546. RECRUIT DIFFERENTLY

RECRUIT  DIFFERENTLY

There is nothing more important for a business than hiring the right team. If you get the perfect mix of people working for your company, you have a far greater chance of success. However, the best person for the job doesn’t always walk right through your door.

The first thing to look for when searching for a great employee is somebody with a personality that fits with your company culture. Most skills can be learned, but it is difficult to train people on their personality.

If you can find people who are

fun,

friendly,

caring,

love,

and

helping others,

then

you are on to a winner.

Personality is the key. It is not something that always comes out in interview – people can be shy. But you have to trust your judgement. If you have got a slightly introverted person with a great personality, use your experience to pull it out of them. It is easier with an extrovert, but be wary of people becoming overexcited in the pressure of interviews.

You can learn most jobs extremely quickly once you are thrown in the deep end. Within three months you can usually know the ins and outs of a role. If you are satisfied with the personality, then look at experience and expertise.

Find people with transferable skills – you need team players who can pitch in and try their hand at all sorts of different jobs. While specialists are sometimes necessary, versatility should not be underestimated.

Some managers get hung up on qualifications. I only look at them after everything else. If somebody has five degrees and more A grades than you can fit on one side of paper, it doesn’t necessarily mean they are the right person for the job.

Great grades count for nothing if they aren’t partnered with broad-ranging experience and a winning personality.

That doesn’t mean you can’t take risks when building your team. Don’t be afraid of hiring mavericks. Somebody who thinks a little differently can help to see problems as opportunities and inspire creative energy within a group. Some of the best people we’ve ever hired didn’t seem to fit in at first, but proved to be indispensable over time.

If you hire the wrong person at the top of a company, they can destroy it in no time at all. Promoting from within is generally a good idea as the employee who is promoted will be inspired by the new role, already know the business inside out, and have the trust and respect of their team.

Equally, bringing in fresh blood can reinvigorate a company. Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Australia recently brought in CEOs from outside - John Borghetti at Virgin Australia and Craig Kreeger at Virgin Atlantic. They have brought a lot of fresh ideas into the company, as well as experience of what the competition is doing well and what they are doing badly.

When companies go through growth spurts, they often hire in bulk and company culture can suffer. While it may seem a desperate rush to get somebody through the door to help carry the load, it is worth being patient to find the right person, rather than hurrying and unbalancing your team. I heard a great line by Funding Circle CEO Samir Desai at the IoD Conference in London (quoting Apple's Dan Jacobs) about making sure you hire (and fire) the right people: “It’s better to have a hole in your team than an asshole in your team!”

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There’s something romantic about the idea of the lone genius. The early success of GE is often attributed solely to the inspiration and perspiration of Thomas Edison. But experience and research both tell us that lasting success is built by teams that drive each other through collaboration, different skill sets and, yes, tension. It’s difficult to imagine the stratospheric successes of Steve Jobs without Stephen Wozniak or Mark Zuckerberg without Sheryl Sandberg. Edison had many collaborators and competitors who drove him, including the engineering genius Charles Steinmetz.

Diverse teams drive more innovation.

Hiring people with different styles, backgrounds and experience increases the success of teams. My sense of what makes a successful team is constantly evolving, but these days I look for these four types when I hire.

1) The fish out of water. People who are from, or have lived in, global markets expose the company to different mindsets and ways of approaching tasks.

Different educational backgrounds also help foster critical thinking skills.

Candidates who have studied anthropology and psychology, for example, bring keen observational skills to your team, which is especially good for early stage market and customer prototyping.

2) Someone who can FIO. Team members who can FIO are critical to navigating the ambiguity of the global economy, which no longer has a standard playbook. This quality isn’t necessarily detectable on a resume, so I like to give interviewees hypothetical but decidedly ambiguous scenarios and creative challenges laden with constraints to test their fortitude and creativity.

Still, there are some signs that someone has the skills to FIO. Anyone who has served in Teach for America, the Peace Corps or a similar organization has most likely been thrown into a leadership position in a challenging situation. I remember a candidate whose background in disaster relief for non-profits in locations ranging from Haiti to Somalia made me confident he could have figured anything out in the corporate world. Likewise, my work with GE’s Veterans Network has shown me that people with military service can perform complex tasks with scarce resources.

3) Candidates with design training. Businesses need design thinking, and not just for creative roles. Design training helps people get a feel for the essence of an issue quickly. It also trains them to visualize concepts in a way that bring people together around a common narrative. Think of all the great ideas that started as sketches on the back of a napkin – that’s design thinking.

4) The well-balanced player. Teams need specialized skillsets but they also need people who can work across disciplines and contribute in multiple ways.

A few years ago at GE, we came up with a framework to define a well-rounded team called the 4 I’s:

1)   Instigator,

2)   Innovator,

3)   Integrator and

4)   Implementer.

The 4 I’s are present, to some degree, in every candidate we interview but some people have them in just the right balance. Those people are often your team leaders.

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Hiring? What a great problem to have. It can only mean your organization is growing, which is terrific or that you’ve got an existing position you can now fill with an even bigger dose of talent than before.

Either way, congratulations.

Why aren’t you smiling?

hiring is about as hard to get right as it is critical to your company’s success – which is to say, very.

Well, probably because you know from experience that

Fortunately, hiring isn’t a black box of gut and luck, although it can sometimes feel that way, like when your home-run candidate turns out to be a wash out by Day 30 on the job.

Rather, hiring is a discipline which improves with time and practice. Or put more precisely, we’ve found that hiring improves with time and practice if you deploy a very specific (and truth be told, pretty unbending) qualifications check-list.

Hey, we didn’t say hiring ever got easier.

That said, the check-list itself is short. It contains two flat-out must-haves, five qualities that are definitely-should-haves, and one very special quality that, while not exactly commonplace, is a total game-changer.

The generosity gene is all in the bones,

Personality-deep craving

To help other people improve grow, thrive and succeed.

If you hire candidates who have got that running through their veins,

amazing things will happen.

The must-haves, perhaps not surprisingly, are high integrity and high IQ,

which barely need additional comment here, except to note that both are essential to any winning organization and neither can be trained into a person.

Sheer convenience or a candidate’s likeability may make you want to squint on this front. You just can’t without doing a disservice to your organization.

As for the definitely-should-haves on our hiring check-list, we’ve long dubbed them “The Four Es and a P.”

The first E is energy. Today, probably more than ever, stamina matters. Every person you hire, no matter where the job falls on the org chart, should be filled with vitality and intensity, able to go the distance, not just on deadline or during a crisis, but day after day.

The ability to energize others comes next. After all, what good is high energy if it isn’t making the team better? Look for candidates who exude positivity and stir others to action. Such dynamism is contagious.

Third comes edge, the capacity to make yes-or-no decisions. Smart people can be dangerously namby-pamby about hard calls, you know? They want to analyze everything to death. Hello, no. When you’re hiring, ask candidates to describe how they’ve made tough decisions – and how fast they made them.

The fourth and final E is execution, the ability to get things done. Brainpower is all well and good – it’s non-negotiable, as we said – but not if it’s uncoupled from the ability to get out from behind the desk and make ideas happen. Many people are either smart or are good executors – you’ve got to find the ones that are both.

The four Es are great individually, but they’re even better when a candidate has them all wrapped up in burning ball of passion – there’s the P – for both work and life. Passionate people sweat the details, they’re curious, they care.

And there’s nothing better than hiring someone who’s passionate about… well, about people. Here’s where that powerfully game-changing quality comes in.

We call it the “generosity gene.”

You’ve seen the generosity gene in action and maybe you’ve even been lucky enough to experience it –

a boss who’s overjoyed when you nail an assignment,

who’s euphoric to give out promotions,

who thinks the very best part of his job is when one of his people gets to go home and tell the family, “I got a raise today.”

Unfortunately, you’ve probably also experienced bosses missing this piece of DNA.

They grimace like they’re drinking vinegar when bonus time comes around.

They sit in meetings with the company brass and take credit for ideas spawned in the ranks.

These types are wary, in fact, of anyone beneath or beside them looking good.

To them, business is a zero-sum game.

The generosity gene is the exact opposite mindset. It’s an in-the-bones, personality-deep craving – to help other people improve, grow, thrive, and succeed.

And we promise you, if you hire candidates who’ve got that running through their veins, amazing things will happen in your organization.

The reason’s simple. “Generosity gene” managers inspire trust, and in doing so they unleash productivity and creativity. Their people become fonts of ideas and innovation and paragons of commitment to customers and the work. Of course they do! They know they’ll be loved and rewarded for their efforts. Isn’t it great that, in the process, the company reaps the benefits too?

Look, hiring is hard; no one’s ever going to argue otherwise. But winning is about assembling the best team, right? What else is there?

So make sure you look for people who truly demonstrate the seven qualities on our checklist.

And when you find someone with that magical eighth – the generosity gene – do whatever it takes to bring that game-changer into the organizational fold.

That, in one fell swoop, is hiring right.

Jack Welch is Founder and Distinguished Professor at the Jack Welch Management Institute at Strayer University. Through its executive education and Welch Way management training programs, the Jack Welch Management Institute provides students and organizations with the proven methodologies, immediately actionable practices, and respected credentials needed to win in the most demanding global business environments.

Suzy Welch is a best-selling author, popular television commentator, and noted business journalist. Her New York Times bestselling book, 10-10-10: A Life Transforming Idea, presents a powerful decision-making strategy for success at work and in parenting, love and friendship.

Together with her husband Jack Welch, Suzy is also co-author of the #1 international bestseller Winning, and its companion volume, Winning: The Answers.

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Since my life's work has always focused on self-awareness and well being, I have made those two attributes the criterion for people I want to work with.

In my course,

The Soul of Leadership,

I advise employers not only to get references and bios from prospective employees,

but also to engage with them before hiring in creating a "Soul Profile".

Here are the questions that we ask when we create a soul profile:

1. What makes you joyful? Can you recall the most joyous moments of your life?

2. What is your life purpose?

3. In what way do you want to contribute to the business or organization?

4. What are your unique talents and skills and who would benefit from them?

5. Who are your heroes/heroines/mentors in history, mythology, religion or contemporary times?

6. What are the qualities you look for in a good friendship?

7. What are the best attributes that you have that contribute to a meaningful relationship?

Asking a person to write down two or three words or phrases in answer to each of these questions gives both them and you an idea of the meanings, the context, the relationships, and the archetypal themes in their life.

It also is an expression of their deeper core consciousness and what drives their passion and their vision.

The key to a successful business or organization is the creation of dynamic teams where

a) there is a shared vision,

b) people acknowledge and complement each other strengths (as in a sports team),

c) everyone is emotionally bonded and cares for each other.

Such teams, between 5-12 people take time to form, but guarantee success.

In my view, focusing only on professional skills can lead to problems.

In many instances technical skills can frequently be outsourced adequately.

However, what makes an organization or business successful are

Core values,

Qualities of character,

Vision,

Purpose,

Camaraderie, and

Joy.

And these cannot be outsourced.

In addition, I am realizing more and more that addiction to distraction is becoming a hazard in the workplace.

Employees who have an interest in personal growth including practices like mindfulness and focused awareness are not only healthier, but contribute to the well being of an organization/business.

It is becoming clear now that multitasking is the one skill that gets worse with practice and may indeed be harmful to our cortical brain.

In an information-based society, information overload can actually be a hazard.

Information overload cost US businesses about 28% of their knowledge workers’ day and up to $1 trillion dollars in lowered productivity.

1. Career wellbeing - make sure that employees enjoy what they do; acknowledge their strengths and make their opinions count.

2. Social well being - encourage friendships, camaraderie, and celebration in the workplace.

3. Provide encouragement and facilities if possible for meditation, exercise and recreation.

4. Encourage employees in the well-being of their communities.

5. Make sure that employees feel safe financially; help create plans for savings and adequate insurance.

The above suggestions are gathered from data over several years at The Gallup Organization where I serve as a senior scientist. While the above recommendations are not exactly about how to hire people, when people find out that those criteria are important to your business and organization, then the right kind of employees will be attracted to your business/organization.

Remember that

your own personal well-being, and

how you model that in your life,

will attract the right people to you.

Recent research as outlined above is the best predictor of long-term employee engagement and the success of an organization/business/community.

6

Ask the question “How do you hire?” and you most often get an answer that concludes with “and that’s how I find the best person for the job.”

That’s not how I hire. I don’t look to put the best person in the job. Instead I look to put the best team together ... and that can be a very different exercise.

To understand that difference, I've used a UNC basketball team analogy in the past. Assume you have a random group of terrific UNC alumni players. Among this particular group, the best five players could well be Phil Ford, Jimmy Black, Raymond Felton, Ty Lawson and Kendall Marshall. Had that group played together, would they have won a national championship? The answer, of course, is no….because they were all point guards.

Greater diversity of thought, perspective and background has been shown to lead to greater innovation and superior financial results. So, when I hire for a management team, I try to avoid hiring all point guards.

This means that I look for people who make me somewhat uncomfortable. I look for people who are different from me, who hold different views than I do, who have different areas of expertise than I do. I look for people from whom I learn in the interview. I look for people with qualities and backgrounds that are additive to – rather than the same as – the rest of the team. Hiring in this way may make the workplace less “comfortable” for the team, but that is exactly the point.