The ONE Thing You Must Do to be Successful in Business

No Matter What Business You’re in, You’re in the People Business.

 Consider this depending on where you are in your career. Have you been promoted and hold a management position?

Have you started your business as an entrepreneur?

Are you scaling/growing your business?

The ONE THING to best fuel your growth is going to be determined on how well you do surrounding yourself with the right supporting cast. You will never be any better than the employees or direct reports you have reporting to you. Right People in the Right Seat

In my experience as an executive, this one critical component either makes an executive successful or not. It will make a company thrive or struggle.  

In my consulting practice, I find it over and over again. The single most critical element for success goes ignored. That and it seems management has little or no regard for how to get it right.

Hiring decisions are being made daily with a flawed approach that creates poor performance,  extra work, and higher than acceptable frustration due to making poor hiring decisions.

The real root cause for almost every "people issue" company's experience is that managers, executives, and even owners are untrained when it comes to the how's of people selection—no matter whether it is for a new hire or an internal promotion.

What is happening is that hiring decisions are being made by going by gut instincts—decided by how they feel or rushing—pressured hiring decisions  which make for really bad decisions

Why are these decision-makers so busy and rushed? Many times because their teams are not performing Or, they are short-handed and having to take up the slack themselves.

In my opinion, nothing will impact the health and success of a team or entire organization more than the decisions made on who to hire or promote.

Let me be very transparent here. You see I too screwed up selecting the right people to surround myself with for years. My lack of knowledge of the proper process for making hiring and promotion decisions held me back. This created long hours and frustration for me. As I realized the pain and extra work I was causing myself, I set upon finding a process that would be far more effective.

The Two Most Important Steps

Step One: Create or Update Written Job Descriptions

Don’t start recruiting unless you have the job description for the new hire.

Many job descriptions are entirely duty and responsibility driven. With a long list of responsibilities. That's fine, but only part of what the job description should list.

What's missing? The human element. What are the behaviors and competencies for the position? What human elements are crucial to aligning well with your culture?

This tool may seem pretty straightforward, but I am constantly surprised by how many companies get this wrong. Develop job descriptions, with defined duties, responsibilities, authorities, personality traits, objectives, and skills. Adding the additional language is essential for determining expectations, both on the part of the employee candidate and you, as the manager. The job description should show what you really want the new employee to do but also how to fit in and behave.

Why is this so important? You have to hire people who will have GWC. Get it, Want it, and the Competency to achieve it. Let's look at this in a slightly different way.

According to the Gallup Q12, the most critical elements to job satisfaction and employee engagement is, "I know what is expected of me at work." When the supervising manager and the employee begin the working relationship knowing exactly what great looks like...greatness follows.

When preparing a job description, write out the ongoing objectives of the position, rather than just a set of skills. It should be clear to the candidate that you want someone who can accomplish certain objectives.

Step 2: Identify the Desired Behaviors and Personality Styles

This may be the best advice you will ever get when it comes to this topic.

I'm going to ask you to think about your best employees, both current and past. What character traits made them successful as an employee? Think about the adjectives or descriptors that come to mind.

Let me help you with a shortlist of what I've found are critical traits, but it's not a complete list.

·      Work ethic

·      Communication skills

·      Confidence

·      Teamwork

·      Goal orientated

·      Personable and Engaging

·      Strong self-image or confident

·      Persistent in the face of apparent adversity

·      Self Starter

·      Thick-skinned and rejection tolerant

·      Self-accountable for own failures or mistakes

·      Organized and manages time effectively

·      Willingness to learn and grow

·      Challenge themselves or self-improvers

·      Coachable or committed to continuous improvement

·      Level headed and not overly optimistic

These are traits that you cannot teach or train people. They are competencies that they either have or don't have. If you want them, you must hire people who possess them.

 For Example: Don't ever fool yourself to believe you can train someone to have a strong work ethic. They are either a hard worker, or they are not.

Now you need a second list.

Once again. Close those eyes again and think about your worst employees. The ones that have failed, caused problems, or continually disappointed you. Write down a list of what made them such a struggle.

·      Gossip

·      Disorganized

·      Lazy

·      Lack of focus

·      Lack of empathy

·      Lack of teamwork

·      Not motivated to achieve

·      Lack of integrity/honesty

·      Lacks personal accountability

From this exercise, you have a standard for which you will or will not hire or promote. This is critical to your future success! Determine your standard and abide by it with every hiring decision.

The next step in this process is to determine the traits that are critical must-haves. These may vary from manager to manager or for different job descriptions. So think about the standards explicitly required for each role. A manager position may have a different set of character traits than someone in accounting, for example. Let's nail down the standards even more.

Under the positive character traits, choose the ones that are MUST Haves.

Then anything left over from your list will be Nice to Haves

 Then you have your NO GOs.

Word of Wisdom regarding your "NO GOs."

During the interview, if you detect even a little of any of these "NO GO" ...STOP! Do not go forward with further considering them. EVER!!!

Learn from my mistakes. My optimism often talked me into hiring specific individuals that I believed I could live with, or that they could overcome some of these negative tenancies.

Never worked and never will. Don't do it. Don't ever believe you can change what their maker baked into them. You might as well tell them to change the color of their eyes. It can't happen, and you can't make them.

These must become your standards for hiring. Stick to and abide by these, and you will, in short order, experience a massive improvement in your culture, work-life balance, productivity, and turnover. Oh, and the people you hire.

Of special notice, I did not list experience in this part. In my opinion, experience is a nice to have.

I'd much rather take the right personality fit and train them for my company's needs. Yes, experience can be great, but it should not be the most critical factor in hiring your next person. Sure, some positions will require a certain amount of experience. The point I want you to take away is, make experience secondary in the selection process.  Choose the right human first and then use experience as a secondary deciding factor.

When you hire an employee, don't underestimate the importance of hiring someone with whom you enjoy working.

Some reading this will question, how do I determine these positive or negative traits? The answer is in your interview technique and personality assessments.

Use the Behavior-Based Interview guide to uncover your future superstars. Use this link to download a Free Interview Guide. Based on your "Must Haves" and "No GOs," you will need to edit the questions. If you need inspiration, contact us.

IMPORTANT: Your Employee should complement your leadership style, but not be a mirror image of yourself. Know your own strengths and weaknesses, and hire those who fill the voids you have, without duplicating your own strengths.

Conclusion

You are now ready to meet the selected candidates from those who responded to your recruiting efforts. Regardless of the position involved, look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. You should not recruit any person whom you would find offensive, regardless of the person's experience and skills. Remember, your employees reflect on your reputation. The applicant must fit your organization's culture.

IMPORTANT: Your Employee should complement your leadership style, but not be a mirror image of yourself. Know your own strengths and weaknesses, and hire those who fill the voids you have, without duplicating your own strengths.

Conclusion

You are now ready to meet the selected candidates from those who responded to your recruiting efforts. Regardless of the position involved, look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. You should not recruit any person whom you would find offensive, regardless of the person’s experience and skills. Remember, your employees reflect on your reputation. It is essential that the applicant fits your organization's culture.

Results Driven Leadership Website

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