The Metiss Group's Blog

Selecting leaders may be the most difficult and crucial decision a hiring manager makes.  The new hire is going to impact the development, careers, and success of many others within the organization.  According to Jim Collins in “Good To Great” a Level 5 leader is proficient in:

1.  Individual accomplishments
2.  Team interactions
3.  Managing others
4.  Leading others
5.  Humility and will

Most hiring managers are pretty good determining whether the leader is capable of demonstrating Levels 1 through 4 (and maybe even will), but pay little attention to screening for humility.  Ask the leader candidate the following questions to get a feel for how they have demonstrated humility:

• Give me an example of a time you and your team accomplished something significant; how did others in the organization recognize the team’s contributions? Listen for whether the leader promotes their team first and minimizes their own recognition.
• Give me an example of a time you and your team failed to accomplish a goal; what happened?  Who fell flat?  Listen for whether the leader took personal accountability for the failure or shed the blame on others.

Empower hiring managers to screen leaders for humility and the whole organization will be more successful.

If you are about to hire a candidate that seems perfect – the hard skills are ideal, they are smart, great soft skills, flawless cultural fit –  be prepared, you will likely be disappointed.  The fact of the matter is there is no unblemished new hire, we all have faults.  The key is finding those faults before the hire and determining whether or not you can live with them.

When screening candidates, look for weaknesses; we guarantee you there are some.  Determine if the drawbacks can be developed or overcome.  Be honest with yourself, your tendency will be to dismiss the shortcomings or assume you’ll be able to change them.

Since no there is no perfect hire, don’t kill yourself looking for the ideal candidate.  As part of your selection process, identify those key characteristics that are deal-breakers and those that are nice-to-have (hint: rarely are deal-breakers hard-skills; one of ours is personal accountability).  As you are evaluating candidates, those who fail the deal-breaker test are easily passed on.  If the candidate passes all the deal-breaker tests but fails one or two of the nice-to-have tests, you still may have a great candidate.  The key is you can prepare for those weaknesses and won’t be surprised after you make the hire.

Empower your selection team to look for limitations in new hire candidates, and you’ll make more successful hires.

The best way to source candidates for your open positions is by tapping into your network.  Sending emails to your connections and leveraging your LinkedIn network will turn-up the prime candidates.

When sending these emails or postings it’s best to focus more on the “soft skills” you are looking for and less on the “hard skills.”  Remember most leaders hire for hard skills but fire for soft skills.  By describing the personal characteristics you need, your contacts will better recall someone they know who is the ideal fit.

Consider these two approaches and which one is more likely to conjure up a person you’d recommend:

Wanted: A receptionist capable of typing 100 words per minute; able to answer multiple incoming phone lines; greets and directs visitors; 10+ years experience with a fortune 500 company.

Seeking: A receptionist who loves word processing; who’s smile you can sense over the phone; immediately makes visitors feel comfortable when they visit us; thrives in a fast paced multi-tasking environment.

 Empower yourself to describe the soft sills your need when looking to fill a position, and you’ll have a more successful hire.

One of the first steps in any effective selection process is the candidate phone screen.  To get the most out of this crucial activity, keep the following tips in mind:

• Schedule phone screen – don’t just call out of the blue; setting a time to talk to the candidate helps them prepare and allows them to give you their full attention; schedule 20 to 30 minutes.
• Set expectations – let the candidate know early in the conversation this is just the first step and you are just gathering information and plan on talking to other candidates; this gives you the opportunity to end the call quickly if you realize it is not a good match and prepares the candidate for your selection process.
• Review salary requirements – get the money piece on the table early; if the candidate’s salary requirements fall outside the hiring range, move on, no sense wasting your time.
• Confirm resume accuracy – cover the highlights of the resume that attracted you to the candidate; confirm the accuracy and probe for consistencies.
• Ask the same questions for all candidates – consistently asking the same questions helps you to compare candidates.
• Ask two to three job-related behavior based questions – most of the job related questioning comes in the first interview, but asking some basic “deal breaker” questions upfront can save you from wasting your time with a first interview; drive for specifics and make sure you are comfortable moving forward.

Phone screening doesn’t need to be time consuming and complicated and should be a productive step in your selection process; empower yourself to prepare before the screening, and you have a more successful candidate interviews.