Last week I promised I’d talk about today, hiring on attitude, training on skills. Last year, I went through an interview process that was pretty extensive. I started with 110 resumes that I received, not only was I requesting a resume, I was also requesting each person to answer two questions on my ad. Only 50 of the 110 answered those two questions, so immediately 60 of those applications went bye-bye which took the list down to 50.
From there, we sent an invitation to one of two virtual group interviews. Of that 50, 34 replied. That 34, we sent immediately the invite along with the organization’s vision, mission, and culture of which they were the read and share feedback on the virtual call. Of the 34 that registered, 22 showed up to the virtual calls. As they shared feedback on my vision, mission, and culture, what’s most important to us and our clients, I was able to gauge whether or not they aligned with my vision.
From there, we scaled that list down more of which the remaining were to take an assessment. Some of those folks didn’t take the assessment of which whittled the list down more. After reviewing with my coaches, we narrowed the list down to the core few, of which we then sent a document with 17 questions of which they were to answer. Those 17 questions came from a list of 28, in addition, we also had 15 areas where they were to rate themselves on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 they’re a rockstar, 1, they’re not. Those were sent to me of where my coach and I reviewed. Those questions gave them a chance to really dig deep and answer, questions like, “When were you in a tough situation that you had to shine in your organization? When have you ever gone above and beyond the call of duty? Where did you show and exhibit great listening and communication skills?” Questions that you want to see how they react and respond to, to where you expect them to shine in your organization.
Eventually, we chose two parties to hire. One of these gentlemen, I talked about hiring an attitude, on his resume, he had Comeback Player of the Year, my thought was, he must have had an injury, which shows me that if an athlete ever has an injury, not only physically do they need to make a comeback with the rehabilitation, mentally, it’s also tough because you want to be in the game and not on the sidelines. Well, his name is John, and we had a great discussion about just that. I’m happy to share that John has been with me for over a year. And what that showed me was the attitude, the discipline, the grit to do what it takes to come back and persevere through adversity.
That’s what we look for. Find the person that has the right attitude, that has the heart and soul, that’s hungry and wants to follow your lead and be the best, that aligns with the culture and vision of your organization. You can train them, but if you find somebody with this bright, shiny resume, it looks all good and they’re all proud, however, they’re a little bit overconfident and they don’t have the right hunger, ditch them.
Hire on attitude, train on skills. Remember, Tom Brady was dead last in the NFL combine. He looked terrible; he was rated very low scores. However, he was eventually drafted. It was his attitude that showed up when he played his first game. He did the work. He was hungry. Look at him now. He’s the G.O.A.T.!
As you’re out there in the business world, filling your seats, finding the right people, remember, the most important thing is finding the right people for those seats. Don’t let your guard down. Stay true to what’s important. Use these tips and if you’d like me to send you this list of those 28 questions to choose from along with the areas to rate themselves, feel free, reach out to me. I’ll send them to you. It’s a very handy tool in getting them to do the work so you can see who they are to make the right decision.
COACH MICHAEL DILL is an Award-Winning Certified Business Coach, global speaker, and published author. He is a proud Action Coach Franchise partner as well as the President of Power & Ice Wealth Creation a strategic leadership company that works with business owners, leaders, teams, and entrepreneurs to both develop a systematized and structured organization while accelerating their mindset, efficiencies, and effectiveness to grow both personally and professionally to achieve extraordinary results. He brings more than 40 years of business and entrepreneurial experience in his leadership, team training, and mentoring practice. Businesscoachmichaeldill.com