Hiring, Promoting, and Typecasting...

So, I had a "thought" earlier this week about hiring and promoting people that might be worth sharing... you see; I think we can learn a lot from the film industry's concept of "casting" for roles when we are thinking about hiring or promoting people for jobs within our organizations (or interviewing for them for that matter!).

How in the world did this pop into my head?

You see, we've all been there. We have a "job" (a "role") at an organization and that role has a strong influence over how we behave day in and day out. This, in turn, has a strong influence over how people perceive us within that firm and thus, what future jobs (roles) we might be well suited to perform. (I think the analogy is obvious now.)

For example, when I was in the Product Management role here at ClearEdge my role was focused around prioritizing what our developers should be working on based on a lot of complex factors; but mostly based on release dates we needed to hit for various events in order to drive sales so that we had money to pay people's pay checks. It's a thing. This meant that I had to be very practical in weighing perfect vs. good vs. good enough solutions and making difficult cuts to my precious software in order to get something to the market. (Despite my personal tendencies to the opposite. Ha!)

Once we brought in a seasoned PM to do that work (much better than I was doing it!); I switched hats to being the "Industry Strategist" which allowed me to flex my idealistic muscles more and take the side of the customer rather than the side of the release schedule. It was important to change how I acted to properly reflect my role and purpose within the organization. So, if someone had only known me for the time I was a PM they might have typecast me as a pragmatist (and boy would they be wrong!).

Ironically, now that I have a team of people who are doing the industrious strategical work with me, I'm once again thrust into the role of being the pragmatist to counter their idealism from time to time. But, not all the time. (Thank the heavens!) Point being, we are all "playing a role" every day in our work lives (and probably personal lives). The world is a stage, baby!

I chose this image because the guy looks eerily similar to my first boss, and I nearly shot Dr. Pepper out of my nose when I saw it

Role Play...

No, not THAT kind of role play. Actually, kind of that kind of role play... If you can accept that you are "playing a part" in your work persona (people talk all the time about how they're different at home vs. at work, or how someone is a tiger on the tennis court but a pussy cat back at the office, etc...), then we can also recognize that how we're "acting" influences how people perceive us. And, how people perceive us influences what they think we can and can't do... And that, in a nutshell, is Typecasting. If Hugh Jackman plays wolverine too much, people only think of him as an action start leading man and forget he's got pipes and loves doing musicals; and he never gets another gig on Broadway. Le Sigh...

Typecasting

The fact is that we are all actively engaged in both typecasting others in our organization AND being typecast by others in our organization. Now, this isn't all bad. Actually, to some extent it is actually really good - if the typecasting is accurate and thus...

• Reflects your actual abilities and tendencies well
• Is aligned with where you want to grow in your career
• Keeps you in a secure and appropriate career path within the firm

When accurate, this allows managers to quickly assemble the right teams of people to solve problems or execute corporate initiatives effectively, etc... This kind of typecasting is essential for teams and companies to work flexibly and efficiently. So, I'm not typecasting "Typecasting" as a villain here. Far from it.

However, if it isn't accurate (or is incomplete - which is the far more common problem), then you're in for a lot of frustration and limitations in your career at said firm. This is where the role-play really bites back. When we are in a role where we have to act in a way that is contrary to our preferred nature, or only lets us show part of our "whole person", then people end up typecasting you incorrectly through no fault of their own. The only real way to escape this is to move to another firm where no one knows you that well and where you don't know anyone else that well; effectively resetting the typecasting back to zero... for however long that lasts.

And I say "for however long that lasts" because the moment you walk in the door you have your new "role" to play at that firm and the typecasting will immediately begin (in both directions). So, no real escape, just a temporary reprieve of the effects.

Why should I care about this silly analogy?

Well, because like with all things, if you're aware it is going on you can do something about it! You can intentionally manage it so that you use it to your advantage (and your company's advantage). So, let's think about how we can apply this to a couple of different situations you might find yourself in. First, we'll talk about how this affects you if you're the one doing the hiring / promoting as "the BOSS"; and then lets turn the tables and think about how it affects you if you're "the UPSTART" trying to get a new role...

You're the BOSS...

If you find yourself in the shoes of the person doing the hiring, thinking about this within the frame of "casting" for the "role" is helpful both in a cautionary way, and as an interview tool... (and don't forget the cookies!)

Hiring vs. Promoting

We've all heard and participated in the eternal debate of hiring from the "outside" vs promoting from "within". Anyone that tells you one is inherently better than the other is an idiot. They're two perfectly reasonable strategies that should be weighed given the specifics of any role, and in many roles you'll want candidates that represent both camps (some internal candidates and some external candidates). I'm completely uninterested in getting into a debate over which of these two is better in which situation, blah blah blah. Don't even bother trying to troll me in the comments on this topic. I am immune. Thinking about how casting plays into this IS interesting though...

Because, when you are talking to an internal candidate, you have ALREADY typecast them and thus have a "suitability" for this role in mind - before they even walk in the door to discuss the role with you. For external candidates, you don't know them from Adam and thus have no such typecasting filter in place. This is what I meant by the "cautionary" use of this analogy. As a hiring manager, be aware that you have typecast any candidates that you know, and be critical of your own typecasting rather than take it for granted that it is correct. In essence...

• When you are interviewing someone you've already typecast, a big part of your interview process should be challenging your typecasting of that person to validate if it is accurate or not. In essence, you only need validate the accuracy and completeness of your typecasting of that person to know if they'll be good for the role or not. If your typecasting is determined to be inaccurate or incomplete, then you should re-evaluate that candidate for the role with as clean of a slate as you can manage - basically treat them like an external hire and pretend you don't know them!
• When you are interviewing someone you don't know and thus haven't typecast (yet), you're essentially trying to learn enough about the person and their capabilities and interests in order to rapidly typecast them as someone well suited for this role (or not)! So, your interview should primarily consist of learning about their capabilities, tendencies, interests, and tolerance for risk, etc... whatever is important (in your mind) for them to be successful in the role.

In other words: If you've worked with that "actor" for years you want your casting process to challenge your assumptions about them as an "actor" to test how well the model of them you have in your head matches reality, where as a new face is someone you'll want to put through the paces needed for the role so you can quickly build up a model of how they'll perform in the role if they get it.

Or, in even more other words: For someone you know, you want to try and tear down what you think you know to make sure your predictions aren't wrong. For someone you don't, you want to build up your knowledge of them so you can predict how they'll do in the first place.

And, to really add the icing to the cake, think about ways you can actively let candidates "Role Play" around the office for the position you're looking to fill. Like LARPing, but, professionally. If you're hiring a new BIM Manager, walk around the office and see if anyone needs help with their BIM and let the candidate, well, help them. You'll learn a ton from 10 minutes of observed interactions in the "real world". Promoting someone new to the C-suite? Invite the candidates to an executive meeting or two and involve them in the discussions and decisions. See how those group dynamics will really be rather than just cross your fingers based on a few interviews.

You're the UPSTART...

When you're the person who's trying to get noticed and get a new role, then you really need to take the concept of "performing" during your casting call very seriously indeed. And of course, whether it's an "inside" job or an "outside" chance will affect how you should be approaching things.

I want to make a distinction because being on the "outside" or the "inside" has nothing to do with it being the same or a different company. You could be interviewing for a role in another office in the same company where no one knows you, and that makes you an "outsider". Or you could be interviewing at a company you've never heard of where the hiring manager is your roommate from college, in which case you're an "inside" candidate all the way. The question is, does the person making the decision know you already or not. So, distinction made...

The Outside Line

If you're coming in "from the outside" to interview for a role with a hiring manager you don't know from Eve, then you've got a very short time to impress this "director" and get the "role"... or more likely get a call back for a second casting as is true in both in the corporate world AND in the acting world.

In this case, you really are putting on a performance. You want them to be able to see you in that role doing what you need to do to be a rock star at it. So, my advice here is as follows:

1. Ask the "director" what they see the role as being. I don't mean technically, I mean ask them what abilities and skills they think are necessary to be successful. It honestly doesn't matter if they're right or wrong. It only matters that you know what they think is important so you can then show them that you can play that role. (If you still want the job after you hear from them that is!)
2. Act the part. I mean really. If you hear: "we really need someone who can be decisive and get us on track with our BIM implementation, get our templates in order, and make rapid progress so we're not bogged down in committee meetings and e-mail chains that never end..." Then you need to spend the rest of the time showing that you can be decisive and know how to make the templates amazing. If you talk about how you're a great collaborator and work well with teams they're going to pick someone else for the role. I chose this example because I spent 3 years searching for a person like this in my former life at Beck. It was hard, and I had a number of candidates completely rule themselves out by telling me about other skills and tendencies that are objectively good things (who doesn't want a team player after all) but didn't do a damn thing to address my concerns for the role.
3. Close the second casting. Presumptive closes are a thing. If you're a new face, they will NEVER hire you without a second interview. It won't happen for any role of any significance EVER. So, finish by scheduling your second interview. Don't let them push it off. Get that second "Casting" on their calendar and walk in prepared now that you know what they have in mind for the role.
4. Do more research on what they are looking for. Use whatever connections you have or made in that interview to get more detail on what they think will make the best "actor" for the role, and then (again, if you still want the job!) BE that person.

The Inside Track

On the other hand, if you're an "insider" and you've already been typecast you need to make a very important discovery. Is the hiring manager's typecast of you in your favor or a liability. One easy way to tell is whether you got invited to apply for the role. If you got invited, they probably see you as a good fit. If you have to apply (or fight to get an interview); then they clearly don't see you as a good fit.

If they did invite you to the party, you might think "I'm in like Flynn". Hold your horses buddy. Your "typecast" is still a liability even if it got you in the game. Why? Because "What got you here won't get you there" If you haven't read it, read it.

Unless this is a lateral move (in which case, you should ask yourself hard why you're doing it); what you're doing day to day on the job is NOT the same thing you'll be doing day to day in the role you're applying for. Nor is the way you should behave day to day the same. So, the worst thing you can do when trying to move up in your organization is to keep doing ONLY what you've been doing; even IF what you've been doing got you invited to the party.

In essence, the challenge you need to set for yourself is the same whether their typecasting of you got you to the party or whether you had to crash the party to get a chance at the role. You need to make them see you in the role you want, rather than in the role you're in. The difference between these two conditions is just how MUCH you need to show them that you can be different, and therefore how hard it will be to do so. What does this mean in practice?

1. Demonstrate the behavior and skills you'll need in your new role at every opportunity. If the new role includes departmental responsibility, put together a proposed budget for what you want to use your future role to get done as an example. If the new role includes managing people for the first time, buy a bunch of management books and put them in an obvious place on your desk (and freaking read them too!). Sign up for an online seminar and talk to your boss (and the hiring manager about it). Sign up or start up an internal mentorship program at your company. Etc... You probably can't "show them the you you need to be" in your actual daily activities because, well, you're not managing anyone or a budget yet. But you can show that you want to and will be committed to it by doing it outside of your daily responsibilities!
2. Identify gaps by talking to other people at the company to find out what they think they know about you. If you think anything is missing from their typecasting of you that is relevant to the role, give them reason to update their assumptions. If you love IT and want to go after a director level IT role in your firm, start sharing that passion with your professional colleagues. (In a way the hiring manager will hear about it!) If it is a departmental role managing budgets start flexing your Excel muscles by making some amazing spreadsheets or graphs for a presentation that isn't about budgeting. You need to make sure they revise their typecast of you to be a complete reflection of who you are and who you want to be. This is the easiest way for them to perceive a mismatch and you not get the job - because they're building their typecast on what they see every day and that might not reflect who you can or want to be.
3. Identify red flags by talking to other people at the company to find out what they're worried about if you're in the role. We've all heard people typecast as "not a team player" or (the effective opposite) "indecisive". You want to know if you're being typecast negatively so you can show that you can be different given a different opportunity, or so you can take the bull by the horns and show how that is a critical quality for the job you want. So, if you are trying to move into a more collaborative role than you currently have but have the whole "not a team player" thing hung around your neck; find ways to show you can be collaborative by getting involved in committees or events where your collaboration skills can shine! Talk to your boss or the hiring manager about your frustrations that your current role isn't suited to collaboration because you're in an isolated position. Or, say you're wanting the role of the person doing QA/QC for the architectural documentation the firm is putting out. Go in an point out that the LAST thing you want is a collaborative, understanding team player that will sacrifice standards needed for liability protections to "help a team hit its deadline". Not all roles are well served by "team players" after all.
4. Do all of that BEFORE you ever have an interview. Start today. Don't wait for the first interview, or the second. By then it is too late. Start now. Heck, start before the role is even posted or available if you're really clever. Create the role you want to inhabit in 6 months, do everything above, and you'll be a shoe in when the opportunity arises.
5. Once you actually get to the interview, you have to remember that in that room you ARE in that role you want. Don't respond to a question from the mindset of the role you're in, respond to it in the mindset of the role you want. Your only job is to give them confidence that the changes they've already seen you demonstrate aren't "just an act" to get the role. If the role requires collaboration, be collaborative in your responses. If the role requires decisiveness, be decisive in your responses. It doesn't matter if you don't get to be decisive in your current role. (Or collaborative.) The worst thing you can do is fall back into day to day habits and answer as the employee you are today. That will break the fourth wall, and not in a "It's Deadpool, it's for comedic effect" kind of way.

CUT!

Fortunately, there are (surprise!) a lot of books, articles, blogs, podcasts, and other bits of interesting advice out there on the "interwebs" on, you guessed it, casting calls and how to prepare for them. Now, obviously, no analogy is perfect so don't take things too litterally. But, there is a reason why they tell you to "dress for the job you want rather than the job you have" - which I clearly never listen to! Because, ultimately, there ARE a lot of similarities between casting in the movie industry and hiring in the corporate world. If the person making the decision imagines you in the role and sees the fit, you've probably got the job. So, read far afield from your usual business book fare and check out some of the "literature" (I use this word lightly in this case) on the casting process and have some fun with it!

And as always, I welcome comments about anything - Except whether promoting from within is better/worse than external hires. I ain't taking that bait. 'Nough said. Now, one last gratuitous topless Hugh Jackman image: