Hiring

Getting the right people for your team

Hiring people to join your team is more than just getting someone who has the right skills. Most people are hired for the things on their resumés… but they are let go for the things that are NOT on their resumés.

As leaders, if you want to hire someone who will be a good fit for your team, the resume skills list is just the first step.

However, people know they need to be on their “best behavior” on a job interview, so the person you meet for a 20-minute discussion in your office might not be the “real” person. For example, people know that if they are asked, “What is your biggest flaw?” that the “right” answer is “I’m too much of a perfectionist” or “I’m a bit of a workaholic.”

One prompt I recommend that tends to reveal the real person is: “Please tell me about a successful project you had. What made it a success?” This is a GREAT way to get them talking, because they feel that it is a question designed to make them look good. It feels like a “softball” question. But the key is to listen to the SECOND part—what do they credit? For example, if they talk positively about the contributions of other team members and/or the excellent mentoring and training they received, you get more of a sense that they work and play well with others.

However, if they brag about how they succeeded on their own despite people trying to undermine them, consider that a red flag. It may be an accurate description of the real situation, but it reveals they were part of a negative interpersonal dynamic. Now, it’s possible that they are a good person who found themselves on a dysfunctional team (and that may be the reason they are looking jump ship at their current firm and join yours), but it’s worth following up to see how much of a contributing factor they may be to this negative interaction.

(Photo by Eric Prouzet on Unsplash)