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Fire Before You Hire: Hiring "Franchise" Talent
Hiring talent is difficult and selecting the right talent is even harder. Think about the upcoming NFL draft. Each NFL team is spending thousands of hours analyzing film, watching the combine tapes, speaking with coaches, and speaking with prospective players. Making a wrong hiring decision can be expensive.
Think about the college football players who were touted as the superstar during the NFL draft and franchise players who were anticipated to carry a team into the Super Bowl. Think about how many truly were successful, even after all the hard work and money predicting the future. Then think about all the nobodies who were chosen late in the draft and became superstars.
Tom Brady, quarterback for the New England Patriots, comes to mind. He had one of the slowest 40-yard dash times of any quarterback before his start with the team. Then think of all the Heisman Trophy winners who never made it. Vince Young, a big, strapping, highly competitive quarterback who won the national championship for University of Texas in 2006. He washed out, along with Matt Leinart, the USC Heisman Trophy winner in 2004.
Here is the list of Do's to increase your success in hiring "franchise" talent:
- Fire before you hire - Take your time making a hiring decision. Sometimes saying no to a candidate will increase the probability of saying yes to the right one. The reality is called "opportunity cost." If you fire someone before you hire them, then you have the opportunity of hiring the right person.
- Always use "critical incident debriefing" technique when interviewing - Ask the candidate to tell you exactly the behaviors and the thinking process they go through when solving problems. What thought patterns were used to overcome a particular challenge?
- Avoid the "halo effect" - We tend to decide quickly whether we like someone. Just because you like someone doesn't mean they are the right fit for the job.
- Collect three (3) sources of data when making a decision - This is also incumbent upon employers as part of the labor law, so no one source of data is overused. The different assessment data can include an interview, background checks, reference checks, validated assessment results, and a form of simulation such as making a presentation.
- Prepare with vigilance and focus on "fit" - Since you are making an important and potentially expensive decision, prepare. Consider your corporate culture and how a candidate will fit in. Write out a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats (SWOT) analysis of your culture and the social intelligence you need for people to collaborate and work well together.
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Use Valid and Reliable Pre-Employment Assessments - See below the surface. Remember what sank the Titanic was the sharp edge of the underwater iceberg, not what was seen on the surface of the water. Make sure that the assessment instrument you use is statistically validated. There are many "assessments" that are style inventories that are not designed to make critical hiring decisions. Make certain the assessment you utilize is reliable for making hiring and promotion decisions.
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"Fear Your Strengths: What You are Best at Could be Your Biggest Problem"
By Robert E. Kaplan and Robert B. Kaiser
This eloquent, evocative book includes many references and insightful quotations that capture the corrupting nature of overusing strengths. The authors provide a novel and provocative approach to preventing the derailing reality of overusing strengths.
According to the authors, below are three realities that underscore the need to fear your strengths.
- Most leaders will overuse their strengths, which can derail their effectiveness.
- Taken to excess, personal strengths can destroy careers and even companies
- To prevent self-sabotage, identify your personal and professional strength
The authors prescribe three critical tips to "dialing it back" as a way to balance one's strength. The three tips are:
- Accept yourself - The leader you are is the person you are. Become familiar with that person. Step outside of yourself and see how others see you. Courageously internalize what others say about you. Seek ongoing feedback from others.
- Test yourself - True change takes time and effort. Facing challenges and overcoming obstacles is a critical way to become strong. Transform your thinking where you welcome the challenges that test you. Venture out for new experiences. Changing your repertoire of experiences will change you.
- Offset yourself - Stop chasing perfection. Don't demand or expect perfection. Even overcoming the vicissitudes of being a leader, perfection is an illusion. Every leader needs strong talented people to offset his/her weaknesses. "The difference between a good CEO and a great one is the ability to attract big people."
The authors provide this warning to become an effective leader: find strategies to dial back your primary strengths so they don't overwhelm you, endanger your career, and harm your organization.
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Leading Research -
Avoiding "Confirmation Bias"
The University of Toledo published a study (Pricket, Gada-Jain, and Mernieri) a study on making quick hiring decisions. The study reported that judgments made in the first 10 seconds of an interview could predict the outcome of the interview.
The research found that making a prediction in the first 10 seconds were worthless. The reason is called "confirmation bias." The interviewers searched for evidence that confirmed (confirmation bias) their initial impression, instead of assessing a candidates true skills and character.
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- Hiring the right talent that fits the role is one of the most critical decisions any leader can take.
- To increase professional brand equity, identify a business conundrum and invent a simple and elegant solution.
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COACH'S NOTE
Human behavior is difficult to predict. Yet, employing techniques to identify "franchise talent" is possible. Once franchise talent is hired, leaders need to be aware of the insidiousness of overusing strengths. By helping the "franchise talent" become self-reflective, a primary strength will continue to be an asset instead of a liability. With enough "franchise talent" any business will become "champions."
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Solving People and Management Issues
The Heller Group focuses on coaching for senior level executives. We facilitate change within an organization that results in more effective leadership, increased productivity, innovative thinking, and improved employee morale and retention.
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Dr. Bruce Heller
Dr. Bruce Heller, founder of The Heller Group, Inc., has over 20 years experience consulting with managers and executives on executive education, leadership development, and organizational.
He is an adjunct professor at Southwestern Law School.
Dr. Heller is a consulting psychologist and member of the American Psychological Association Consulting Psychology Division. Dr. Heller holds a Ph.D. and Masters Degree in Education from the University of Southern California.
Dr. Heller is the author of The Prodigal Executive-How to Coach Executives Too Painful to Keep, Too Valuable to Fire.
Read the book.
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