My CEO Life

Here is another question that i recently received

My question for you is … I would like to know the circumstances in which you would walk out of an interview with a potential employee, and have no doubt that you will hire the candidate. In short, what catches your eye and make you think “I HAVE to hire him/her. I can’t possibly NOT hire him/her after that brilliant interview”.

Most of the time i think interviewing is more of an art than a science.  The question is more about what is the role that you are asking the person to fill and how do they handle themselves in an interview.

For example, if i am employing sales related people, i am employing them to sell.  I therefore don’t go into their background (with them) as i take what they have written on their resume as being truthful.  Also, i also don’t spend too much time on asking them simple questions about what they have done as no one is realistically going to tell you a bad story.

What i rather do is set up the meeting as if they are selling something to me.  The object is them and they have to get me to say yes to signing them up as a sales person.  If you cant truly sell yourself, then what can you sell.  I expect them to ask me qualifying questions (to understand what i am looking for), to position themselves as the answer to my issues, to clearly articulate any concerns i have and to ask for the order.  It is amazing how many sales people do not ask for the order - ie can i have the job!

I also give people the chance to ask questions of me.  No questions = no preparation = no job.  The quality of the questions also leads me to understand if i should say yes / no to them.

For management and leadership roles it is all about how they drive the interview and not me.  Leaders will make it happen and will get the role.

I usually can form an opinion in about 5 min and spend the rest of the time confirming that opinion.

Finally, we put all new employes on a 3 month probation period.  They sorts out the contenders from the pretenders.

Have you ever had one of those days where all your interactions with people are not as great as you hoped.

I thought i would relate to you a recent trip to San Francisco where in the course of a day i met two scary taxi drivers and one of the rudest waitresses you could find.

The first taxi driver was not happy at having a relatively small fare - $10.  He wanted one of those airport trips and we were not heading that way.  The taxi was filthy and when he drove, he drove as those he was either drunk or hadn’t slept for a while.  The second taxi driver i came across spent the whole trip complaining about how poor the pay was for taxi drivers and how he was constantly out of pocket.

On the same day i popped by a bar and grill to grab a burger and a drink.  The waitress was rude when i was giving her my order - impatient that i changed my mind.  While i was still eating my food and drinking my drink, she brought me the bill - unasked for.  I challenged her on this as i had planned to relax for another 30 min or so.  However i had the distinct impression that they wanted to move me on - even though i had not finished my meal.

The bottom line with each of these experiences is that i will never go back to that restaurant and i will be very wary of taxi’s in San Francisco (and i certainly will not tip them)

Service is everything.  A poor experience will be echoed between people.  It all comes down to how well you select your front line people and then how well you train them.  THere are no excuses - if you are in a service industry - make sure you focus on delivering great service.

I was recently thinking about what makes a great person in the business i run and the common trait that kept coming to mind was PASSION.

It seems to me that my team members who are truly great are those that display unflagging passion for what they do.  They don’t focus on what is in it for them, they focus on what they want to achieve for the business.

It was then interesting when i read a recent article that compared GE’s approach of rating people as either in the top 20% or bottom 10% with hiring people that are passionate.  It basically proposed that simply rating people based on quantitative measures may miss the one vital ingredient - passion.

I agree with this.  I think you need to employ passionate people as they will go above and beyond, they will more often than not make the right decision, and they will be very loyal allowing you to change the direction of the business.  The other good thing about passionate people is that they will tell you what they really think.  This allows you to get true and honest feedback from all parts of the business.

So the lesson i have learned is that sometimes a person may not be a top performer but if they have passion that is well intended and well directed you should probably work hard at finding the right role for them in the business rather than letting them go.