Whether we are promoting internally or trying to find the right candidate in the market, finding the right person for the job to build and strengthen our team is one of the most important roles of management. Many of us think we have better than average instincts in this activity but there are lots of formal steps to zeroing in on the right person. Job descriptions, formal questionnaires etc. play an important role but I stumbled on one that was not completely obvious to me from the start.
I worked in a large firm that had several distinct divisions and functions. Some of these groups had better track records of developing solid individual performers and mangers, one of then had a stellar track record of building strength throughout the organization. Core to their operations were employee and management review boards used to review performance, provide development feedback and select candidates for the next level up. These boards were found at different levels within the organization and typically made up of a couple of HQ managers, a few line managers at least one level up from the candidate. They would spend a few hours with the candidates asking questions and giving them scenarios to respond to, provide feedback and a later a final report showing areas for improvement and possibly recommending promotion if that was the goal of that particular review board.
The facilitator, usually a senior staff manager involved in employee development kept pretty good control over the proceedings to make sure everyone, candidate and participants were prepared, understood their role and stayed pretty close to the script.
Our division stole the recipe and over a period of years I played every role including candidate, questioner, facilitator and finally exec to the facilitator who scheduled and managed these boards.
What amazed me was how adept at picking the winners our facilitator had become even though he was not an exec or even one of the senior managers in these reviews. It had become a distinct skill set for him to quickly pick the winners and the post mortems were frequently dominated by his insightful observations of the candidates.
When questioned on this he revealed that after participating in many of these it had become clear that the single biggest determinant of knowledge, skill and capabilities was displayed through the thought processes of the candidates and more specifically the shear number of options they could bring to a problem or scenario.
Some candidates seemed to have a great answer to a question or scenario that would impress many of the board members but, as he pointed out, when pushed ... “And what if that did not work. What would you try next?” the truly skilled, prepared, and knowledgeable candidates had multiple ways of addressing a challenge. Whether it be handling troublesome employees, customers or vendors, or increasing sales, or troubleshooting a technical problem, the best candidates knew multiple ways to get the job done.
The best taxi driver is the one who knows five ways to get to your destination in heavy traffic.
Try it. Keep asking, “And what if that didn’t work?” and see how fast your candidate runs out of ideas. In addition to reviewing resumes, references, experience, attitude, energy level etc., I think you’ll find this is a great way to identify potential stars.
If you don’t think so or have a better idea by all means give us some feedback on this blog.