How many hours do we waste, how much annoyance do we cause, how much silly time–wasting perfectionism– do we tolerate looking for the perfect candidate to fill a vacancy? And it doesn’t matter if it’s for a CEO position, a department manager or a front line worker. We have a revelation for you – the perfect candidate is an anomaly.
Good candidates exist; even excellent candidates exist – perfect candidates – let alone a pool of them, no. Yet this is where many overspend their time in hiring. And what’s even more interesting (and frustrating) is if you have a committee doing the selection, whereas each person has a different take on what perfect is.
Some may argue that a committee with different views of perfection leads to a better choice. Perhaps. Yes, if the committee has taken the time to align around core functions and the competencies and attributes that will best match prior to interviewing; however, this is unlikely in our experience. So an unaligned, or misaligned, interview committee often leads to infighting, positioning, and a resolution not to work with the new person hired because they don’t feel the candidate met their definition of perfect. Each member of the selection committee default to vetting the candidate through their lens of what’s most important: financing believing the person needs strong financial acumen, operations – operational experience, information technology – strong IT skills, and so on.
And the worst scenario of all is a committee that can only reach a consensus decision. And for these organizations it’s a good thing that finding and hiring a candidate is not a matter of urgency for the organization.
So when you are looking to hire, first assess, define and agree on what you really need for the role. What are the musts and what are the-nice-to-haves. Define this in writing then challenge each must with why it’s a must. Also, understand what business personality you need for the job. Business personality may be categorized as a “soft skill”, but it is essential that the candidate’s business personality match the work that needs to be done and the culture of the organization. For example, if you need someone to improve performance and re-energize growth, a candidate with high interpersonal sensitivity, high empathy, who is laid back is not the candidate you need for the job regardless of what the resume may say. Remember, resumes are often an exercise in creative writing, and interviews are really a matter of skill and confidence. So the real challenge is to use selection methods that will evoke authenticity in the candidate and surface demonstration of their skills and attributes as it relates to the position you are hiring for.
In this week’s Quick Tips we will outline the process of identifying what is needed in a position and how you can go about getting the information you need to make an informed decision.
Copyright 2011 Kubica LaForest Consulting
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