Five ways to reframe the hiring process to focus more on heart.
Let’s compare two teams.
The first is the 1980 men’s U.S. Olympic hockey team. I dare you to name a member. There’s not a Gretzky or a Lemieux among them. Yet these Cold War underdogs live on as the “Miracle on Ice,” beating the four-time defending gold medalist Soviets for the gold.
Next is the 2004 men’s U.S. Olympic basketball team, a squad packed with household names. Allen Iverson. Carmelo Anthony. LeBron James. But a “Dream Team” it was not, earning an embarrassing bronze medal for the country that invented the sport.
One team prioritized heart, the other prioritized talent.
The lesson here for the business world is obvious–emphasize character, shared values, emotional intelligence, and selflessness in the recruiting and teambuilding process.
But almost none of us do it.
We see talent as an immediate fix and overlook a person’s potential flaws. As soon as your version of Allen Iverson or Stephon Marbury submits an application, you make an offer, regardless of the consequences.
The fix, then, is to reframe the hiring process to focus more on heart and less on talent. Here’s how.
1. Stay true to your values
Values are the bedrock for long-term success.
Consider whether a candidate’s values align with those of your organization. Do they share your commitment to collaboration, innovation, or customer service? Values alignment is a critical component of culture fit, and it can help ensure that new hires will be able to thrive within your organization’s culture.
2. Take the long view
Focus less on where a person is right now and more on where their trajectory is taking them. What is this person’s capacity for growth? Where will they be in five years?
Be open to diamonds in the rough. They are still diamonds, after all. They just need a little polishing.
The labor market is full of talented young people and people in the middle of a career change. Don’t automatically dismiss them. Often these people have the unteachable soft skills needed to be successful, and they can acquire the necessary hard skills over time, especially if they have a track record of learning.
3. Dig deep during the interview
All too often during the interview process, we ask superficial questions that require nothing more than for the candidate to recite their résumé.
Not only does this make for a boring conversation, but it’s also not helpful.
The key is to catch the candidate off guard a bit with thoughtful questions. Not in a “gotcha” kind of way, but in a way that requires them to think on their toes and give candid answers, answers that show you who they are on a more personal level.
Here are some possibilities:
- Tell me about a time when you helped someone and it didn’t benefit you.
- What book are you reading right now to be a better teammate?
- How are you giving back to your community?
- Tell me about your best friend.
4. Use personality profiles
Personality profiles are assessments that measure different aspects of a candidate’s personality, such as their communication style, work style, and decision-making abilities. By using these assessments, you can gain a deeper understanding of a candidate’s strengths and weaknesses, and whether they are a good fit for your company culture.
As candidates proceed into the final rounds of hiring, vet them further by asking them to take a personality profile assessment. There are plenty of great tools on the market right now that use research-based questions to dig into a person’s work style.
5. Trust your gut
In my company, each hiring decision ends with the leadership team collectively asking itself these two questions:
- Would you want to have a beer with this person?
- Would you want to be in a foxhole with this person?
As in any relationship, compatibility matters. After all, you will spend almost as many, if not more, of your waking hours with your coworkers as you will your spouse.
Compatibility is hard to quantify. Judging compatibility is as much an art as it is a science, but if you ask yourself the right questions and trust your gut, you’re off to a great start.
Go build a “miracle”
By no means are talent and heart mutually exclusive. There are people out there who are incredibly talented and put their heart on the line for their teammates. But those total package employees can be difficult to find, especially in today’s tight labor market.
You can change someone’s skillset, but you can’t change someone’s heart.
You have to decide what your recruiting strategy is going to be. Are you going to attempt to buy talent or are you going to build a team? Each comes with risk and neither strategy is foolproof.
Building a team is the result of hard work and thoughtful hiring. It’s not magic and it’s certainly no miracle, but it might just work wonders in your business.