You need to hire. To fill new positions, to replace others. What do you look for? Candidates who have the required skills? Those with the experience, who’ve done it before? Those who reflect the right values?
Skills. Experience. Values. Very important. Yet test for all of these and you could still hire people who can’t get the job done. Because there’s one other category, the category that often gets overlooked.
Traits.
Do they respond well to adversity? Are they team players? Do they take responsibility? Do they take initiative? Are they positive? Are they committed? Do they care about others? Are they curious? Do they take pride in their work? Are they doers? Are they ambitious? Do they actively learn from their mistakes or try to deny them?
How do you test for traits? Ask their references? Sure. But better to ask the candidates about situations they’ve experienced in which they’ve had the opportunity to demonstrate the right traits. Or not. Tell me about a situation in which you had to deal with adversity at work. What was the situation? How did you feel? What did you do and why? What was the outcome?
Skills? Skills are useful but often you can train skills. Experience? Experience can help but a person could have a lot of experience performing at a low level. Values? Gotta have the right values. But they only tell you about the person, not about their ability or drive to perform.
Skills, experience and values aren’t enough. Hire people who have the traits to help your organization win.
Make it happen.
Michael
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Hiring? Here’s Why Skills and Experience Aren’t Enough
