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!”
2
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.
3
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.
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.
4
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Tools for Business
Research etc.
5
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,
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.
