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By Alyssa Royse
Hiring someone is a lot like agreeing to marry them. Or atleast move in together. It is a relationship that is focused on the future,because you think that something good, new, better is on the horizon. So, howmuch attention should you be paying to the past? And which parts of the pastactually matter?
I have seen the resumes of complete “tools” that are reallyimpressive looking. They had great job titles and degrees from great places,but it didn’t change the fact that they were, well, “tools.” On paper, the hiremade sense. In reality, they were disasters.
In thinking of it as a marriage, I wonder if anyone wouldsay, “Ya, he treates me badly, never gets anything done, has gained 100 poundsand taken up smoking, but have you seen those pictures of him playing collegebaseball, and he was president of his fraternity, so it makes sense to marryhim.”
No. What does he do NOW? What traits does he have that willmake your life better? How do those traits support your long-term goals?
Same thing when hiring people.
FOCUS ON SKILLS
Focus on what people can do more than on where they did itand what people called them when they did.
- Titles don’t mean anything. A VP at a fortune 500 company isdifferent than a VP at a startup. And beyond that, it doesn’t mean they weregood at anything, just that they had a title. That’s like assuming all mennamed Charles are princes. (And that all princes are charming.)
- Be very clear about the skills that you need your new hireto have, and look for evidence that they have those skills, regardless of whereor how they have used them in the past. It could be that you need a saleswizard, and a terrific blogger with story telling skills can reach youraudience is a better choice than someone with 10 years of experience sellingsoftware. Or that the kid in the mail room who redesigned the logistics forinner-campus mail is just the guy you need to redesign your distributionchannels.
- Beyond their professional resume, what do they do in their lives that illustrate the skills and values of your company in action. An Ironman triathlete obviously has the ability to focus and overcome challenges. A mom who has distributed a neighborhood newsletter for 2 years has dedication, focus, and editorial skills.
FOCUS ON PAST BEHAVIOR
Past work experience is important, but not in the way thatpeople think. What matters here is how your potential new hire behaves on ateam, what their work ethic is, how they get along with others.
- Check references casually. Talk to people in your communityabout the potential new hire. Am I talking about gossip? Maybe. But if a bunchof people say “sure, he’s smart,but he’s an asshole,” then you need to think twice. Why? Because you arebringing more than skills into your company, you are bringing chemistry. If onesmart person alienates 5 other smart people, you’re looking at a netproductivity loss of 4 people. Bad hire.
- Smart people can learn any skill. Mean people don’tgenerally learn to be nice, or vice versa.
- Go back to the dating thing, imagine it’s your daughter andshe says she’s dating a guy who is really nice to her, even though all herfriends don’t like him and there is a restraining order against him from someother woman. Would you want your daughter to date him? It’s hyperbolic, but inour guts, we know the answer, and you need to be just as protective of yourteam.
GO WITH YOUR GUT
We know chemistry when we feel it. It feels like “this issomeone I could do great things with,” or “I would really like working withthis person.” In my, never humble,opinion, that matters more than almost anything else.
- If you like, trust and feel good with someone, then you aremore likely to be able to withstand the pressures of working together (orliving together,) than if you just have a lot of good credentials in common.Don’t kid yourself about the nature of building a company with people, it isone of the most intimate relationships you can have, and you need to feel ascommitted to each other as to the company or product.
- Without the trust, caring, commitment to and support of eachother, you will have internal corporate conflict that will undermineeverything.
So here are the 3 questions I would ask, in order ofimportance (though they are ALL important):
- Do I like, feel good with, trust and want to be with thisperson?
- Does s/he have a track record of being kind, honest,dedicated, committed and working well with other people?
- Do they have the skills we need to accomplish our goals?
The rest is icing. But you can put all the icing you wanton a pile of cold liver, and you still probably wouldn’t want to eat it.
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Alyssa Royse would rather read (or write) a good book, alone, thanspend her time with assholes in any capacity. However, she’d always rather bedoing anything with smart, kind, creative people who are greater than the sumof her parts. Anything.
