At Your Service

19 Feb At Your Service

I have a theory about building great companies.

 

After years of hiring talent – teaching how to conduct interviews – build profiles – I’m convinced that far too many organizations are living in the past.

 

“The best predictor of future performance is past performance.”

 

Or so the mantra goes – and we march headlong into determining how the candidate has delivered in previous assignments – what they learned – the skills they potentially bring to the table.

 

All valid indicators.

 

But not enough.

 

So I’ve amended my past stance on how we search and source great athletes.

 

Because their skills aren’t the best determinant of future performance.

 

Their character is.

 

And unfortunately, though we can train new and current employees to enhance their skills – I know of no state of the art program that will change their character.

 

None.

 

I’ve invested time recently assessing a few company hiring processes – the physical interviews – and the onboarding.

 

For some, it is an amazingly elaborate system – full of checks and balances (to include cognitive assessments, aptitude tests, and personality inventories).

 

All can be – oftentimes are – tremendously effective.

 

But when we examine the backend – which hires actually became superstars and which became something less – there is an important insight that resonates.

 

The delta has far less to do with skill and aptitudes – far more to do with the quality of the person.

 

Character.

 

One of the primary reasons great companies become great is because of the culture they build.

 

And great cultures, it seems, can only be crafted on the individual shoulders of people of extraordinary character.

 

So we quietly suggest clients look for more in their interactions with potential new employees.

 

Even as we point out this simple truth.

 

Your greatest recruiting tool and your greatest retention tool – is when those rare individuals are able to see great character in you… and your company.

 

And especially in your leaders.

 

Let me repeat that – especially in your leaders.

 

Last week I watched a condescending diner berate his waiter and the restaurant staff over an innocuous issue that he decided was a personal affront to humankind.

 

He did it because he could – because in his mind, no one that mattered was watching anyway.

 

A fleeting glimpse behind the curtain.

 

Of what is real.

 

Today that same diner will likely portray a different image in his place of work – a chameleon able to change his colors on command.

 

Maybe – but here’s a funny thing about people of real character.

 

They’re the hardest to fool.