In these difficult and trying times, many are being asked to do more with less. Sometimes it even seems that your entire organization is made up of "less" or your team sees you as "less." "Less" talent than you thought you were getting or less talent than your competition or less talent than they observed in their previous supervisor.
When things aren't going quite like we anticipated, we tend to look for someone to blame.
"Who Killed Davey Moore" is a Bob Dillon song. I don't know if he wrote it but he sang it and it is one of my favorites because it reflects our human nature to blame others when unpleasant surprises happen. There is no place where the "blame game" is more prevalent than in corporate America.
It's opening lyrics go like this: "Who killed Davie Moore-Why and what's the reason for?" It's about the death, in the ring, of a professional fighter and how everyone from his manager to the fight promoter wants none of the blame. It reminds me of a client who once said; "Steve, I don't know how it happens but my boss keeps hiring new people and we the same poor results."
You may never have experienced anything quite so exasperating but many have and I know the reason for it. It is called the "recruiting for less" philosophy. Here are 2 rules that will guarantee results below expectation.
TWO IMMUTABLE RULES THAT GUARANTEE YOU WILL GET LESS THAN EXPECTED
1. Never plan an interview -Use the Good Ole Boy 2 question Interview System:
a. Do you own a 'Shootin' piece?"
b. Do you have a "Huntin'place?"
2. Never worry about matching the candidate to the job (Job Fit) - Just fill the vacancy and we will worry about Job Fit later.
A ridiculous as those two rules appear, I swear, it seems to be the core philosophy of many organizations. Let's take a minute and debunk those to ridiculous rules.
Never plan the interview
I do not know why it is, but there are a very large number of hiring managers that still believe they can determine the potential and value of a candidate by how they feel about them. Some even go to the extent of sharing that they prefer to hire by feel rather than by real. By real I mean, making hiring decisions based on real, meaningful attributes that are discovered, expanded, validated and essential to the performance of the job.
It is my belief that every executive that expresses an ability to make hiring decisions by "gut feeling" should be "made available to the industry." That may seem rather harsh but if they have progressed to the executive level and still believe in hiring by feel they need to be replaced.
Never Worry about Job Fit
Almost every manger has gone through the stage of their development where they believe that they are "God's gift to personal development". You know, that place where you believe that you can give a person ill-suited for the job, the knowledge, skills and talent they need to be a superior performer in it. How many times have you seen that work? If I had a nickel for every time I have heard that pledge or promise, I would be a wealth man.
So what's the point? The point is that you can substantially improve the quality of the hires your company makes by a few hours of simple training, education and holding hiring managers accountable for their hires. Here are 3 tips that, when implemented, will make you very happy:
TIP #1. Benchmark every key job for both hard and soft skills
TIP #2. Insist that hiring managers use a Structured Behavioral Based Interview System
TIP #3. Don't try to put into someone something that is not there. It is hard enough to get out what is already in.-Marcus Buckingham & Curt Coffman, First Break All the Rules.
If your organization, continues to hire talented people and the results don't change much, there is hope. Address the issue, give the people the tools they need to do the job and hold them accountable to do it.
