Corner Office, New York Times; Interview with Steve Hannah, chief executive of The Onion, If Plan B Fails, Go Through the Alphabet:
"Q. How do you interview job candidates?
A. I have two basic questions in mind: “Can you do the job, and would I enjoy spending time with you?” I want to know where you came from. I want to know how many children are in your family. I want to know where you fit in and what your role was. I want to know what your mother and your dad did, what influence they had on you. I find that, without overstepping my boundaries, most people like to talk about themselves.
Q. What is it you want to know?
A. I want to know whether you were a kid who was entitled, whether you worked hard, whether you excelled at school, whether you held summer jobs, how hard you had to work, whether you got the jobs yourself, whether you got promoted. I want to know if you’ll work hard. I’m hopelessly old-fashioned. I want people who really want to work hard. And I absolutely loathe a sense of entitlement.
Q. What else turns you off?
A. I hate it when someone comes in and they trash their former employer. They talk about how they were held back. They talk about how they worked for a terrible boss, and the boss did this or the boss did that.
I have no idea what makes people think this, but this happens often. People think that by telling their prospective employer that their previous employer was a complete slug, that somehow this is going to make me feel, what, sorry for them? I generally figure: Well, you didn’t work hard enough, and apparently you weren’t smart enough to figure out the system. That’s probably why you didn’t advance at your last job.
Q. What were the biggest influences on your leadership style?
A. My dad was a World War II and D-Day veteran. He was just a tough guy, and everything I ever learned about leadership from my dad was, you know, manage tough, manage angry. Life is tough, an endless struggle. You’re entitled to nothing. My parents used to say to me, “When you’re 18 you’re on your own.” And they meant it — I was on my own. He thought: “We’ve done our best with you. Now, we’ll find out what kind of character you have.”
At the same time, my mother said, “The sun, the moon, the stars and the tides were in alignment when you were born.” You know: “You can do anything you want. You’re terrific.” And if your mother tells you this often enough, you start to believe it. I think that if you’re going to run something, you have to have self-confidence. She gave it to me.
It doesn’t mean you think you’re going to get everything right. It doesn’t mean that you’re smarter than everybody else. It means that essentially you believe that you can get the job done. So my mother kind of told me, “You can get the job done.”
Meanwhile, I got my father’s view of the world that life is tough and you have to work hard to get what you want, to take care of your family, make sure your kids are provided for and be good to your friends. It’s not that complicated...
Q. What are the top three or five lessons?
A. In no particular order? He taught me that you never, ever do anything to deprive a human being of their dignity in work, in life. Always praise in public and criticize in private. You might be tempted, for example, when you’re letting someone go, to say something that would diminish the value of their work. Don’t ever do that.
And he taught me that when you’re faced with something that’s really difficult and you think you’re at the end of your tether, there’s always one more thing you can do to influence the outcome of this situation. And then after that there’s one more thing. The number or possible options is only limited by your imagination. Hal often said, “Imagination is enormously important, enormously important.”
Q. What else?
A. When I was young and managing, I didn’t listen nearly enough. Hal would always say to me: “Listen to the people below you because they are on the front lines. Do you realize that any given moment any one of those people from the highest to the lowest can be the most important person that day in your operation?” I’ve seen that happen in our business.
There was another thing that Hal and I used to talk about: decisiveness. In the beginning of my career, when people walked up to me and said, “Here’s the problem,” I’d say, “Here’s the answer” immediately. I did it in a nanosecond. It took me a while to learn that with some issues, I’d probably have a better answer tomorrow.
So I always say: “What’s the sunset provision on this decision? How much time do I have?” If somebody says to me, “You have 24 hours,” then I’ll take 23 hours and 59 minutes. Not always, but I usually take as much time as I possibly can. I don’t feel the need to appear so swift and decisive that I’m going to make a knee-jerk decision. I think that’s a young person’s game. I’ll take the time allotted to me.
Q. What are some other approaches you have to work?
A. I try to get out of my comfort zone every day. I say yes to things that I really don’t want to do, or I get involved in things that are difficult for me to be involved in, for whatever reason.
Q. What is your career advice to somebody just graduating from college?
A. Find what you really love to do and then go after it — relentlessly. And don’t fret about the money. Because what you love to do is quite likely what you’re good at. And what you’re good at will likely bring you financial reward eventually.
I’ve seen too many people who have plotted a career, and often what’s at the heart of all that plotting is nothing other than a stack of dollar bills. You need to be happy in order to be good, and you need to be good in order to succeed. And when you succeed, there’s a good chance you’ll get paid.
And while you’re at it, read. A lot. Start with Plato. He was a very practical man."
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/16/business/16corner.html?pagewanted=2
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