Top advice for making good hires is the most overlooked; indeed, it is usually instituted exactly opposite to optimal. Check out Jack Welch’s advice and compare to your own observations.
In my quest to bring you the best management advice, I’ve been reporting on great books. I’ve been chewing on Jack Welch’s Winning. What first attracted me was the squib on the cover, quoting Warren Buffet, the best investor in the world, saying “No other management book will ever be needed.” Wow. Jack Welch was CEO to GE during its pinnacle of success.
I was blown away by his tips on hiring. His tips are for finding and nurturing winners. The margins of my book is now marked with exclamation points. I agree with all of his observations, but where I have been an employee, never ever have I seen any of this put into place, but rather the reverse. Where I have worked (government, non-profit) these principles are instituted in the opposite. No wonder those institutions are not doing well! I think I have clients, too, who fall prey to some of this. But you, dear readers now have a special “in.”
Here is what Welch says, summarized. At the end of the post, I will put a link for the book. I do recommend you get it, read it, mark, and inwardly digest it. Then call me to talk about it. I do have a recorded training session on how to hire, complete with clock hours for educators in Texas. . That is a beginning. Welch’s advice is more theoretical and so will take you even farther. If you have employee problems, call me and let me help you institute these principles.
Nothing matter more than getting the right people on the field. (I would say, also put the right people in the right position on the team. If you have a whole team like this, you win. )
First: Look for integrity, intelligence, and maturity. (Most people look for people they think will be easy to control or someone they like – in that moment.)
Then EEEEP:
Energy: Then look for positive energy – meaning thrive on action and relish change. (This is tough, because HR people tend to despise change and so do poorly run organizations.)
Energize: Ability to energize others. (Which a smart person will put down so you will like them.)
Edge: courage to make tough yes-or-no decisions. Decisiveness. (Poor managers want to send people like this away, because they are scared that their opinions will clash.)
Execute: Ability to get the job done. Results. (But look at integrity first. Then don’t be scared to hire someone brighter than you.)
Passion : authentic excitement about work. – accuatlly they tend to be passionate about everything they do. (I have been so very much and oten taught to stuff this, to be less intense, so as not to scare people. So don’t be frigthened by a competent person and find a way to allow a passionate person to admit it to you.)
Hiring for the top
Find people who are authentic. Authenticity makes people likeable. (Amazing – and I see the exact reverse! Even in some of the most famous, if broke, corporations in this town. Oh, I bet there is a connection. Back to integrity.)
Ability to see around the corners. (Again, while this may be highly valued in a competent large corp, this stuff scares people in smaller, less competent organizations. Get over it, so you can be bigger and more compentent of an organizations.)
Strong penchant to surround themselves with people better and smarter than they are. Ah yes, grasshopper, be these things, as well as hire the people who have these things.
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