I’ll call him Ralph. Of all the applicants I interviewed for the position, he had most experience and the best credentials. “He must be a great match,” I thought. So, I hired him. BIG mistake. He supervised in a condescending way. He wanted to re-think every process we had in place because he “knew better.” He drove two people out of the organization who simply threw up their hands and said, “Life’s too short.” And for four months, dealing with him dominated my thoughts day and night. He finally moved on to another opportunity where he knew they would “appreciate his skills and expertise.”
Have you been there? That experience taught me that there is a difference between hiring the best person and the right person. I might say that my mistake was the result of inexperience as a young leader. But I come across this same kind of mistake being made by seasoned leaders as well.
I have long said that I don’t want care what an applicant knows as much as I care about how an applicant thinks. There are two elements to this equation – critical thinking and attitude. Chances are, you’ve hired people who graduated with a 4.0 and don’t seem to possess basic problem-solving skills. Frustrating isn’t it. Sadly, this has become more of a challenge than ever before. I’ve written a number of resources on how to screen applicants for thinking skills. You can find links to three of them in the description. So, I won’t go into the specifics here. But that brings us to attitude.
I’ve often wondered why employers shoehorn hiring into the rest of their busy schedules when they are making $60-80,000 decisions just to hire an entry-level person these days. Not only will you and everyone else depend on this person, you’ll have to live with them and all their proclivities. Yet, I would argue that the average applicant is screened in a rather slap-dash way, especially if the organization is short-handed. As with assessing thinking skills, I’ve written a number of articles over the years on what works and what doesn’t. I have linked a couple of them in the description.
As I work with leaders and business owners on improving decision culture, matching the right people to the right position is always part of the discussion. If you’re going to recapture your time, energy and focus, being able to depend on the people around you to make confident and independent decisions is critical.
What works best for you in matching the right person to the right job? Put your ideas in the comments below.