Primedia's Jeff Reinhardt doesn't just interview people, he tests them. He doesn't just mentor people, he involves them. He doesn't just work  with people, he collaborates with them -- even if he doesn't particularly like them!
Jeff is a vice president and member of the executive leadership team of Primedia Business, which publishes an impressive portfolio of trade magazines. He rose through the sales side of the business through a variety of sales management and publisher positions with magazines including Direct, Catalog Age, Folio, American Demographics, Circulation Management and Directory World.
He is also an active member of both the Direct Marketing Association and American Business Media.
I recently spoke with Jeff about his approach to team building. Following are excerpts from that conversation that really resonated with me.
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I put job candidates through a number of tests, where they are given assignments prior to joining the team. I have found that these assignments have always been very telling as to what people are capable of doing and what their desires are. Some people blow off the project. Others get real creative with the assignment.
Where they go with the project gives me a fair indicator of where they might fit in, where their strengths might lie. They may be saying that they want "X," but they may actually be delivering "Y."
I always require a sales candidate to deliver a role-playing sales presentation. I play the role of the customer and they play the role of media sales person. We go into a full, one-hour role-play -- no time-outs, just flat out. Other times I give market intelligence, or market analysis, assignments where I may be thinking about a market opportunity. I will give them many of the materials I've been looking at and ask them to do the same assignment I've been doing on my own.
Often they come in with something very different than I may have seen, but offer an extremely bright perspective. Or they validate something I've seen -- okay so they're a "type A" individual who sees things in a very linear fashion like myself! Either way, it gives me a good sense of their perspective on things and their desire.
I am currently mentoring a person in my group. I picked someone whom I felt was a potential rising star and told her, "I'm going to formally mentor you." We have set meetings and identified subjects that we discuss. She is thriving and, I think, feels really good about it. It helped solidify her position in the company when it became known to those around her that I had chosen her for mentoring.
So, that's the formal process. We spend on average of an hour a week together, talking about lots of issues, and it goes two ways. I certainly mentor her on things she is working on, but I also share with her things that I am working on and am thinking about.
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At one point we got to chatting -- we never really liked each other -- but we thought, "What would happen if we collaborated on certain clients?"
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I also work with lots of our folks, primarily in sales, because my expertise lies there. I'm traveling around the country with them, and in a positive way, critique their client calls to try to help them improve.
Most of them realize that I'm not just evaluating them. It's usually those who are doing well, or working to continue to do well, who I will spend time with and work with on individual customer situations. And then I'll go with them when they call on their customers.
Many years ago, when I was with another magazine, there was a woman who collaborated with me. She and I were the two most competitive individuals in the company. We called on a lot of the same accounts, so we were always very competitive. At one point we got to chatting -- we never really liked each other -- but we thought, "What would happen if we collaborated on certain clients?" We thought maybe collaborating would be a good thing for our clients and also a good thing for the business.
We decided, for one year, to test the idea. Well, we both made more money in that year than I think we've ever made! I tell that story quite a bit. Then I tell our people that the only way they're really going to believe it is to have the experience, to try helping out someone else and see what comes out of it. I truly believe that if a customer is best served that we win.
The only other thing I would add is to remember to have fun. This last year hasn't been much fun, but one of the things our team knows for sure is that we're going to have some fun with all this.
Dennis Troyanos is the founder of The Troyanos Group, an executive search and consulting firm specializing in recruiting senior-level relationship-marketing professionals. Dennis has led many highly- acclaimed management workshops for the DMA and National Center for Database Marketing. He has facilitated CEO roundtables and written numerous articles on the subject of interviewing, hiring and retaining top performers. Dennis can be reached at dennis@troyanosgroup.com or 914-997-1907.
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