One of the most important jobs of a manager is hiring the
right people. When the right person is
in place, managing them becomes an easy and enjoyable experience. The right person makes you look good as a
manager. Unfortunately, the flipside is
also true. A bad hire can make you look
incompetent as a manager and a leader.
Most managers are taught to hire from resumes. They look at qualifications on paper and
decide whether the resume fits the job.
Then they interview the person and make the hire - without regard for
what makes the person tick. Personality
dynamics are rarely considered. A
person's got to have the qualifications, but the interaction between the
manager and the potential hire is just as important. I also believe it is a mistake to delegate
the hiring decision to the Human Resources department. HR doesn't have to live with this person
every day. The hiring manager does. It’s HR's responsibility to provide managers
with qualified candidates. The manager's
responsibility is to choose the candidate whose personality and energy best
fits with the rest of the team.
If you want to create synergy, you've got to have a certain
kind of chemistry with your team. In my
early days as a manager, I hired a number of people who I really didn't like. They had excellent resumes with all the right
experience, but I didn't have a good feeling about them. Without exception, down the road, these
people turned out to be bad hires. I
discovered it is vitally important to also take into account an individual's
character and temperament before making a hiring decision.
After hiring enough of the wrong people I realized that
watching and listening are critical, when conducting an interview. As I watched and listened, I would ask myself
the following questions:
Do I LIKE
this person?
Sounds simple enough, but there are
a lot of components that go into deciding that.
Liking a person is crucial in a work environment. You want to find someone to compliment your
personality and work style, who will support your leadership, and who you will
like running into at the water cooler.
I'm not saying to hire someone just like yourself. Ask yourself what personality traits are you
looking for in this position - someone who is friendly, shy, assertive, or
aggressive? Maybe it's a combination of
traits. If the position you're filling
is for a salesperson, a shy quiet person would probably not be as effective a
choice as one who is more assertive and confident.
Is he or
she emotionally stable?
Observe carefully during the
interview. Hopefully you won't run into
a pathological liar. They're extremely
hard to read. Just look for simple
signs. Interviewees are often
nervous. They may really need a job, and
this one may look perfect to them. But
is their nervousness over the top or just normal? Do they appear truthful or stressed? Are you witnessing mood swings? Just watch the behavior.
Will this
person fit in?
What is the culture like in your
office? Is it nose to the grindstone,
casual and fun, or professional and formal?
First define the culture of your work place. Then ask yourself, will this person I'm
interviewing be comfortable here? Is
this an environment that will work for him? Determine why or why not. If not, what would it take to make the person
fit in, and is it worth the effort?
But it doesn't always go as planned . . . Sometimes it's not
until after an employee has worked for you for a while that you realize that
the employee is not cut out for the job.
I'm not some heartless bastard, who enjoys cutting off people's
heads. But there are times when people
just can't make the grade. If someone is
not right for the organization, inevitably, the organization is not right for
him or her either. It's better for the
individual to move on and to have a chance to find a better fit where they can
feel happy and appreciated for their contribution.
A Record Bar we once hired a buyer who had worked in one of
our record stores. He loved music, was
very bright, and had many friends in the company. His job was to purchase games for our
stores. The music business attracted a
lot of creative people, those who liked music, those who played a musical
instrument, and some who performed in a band.
We had many wonderful creative people working for us. This particular guy spent an inordinate
amount of time dreaming or thinking. I'm
really not sure about what. While
sitting at his desk he would throw pencils at the tiled ceiling and see how
many he could get to stick. I walked in
one day, and there must have been hundreds of pencils stuck to the
ceiling. Obviously, he didn't present
the image of an employee hard at work, and time proved exactly that, since his
immediate supervisor made the decision that it was time for a personnel change
in his department.
Even with the best intentions, mistakes are made. A smart manager realizes when a person and
position are not a good match, and that a change in personnel needs to take
place.
Stay tuned next week for What Happens When Hiring Mistakes
are Made
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