Council Post: Identify Your Beast: How To Discover A Good Fit For Your Business
Would you ever call someone over to your home without first establishing a minimum level of trust?
Like a lot of people, I exercise caution. Hiring people for my business is no different. I treat candidates well, but I am cautious when I take them on as my employees.
Before you let a person in, you must have some idea of their temperament. I always feel the need to trust the individual I hire. I know it’s going to be a gamble, as it’s difficult to predict how your latest hire may turn out. However, I try to make an informed decision.
Over time, I feel I have become better at hiring, especially since I applied Warren Buffett’s rules to decide whether a person is a good fit for my business. To get right to it, Buffett suggests three main areas you should always assess when hiring anyone — integrity, intelligence and energy.
Buffett says — and I believe — you can’t have an individual register high in two of these areas and low in one. So I look for the best results in all three areas. Let’s take a look at what could happen if a candidate lacks in any one of these areas:
* High Energy + High Intelligence — Integrity = Smart and fast with work but could cheat you.
* High Intelligence + Integrity — Energy = Low initiative and low value.
* High Energy + Integrity — Intelligence = Hardworking but unable to solve problems or form visions.
For each component, you need to ask at least one question that allows the applicant to respond.
Integrity
Here’s the recommended approach, and I rarely wander too far from this. That’s because it works for me pretty well.
Ask a question that elicits a response based on moral reasoning. It can give you a good understanding of how the candidate’s mental cogs work. You can cite any situation particularly pertaining to moral reasoning related to your work or your workspace.
Here’s an example:
You ask your candidate how they would react/respond if a fellow employee vandalized company property in their presence. You can ask further questions to help them answer the initial question:
* Would you report such an individual without saying anything to them directly?
* Would you caution/warn them?
* Would you discourage them and not pursue the matter?
* Would you ignore the matter as “none of your business”?
Energy
The answers to this can be intriguing. I find this process most helpful as it reveals credibility.
Try to initiate a discussion about a topic that you would expect a candidate to be passionate about. Make sure this is something within the parameters of the position they have applied for. They should be able to talk about a particular area of their field with ease.
Intelligence
Their ability to dig deeper into the discussion can reflect the willingness to indulge in a practical exercise then and there. That’s what you need in an energetic person. However, don’t delve into things too far, as theoretical responses should tell you enough.
Ask candidates about a time they failed. Probing for the cause of that failure and what they think could have been done differently (based on that experience) to ensure a different result can get the candidate thinking.
The Making Of A Beast
I dig a little deeper sometimes with some mildly penetrating questions. The idea is to see how far the candidate has come after that failure and whether they’ve applied (or can apply) any reasoning in view of that failure. Offering some level of reasoning can point to their intelligence level, and that’s the thing I look forward to.
We are delighted to have an employee who becomes a part of our success, but there is plenty of work before you reach that point. It starts with what I call “feeding the beast.”
Within this process, when you start working on a person with the right ingredients, there is always an element of risk. If it doesn’t work and they let you down in some way, that’s something you have to take on your chest. However, if it does work, it’s an incredible high for you and the person you invest in.
A Suitable Environment To Train And Nurture Your Beast
I am brave about proceeding through a rigorous process that will shape my beast.
Steve Jobs once related a story from his childhood that left quite an impression on him. He talked about an old man in his neighborhood who all the children feared, but Jobs would frequently talk to him. The man once called young Jobs over and showed him this old machine that he filled with a few ordinary stones, some water and some grit powder. The man then proceeded to switch the machine on, and it rattled loudly. He then told Jobs to come back the next day.
The following day, the old man pulled out the stones from the grinder, and to Jobs’ amazement, those crude-looking stones were now beautifully polished ornaments. That was because of the constant process of rigorous grinding against each other over a period.
Analogically, Jobs believed this happens to people in a rigorous work environment. They go through day-to-day scenarios wherein they face challenges, disagree, debate and argue over the details and concepts at work. In the end, the best ideas should win anyway, but the personality formation process at work is crucial.
Personality formation is what I am emphasizing here — employees’ development as people and skilled leaders. That’s why I throw my people challenges that they can think about, brainstorm and have idea clashes over with the ability to come to the best conclusion.
Formidable personalities are often formed through a grinding process, wherein they learn how to tackle every challenging situation to emerge more adept and, hopefully, a real beast in their field.
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Originally published at https://www.forbes.com.
