Nice resume, but can you juggle?
Hiring and engaging a great team is key to success for any organization. And hiring great people is simply difficult. It’s hard to get great people to show up for an interview, it’s hard to decide position requirements (both functional and relational competencies – see previous post), it’s hard to assess candidates, it’s hard to convince great people to join new teams, and on and on. Of course, the engaging part is tough too but more on that later.
Of the many hiring challenges, one that strikes me as easy to improve is answering the question, “can a candidate juggle?”
You are probably thinking that this post is about if someone can handle lots of things at once, and while that is often important, that’s not the big idea. Juggling is, according to wikipedia, “a physical human skill involving the movement of one or more objects, usually through the air, for entertainment.”
So what does juggling have to do with hiring? Well, if you’re running a circus and looking for a juggler, it’s everything. And more often than not, when interviewing too much time is spent talking versus seeing if someone can actually juggle.
Mike Wolfe, a co-founder at Vontu, suggested I read a book when we first started the company called Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams
Look left and right
How many times have you been interviewed or performed an interview during which one of the following occurs:
a) A chronological review of a resume
b) A “get to know one another” conversation with little content about the job
c) A rant about how bad a company is – including by the one doing the recruiting!
d) or Worse?
An interview should be about competencies. Competency interviews should focus both on the “left and right brain” of a candidate – as well as the candidates fit with your company’s culture.
Left brain interviews focus on technical competence. Can someone program? Can they prepare a balance sheet? Can they get customer meetings? Can someone juggle?
It is as important to interview for right brain skills. Right brain skills are about how well someone can think. Can they come up with new go to market strategies? Can they intuit an answer based on experience? Can they lead a group to get a job done?
The Audition
Left brain skills are a little more straightforward for which to develop a set of auditions. If you want to test someone’s programming abilities, give them a whiteboard and have them write some code. If you want to see if they can juggle, hand them three balls and let them juggle.
While right brain skills might be less quantitative, you can certainly test someone’s abilities here too. For example, to test for competitiveness, have someone answer, “What is a company you admire that is a leader in their market and what are all the things that make them successful.”
Usually candidates go on and on about what makes a company such as Apple successful with the iPod or Nike with basketball shoes. Each time the candidate finishes, ask again what else makes that company great. Ask this until they have nothing to add. And after they have thought up everything that makes them great, ask “Who is that company’s biggest competitor?”
And once they name a competitor ask “If you were CEO of the named competitor, what would you do to win and beat the market leader in the next three years?” That will test their competitive competency and how well they can think creatively.
Another example is in the importance of communications skills. If you believe in the importance of a person’s ability to communicate (and you should since in everyone’s job there is some level of interaction with others be it customers, other developers, future candidates, internal teams, etc), have them audition and present. At Vontu, one of the last steps in the hiring process was for the candidate to present to a group of their future co-workers. This was something suggested in Peopleware. Not only did we end up with a great group of communicators, but it was surprising how many candidates did not present well.
Coffee for Closers
Lastly, the key to a successful interview is that every candidate should leave each and every meeting wanting the job. Great people need to be sold and interviews can not be one way tests of a candidate. The company is a candidate itself – a candidate company for the person looking for a job. Make sure each interview gives time for the candidate to ask questions. Invest in making sure the candidate knows a lot about the company and why it’s a great company and a great place to work. Don’t forget that once you have decided that someone has the right competencies, you need them to accept your offer. Great people always have multiple options and ultimately once you give them an offer, they get the final decision to join or not.
While there is a lot more to think about in recruiting, getting these three things completed in any interview, will certainly help to get the best candidates and help to get them to join your team. As I’ve said before, It’s about the people, stupid. Let me know what you think.
i enjoyed reading this, joseph! some of the recent companies that i have worked from would probably benefit from some of your recruiting/interview tips!
what a refreshing and excellent view of the complex art of attracting and landing great talent. each and every candidate touchpoint – from initial screeening to interview to placement should be in representation of the brand. great candidates are always in demand and want to work alongside other A players. continuity of positive experience goes a long way to establishing the kind of trust that lands great candidates. as an executive recruiter working in the space, I can attest to that being the case at Vontu. thanks for the post.