Everybody Needs An Amber

I was thinking over the 5 or so years I spent as a Grocery Team Leader at Whole Foods Market, while talking to my honey who is currently a Produce Team Leader, and I realized that everyone needs an Amber.

OK… I’m sure you are wondering what in the world that means.  I always did my best to hire those who were better than I was.  Once in a while, and if you are lucky twice in a while, you might hire yourself an Amber (again, if you are lucky you might get a Jenna too).  These people will come to you skilled in many areas of expertise, however they will not be arrogant.  If you are able to accept that they are better than you, teach them what you know, and allow them to grow by making mistakes on your team, they will help you take your team to new heights.  With the help of these people you can transform your people into the great team you have been working towards.

For many Leaders hiring someone who is better than they are can be scary.  In many workplaces people feel insecure about their jobs, so you might think hiring someone better than you could put your job in jeopardy.  You might think hiring someone who could be promoted past you will make you look bad.  You might feel threatened having someone who is smarter, or a better Leader than you around.

The reality of your situation is this… you cannot accomplish your goals by yourself.  You need your team to execute and get everything done.  You need people to make you look good.  Hiring people who are better than you is the best way to do this, and the best way to achieve great.  So read my series on hiring, starting here, and hire yourself an Amber.

That means hiring some who:

Will challenge you.

In order to be the best Leaders we can be, we need to be challenged.  Even those of us who drive ourselves to be the best, will have some areas that we don’t see as important…  It’s in those areas that our Amber will challenge us.  Your Amber will also push you to think about which things are important and which are not, as the choices you made to suit your circumstances in the past may not fit today’s needs.  We all fall into ruts, and get nice and cozy in our comfort zones at one point or another… If you want to achieve great, you need someone to challenge you!

Is better than you.

As a Leader you must realize that you cannot know everything, or be the best at everything.   In fact, if you are the best at any of the tasks your team members are responsible for, you are not doing your job.  So… the best way to get new ideas, and a creative spark is to bring in people who are better than you are.   Your Amber should have a different career path, a different background, and disagree with you a lot.  Remember… we only learn from people who disagree with us.

Will keep you in line.

I can really only speak for myself, and I believe that we are all human.  We all get caught up in our own issues, what’s going on at home, and at times we all make mistakes.  Having an Amber means having someone who will tell you to ‘knock it off’, that you are allowing your anger at your spouse to influence your work decisions, or that sharing a larger portion of that bonus would be a better choice for the long run.  If being a great Leader was easy, we would all be doing it… it’s not easy.  We all have the ability to make decisions based on fear, selfishness, or jealousy.  Having someone there to remind us of the right thing is invaluable…

Can take anything and everything off your plate.

Amber will come to you with many skills, and will be able to take on many responsibilities right away.  You will have to teach your Amber some things, as her experience will not match yours, and there are some things that are unique to each workplace.  Once this teaching is underway however, Amber will be able to take pretty much anything off of your plate, and then she will teach others to take things off her plate.  This will allow you to spend time on your next level apprentices, and help them develop their Leadership qualities.  It will allow you to feel free to take the time to hire only the best people, and never feeling as though you have to settle.

Will be coachable. 

Hiring the right people mean they come to you willing and able to hear feedback.  I have come to believe that the ability to hear and act on feedback is the most important forecaster of success.  So hiring Amber does a few things for you.  It allows Amber to move quickly into a position of taking on just about anything you need her to take, and at the same time this shows a great example for the rest of the team.  Your other apprentices will have varying degrees of development, and seeing Amber partner with you, hearing feedback and adjusting her behavior accordingly, will be a great example for them.

Is good enough to coach you on a thing or two.

Since we are focused on hiring people who are better than we are, and with backgrounds and experience that is different from ours, the great people we are hiring will be able to teach us what they know.  The key here of course is for us to be teachable as well.  Too often Leaders become arrogant without realizing it.  We come to think that we are better than the people we hire, and that they have nothing to teach us.  Even if we, like many, are hiring only people we believe we are better than, they will still have a thing or two to teach us if we are able to learn.  Amber will not only have things we can benefit from learning, but she will know how to teach others in a way that allows us to want to learn from her.

Is happy to teach others all they know.

Amber does not act from a place of fear.  People like Amber know that sharing knowledge is the only way to achieve greatness, and they are happy to teach others.  You will be seriously shocked at how much more training and coaching can happen when you add another ‘you’ into the mix.  Amber will help to raise the level of commitment and engagement much sooner than you thought possible.

Challenges others.

Just having Amber on the team will challenge others to rise to her level.  They will see that the bar you’ve been setting can indeed be reached, and even surpassed.  The rest of the team will quickly see how much having a great team member like Amber benefits everyone, and will support her.  Of course there will be those who are jealous, or fearful… you will have to do your best to help them understand that they have nothing to fear, and eventually they will get on board.

Raises the bar.

Amber is not satisfied with OK, or mediocre work.  If you are lucky enough to have an Amber, you should push forward with wherever she wants to set the bar.  By yourself you could only set the bar so high, however with the help of someone better than you, the bar can be set much higher.

The downside:

Yes… there are always downsides.  However they are not big enough to make you think twice about hiring your Amber.  You will be able to address and handle anything that comes up, and that upside will be worth the effort.

There will be conflict.

You will have team members who feel threatened by Amber.  Even on a good team, you probably have a couple of team members who don’t really want things to change.  You will have to stay alert and address these issues as soon as they come up.  Do not allow them to fester! 

Authority and Amber…

What authority does your Amber have?  Sometimes an Amber will come along and you may not have the appropriate role open for her.  Hire her anyway, at whatever rate and role you can.  However, this will cause problems, since Amber is full of ideas and will be looking to make positive changes, while not having the title or ‘positional authority’ to make those changes happen.  Have no fears, Amber will earn the respect and they will soon give her the authority she deserves, and in the mean time you may have to work extra hard to get everyone on board with what is happening.

You will eventually lose Amber.

Yes… people this good will not stay on your team forever.  You will benefit by thinking of them as temporary help, to assist you in moving your team forward.  Appreciate them and allow them as much leeway as you can, and they will help you raise the level of your whole team.

And I’ll end with this… if you are not comfortable hiring someone who is better than you are, talking to your coach or mentor about it might help.  What would you tell a subordinate who had the chance to hire someone better than themselves, and came to you for advice?  Yup… you’d tell them to jump at the chance.  So hire yourself an Amber, and make the most of it.

How Your Job Descriptions Are Maintaining Mediocrity

If your goal is to hire people who need to be told each and every thing that needs to be done, as well as how to do it, you are on the right track!  Keep up the good work!

If your goal however, is to end up with a great, high performing team, I suggest you work on shortening those job descriptions, and perhaps not even thinking about them until after you’ve hired.  And yes I am going to tell you why….

Why your current job descriptions need to go:

·      They fail to accurately describe success in the job

·      They do not accurately list real life expectations

·      They often define responsibilities too narrowly, keeping people from jumping in and helping where needed

·      They may exclude people you would love to have working with you, and who are turned off by the description of the job

If you are like most people, you are hiring to fit a job description.  You post an ad with the job description; people reply, noting how they fit the job description; and you hire the one(s) who seem to best fit.

How’s that working out for you?  Your team is like the Chicago Bulls from the 90’s?  Full of superstars is it?  Everyone working to achieve a common goal, yes?  Maybe not…  Let’s try again.

I’d bet you have a person or two working for you that you would love to clone, right?  If you are very lucky, or good at hiring for qualities, you might even have more than two of these “Clone Worthy” people. 

What is it that makes them ‘clone worthy’?  Is it that they carefully follow their job description each and every day, checking off tasks as they go?  Are they constantly stopping to ask you what to do next, or how to do something?  Do they complete the tasks they are told to do, and nothing more, nothing less?  Do they keep their mouths shut, silently obeying orders like good soldiers?  Probably not.  I’ll bet they have no idea what is on their job description!

Do your clone worthy people even fit your job description?  Do they meet your current ‘requirements’ for the job?  If you just met them would you hire them for this job?

More than likely they:

·      Are self-responsible

·      Take pride in their work

·      Are confident, with a realistic assessment of their strengths and weaknesses

·      Are intelligent, though perhaps not well educated

·      Are humble, and teachable

·      Are honest, and trustworthy

·      Appreciate the freedom to figure things out

·      Communicate clearly and respectfully, and listen to understand

·      Are generous, dependable, and have a good attitude

So, I have to ask, why are you hiring for anything other than this list?  Stop using your job description for hiring.

Now… you still need to change your job description so it gives the desired outcomes of the role, while allowing the great ‘clone worthy’ people the freedom they need to do their best work.

·      A few lines are all you need… a paragraph at most. 

·      Describe what your ‘clone worthy’ people are like…

·      Include the qualities you are looking for in your next superstar

·      Include the desired results…

·      Keep it simple… remember, the right qualities are important here…

·      You can train skills, you can’t train qualities

How And Why I Indoctrinate Team Members…

When hiring, I indoctrinate every team member I hire right then and there.  Meaning, if I spend an hour or more interviewing you, and then decide to hire you, we will spend at least another hour together.  I use this time to set expectations, set standards, and make sure my new hire knows, really understands that I am happy to have them on the team, that I believe in them, that the are an important part of the success of the team, and that I have every faith in their success here.

While I make every effort to only hire the best people I can find, it’s rare to be able to start with a fresh team of new hires.  We usually end up inheriting a team, and then adding our hires to it through attrition, transfers, or promotions.  That means we have a mix of old and new team members.  Hiring is important, and what we do with and for our new people after hiring them is just as important.  An above average hire, if left to someone outside the team to ‘onboard’ is likely to become an average hire.  We are probably working to change the culture of our team, and turn it from average to high performing, so starting our newest person with high expectations is key.

Once I decide to hire you, we’ll sit for 45 to 60 minutes and I will literally indoctrinate you with the standards and expectations of the team. Each and every team member I hired went through this same hour or more interview, and this hour indoctrination… this is a tough team to get on to, and you should feel proud!  We do not accept just anyone onto our team. 

I expect you to be adaptable… this is a high performing team, and we are able switch gears on a moments notice.  We support our company and it’s goals, and sometimes that means our priorities change quickly and often.  You will be able to listen to your supervisor, and even other team members, and take your cues from them.   I expect that you will be a creative force on the team, and that you will see with fresh eyes all of the things that we can do to improve.  You will speak directly to your supervisor of me about your concerns with systems or people, and you will not gossip or speak badly about one team member to another.  I’m looking forward to your help making this already great team even better!

You will be working closely with a variety of people, and you will all be working towards the common goals of the team.  Working with others is great, and I know you will be able to add your own experience and way of thinking to the mix very soon.  I expect that you will show commitment to the team, and each and every other person on the team.  I did not choose you lightly, and I do not put my trust in others lightly… I trust you, and expect you will not let me down.  You will need to be here, on time, every day.  That is the only way we stay a top performing team… we all commit to each other. 

With the fast pace of the team and the frequent changes in priorities, you will need to speak up if you are not 100% sure of what you should be doing or how to do it.  There is nothing wrong with not knowing, however not speaking up is one of the few unacceptable things you can do.  You are an important part of the team, starting your first day, and the questions you ask, the suggestions you offer, and the genuine, honest communication you display are a key part of your contribution.

I know that you will make mistakes… they are not just expected, they are demanded!  If you are not making mistakes, you are not trying hard enough.  Good enough does not cut it on this team, and once you are able to achieve the desired results the way you have been taught, I expect you will draw on your experience and your intelligence and find new, more efficient ways to help the team.  Sometimes you will mess up, and this is important… I need to hear about your mistakes directly from you.  I don’t want to hear about your mistakes from anyone else, so as soon as you mess up, you let me know.  That way I can have your back, and we’re both in good shape when questioned.  This is how you show you are trustworthy on this team.

As far as you are concerned, your goals come second to the team goals.  Don’t worry about who get’s credit for what on this team.  We all share in the credit, and your hard work will be noted, appreciated, and rewarded.  We are an actual team, so if you see another team member who needs help, just jump right in and help them.  I would rather hear you ask for forgiveness than wait and ask for permission!  Sometimes things will go sideways, and that’s expected… just make sure I hear about it from you.

I hired you because I believe in you!  I am happy to have you on the team, and I know you are going to be successful here.  The best thing you can do is be the best worker on the team.  You will show enthusiasm for your job; no matter what task you are asked to do.  We are all committed to keeping our floor clean and safe, so if you see a mess, you own it.  We all cooperate and sweep and mop the floor; we all pick up trash; we all empty trash cans; we all apologize for the mistakes of others to keep our customers happy; we all show a sense of urgency… that means work as if you owned the store!  We all take pride in our work, and we leave every workspace better than we found it.  And you know… if I didn’t think you were up for all of this we wouldn’t be having this conversation… I know you are fully capable of meeting every one of my expectations.

I also expect you to stay aware of what’s going on around the store.  There are bulletin boards for important information, and I expect you to read them and stay up on what’s going on.  When you come to work you will connect with the person leaving, and/or your supervisor to see where we are, what needs to be done, and what the priorities are today.  You will remind yourself that we are all doing the very best we can, so when you arrive and things aren’t in perfect shape, you will know that the person before you did the very best they could.  You will do the same.  When you get to work, you will get right to work.  We are not here to chat up the girls, get a date, or find a new friend.  You might see people from other teams doing that, and that is not what we do.  After break or lunch we get arrive on time, and get back to work.  Other team members are relying on us, and we do not want to let them down.  Remember, you are an important part of the team!

At the beginning of your shift, after speaking to the other team members, you will make a plan.  If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.  If you are not sure how to proceed, ask!  You will make your plan based on that days priorities, and the advice of your supervisor.  You may have to alter your plan depending on the changing needs of the department, so work hard to make as much progress on high priority items as you can.

You will do your best to remember all of the instructions you are given, and it’s OK to write them down.  Remember, it’s expected that you will make mistakes… it’s not OK to repeat them.  I trust you to use whatever tools you need in order to make your plan, remember your instructions, and get the job done.  We try to make sure you have everything you need to do your job.  In the short term, I know you will do your best to improvise and do whatever you need to do to get the job done.  Long term, you will speak up and let us know when you need tools or supplies.  You are not expected to do without, and we need you to help be our eyes and ears.

You will, in time, experience problems or difficulties here.  That too is expected.  I know you realize that all problems are solvable, and you are the key to that.  How you see problems will either allow you to see a solution, or see them as a wall.  On this team, I expect you will find solutions.  If you can fix it yourself, do it!  If you cannot, I expect you to speak up about the problem and present your ideas for solutions.  Talking about a problem without suggesting a solution is just complaining, and that is not allowed on this team.

What makes this a high performing team?  It’s people like you!  I only hire the best I can find, and I am very happy to have you on this team.  I am very confident that you are going to make me very proud, and I’m looking forward to introducing you to the rest of the team.  I know that you realize that you are responsible for your success on this team… that is will be your hard work, your intelligence, and you pushing yourself to achieve great things that will ultimately make you the success you will be here.  It won’t be easy, and I know you will stick with it and earn the respect of the rest of the team. 

My commitment to you?  Well… I will be brutally honest with you.   I will do my best to give you 5 or more compliments for every constructive piece of feedback.  And… I will give you a lot of feedback.  We will meet and talk about once a month.  I’m looking forward to helping you achieve your goals, and the only way to do that is if we keep in contact and build a strong relationship.  You will get a scheduled performance review every 6 months; however there will be no surprises.  In our conversations we will discuss the things you are doing well, along with the things you need to improve upon.  I will help you in every way I can, and I feel I am as responsible as you are for your success or failure.

I guarantee that I will make mistakes, and… I will admit them.  I will be transparent with you… there are no secrets on our team.   If you have an issue or problem with another team member, I will do my best to resolve it to everyone’s satisfaction.  I do not play favorites, nor do I take sides.  And equitable resolution is the only outcome I will work towards.  I will back you up when you try something new and it goes sideways.  I will give you all of the credit for your successes, and I will accept the blame for our failures.  My overarching goal is the success of the team in achieving its goals, and secondly in helping each of you achieve your personal goals.

I will communicate positively and genuinely, and I will listen to understand.  I will do my best to be humble, and show gratitude for everything we achieve, as well as for each of you and what you can teach me.

I also promise to fail here and there, and to let you down once in a while.  I hope by then we have a strong enough relationship that you will accept me with my failings, and we will move forward as a team.  Here is my cell #.  If you have any questions, you will call me.

So… yeah… something like that.  When that person goes home and talks about the new job, how are they likely to describe it?  Are the going to be excited about it?  Or is it probably just another crappy job?  I’ve found that without this indoctrination, the latter is probable.  With the indoctrination, people show up for work excited, happy, and enthusiastic… off to a good start.  The rest is up to me in how I train them, and how I continue to build that relationship.

Have you done anything like this?  What are your experiences?

Oh… and if you like my blog, please ‘like’ my Facebook page.  The button is just up there at the top right.  I dare you to click it!  

What Does Your Turnover Say About Your Hiring?

I've worked almost all of my adult life managing/Leading teams in restaurants and retail stores.  The average retail turnover hovers between 60% and 100%, often higher in restaurants.  Does your turnover fall into that average range?

Then I would suggest if your turnover is average, your hiring is average at best.  If you’re good with that… average hiring, average workers, average performance, well… good luck with that!

If you are not satisfied with your turnover, what can you do about it?  For one thing you must make an honest assessment of your hiring.  I haven’t figured out why, and I have yet to meet one person who will admit that they are not good at hiring.  It’s hard to find anyone who will even say that they could use some help at hiring, even when it is obvious that they are not very good at hiring.  Why is that?

Almost everyone will admit that they are not great golfers, tennis players, or dancers; that we would love a personal trainer, would think about taking a cooking class, or looking back, wish there had been parenting classes.  No one would think of going skydiving, scuba diving, or even driving a car without some minimal lessons.  Yet pretty much no one is willing to admit that they aren’t great at hiring, and might be able to use some help. 

Since we agree that our turnover is average, then our hiring cannot be better than average, right?!  And are all of our teams’ high functioning teams, full of superstars?  No?  Then how do we justify our thoughts about our hiring skills?  On what do we base the belief that we are good at hiring people? 

It takes an honest person to admit that while they are doing the best they can, they are not achieving the results they want.  And isn’t that what the facts are telling us about our hiring?  Someone taught you what they knew about hiring, and off you went… doing what you could to hire the best people you could find.

But where is the feedback?  In order for us to get better at something we need feedback.  How’s about an example… I hope it makes sense.

If I gave you a bow and some arrows, stood you 20 yards away from a target, and gave you 2 weeks to practice, even without any coaching you would get better because you get feedback with every shot.  You could try different techniques, and since you could see how each change affected your accuracy, you would get better pretty quickly.  You might never win any competitions, and you could certainly get better.

Now what if I put a sheet between you and the target?  We’d hire a kid to collect your arrows and return them to you, so you never see where your shots hit… you’d never get any feedback… If you don’t get to see where your arrows hit, you never know if any changes you made had a positive or negative affect on your shooting.  Do you think after 2 weeks, or even 2 years you would get any better?  No… how could you?

When it comes to our hiring, I believe we put a sheet between our hiring efforts and the results of those efforts.  Some of you are asking what in the world I mean by that, aren’t you?  Well… I mean that since hiring is not like math… there is no perfect right and wrong… there is no one agreed upon right way to hire, we hire the way we were taught to hire.  We do what we were told would work, and we expect that it works.  And it’s easy for us to go on thinking that we’re doing a great job hiring, because the results of our efforts are so far removed from the effort.  That distance between our hiring and the success or failure of the person is the sheet that keeps us from connecting our efforts with the end result.

We find and interview candidates; we choose one and hire her.  We feel that she is qualified, has the skills we need, and should be a good fit here.  Then what happens?  Someone else takes our new hire off to her job.  How is she treated there?  We can guess, and hope… and we cannot really know for sure whether she is welcomed and encouraged, or if she is looked at as an intruder and ignored.  We just don’t know what perception she has of her new workplace.  How does her boss treat her?  Is he or she a real Leader who will build a strong, trusting relationship with her, or is our new hire facing an insecure bully who is afraid of strong women?  We can’t know for sure.

So, we see how easy it is to separate our hiring from the outcome.  It’s not our hiring skills; it’s her… I'll bet she lied about her qualifications.  It’s not our hiring skills; it’s that Leader… he’s a bully and can’t keep anyone.  It’s not our hiring skills… you see where this is going.  Even if we don’t consciously think these thoughts, it’s how the human mind works.  The success or failure of the new hire is too far removed from our hiring to make it easy for us to objectively judge our efforts.  So we don’t… we just think we’re doing great, and it’s never out hiring that was at fault.

And… back to the original thought… if our turnover is average, we have to admit that our hiring is average at best.  That is all of the feedback we need.  If we continue doing everything the same way, we will continue to get the same results.

If we want different results we have to change the way we hire.  Would you agree?  Disagree?  Either way, if you find this discussion interesting, you might want to read Why You Should Hire For What You Can't Train.

Perhaps another time we can talk about all of the reasons team Leaders should do their own hiring, Hmmm…?

Oh… and if you like my blog, please ‘like’ my Facebook page.  The button is just up there at the top right.  I dare you to click it!  

Why You Should Hire For What Can’t Be Trained

Every company has systems set up for training...  We have modules, packets, guides, and perhaps even ‘how to train the trainer’ training sessions.

And I’m going to bet the majority of those are for training "soft skills", or qualities. Perhaps a quarter to half of them are task based, and with the rest, you are attempting to train qualities. However qualities  can only be learned when we are ready to learn, and when we need to learn that particular quality. We learn these from experience.

Seriously… take a quick look at the list of trainings you have spent time and money on in the past.  How many tasks or skills are on the list?  And how many qualities does it include?  If you are attempting to train qualities you are wasting your time and money.  Why you ask?  Well...

Does anyone really believe that Trust can be taught during a one or two day training session?  Trust is something that must be learned through life experience, through challenging and changing the way we see the world and how we fit in it.  How would you even begin to train someone to extend trust?

You could tell them why they should, and if they do not see the world as a safe place, they will not be able to extend trust.  You can describe how to extend trust, and tell them the benefits of extending trust, and if they don’t already have self-confidence and courage they will not be able to extend trust.  We simply cannot do what we don’t have the tools to do.

Does anyone reading this believe that they can spend a couple of hours, or even days with someone, and leave them with the ability and desire to develop honest, trusting, strong relationships?  This again comes to us from life experience… the desire as well as the ability to be honest and open with other people is either within us today, or it is not.  If it is not, no one can put it there.  Every person must do his or her own personal work, and with luck, come to the point where we feel that we are enough just the way we are, truly love ourselves, and genuinely care about others.  Only then can we really open up to others, and build the kind of trusting relationships it takes to be a Leader.

Which of us can teach passion?  You, over there… can you teach someone how to be charismatic?  You may be able to teach them the definition of the word, and perhaps how we think charismatic people act… and I don’t believe that any of us can teach a quality that comes from within.

What about Vision?  Teachability?  Servanthood?  Emotional Intelligence?

Self-responsibility?  Collaboration?  Self-discipline?  Compassion?  Humility?

Can any of these be taught?  How about just caring about other people?  Can you train that?

So far we have only talked about some of the qualities of a Leader, but what about some of the qualities that we look for in good team players?  What about Solution oriented?  Or can any of us teach another to be Dependable?  We can tell them what we mean when we say that word, however the desire to be dependable comes from within.  Can you really train someone to communicate openly and honestly?  How about to be an active listener?  I’m sure you can tell them what you mean, however none of us can give someone the interest, or make them care enough to listen to understand.

This is why LinkedIn and the internet is filled with blog posts and articles reminding us again and again of how Leaders should act.  If we could easily learn these qualities we would have it all down by now.  I believe that you can name any quality you desire, and find it next to impossible to train. 

However we can train pretty much anything else to almost anyone you can name.  You send me the next person you see, and I can train them to be competent in any task associated with running a grocery store.  Many of you could do the same in your area of experience.  We can train tasks easily to anyone, and yet we hire for tasks and attempt to train for qualities.

So… why do we continue to spend so much money attempting to train these qualities to everyone, from our Leaders to our hourly team members?  Hmmm...

Think about what makes people successful… is it IQ?  Is it because they have a PhD?  Is it because they know the most about the product/department/what ever you name?  No… the most successful people are the ones who know how to build trust and relationships.  They are the ones who are able to get others to get behind their dreams and ideas.  Yes… you need machinists, chemists, web designers, programmers, etc… and imagine if you hired people who had those qualifications AND were able to extend trust, develop strong relationships, were servant leaders, with focus, passion and self-responsibility…  what would your workplace look like?  What could you achieve?

To this end, team Leaders should be able to do their own hiring, and I’ll tell you why.  Hiring for qualities is not easy.  Even when trained and experienced, it can still be difficult to be sure of hiring the right people… we all make mistakes.  To reduce the probability of mistakes, those doing the hiring must be connected to the outcome.  That is, if I hire for my team, I am responsible for the success or failure of that person.  As a Leader, it is my job to see that they are successful… if they fail it is my failing. 

What are the benefits of team Leaders hiring their own?

• ·      If the team Leader can do their own hiring they are invested in the success of the team member. 
• ·      Team Leaders can indoctrinate (onboard if you prefer) team members better than anyone else… no one other than the team Leader can impress, indoctrinate, and provide that all important initial guidance and expectations.
• ·      Team Leaders can start building relationships with their team members the day they make the decision to hire them.
• ·      No one knows the needs of the team like the team Leader.
• ·      No one has a more intimate knowledge of what actions describe these qualities than team Leaders.
• ·      It takes an intimate knowledge of these actions to ask the right questions in order to identify these qualities.

This is why it’s better if team Leaders are trained to hire for qualities, and then allowed to hire for their own teams.  Anyone and everyone who is involved in hiring needs to be untrained, and then retrained in the ways of the force… no wait… how to hire for qualities instead of skills.  At least that’s my experience… a bit of a rant, I know…

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