Aloha and welcome to the December edition of the Hire Score Newsletter. Let me start by wishing you all a very happy, safe and prosperous holiday season. Normally I extend a special welcome to the new subscribers ( I am happy you are on board) but this month I want to take a minute to thank all of my long-time subscribers.
It has been more than two years since I started this monthly chat with you and I wanted you to know how much I appreciate your patronage. Your messages and questions are always fun to deal with (even when you disagree with me!). The best feedback I get is when you send me a note letting me know how you put an idea or technique into practice with visible results.
Which brings me to a wrap-up of the topic we discussed last month, interviewing for knowledge skills and abilities instead of interview behavior (those of you new to the newsletter should go to www.selectingwinners.com to read past editions of the newsletter). As a reminder, I said you need to be less influenced by interview behavior and your feelings and more focused on gathering data that predicts success.
To that end, I received a note from long time client Andreas Presch, CEO of Talius. With his permission, I have reprinted his story here.
"I want to share with you one experience I had with hiring an engineer in Germany which relates to what you wrote in your November newsletter. In this position, the successful person has to interact with lots of differnet types of people as well as lead an unruly bunch of roughneck workers at multiple sites.
Several managers and myself had separate interviews with the chosen candidate. Our view was that his past demonstrated he was the right guy. In the interview itself though, not one of us warmed up to him and didn't "feel" him sending out leadership vibes. Against the recommendation of the others, I hired him strictly on the data we had.
I have been in twice weekly contact with our German managers since to see how the guy is doing. Several months have past and gradually, week after week they recognized what a good fit he is and they all have warmed up to one another. My first question every day is, "So when are we going to let him go?" And the reply now is uniform, that this is the best leader the company has had in living memory and he is very well like by everyone.
I think this is good example of how not to evaluate the person during the interview, put fellings aside and go with the facts!"
Andreas Presch, CEO Talius
Andreas is a perfect example of someone who has implemented my Selecting Winners system and is reaping the benefits daily. You can too!!
I was up this morning at 4:00am ( I couldn’t sleep in anticipation of my long awaited trip to Kauai) and having already shut down my office I turned on the TV. If you have ever tried to watch TV at 4 am you know that infomercials pretty much dominate the airwaves. So I started surfing channels to see what these people were pitching. I came across all the usual suspects when a pitch for kitchen knives caught my attention.
It is not that I need kitchen knives but they were interviewing the inventor of the latest and greatest knives. He lived in the backwoods of Wisconsin (for those of you outside the US, this is a very rural area). And during this interview this simple man uttered a statement that stopped me in my tracks.
In talking about how he designed a special handle that fits your hand perfectly he said, "It is so simple, but then again all great things are."
Let me tell you why this had such a profound effect on me. For the past 20+ years I have been teaching people how to recruit and hire better people. At the end of almost every speech, presentation and workshop, someone has commented how simple and easy the Selecting Winners techniques are. Many of you have heard me say if you are struggling with my system you must be missing something.
With this in mind I want to simplify the process of recruiting and hiring great people to a couple of simple principles. We are going to end the year with this simple compilation and review of proven concepts (and I know you won't confuse this with that stupid stuff like "The One Question Interview").
First, the only reason you ever hire someone is to solve a business problem. That’s it. You must tie the entire process into a specific business need you have decided to address with a full time employee. Stay focused on this and a lot of the extraneous stuff will melt away.
Next, your goal in the selection process is to predict success. You need to determine how the person will handle the tasks and situations on your job (their behavior). Stay away from trying to figure the person out and stick to the proven model of predicting behavior by focusing on past behavior.
With this firmly in mind, the next principle is to create a template of the successful person. Determine what the person has to do to satisfy your business need and the knowledge, skills and abilities necessary to accomplish those tasks. Concentrate on the necessary behaviors and don’t get seduced by background, experience and education.
In the interview, ask effective questions that get you information that help you predict success. The easiest way to do this is to get many specific examples of how the person has handled the same or similar situations to those they will face on your job. Don’t ask the candidate to give you examples, instead find specific examples from the person’s background that are similar to those they will face on your job. Instead of saying, "Give me an example of a large sale you personally closed", pick a specific claim from the resume and explore that. "What strategy did you use to close the ABC deal?" is a better question when you know from the resume the person closed the ABC deal for $1MM.
This subtle difference makes all the difference is being able to control the interview and get specific behavioral data. If you ever get lost in an interview, get another example of something the person did that is similar to things they will need to do on your job.
Next, make your decisions based on data not impressions. Hopefully you will like every person you hire but the only reason you should hire a person is because you are absolutely convinced they will be successful in satisfying your business need. It is simply amazing how many biases fly out the window when you focus on data instead of impressions.
Finally, let me boil the whole process down to one simple sentence, "Determine the behaviors necessary to successfully satisfy your business need and determine if the candidate behaves that way.
These simple principles, when implemented will lead you to the promised land: The Right person in the Right job at the Right time doing the Right things.
I need to end this month’s newsletter by thanking some very important people. First, my instructors and business partners for being a joy to work with. Without you, Selecting Winners would not be the same. To all my clients, I want to say a very heartfelt Thank You! This has been a difficult year for many of you and still you hung in there. When others over-reacted, you took advantage of the situation and moved your businesses to another level. I am proud to have been able to contribute to your success.
Finally, a couple of schedule notes. As you might have guessed, I am heading off to Kauai for a working vacation. (Yes I do work while I am there!) If you need to get in touch with me, you can call the office at 206-230-9400 or email me at staff@selectingwinners.com. While in Kauai I will be redesigning the Selecting Winners website. Please stay tuned for some great new features that will help you recruit and hire only the best. In addition, I am putting the final touches on my "Strategic Staffing" book. I will keep you informed as to the publish date.
Thanks for coming along for the journey! Everyone be well!
Sincerely,
Barry Shamis
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Selecting Winners has been helping companies hire great employees for more than 20 years. For more information about our products and services, please visit us online at www.selectingwinners.com or call us 206-230-9400.