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“Your success as a manager is simply the result of how good you are at hiring the people around you.”
“Look, I hired your resume. But unfortunately, what I got was you!”
ultimate assessment of the person he hires rarely goes deeper than “He’s a good guy!”
A Player this way: a candidate who has at least a 90 percent chance of achieving a set of outcomes that only the top 10 percent of possible candidates could achieve.
YOU ARE WHO YOU HIRE
Scorecard. The scorecard is a document that describes exactly what you want a person to accomplish in a role.
Scorecards describe the mission for the position, outcomes that must be accomplished, and competencies that fit with both the culture of the company and the role.
The first failure point of hiring is not being crystal clear about what you really want the person you hire to accomplish.
The scorecard is composed of three parts: the job’s mission, outcomes, and competencies. Together, these three pieces describe A performance in the role—what a person must accomplish, and how. They provide a clear linkage between the people you hire and your strategy.
Don’t Hire the Generalist. Hire the Specialist.
“I think success comes from having the right person in the right job at the right time with the right skill set for the business problem that exists.”
Outcomes, the second part of a scorecard, describe what a person needs to accomplish in a role. Most of the jobs for which we hire have three to eight outcomes, ranked by order of importance.
Competencies define how you expect a new hire to operate in the fulfillment of the job and the achievement of the outcomes.
Critical Competencies for A Players • Efficiency. Able to produce significant output with minimal wasted effort. • Honesty/integrity. Does not cut corners ethically. Earns trust and maintains confidences. Does what is right, not just what is politically expedient. Speaks plainly and truthfully. • Organization and planning. Plans, organizes, schedules, and budgets in an efficient, productive manner. Focuses on key priorities. • Aggressiveness. Moves quickly and takes a forceful stand without being overly abrasive. • Follow-through on commitments. Lives up to verbal and written agreements,
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respect for our own employees and an emphasis on quality and customer service.
Scorecards: • Set expectations with new hires • Monitor employee progress over time • Objectify your annual review system • Allow you to rate your team annually as part of a talent review process
HOW TO CREATE A SCORECARD 1. MISSION. Develop a short statement of one to five sentences that describes why a role exists. For example, “The mission for the customer service representative is to help customers resolve their questions and complaints with the highest level of courtesy possible.” 2. OUTCOMES. Develop three to eight specific, objective outcomes that a person must accomplish to achieve an A performance. For example, “Improve customer satisfaction on a ten-point scale from 7.1 to 9.0 by December 31.” 3. COMPETENCIES. Identify as many role-based competencies as you think appropriate
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“We found the process of gathering data from each candidate and comparing it to our scorecard very helpful and worthwhile. It really enriched our process.”
“Who are the most talented people you know that I should hire?”
“It takes A Players to know A Players,”
it takes one to know one.
CASE STUDY: FINDING THE RIGHT CEO
HOW TO SOURCE 1. REFERRALS FROM YOUR PROFESSIONAL AND PERSONAL NETWORKS. Create a list of the ten most talented people you know and commit to speaking with at least one of them per week for the next ten weeks. At the end of each conversation, ask, “Who are the most talented people you know?” Continue to build your list and continue to talk with at least one person per week. 2. REFERRALS FROM YOUR EMPLOYEES. Add sourcing as an outcome on every scorecard for your team. For example, “Source five A Players per year who pass our phone screen.” Encourage your employees to ask people in their
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Talent is what you need. Focus and commitment will get you there.
Steve
The four interviews are: • The screening interview • The Who Interview® • The focused interview • The reference interview
“That sounds like a strength to me. What are you really not good at or not interested in doing?”
“I am really looking forward to our time together. Here’s what I’d like to do. I’d like to spend the first twenty minutes of our call getting to know you. After that, I am happy to answer any questions you have so you can get to know us. Sound good?”
“Do this person’s strengths match my scorecard? Are the weaknesses manageable? Am I thrilled about bringing this person in for a series of interviews based on the data I have?”
GETTING
A Players tend to talk about outcomes linked to expectations. B and C Players talk generally about events, people they met, or aspects of the job they liked without ever getting into results.
A Players are highly valued by their bosses. B and C Players often are not. It is an important piece of the puzzle to figure out if somebody decided to leave a job after being successful (an A Player clue) or whether he or she was pushed out of a job by a boss who did not value their contribution (a B or C Player clue).
starting with the earliest set of projects and working his way forward toward present day.
Your career and job happiness depend on finding A Players.
Thank you for taking the time to visit us today. As we have already discussed, we are going to do a chronological interview to walk through each job you have held. For each job I am going to ask you five core questions: What were you hired to do? What accomplishments are you most proud of? What were some low points during that job? Who were the people you worked with? Why did you leave that job? At the end of the interview we will discuss your career goals and aspirations, and you will have a chance to ask me questions.
Eighty percent of the process is in this room, but if we mutually decide to continue, we will conduct reference calls to complete the process. Finally, while this sounds like a lengthy interview, it will go remarkably fast. I want to make sure you have the opportunity to share your full story, so it is my job to guide the pace of the discussion. Sometimes, we’ll go into more depth in a period of your career. Other times, I will ask that we move on to the next topic. I’ll try to make sure we leave plenty of time to cover your most recent, and frankly, most relevant jobs. Do you have any
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Master Tactic #1: Interrupting
Master Tactic #2: The Three P’s
How did your performance compare to the previous year’s performance?
How did your performance compare to the plan?
How did your performance compare to that of peers?
Master Tactic #3: Push Versus Pull
“Why did you leave that job?” you will hear one of two answers: 1. Push.
2. Pull.
Master Tactic #4: Painting a Picture
Master Tactic #5: Stopping at the Stop Signs
THE FOCUSED INTERVIEW: GETTING TO KNOW MORE
THE REFERENCE INTERVIEW: TESTING WHAT YOU LEARNED
Without having a chance to do reference calls, you lose 25 percent of the information you should know.”
“What? How? Tell me more” framework to clarify responses.
