Welcome to the September edition of the Hire Score Newsletter. I certainly wish this was coming to you under better circumstances. It has been 10 days since the United States was attacked and I just don't have the words to describe how most of us feel.

I want to start by sharing a story with you. Last Tuesday, September 11, I was delivering a speech to a group of CEOs in Appleton Wisconsin. One of the people in the group was the CEO of an airline. Part way through my talk his cell phone went off. It was his office informing him of the events unfolding in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. He quickly informed the group and left to manage his company.

Shortly thereafter, the other CEOs left to manage their companies as well. Within an hour after the initial attack, I was in my rental car speeding across America trying to get home to be with my family and manage my operations.

I believe there is a lesson to be learned here. I was in the presence of real leaders. People who make this country great. In a time of crisis, not a single person sat around panicked. Each and every person in the room took action.

Last month I mentioned having met a gentleman who offers a very interesting training program that is based on having an aggressive mindset. The training is actually about defending yourself and your family in crisis (life-threatening) situations. But, the training, to me, was more about taking action. Instead of waiting to see what will happen, take action. Instead of waiting to see what your competitors will do, take action. Instead of waiting to see what the economy will do, take action. Instead of waiting for the bad guy to hurt you, take action.

His name is Tim Larkin and his program is absolutely mind-blowing. His lesson is incredibly powerful not only in life threatening situations, but also in the business world. We are facing the toughest times any of us has seen in our life-time. Now more than ever is the time for action. If we all wait to see what is going to happen, I will tell you … the world as we know it will fall apart.

It is a time for leaders to step up and take action. And all of you who subscribe to this newsletter are leaders. You run businesses, you mange departments, you make critical decisions, you are the engine that runs this country. Please take action! Life has to go on and business is a critical part of our lifestyle.

That said, I have one tip for you this month and a number of announcements. I read an article this month that puts forth some horrible information and I want to set the record straight. The article talked about the best question you can ask in an interview. The question was, "How would you solve our biggest problem if you got the job?" Without going on a rant (although if ever a question deserved a rant this one does), I will give you four reasons why you should never ask a theoretical question like this.

1. The answer to a theoretical question is a theoretical answer. You have no way to evaluate theory so you are left to guess at the quality of the answer. 2. You open the door for the candidate to give you "the book" answer. A candidate is going to try and tell you what they think you want to hear. They may have read about a similar situation and just tell what they think sounds good. 3. You put the candidate under tremendous pressure when you create situations. As soon as you ask your question, their mind is turning a hundred miles an hour trying to figure out the best answer. This false pressure adds no value to the process. 4. And finally, there is no statistical correlation between what a person says they will do, and what they actually do. They may give you the perfect answer to your scenario, but you have no assurance they will actually do that on the job.

As I have said a thousand times, past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior. If you want to know how a person will handle certain types of problems, find out how they have handled similar problems in the past. There is a tremendous statistical correlation between what a person has DONE and what they will do in the future. Do not be fooled by some of the nonsense you read (by the way, the person writing the article tried to pass themselves off as a behavioral interviewing expert!).

A couple of quick announcements, I will be delivering a presentation on strategic staffing in Philadelphia October 16 for the Mid-Atlantic Employers Association. Those of you in the area can get information about attending the event by sending email to training@maea.org.

Also, I am going to be conducting a web-based workshop in early November that will cover specific strategies for managing your most precious asset (people) in turbulent times. I will send a special email to all of you early next month with the details.

Finally, I am going to organize a special training workshop with Tim Larkin for my clients and subscribers to this newsletter. After experiencing Tim's training, I feel it is critically important and has application for all of you. I will get you more information and times shortly.

Let me finish by saying our thoughts and prayers are with all of the Americans affected by the tragedy of September 11, 2001.

For those of you not in the United States, and we do have subscribers around the world, I have reprinted below an article written by Leonard Pitts Jr., a syndicated columnist who puts a finger on our mood better than I ever could. This is great reading for everyone.

The barbarians will learn what America's all about
By
Leonard Pitts Jr.Syndicated columnist

They pay me to tease shades of meaning from social and cultural issues, to provide words that help make sense of that which troubles the American soul. But in this moment of airless shock when hot tears sting disbelieving eyes, the only thing I can find to say, the only words that seem to fit, must be addressed to the unknown author of this suffering.

You monster. You beast. You unspeakable bastard.

What lesson did you hope to teach us by your coward's attack on our World Trade Center, our Pentagon, us? What was it you hoped we would learn? Whatever it was, please know that you failed.

Did you want us to respect your cause? You just damned your cause.

Did you want to make us fear? You just steeled our resolve.

Did you want to tear us apart? You just brought us together.

Let me tell you about my people. We are a vast and quarrelsome family, a family rent by racial, cultural, political and class division, but a family nonetheless. We're frivolous, yes, capable of expending tremendous emotional energy on pop cultural minutiae, a singer's revealing dress, a ball team's misfortune, a cartoon mouse.

We're wealthy, too, spoiled by the ready availability of trinkets and material goods, and maybe because of that, we walk through life with a certain sense of blithe entitlement. We are fundamentally decent, though - peace-loving and compassionate. We struggle to know the right thing and to do it. And we are, the overwhelming majority of us, people of faith, believers in a just and loving God.

Some people - you, perhaps - think that any or all of this makes us weak. You're mistaken. We are not weak. Indeed, we are strong in ways that cannot be measured by arsenals.

Yes, we're in pain now. We are in mourning and we are in shock. We're still grappling with the unreality of the awful thing you did, still working to make ourselves understand that this isn't a special effect from some Hollywood blockbuster, isn't the plot development from a Tom Clancy novel.

Both in terms of the awful scope of its ambition and the probable final death toll, your attacks are likely to go down as the worst acts of terrorism in the history of the United States and, indeed, the history of the world. You've bloodied us as we have never been bloodied before.

But there's a gulf of difference between making us bloody and making us fall. This is the lesson Japan was taught to its bitter sorrow the last time anyone hit us this hard, the last time anyone brought us such abrupt and monumental pain. When roused, we are righteous in our outrage, terrible in our force. When provoked by this level of barbarism, we will bear any suffering, pay any cost, go to any length, in the pursuit of justice.

I tell you this without fear of contradiction. I know my people, as you, I think, do not. What I know reassures me. It also causes me to tremble with dread of the future.

In days to come, there will be recrimination and accusation, fingers pointing to determine whose failure allowed this to happen and what can be done to prevent it from happening again. There will be heightened security, misguided talk of revoking basic freedoms. We'll go forward from this moment sobered, chastened, sad. But determined, too. Unimaginably determined.

You see, there is steel beneath this velvet. That aspect of our character is seldom understood by people who don't know us well. On this day, the family's bickering is put on hold. As Americans we will weep, as Americans we will mourn, and as Americans, we will rise in defense of all that we cherish.

Still, I keep wondering what it was you hoped to teach us. It occurs to me that maybe you just wanted us to know the depths of your hatred.

If that's the case, consider the message received. And take this message in exchange: You don't know my people. You don't know what we're about. You don't know what you just started.

But you're about to learn.