What President Trump Can Teach Us About Hiring

In observing the President and how different his transactional style of diplomacy is from the decades old traditional relationship style of diplomacy used by the State Department it got me thinking about how we hire our people. How are your hiring practices? Many of us approach the process on a transactional basis. We have a slot to fill, we list the skill sets and level of experience we are looking for and pick candidates that align with this check list. But is there a better way?

What if we approached bringing in new hires from a different perspective? What if we began with the idea in mind that institutional knowledge results from strong retention and over time, creates a sustainable competitive advantage? How would we change our current practice if at all?

Much has been written about shared values as a basis for creating a positive culture. “Best Places to Work” validates that notion every year with their commentary on the latest list of Best Places to Work.

Companies that focus on culture  and get it right out perform their competitors by a material margin. They recognize the effort as a strategic and financial consideration more than and HR function. These High Performing Companies go beyond values to the underlying behaviors that express those values. Why? Because values are generally abstract, aspirational nouns that left to themselves create ambiguity for the reader. What is INTEGRITY? What does RESPECT look like? Imagine how your answer to those questions might differ in a diverse workforce.

Anthropologists tell us that culture is the aggregation of how we behave. It’s the things we actually do. Doesn’t it make sense then to identify the important behaviors we want to support and clearly identify what they mean for the company? Behaviors are verbs, they are actions we as leaders can coach to. To the point of this article they are what we can recruit to as well.

How more likely are we to retain people we recruit if we make a discussion of “the things we do and say around here” part of the hiring process? Could having these clearly defined behaviors as part of the interviewing process provide an improved filter in making the right hiring choices? Potential hires will self-select if given the opportunity.

Herb Kelleher, Founder of Southwest Airlines credited his early success to building a culture that emphasized attitude over aptitude in the hiring process.

Incorporating the topic of culture and more pointedly, the behaviors you expect within your organization, discussing how strongly you feel about their alignment with the mission creates just such an opportunity.

So give new hires the opportunity to self-select. Be strategic about the relationships you are forming within the company and witness the financial impact as you create another great place to work.