Talent acquisition in organizations, independent of the industry, society or geographies they operate in, has and will continue to pose one of the biggest challenges to its success. How much can you decipher out of an hour, half-hour or quarter-hour that you spend with a prospective employee? For all those that wince at the idea of an arranged marriage – spending a lifetime in marriage to a partner that they spend similar amounts of time to understand – this is the exact situation in work life. There are zillions of points of view and checklists on what to look for and pitfalls to avoid and there is enough literature you will find on the topic. Yet the results continue to be disturbing still. I am trying to put together my own flavor of the dos and don’ts that I do not see covered often. Some of these might be pertinent to only a specific section of the organization (perhaps a bias towards leadership talent acquisition) while others may be more generic and I have jotted them down as they came to mind, so here goes.
- Trust the ecosystem that has produced the candidate in front of you. Career progression, rewards, recognition, awards are all better indicators of consistent performance than anything you might discover about a person in the minutes spent on a discussion.
- Darwin’s theory of evolution is a strong one – trust it always. Two of the cornerstone thoughts that shape the theory of evolution and natural selection are the survival of the fittest and the struggle for existence. Not every high school or undergraduate drop-out will go on to win the Nobel Prize or create the largest organizations of the world – those fairy tales sounds good only in retrospect – they can’t be treated as an example to follow for employing the prospective candidate in front of you. Strong academic performance, reputation of the alma mater(s) and the organizations that the candidate has been a part of are critical pointers to what the candidate brings on the table.
- Beware of the glib talking smooth operator. It is so often easy to get carried away by the way a person comes across and has the gift of the gab to sway the audience with their articulation and mannerisms over a short period of time. To demonstrate capability and credibility, all you need is the conviction and commitment, not the flowery language, though the art of articulation would be an added plus. Look for these qualities in the content of the conversation rather than the manner of it.
- Beware of the over-achiever profile. Our image of superheroes is that of someone that wears undergarments over their clothes. While that makes them easy to identify, everyone who dresses up so, do not become superheroes purely by virtue of doing so. That would be comic-book naiveté! It is fairly normal for people to have the misconception that they were the only factor in a success story. Taking the credit for what a team delivered and with the backing of a sound ecosystem is a norm with the majority. The wiser ones would know what worked in a situation and what their contribution to it was. They would be able to articulate all factors that contributed to a success. And by virtue of that, how they stand out.
- A leader that’s always right but never the first. A common mistake that everyone makes is to think that a successful leader has to always, or at least most of the time, be right. That is considered beyond compromise. Look for someone who has taken the initiative, taken the first tentative step, even if nervously for they were stepping into the unknown, but with the tenacity to be able to learn from their mistakes and stay the course. Leaders are thus because they lead, not because they are always right.
- You need the right fit, not the biggest size. Put the role that you are hiring for into perspective when you start judging the person across the table. More often than not, the base competency required for a role is exactly that – very basic! What you need is a steady head on a level shoulder. You seldom need someone, who can rattle off the value of ‘pi’ to the 100th decimal or multiply two 13 digit numbers mentally within a minute, to do double-entry bookkeeping! You do not need an IQ of 150+ to understand the average business processes and systems and solve potential business problems. A phone operator does not need to know Alexander Graham Bell, your travel desk folks do not need to know the Silk or Spice route and it is ok if your Chief Technology Officer does not know the exact charge or spin of a positron.
- You do not have any points to prove, so steer clear of bullying. This is the most common mistake people make. When you have a smart person sitting across the table, do not feel either intimidated or succumb to the urge to outsmart the person at one topic or another. On the contrary, get the person to talk more and more. What you need talent from the outside for, is to generate newer ideas, not to impose your old ones on. Remember the old adage, you are smart if you hire folks smarter than you, you’re stupid if you do the opposite.
- Avoid the checklist trap. This is the classic one that dilutes the purpose of having a conversation. For this kind of an exercise, you might as well administer a questionnaire instead. When you approach a discussion with a checklist in hand, you are not listening to but listening for.
In summary, when you are trying to hire someone, either for a specific role or otherwise, you can’t be too clouded by the interview or discussion process that happens over few to several minutes. There is a pre- and post- process that could be equally effective. And during the process of interaction, you need to make sure that you are grounded – neither overbearing, nor overwhelmed! Last, but not the least, be fully involved in the process and go in with the right, read appropriate, expectations.
Note: The views expressed here and in any of my posts are my personal views and not to be construed as being shared by any organization or group that I am or have been associated with presently or in the past.
