Who to Hire, Part 3
In today’s knowledge economy, we need new criteria for hiring and promoting people. In my March 22 and March 29 blogs, I made the case that “talent” ought to be a fundamental element in those decisions. Today, I want to point to another often overlooked, but fundamental element. I call it “fit.”
To understand "fit", we have to first appreciate the concept of "tone". Good leaders set a tone for their organizations. Tone is the culture, the climate, the vibe, the mood, the atmosphere that expresses your organization's values and soul. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, explaining how he established his dominating Bloomberg LP financial-data empire, states that one of the most important things done by a CEO or mayor is to "set a tone."
Your job as a leader is to shape the tone that will help you promote competitive success, and then take it seriously. When you do, you’ll hire people who seriously “fit” that tone. If they don’t fit, don’t hire them, and certainly don’t promote them—even if they have talent. In other words, don’t recruit people who may have great credentials but are a lousy match with the values and mood of your organization's tone. For example, both Public Financial Management (a financial services company) and Genentech have strong tones marked by collaboration, openness, caring, and performance accountability. Both companies are getting better at deliberately rejecting strong, talented job candidates who come across as overly concerned with rank, salary, and personal power.
What these companies have learned is this: Fit counts. Yes, talent counts—a lot. But so does the integrity of your organizational tone. Talent without fit is a prescription for dysfunctional conflict and chaos. Fit without talent is a prescription for performance deficits and mediocrity. You need both.
So don’t be expedient. Don’t lower the hiring bar just because you are mesmerized by a candidate’s past achievement, or, on the other end of the scale, if you quickly need a warm body to fill a job. In today’s violently competitive and fragmented marketplace, things like great plans, great reservoirs of capital, and great products are certainly helpful for competitive success, but none of them are as potent or predictive of sustained success as are great people. So stack the deck in your favor: Patiently seek high-talent and high-fit people for your organization.
To understand "fit", we have to first appreciate the concept of "tone". Good leaders set a tone for their organizations. Tone is the culture, the climate, the vibe, the mood, the atmosphere that expresses your organization's values and soul. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, explaining how he established his dominating Bloomberg LP financial-data empire, states that one of the most important things done by a CEO or mayor is to "set a tone."
Your job as a leader is to shape the tone that will help you promote competitive success, and then take it seriously. When you do, you’ll hire people who seriously “fit” that tone. If they don’t fit, don’t hire them, and certainly don’t promote them—even if they have talent. In other words, don’t recruit people who may have great credentials but are a lousy match with the values and mood of your organization's tone. For example, both Public Financial Management (a financial services company) and Genentech have strong tones marked by collaboration, openness, caring, and performance accountability. Both companies are getting better at deliberately rejecting strong, talented job candidates who come across as overly concerned with rank, salary, and personal power.
What these companies have learned is this: Fit counts. Yes, talent counts—a lot. But so does the integrity of your organizational tone. Talent without fit is a prescription for dysfunctional conflict and chaos. Fit without talent is a prescription for performance deficits and mediocrity. You need both.
So don’t be expedient. Don’t lower the hiring bar just because you are mesmerized by a candidate’s past achievement, or, on the other end of the scale, if you quickly need a warm body to fill a job. In today’s violently competitive and fragmented marketplace, things like great plans, great reservoirs of capital, and great products are certainly helpful for competitive success, but none of them are as potent or predictive of sustained success as are great people. So stack the deck in your favor: Patiently seek high-talent and high-fit people for your organization.
posted by Oren Harari at 10:01 AM
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