I believe hiring is an intelligence, not a routine.
Conscious Leadership Scenario:
When was the last time you looked at your hiring practice as something other than a box to check or a process to get through (reviewing resumes and panel interviews)? In 2021, why are companies still focused on vetting hard skills and not a major emphasis on soft skills? People are always released from companies/organizations because of soft skills, so why not a deeper focus on this during the hiring process?
It’s time to make a massive shift and start utilizing science-based data to effectively hire the exact individual that best suits the role and matches the organization’s culture. Benchmarking each team and each position to ensure ideal fit and candidate retention. Why isn’t every company measuring Emotional Quotients (EQ), Driving Forces (motivations/conflicts), Behaviors (the observable language of behaviors)? Without a deeper understanding of the candidates, the “why” of their actions, what drives them to action, what drives their choices/decisions, and deeper knowledge of what creates the candidate’s enjoyment and fulfills them. Your hiring process is severally broken; there is hope if you’re willing to consider new innovative ideas.
Leadership Fail:
In our quest as visionary business leaders to make everything run faster or more smoothly, we forget to treat some practices as sacred – one chance to get it right. Hiring is one of those practices. If hiring has become a routine of old and outdated hiring practices (vetting only hard skills), realign immediately because it should always be handled with time, care, and, most importantly, a high level of intelligence.
The ideal hiring process is filled with healthy pauses, thoughtful discussions, objective diagnostics, and critical thinking. It takes courage to practice hiring intelligence and resist the urge to fast-track to get a butt in a seat…today! Now! After all, hiring better, ironically, is an organization’s best shot at being faster, better, and more profitable.
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Negative Affect on Culture and Organizational Performance:
Hiring managers are constantly looking for the next star employee/highest performer. Someone who aligns with the culture needs little oversight, brings creative and strategic thinking (sneaky smart) to the role, and knows how to work and collaborate with others. However, business leaders can become cynical in finding these rising stars because they have been burned by bad hires over and over again, and they’re running on empty themselves.
Instead of taking a breath, slowing down, investing additional time, implementing data-based sciences into hiring, and going about it differently, they often either disengage from the hiring process or fast-track the process and watch (and hope) (and pray) for stars to rise after they’ve been hired. Then, energy and resource are invested in growing these individuals with fingers crossed or mitigating the misalignment because it’s not the right person for the role. So, leaders continue to pour good time, energy, and money after bad because starting over is “so exhausting.” Why continue down this path?
When organizations know precisely what they are looking for (benchmarking team’s behaviors, driving forces, motivators/conflicts, emotional intelligence), every new hire can be a rising star. Every new hire can be worthy of leadership’s attention because they are motivated and properly matched to the right role (benchmarking each position). Suddenly, the people are the organization’s greatest asset because each person contributes so greatly.
Building high-performing teams and aspiring to greatness all starts with hiring. Up until recently, leaders have been going about it backward. Instead of relying on resumes, executive presence in interviews, and gut instincts, I propose leaders rely on science-based data that eliminates biases and gives a clear picture of the person and their likelihood of aligning to the job and culture.
Conscious Leadership Solution:
It all starts with clarity around each role. Leaders must deeply understand and be on the same page as to why they are hiring for various roles and what skill sets, behaviors, and motivators are needed to fulfill that role well. Then, clearly communicate the role to the candidate pool so that the right people are saying, “that job is made for me!” When candidates express interest, they must be compared to one another objectively through scientific diagnostics. Hiring intelligence is all about predictive hiring: confidently knowing the people who receive an offer letter are undoubtedly the best for that position from the inside-out (diagnostic) as well as the standard outside-in (references, resume, gut) view.
This is how smart and innovative companies are hiring and attracting transformational leadership. I’ve set out to challenge the way high-growth companies value their people. In order to leverage their most important asset – the people who are responsible for growing the business – hiring can no longer be left to chance or the way you’ve always done it.
Hire more intelligently and watch dozens of other business problems dissolve, like retention woes, poor management, and unengaged employees. Hire more intelligently and watch it catapult your business into new territory where people issues no longer weigh it down.
Are you ready to start hiring more intelligently and joining in this new way of doing business? Reach out to me at [email protected]: Share your biggest hiring challenge, and I’ll give you a few ideas of how you can find the people who best align with your roles, culture, and business direction.
Live2Lead/OneTribe
Travis
Vice President of US Technology Practices at 