How to Hire a Champion: Insider Secrets to Find, Select, and Keep Great Employees
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.“How to Hire a Champion is highly accessible and thought provoking. It has the uncanny power of putting the reader in multiple positions—that of candidate, hiring manager, CEO, and coworker—so as to provide 360 degree insight into the optimal hiring process. Moreover, its emphasis on character, self-competition, and persistence raise it to another level—one of guidance and inspiration for the same 360 degree set of individuals. It is a book to be read again for its deeper meanings. I recommend it to all and especially to my children.” —Peter C. Johnson, MD, President and CEO, Scintellix, LLC “David’s insight into what...
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Nội dung Text: How to Hire a Champion: Insider Secrets to Find, Select, and Keep Great Employees
- “How to Hire a Champion is highly accessible and thought provoking. It has the uncanny power of putting the reader in multiple positions—that of candidate, hiring manager, CEO, and coworker—so as to provide 360 degree insight into the optimal hiring process. Moreover, its empha- sis on character, self-competition, and persistence raise it to another level—one of guidance and inspiration for the same 360 degree set of individuals. It is a book to be read again for its deeper meanings. I recommend it to all and especially to my children.” —Peter C. Johnson, MD, President and CEO, Scintellix, LLC “David’s insight into what it takes to hire a champion challenges much of the prevailing wisdom. He looks at character and competency in individuals in novel ways that provide you a different basis for decision-making. His de- tailed analysis of what a champion is gives you concrete tools you can use today to improve your interviewing skills and your hiring processes.” —Rick Rocchetti, Organization Development and Training Manager, City of Raleigh, North Carolina “David’s whole philosophy of ‘Picking the Best and Challenging the Rest’ is backed up by real science, powerful tools, and insightful metrics. He has helped us increase our energy level, development, and performance—for the largest fashion industry trade show in the world.” —Chris McCabe, Vice President, MAGIC, The Business of Fashion, a division of Advanstar Communications
- “Everyone talks about the importance of metrics today in assessing and selecting teams, but very few people see the big picture the way David does. This book takes extremely critical and complex issues in hiring and makes them amaz- ingly simple. It is a gift.” —Sid Reynolds, CEO, The Signature Agency
- HOW to HIRE a C HAMPION I NSIDER S ECRETS F IND , S ELECT , AND K EEP TO G REAT E MPLOYEES DAVID SNYDER Franklin Lakes, NJ
- Copyright © 2007 by David Snyder All rights reserved under the Pan-American and International Copyright Conventions. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or hereafter invented, without written permission from the publisher, The Career Press. HOW TO HIRE A CHAMPION EDITED BY KARA REYNOLDS TYPESET BY EILEEN DOW MUNSON Cover design by Lucia Rossman/Digi Dog Design NYC Printed in the U.S.A. by Book-mart Press Author jacket photo: Patrick Bedout Photography, Villeneuve sur Yonne, France. To order this title, please call toll-free 1-800-CAREER-1 (NJ and Canada: 201-848-0310) to order using VISA or MasterCard, or for further information on books from Career Press. The Career Press, Inc., 3 Tice Road, PO Box 687, Franklin Lakes, NJ 07417 www.careerpress.com Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Snyder, David, 1960- How to hire a champion : insider secrets to find, select, and keep great employees / by David Snyder. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-1-56414-964-0 ISBN-10: 1-56414-964-1 1. Employee selection. 2. Employees—Rating of. 3. Achievement motivation. 4. Employee retention. 5. Organizational effectiveness. I. Title. II. Title: Insider secrets to find, select and keep great employees. HF5549.5.S38S65 2007 658.3’11--dc22 2007038672
- For Jean-Pierre Sakey, Vivian Snyder, Jeff West, Jeff Herman, and Jessica Hall.
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- Acknowledgments I would like to thank the following people who have helped me throughout the past few years as I worked on this manu- script, and as I continued to examine the research on job per- formance that has laid the groundwork for it. First, Jean-Pierre (J.P.) Sakey, who in 2004 was the rela- tively new CEO of Headway Corporate Resources, and who, that June, called me from his cell phone at JFK airport, after having just finished reading my first book, How to Mind-Read Your Customers, which talks about the psychology of building better relationships in the workplace with colleagues and cus- tomers. Sakey asked if I would help assemble and guide a team of the “best and the brightest” to create an in-depth process for selecting and screening people based on their character strengths. Intrigued by the opportunity, I joined Sakey as an independent, outside business counsel to help him and his col- leagues build a corporate and recruiting framework based on character. It was, after all, an offer I found hard to turn down, given the chance to work with a person of Sakey’s knowledge and experience (before being asked by the board of Headway
- to overhaul the company from the ground up, Sakey had helped run North America for Monster.com, and is considered by many to be a pioneer in the field of recruiting and staffing process and technology). I owe particular gratitude to Jeff West, president of VantagePoint, Inc., in Omaha, Nebraska, who is one of the nation’s leading assessment and competency-modeling experts, and an associate with ASSESS Systems (one of the nation’s leading industrial psychology firms), which has conducted an extensive amount of research on the competencies and pro- files of high-performing individuals in diverse professions. Jeff, who is one of my consulting partners and an expert in the use of assessment tools and assessment best practices, has been an invaluable guide in helping me to truly understand the balance that must constantly be achieved between assessment (the homework part of selection) and wisdom—which is the hard part. Keith McCook, PhD, and Hal Whiting, PhD, were also of invaluable help in sharing with me years’ worth of data that ASSESS Systems has collected on the competencies that pre- dict successful performance across industries. At a critical time in which I needed feedback and guid- ance, my Headway colleague Dr. Peter Johnson, a renowned consultant in the biomedical industry (as well as an inspired coach) offered invaluable insight and support; Harvard psy- chologist Dr. Myra White, author of Follow the Yellow Brick Road, also offered insights that were validating, encouraging, and uplifting. Rick Rocchetti, manager of organizational development and training for the City of Raleigh, North Carolina, served as an educator, guide, and friend. Dave Donaldson and Raymond Sipperly of Headway Corporation provided enormous levels of friendship and business support as I worked on the content of the tools presented here. Tom Livaccari, a member of the training committee at Merrill Lynch, provided his usual outstanding advice and mentorship.
- My good friend Rebecca Dnistran was a perpetual sounding board and advisor in the initial stages of this work, as was Emily Shurr, with whom I worked closely at the Duke University cer- tificate program in nonprofit management. Teresa Spangler, founder and CEO of Creative Leadership Adventures, offered tremendous feedback, support, and wisdom, as did my former Headway colleague Jim Haynes. My good friend and former Headway colleague Jeff Anderson also provided valuable in- sights. Jeff Raxlin, a senior vice president with AXA Financial Advisors, contributed a great deal of useful commentary and advice as well. Richard Boren, founder of the Training Registry deserves special thanks for his profound advice on best prac- tices in training and service excellence. Doug Lennick, managing partner of Lennick Aberman Group, coauthor of Moral Intelligence, and an executive vice president with Ameriprise (formerly American Express Finan- cial Advisors), was extraordinarily generous with this time and advice, and with sharing research and ideas. And, as usual, the whole Snyder family was there to provide constant posi- tive energy. There are many other people to thank, as well—so many they are hard to count. In addition to the people just mentioned, many other team members at Headway from coast to coast showed enormous support, enthusiasm, and effort, and mod- eled on a daily basis the fundamental principles of character that we were researching in the employment marketplace. I owe each and every one of them a word of thanks for their inspiration and education on the quiet principles of goodness and diligence that describe the heart of character itself.
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- C hampions, first and foremost, are defined by their character. But because character is defined by what people do—not by how they feel or what they think—character has to be proved to others every day. Thus, character can never be assumed or accepted as a given. In the context of character, high-performing individuals are essentially individuals with cer- tain noble traits, such as integrity, persistence, self-reliance, a positive attitude, and a strong desire to prove their worth. When asked to prove, demonstrate, or document their history of char- acter at work, high-performing individuals will readily supply the evidence of their excellence—in writing, if asked. Champions are not as hard to find as some people may lead you to believe. Usually, you can see champions coming from a mile away. They’re the ones who still have something to prove. —Taken from Chapter 1
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- Contents Introduction: 15 “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” Part I Understanding, Appreciating, and Evaluating the Character of Top Performers Chapter One: 23 What Is the Foundation of a Success-Based Mentality? Chapter Two: 45 Building a Selection Model Based on Character Chapter Three: 61 Anticipating Performance Needs Chapter Four: 71 Getting the Candidate Involved in the Assessment Process Chapter Five: 87 How to Use Assessment Tests
- Chapter Six: 113 Character, Performance, and Heart Chapter Seven: 129 Character, Performance, and Values Chapter Eight: 141 How Ego Needs Affect the Job Match Part II Creating Cultures of Greatness Chapter Nine: 155 Building High-Performing Organizations: Where Do You Start? Chapter Ten: 175 Aligning Employee Competency with Management Competency Chapter Eleven: 189 The Chemistry of Trust: Key Strategies for Hiring Better Managers and Executives Chapter Twelve: 211 Raising the Bar: Simple Strategies for Encouraging Perpetual Aspiration Chapter Thirteen: 229 How to Measure and Improve the Effectiveness of High-Performing Teams Chapter Fourteen: 237 Toward a Greater Vision of Human Potential Bibliography 245 Index 249 About the Author 255
- Introduction “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” I have run, I have crawled, I have scaled these city walls... But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for. —U2, “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” T his book is primarily written for employers—those who are looking for great employees. But it is also useful for job-seekers who want to differentiate themselves from the millions of other people competing for the good jobs out there. In this book I will attempt to simplify some rather com- plex issues that affect both successful hiring and successful employment. The nagging question for both employers and job-seekers is the same: “How in the world do I find what I’m looking for?” As we all ponder this question, I often hear the refrain of that great U2 song playing in my head. In my mind’s 15
- How to Hire a Champion eye, I see a lone Bono, hovering above the world, microphone in hand, belting it out one more time. I still haven’t found what I’m looking for. The essential problem for both employers and employees is this: Consumed by overwhelming pressures, and endless demands on our time, we often forget what we were looking for in the first place—and that’s why we can’t find it. This book addresses that problem by sharing tools and processes to help the overworked hiring manager remember the simple goals that matter the most. The primary aim of these tools is to help you find candidates who possess purpose, commit- ment, and character. In some ways, the culture of entitlement that is becoming more pervasive every day seems to have created a growing popu- lation of people who genuinely think that the world owes them a living, and that they really shouldn’t have to work that hard to become super rich and have their every whimsical need sat- isfied. But somewhere out there is a group of individuals who possess a fierce inner drive to prove themselves, and who would literally bend over backwards to show their employers what they are made of. People with this coveted mentality—a mentality defined by a passionate inner fire to prove oneself—possess a certain noble quality that presents itself at first sight. Because I be- gan this introduction with a reference to Bono and his band, let me continue that thread by sharing a special memory I have of seeing U2 perform live in younger days. Yes, I know it is strange to begin a book about hiring with a rock ’n‘ roll story, but I think the story might serve as a guiding metaphor of what both employers and stellar candidates are looking for. Quite a few years ago, I was sitting in the rain with a few thousand other college students on the bleachers of the foot- ball stadium at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Our annual Springfest concert was all washed out. Huddled under umbrellas and plastic sheets, we shivered in the drizzle. 16
- “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” Four or five bands had been on the roster, but most of them had cancelled. Just as everyone else was about to pack up and leave, the announcer came out and said, “The last band on the roster has decided to perform. They will be on in 10 minutes.” The band in question had just released their third album, titled War, but most people had never heard of the first two al- bums. Prior to this they had been playing mostly in bars and clubs, and this was to be their first major outdoor concert in America, their first stop on the War tour, and a warm-up to the forthcoming US Festival a month later that was to put them on the map forever. By the time they were announced, only a few die-hard students remained. The bleachers looked almost empty. The rain continued to pour. But in 10 minutes exactly, the band took the stage. A very young Bono, cordless microphone in hand, jumped off of the stage onto the rain- soaked football field, and tramped around in the mud, as he launched into an impassioned speech. “What in the world!” he shouted (or something to that effect), as he worked the crowd like an evangelist. “It’s only a little rain. Where we come from, it rains every day! And I want to thank all of you who stayed. Thank you for sitting here in the rain. You’re what rock ’n‘ roll is all about—and we hope we won’t disappoint you.” After that, he climbed the stage’s scaffolding until he was on top of the tarp covering the band and the instruments. From this vantage point, he jumped up and down on the tarp, waving a white flag, while the band launched into a rousing rendition of “New Year’s Day.” At this point, all the students remaining in the bleachers rose to their feet, and began clapping in the rain, loudly shouting their approval. Although it continued to rain from that point on, no one seemed to notice it anymore. They were transfixed by the spirit of the guy with the flag. I remember turning to my brother Steve, who had been sitting beside me. “Something tells me these guys are going to be the biggest thing in the business pretty soon,” he said. 17
- How to Hire a Champion “I think you’re right,” I replied. Through the prism of time, I remember this rain-soaked event as a living metaphor, or parable, of passion—and the kind of exuberance, reliability, resilience, and dedication that define people of purpose who end up leaving a great mark on the world. There are two key points we can take from this story as we ponder the fact that so many of us—employees and job-seekers alike—still haven’t found what we’re looking for. In a very real sense, most employers aren’t looking for fancy, slick resumes and job-seekers who come in bringing well-rehearsed speeches and a laundry list of negotiable perks to which they feel they are entitled. What most employers in all professions are looking for is people with professional dedi- cation and purpose. In other words, all employers searching for a great employee are in many ways looking for their own professional version of a Bono—someone who doesn’t need to be told how high to climb; someone who just instinctively grabs hold of the scaffolding and climbs, inspiring everyone else in the process. But great employees—the people everyone wants—have their standards too. They want to work for great employers, doing work that brings meaning to their lives. In other words, they want to know that you have a flag to wave. A flag they would be proud to follow. This principle of duality in the world of successful hiring and successful retention is the glue that will hold the frame- work of this book together—it is a principle that speaks to the desire of employers to find great employees (to hire champi- ons), and the desire of great candidates to find great employ- ers. You can’t have one without the other. Our discussion in this book will show that there are rela- tively simple questions you can ask, and relatively simple mea- sures that you can put into place to investigate a person’s 18
- “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” documented history of displaying success-oriented character in the workplace. In order to uncover success-oriented be- havior, you can’t ask your candidates just any questions about their character. You have to ask them the right questions. And it is also not very useful to focus on just any human attributes, or attributes that you believe may be related to strong charac- ter and success—you must look for traits that we know are related to both strong character and success. That, in essence, is the main purpose of this book: to detail the character traits that are important to investigate from a job performance point of view, and to show you the kinds of questions you can ask of your organization, yourself, and your candidates, to better se- lect people who have those traits of success and high perfor- mance that you and your organization are looking for, while also making sure that these people provide a proper fit with your own culture. A few basic tools that are helpful for finding, screening, and selecting employees with outstanding character are: 1. A job description that includes not only the skills that you are looking for, but also an analysis of the kind of character you are looking for in the employee—what is it that you are looking for the person to prove to you. 2. A precisely worded description of your culture that you can share with candidates. 3. Exercises that require the candidates to share their problem-solving process, track record of accomplish- ments, and areas of greatest potential contribution. 4. The use of validated, competency-based assess- ment tools whenever possible. There are online as- sessment tools that are industry-specific that can help you to benchmark the candidate against other candidates applying for the same position. We will 19
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