Throughout my career, I have noticed an interesting pattern.
I have observed that great leaders have surrounded themselves with great
people, while mediocre leaders have not. This observation poses an interesting “chicken
or the egg” question: Do great leaders create great teams or do great teams
create great leaders?
Actually, this question, in my opinion, is not an “either/or”
question, it is an “and” observation that should be restated as “Great leaders
create great teams and great teams create great leaders”.
Over the next several posts, we will look at specific steps
you can take to build a great team through intelligent hiring and by challenging
your team members to individual greatness.
A fundamental responsibility of management is hiring people.
Unfortunately, many managers approach this fundamental responsibility in a very
haphazard manner and delegate much of the process to the folks in Human
Resources (“HR”). Managers who fall into this camp define the person they want
to hire in terms of specific skills and years of experience (often industry
specific) and have HR screen out people who don’t fit those criterion exactly.
Then, with a final pool of candidates,
this manager will conduct an interview with minimum preparation and make a
decision based upon their gut reaction to the person they interviewed. They are
just too busy to do otherwise.
Why do I say these things? Because that is what I’ve
observed during my career (which includes reading a large number of job
postings) and that is what a number of studies tell us.
Studies have consistently shown that people get hired based
upon their looks and not the quality of their resume or the quality of their
interviews. Other studies have shown that the decision to hire or not to hire
is typically made in the first 13 minutes of the interview. Finally, studies
have shown that most people are hired based upon there “skills as demonstrated
by past positions”, while in 85% of the cases, success is based upon attributes
and attitudes and not specific skills.
Bottom line, many managers just don’t put the time and
effort into hiring the best people for the job. Would you purchase a $50,000
piece of equipment based on spending 13 minutes looking at pictures of the
machine? Of course you wouldn’t. Hiring the right people is a much, much, much
more important decision than purchasing a machine. Do your homework. Put effort
into the process. Improve your odds at hiring a great employee.
Here’s an approach I recommend:
1. Define
search criterion differently. In addition to specific skills, look for personal
attributes and attitudes that will lead to success in the position you are
filling. Customize these to the position
and the team this person will be on. Examples of these “Success Factors” might
be:
a. Love
of customers and serving them
b. Ability
to work on a team
c. Ability
to work remotely
d. Honesty
and integrity
e. Communication
skills
f. Leadership
skills
g. Ability
to set goals
h. Ability
to make a decision
i. Ability
to solve and eliminate problems
j. Ability
to deal with different and/or difficult people
2. Write
screening questions that an HR screener can ask or look for in resumes that will
show evidence that the person has the personal attributes and/or attitudes that
will lead to success on the job and in your organization. Most screeners look
for skills and experience. Expand the screener’s vision.
3. Write
specific, success factor related situational interview questions that, properly
answered, will indicate that the candidate has the success factors needed for
the position. I suggest writing at least one situational question for each
success factor. For example, if the ability to set and accomplish goals is an
important success factor, you might want to ask “Tell me about a time when you
set a goal for yourself. Also, tell me about what you did to ensure that you
accomplished it.” If a high level of honesty and integrity is expected, you
might ask “Tell me about a time when the person you reported to asked you to do
something that went against your personal morals. How did you handle that
situation?”
4. Ask
all of your final candidates all of the interview questions you have written and
take detailed notes on their answers. I personally prefer to not let the
candidates ask me questions until I have finished asking them all
my questions. I tell them this up front as part of my interview “rules”. I do
this so they won’t be able to adjust their answers to fit what they think I want
to hear.
5. Consider
asking candidates that need specific technical skills to take skills tests or
to demonstrate the skills for you. A good on-line testing resource for this is www.brainbench.com. Or, if you are hiring
a salesperson or someone that needs to do presentations, you might want to
consider asking them to do a presentation for you on “why they are the best
candidate for the position.” Use your imagination to come up with "tests" that will demonstrate firsthand the skills
you are looking for.
6. After
you have interviewed all the candidates, review your notes and test results and
try to honestly pick the best one based upon what you have learned about them.
Look at how they think, what issues they have grappled with, how they learn and
apply their learning to their lives.
7. Make
an offer to the best candidate.
Another resource you may want to investigate is the VIA
Survey of Character Strengths. The VIA Survey provides an assessment that
identifies and ranks a person’s top 24 character strengths. This tool can be
found at https://viame.org/www/en-us/getyourviameprofile.aspx.
Part 2 of this blog will look at one personal characteristic
that I think is often overlooked in hiring. Part 3 will address what it means
to challenge your team members to be individually great.
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