AUTHENTICITY
Manu Wadhwa
Global Business Executive | Change & Transformation Expert | Board Member | CHRO - Sony Pictures Networks
Last month, I was interviewing a candidate for a senior leadership role in our organization. The candidate was from a very reputed global corporation and presented promise, especially, with the backing of a credible brand as their current employer.
As part of assessing cultural alignment, I always interact with candidates around facets of PURPOSE and how it relates to their current role - what they do, how they manage their work, whats their KRA, and how does their work roll-up to the organization vision & mission.
So, we started the conversation after the pleasantries.
My first question - "what do you do in your current workplace and how it relates to the overall purpose and operating model of the organization"?
The candidate started well, in an eloquent style, but then went all over the place and couldn't connect the purpose of their role in conjunction with the organization they worked in. Upon deep-diving on various facets of their current role, I finally realized that they were not a job fit, as their experiential knowledge was shallow in comparison to the expected competence level for the role. However, the person did bring other capabilities to the table as evident in their resume, which weren't even highlighted in the interactions and that was honestly a miss from the candidate's end.
In reflecting upon this experience, I realized that the reason why this happened was that the candidate was trying to"portray an image of self and their work, as they thought would suit the prospective job requirements". In an effort to do so, the candidate lost their authentic self and failed to showcase what they are truly made of - their DNA - and let the process take a natural flow on the decision of fit or not. The candidate tried to control the outcome, as compared to their own actions.
This is one of the most classical reasons why senior leadership placements take a lot of time and the candidates' success ratio is almost 1/20th between shortlisting to final placement. In an effort to convince the hiring panel, the candidates get outside their comfort wear i.e. AUTHENTIC SELF, and attempt to create a perception of false role behaviors and hope. Even if this "Fake It Till You Make It" strategy gets them the job, somewhere down the line in the first 12-18 months, we see abrupt senior executives movement from the new eco-system. 90% of the time, we discount it with a simple explanation - foreign tissue rejection - on either side and move on. But this experiment costs, both the organization and the candidate, dearly and leaves a bitter taste towards injecting fresh blood from outside at senior leadership levels!
How does one tackle this conundrum and optimize success on senior leadership placements?
My two-bits from experience and observation -
In a nutshell, it's all about being AUTHENTIC - being true to your values and hoping that there is a FINGERPRINT / DNA MATCH that stands the test of time!
Look forward to your experiences. Cheers #MANUScript
Vice President of Sales @ Sony Pictures Network I Author ?? Love Life and Cricket | Cricket | 2x TEDx Speaker | Podcaster I Content Creator I Cricketer I Singer I Motivational Speaker I Multitasker I MBA in Marketing I
4 年Superb share mam ! Authenticity and Agility elasticity is actually the core of this discussion .
Strategic HR | Talent Management | Training & Development | Culture Transformation | Organization Development
4 年Spot on. Article reflects your high observation skills besides competencies. I have following observations:- 1. Most of the times Interviewer themselves are not technically qualified for that particular position interview. 2. There is wrong perception among people that if you show yourself too smart, you will be selected. That is true in case point 1 applies. 3. Although it is known fact that in interview you should show normal behaviour but in the modern scenario, perhaps people find it difficult to maintain. 4. Many organisations do not have defined vision, mission and values. Even KRAs are forced to be made without business plan. Ultimately it is the Organization culture and working style which impacts people performance and management style.
Consultant Psychologist @Behavioural Trainer
4 年Being authentic requires Continuous Minfulness
CEO, Maamba Energy
4 年Hi Manu, Thank you for a wonderful anecdote to drive home the important aspect of being authentic. Over the years I have seen a large number of external hiring at senior positions exiting after less than two years. The reason invariably is of culture and fit. They, like you brought out, ultimately did not fit in the role that we were offering but were extremely successful in their precious roles which were different. The churn at senior positions does affect an organisation adversely.
Empowering Businesses with Creative Solutions: A Passionate HR Practitioner Driven by Innovation and Growth.
4 年In this world we are all trying to “fit in”. What is authentic for me maybe different from someone else. In my personal journey it has been enlightening to find what my true self is, what I have been trying to be for the last 2 years to 6 months and how people see me in interviews or what I become in interviews. It’s just awesome.