When managing a business, one of the most important activity is recruiting the right talent.
I remember there were times when I was so desperate because there were empty chairs to fill, I hired in a panic. Those kind of hirings never ended up well for me. Poor productivity, impacted team morale, losing customers for poor service, stressful in performance management & ended up having to rehire all over again.
So now, I do dedicate more time in identifying the right talent. There are some tricks I’ve learnt (& taught) over the years when looking for one.
1. Always hire up, just like how my ex-boss had taught me. Hire someone who is smarter than me.
2. Focus in diversity hire. Different age, different ethnicity, different gender and most importantly different skills – especially skills that I don’t have so we could complement each other.
3. Cultural fit is something important to me. So I do get my team to meet them to see if they can click with each other since they will spending time together more. And super important for me is a good sense of humour.
4. Someone who wants to grow. If not now but eventually. Because if they don’t grow, so can’t I. And I want to.
5. One that I could bet my reputation on. A lot of times people don’t realise that our subordinates represent us too. So if we don’t want to spoil our name, we need to hire a good one too.
So yes, it’s important that we focus in hiring right. Like how Dr. Kenneth Blanchard who wrote the book The One Minute Manager said, “As a manager the important thing is not what happens when you are there, but what happens when you are not there.”
Bimbo
