“Don’t Hire Best” must read book for passionate recruiters!!!

In the era of war for talent when every organization is struggling to acquire finest talent and if someone says “Don’t Hire Best” (DNHB) obviously you get fascinated. The title compelled me to read this book. This book is authored by Abhijit Bhaduri- Chief Learning Officer for the Wipro group..

The beauty of this book is simple language and Indian cases. The focal point of DNHB is on hiring leaders. Qualification, experience, competence and personality- How should a manager weigh these while recruiting leaders? Does it pay to take on a ‘star performer’? Or what, indeed, is the secret of hiring good leaders? As they are responsible to attract and retain talent, achieve business results and define culture. Abhijit has also stated the changing role of leaders and mentioned evidently while hiring leader an employer need to focus on business, leadership, interpersonal skills and assess intrapersonal skills which are harder to develop. The demand of leadership role has greater bearing on personality elements. Personality component that make a person successful in one role may actually turn out to be the reason why the person fails in different one.

Writer has brought up clear new dimension of hiring leaders i e don’t hire best at the top. Those who hire “THE BEST” focus only on resume where as right recruit is determined by personality fit than qualification and experience.

Personality elements have enablers (bright side) as well as derailers (dark side). At senior level differentiators of two equally competent leaders is personality. Education and experience work well at entry level roles. At leadership levels, the personality affects.

How does the best hire’s resume looks like? It holds Best Institute, Best degree, Best Marks, Experience with best brands, NAME, FAME and REPUTATION.

But best resume may not be the right hire. Is he fitting in the role you are looking for??? Is he the right person to handle present business enviournment and current business challenges? 

To achieve this author has emphasized on the term called “Success profile”. “Success Profile” is identifying what skills and personality elements will help the new hire to succeed in the role. Isn’t it sounds like developing job description (JD)? Yes …but for leaders we need to go beyond JD. Here we also need to consider stakeholder analysis. Means how this leader will be able to satisfy board, customer, peer group, team and boss. And we need to revisit this “Success Profile” as dynamic business context is a big factor that determines the success or failure.

Author has also pointed out the mistakes interviewers make while hiring leaders. Skilled interviewers know that the trick lies in not just asking questions that challenge the candidate, but figuring out whether his/r answer revel a fit between company expectations and the personality of the interviewee. Interview is not about asking questions but decoding the response.. 

To asses Abhijit has suggested Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI) tool which measures normal personality on seven scales. We cannot master HPI but through examples and cases the scale becomes clear.

Last but not the least organization culture fit is most important factor need to consider while hiring leaders. The leader influences the culture sharply based on his individual values.

Conclusion is while hiring leader Don’t hire best which is visible from resume. Traditional resume- and interview- based hiring often does not account for the most important factor: personality. Abhijit underlines the difference between hiring the ‘right’ fit vis-à-vis hiring the ‘best’.

I personally loved this book. It is must read book for passionate recruiters!!!

Happy recruiting!!!!

Life Always Takes Over Work (Emotions Overpower Reasons)

There are hundreds of articles on work life balance which explain how to prioritize work and manage ones’ day to day life. I teach Human Resource Management and discuss the need for work life balance. Perhaps as working mother, my ability to comprehend this theme assumes a degree of practicality.  

My six year old son in senior kindergarten is endowed with tremendous responsibility and understanding. Probably the fact that he has a working mother compels him to evolve these adult-like traits in order to adjust to his home environment.  Adjustment is the first word they learn from their parents. His school used to wrap up by 1 pm and then he would go to a day care. After four hours there I used to receive him to home at 5 pm. Then I spent time with him. His friends would call him to play and after eating snacks he rushed off to play. That was the mom- son TIMETABLE.

For me this lifestyle was synonymous with contentment and I felt proud about an accomplishment of a balance between professional and personal life. Friends would appreciate the way I managed my life.

One day the entire staff at office received a mail which made breaking news in the office. The management appealed to the staff to work an additional hour.  As an HR person, I understood the human economics and took the working hour vs productivity equation sportingly.

Next day onwards when everyone from office departed from office an hour later than usual I had to tell my accommodative son, “beta I will be late “. He calmly replied, “Fine Mom”… and I was pleased the way he responded.

Life was going on pretty well and instead of the earlier 5 pm, I now returned home only around 6.30 or 7 pm. One day his friends came home expecting him to join them to play and I told them that he cannot come as he was sleeping. Surprisingly all of them remarked “so early?” I said, “Shush…he is a good boy.” I was glad to go along with my TIMETABLE. It started happening repeatedly. And then it dawned on me, that he is a good boy but am I a good mother?

I told myself that I have to balance my life and these small issues were not to worry my head about. It was November and Bangalore becomes cold after sundown, sometimes accompanied by light drizzles in the evening. Last year every day in the evening it used to shower and I started getting late… I started to make excuses to my son he always used to says, “That’s ok momma”. I started showering more and more attention on him more just to make him feel that his momma loves him. But I did not realize that this was not to help him but for me to feel that I was a good mother.

But my guilt lead to introspection and again one day when his friends came to call him, he was sleeping on the sofa; he had not even changed his clothes with shoes still on his feet. At that moment, I felt like he had forgotten to play with his friends. It made we wonder whether or not I had snatched his childhood from him?

The next day similar thoughts flooded my head. Again I told myself do not be emotional and your son need to understand that his mom needs to work.

That day it rained heavily and led to a traffic jam and became darker than usual when I reached his day care around 7.40 pm. I looked around but could not find him. Then I quizzed the staff about him and they replied, “He was here only madam” and all of us searched for him. It made me irritable and tense. After 10-15 minutes I saw him, sitting on a swing alone while all the other kids had gone home. He was alone waiting for me.  It touched a chord in me and I ran and screamed at him, “What are you doing here? We were all searching for you?” He silently asked me, Mom did your bus break down today?   

After hearing him utter those words, my knees buckled and I sat down and hugged him…I had no answer to his question and remained silent for a long time.  

Next day after going to office, I promptly submitted my resignation letter. Naturally my boss wanted to know why I was doing so.  After listening to my work-life juggle, he as a father with a six year old was in tears. He gracefully accepted the letter and said,” Your son certainly needs you more than us.”  That evening the meaning of work life balance became crystal clear to me. Life always takes over work and emotions overpower reasons.

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Are you prepared emotionally for campus placements???

 

New academic year has begun where fresh batches are getting familiar to new institute and senior batches are enjoying their seniority. The time is flying and in few days companies will start hitting the college campus for placements. Institutes will train students on interview skills, GD techniques etc.

Every year placement experience is like a roller costar ride. In spite of providing academic and employability techniques students face emotional shocks during placement seasons at campus.  Good students need to wait for a long time to get placed. It is an emotional process which students go through. They face rejections and they face reality. This is a time they come across bewilderment and fell drifting.

During such turbulence they cannot deal with emotions and lead to frustration. This result in loosing opportunities on campus.

Here are few things which students can consider and prepare themselves emotionally:

Self- emotional analysis- You need to know what kind of nature you have. Do you get frustrate quickly?  Do you get emotionally disturb by looking at your friend’s success? Or you are fine with waiting for what you want?  i.e. patience or impatience.

Develop a strategy wait or grab –After conducting self analysis you may find yourself that you have patience then you can wait for an opportunity what you are looking for. That can be an industry, company, job role, expected salary or even location. But the disadvantage of this can be you may drop good openings and you may not get for what you are waiting. As actually no one know beforehand which all companies will come to campus.  And other possibility can be if these companies arrive whether they will pick you or not. You can consider past data of the companies who have visited regularly but still it is not 100% safe. But you have patience so you will handle the pressure very well.

If you find yourself impatience- The strategy may be that is focus on broad industry or job roles or even salary. Eg. You want marketing job in IT industry then do not look for brands, salary, locations etc. just apply and grab that job when IT Company is on campus. But in this strategy there are few drawbacks like better brands may come in future and they may offer better packages/ role. But if your strategy is ready with you these things will not matter to you.

Digest rejections- Prepare you emotionally for rejection. If company reject you that does not mean you are not a good candidate. It just that you are not fitting in the job requirement or someone has performed better than you. Try to keep yourself positive and give best in the next interview.

Wish you all the best for your campus placements !!!