip.
• Turn over a glass if you misplace something.
• Spit on someone when they're yawning.

10. Respect your tradition. It's ok to laugh at yourself, but in the end, we have tremendous respect for our family members and the immigrants who risked their lives and left everything behind to come to America. We have a rich cultural (and food) history, and that deserves to be kept alive and passed on from generation to generation.

I hope you're hungry (because just writing this is making me salivate).

No shame: I love chocolate, and for me, dessert is the main course. I feel like waiters are wasting their time asking, "Save room for dessert?" I always think, "Who wouldn't?"

Grouped by category, below are some of my most favorite chocolate desserts of all time.

Hot chocolate

1. Abuela. Somewhat spicy and exotic, this is like no other hot cocoa. I've had this one at home and in restaurants, and it's always nice. In terms of more traditional hot chocolates, I had some of the best at a takeout counter in Dublin, but Abuela can be found much more readily and is quite different than you'd expect. After all, if Mexican cuisine includes chocolate as a regular part of the main course preparation (like for mole), it's clear they know what they're talking about. I also like that "abuela" means "grandma;" it makes the brand feel warm and cozy.

Brownies

2. The Farm at Beverly Hills. Any restaurant whose domain name includes the word "brownies" is clearly serious about dessert. Try a brownie sundae here, and you'll know why. Life-affirming -- delicious. The Farm's brownies are dense and sprinkled with a light dusting of powdered sugar. "Moist, dark, and fudgy in the middle, they have a light crisp top crust and melt on your tongue" is what Los Angeles Magazine wrote in 2005 when naming them the "Best Brownies in Los Angeles."

3. Ghirardelli Chocolate Caramel Turtle Brownies. I blogged about this before. Make 'em at home, and you won't save any for tomorrow.

Cake

4. The Great Wall of Chocolate at PF Changs. Insanely large portion, and it keeps quite well in the fridge for almost a week. I also love the tangy raspberry sauce it comes with. For me, a cake must strike the perfect balance between spongy hardness and softness and include enough filling to make it just moist enough. This cake does just that. From the menu: "Six rich layers of frosted chocolate cake topped with semi-sweet chocolate chips, served with fresh berries and raspberry sauce."

Soufflé

5. Moustache Cafe. This place is unfortunately closed, but it served for many years as my favorite restaurant, simply because of its breathtaking soufflé. This dessert is so hard to cook to get "just right" (I tried learning how to do it in a college cooking class), and this restaurant was able to do it perfectly every time.

6. Grand Lux Cafe. This one is not a traditional French soufflé but a "chocolate molten cake." That dessert has grown in popularity quite a bit over the last 10 years (to my satisfaction), and Grand Lux Cafe is my favorite one of this variety. I love breaking the outer shell and seeing piping hot chocolate ooze out.

7. Mulholland Grill. The menu description of their "chocolate truffle" dessert almost suffices to describe the amazingness of this dessert: "hot, dark Godiva chocolate oozes out! Served over homemade vanilla gelato. Also available in hot, white Perugina chocolate."

An honorable mention in the soufflé category is CPK with its "chocolate soufflé cake." This one is neither the French traditional version nor the molten cake version but sort of a hybrid between those and a brownie; for a mainstream chain restaurant, though, it's pretty darn good.

Other

8. Chocolate churros at Red O. I came here for my anniversary, and the food exceeded my expectations. The "Just-Made Churros" dessert was excellent: "golden-crunchy outside, creamy within, served with warn chocolate-Kahlua dipping sauce." These churros are not like in the theme park; they are softer and so much more flavorful.

9. Chocolate macarons at Paulette. These are the best French-style macarons in the world. They were the party favors at our wedding, and each macaron is so flavorful that it captures your entire attention every time you take a bite.

10. Chocolate Disco Crêpe at Harajuku Crêpe. Don't be fooled by the size of this place; it is no match for the heart and creativity of its owner and cook that mans the crêpe machine all day and evening. Having done a social anthropological study of the culture of crêpes in college, I've been lucky enough to eat crêpes in many shapes and sizes all over the world, and they are definitely one of my favorite foods (it's so neat having an entire meal of savory plus sweet crêpes). What I love about Harajuku is that it takes an ancient French food and turns it upside down, imbibes it with Japanese flair, and makes it even more delicious.