Ask yourself a question…Do I feel lucky?

Iconic scene: Clint Eastwoods Dirty Harry points his 44 Magnum and says “ask yourself a question….do I feel lucky?  ….  well, do ya? …. Punk “

It’s hardly the greatest plot-spoiler, given the age of this 1971 film, but… somewhat predictably, the poor fellow… wasn’t lucky.

We might think that we are better manager of odds and risks in business than this particular victim of Dirty Harrys justice. After all we are smart, we have repeatable process, we learn from our mistakes, we are great judges of character. But often the success rate in hiring people is at or below 50%. On that basis it would on balance, sometimes be cheaper and less painful, not to mention easier, to chance the recruitment budget on red or black at the casino… but… it’s an increasingly large budget.

Why have managers, leaders, people, not quite managed to crack the knack of hiring great people? There are some great precedents of success… if we look at the very public amphitheatre of recruitment in European football (my favourite analogy - as some will know) Jude Bellingham at Real Madrid was a fantastic example of talent acquisition…. But the price of hiring proven talent in this way is higher than most can afford. Even this road is strewn with the bleached corpses of dead-cert recruitments gone wrong (the list is long but think Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona and you get the drift…). So even in elite football - where great scouting, huge levels of data, Moneyball-level analytics,  public performance assessment and extensive discussions are a precursor to every hiring process – they often spectacularly fail.

So how can you shorten the odds of making that key business recruitment a success? Here’s what I have learned along the way (not because I am smart but because I screwed up serially just as much as the next person)

Prepare

Spend some real time thinking about and describing the business , its culture, the role and required skills, how things work around here, and exactly what kind of person you are looking for, what behaviours are needed, what chemistry will work well, what characteristics are required.

This is not an opportunity for HR to paste in the stiffly worded job descriptions here. they may be brilliant, but I doubt it. Nor is it the place to express your wild fantasies about what a great place this is to work (unless they are not fantasies and its all true) and how fulfilling the role is for the mythical person who matches the long list of superlative descriptors that you plucked from your imagination.

CVs

Simple – Don’t compromise. Accept only those that broadly match your requirements – no exceptions. No serial job hoppers. No boring, incomprehensible or poorly presented documents; they are a portent of things to come.

Discussions

Pre-screen. Trust your gut. Make time. No 1-hour timeslots. Let an interview take its course.

What are you looking for?

I like Jack Welsh’s approach (former CEO of GE Capital). He says look first for: Integrity, Intelligence and Maturity and then…energy, energise, edge. Execute, passion.

I look for 

Consideration – have they thought about the discussion they are about to have. Have they researched the opportunity, the business and thought about the space that we operate in. Can they demonstrate that preparation? (Reciting the contents of your home page after a 30 second cursory glance doesn’t cut it). No interest – no job.

Intelligence – are they bright enough to simulate the information gleaned and ask pertinent and searching questions. Do they understand the concepts that you are explaining. Can they make the complex simple and understandable?

Curiosity – can they demonstrate that they have thought about how things work in real life. Do they have a thirst for understanding. Do they question and challenge the information presented to them.

Drive – can they demonstrate an ability to get stuff done – an unrelenting work ethic, no matter what the resistance.

Resilience – an ability to meet adversity head on but also to find ways round obstacles.

So, decide for yourself…. Punk.