Follow Kirk on TwitterHow to Avoid the Pain of Hiring or Promoting the Wrong Person
January 20th, 2011 by Kirk Dando
As your company grows, the need for new/better talent becomes apparent. You are fully aware of the pain and destruction that can be caused by hiring/promoting the wrong person. However, due to your unknowingly flawed hiring and promoting practices, you now have friends, family members, partners, “pedigreed” executives hired from other companies or long-term loyal employees (who are not qualified for the job) in key positions. This is what I call HIRING AND PROMOTING FOR EXTINCTION.
No one ever disagrees; it takes the right person to get the job done. Letting the tyranny of the urgent force you into hiring/promoting the wrong person blindly marches the company towards mediocrity and dumbs down the culture … or worse. There is no other area in business where such poor results are so consistently tolerated than the area of promoting and hiring the right people. As leaders we often forget; we get what we set ourselves up for!
As the saying goes, we hire for expertise and we fire for behavior. In short, if you want to improve your organizations growth and profitability, then improve the expertise and behaviors by doing a better job of promoting and hiring.
3 Steps to get you started: (The temptation to water this down is great, do not do it!)
1. GO BEYOND THE TRADITIONAL JOB DESCRIPTION: Huddle with several key stakeholders to not only discuss the job description, but talk about:
a. What are the MUSTS vs. WANTS?
b. What are the non-negotiable personal characteristics and behaviors?
c. If this person is wildly successful, one year from now what specific measureable and non-measurable differences will you see?
d. What would the person accomplish the first 90 days?
e. How do you expect this person to approach getting the results? (e.g. work with the team they have, command and control, collaborative, etc.)
2. MARKETING AND SOURCING THE CANDITATE: Source candidates directly within the industry or related industries; utilize your network of contacts; and appropriate advertising. Be patient but very persistent … it is worth it!
3. TRY DATING BEFORE MARRYING: Once you have narrowed the selection of candidates to two or three, ask them to prepare a plan of what they would do the first 90 days. They will present this plan to key stakeholders, usually the management team.
a. Tell them they have two or three weeks to prepare their presentation. It is best to be vague; this way you find out if you have someone that is resourceful, creative and can think on their feet. This will speak volumes of how they will perform if you decide to hire them. If they are any good and they have questions … they will ask!
b. Give them the numbers/emails of key people so they can contact them to ask questions.
I’ve seen profound results in companies that used this method. For example, a high-tech company I worked with, whose leaders admittedly had a history of hiring/promoting the wrong people into key positions, used this process in their search for VP of Operations. Although it took the candidates a significant amount of time to prepare their “90 Day” presentation, they said the process gave them great insight into the company and the people they would be working with. They even said they wished they had been required to do it with past employers.
A year later, the company reported that the VP of Operations had far exceeded original expectations. Overall profitability was up 1 full percent and the key productivity metric (gross profit/person) increased $9.73/person.
Most importantly, the CEO and leadership team said that the peace of mind they gained by making the right hire was more valuable than the numbers. They felt relieved and hopeful for the future.
If you have the courage to follow these steps, you will not only avoid the trap of HIRING AND PROMOTING FOR EXTINCTION, you will set your company up to stop growing though trial and error and to start scaling — by predicting problems before they show up in the results.
KEY QUESTIONS: Have you ever seen a wrong person in a key position? In your estimation, what did it cost the organization?
Great post and very well said. I’ve seen too many companies decide on brochure-ware. Having the candidate write a personalized 90 day plan is ideal. Having them ask questions means you can see how well they work with your team.
I hope lots of executive read this. It is that important.
Jeff Ogden
Thanks Jeff for taking the time to put down your thoughts! It has been very enlightening to see the value of having candidates go through the 90 day plan. You find out not only ‘what’ they know but ‘how’ they think and if they will be a good cultural fit.
These are all very good points with the exception of providing a business plan. I personally will never consider taking the time and effort to write out would could well be the future road map of success for someone else – and then not get paid for it. On the same note, I would be hesitant to consider a high level executive who freely gives up valuable information on a gamble (of whether the will be hired).
The onus should be on the hiring manager to have an idea of they are looking for. If anything, I would ask that question (90 B/P) during the interview and if the candidate has the ability to provide at the very least, the fundamental principles of what is necessary the first 90 days, then they have demonstrated a “been there, done that” knowledge which I suspect, any hiring manager would be highly interested in.
Good thoughts…thanks for taking the time to reply. This is a very common response from my clients and one I had until I got the chance to see this process in action multiple times. We all have past experiences that cause us to do or not to do something.
I can only say I have seen this 90 day B/P done with various short cuts and have yet to see it produce the profound positive (ROI) results that come from following the steps, in detail, I outlined above in the blog. I have weighhed the alternatives ( saving time but making a bad hire, loosing a good candidate because they do not want to take the time and effort, etc.) and still come to the same conclusion that for key executives this approach in invaluable and becomes a cool part of the culture. Nothing is absolute but this has proven to be profound by getting the candidate a real chance to ‘look under the covers’ and gives the team a chance to help use their passion and experience to select our most valuable asset (our people).
Also, I have found that the strategy the candidates layout for 90 days is rarely all that unique or game changing…instead you get to see if someone is going to be a good cultural fit and will be aligned with the company’s passions. Obviously, they already have the smarts and expertise or they would not have even made it to the 90 day B/P part of the interview. It seems we always hire for expertise and fire for behavior. The 90 day B/P helps with both. Thanks again for your comment…very valid thoughts!
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