Hire Missionaries, Not Mercenaries!

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Hire Missionaries, Not Mercenaries!   By Arnie Wohlgemut

I have always taken the “Ocean’s Eleven” approach to hiring.  Why?  I wanted a diverse and strong team.  After all, who wants a team of pickpockets when you’re trying to rob a casino.

I started with an evaluation of the technical skills on my team, experience gaps and what future skills might be need. Based on that, I began my recruitment process.  These next 6 items I used to identify individuals whose skills and approach complement others on my team.

  1. Diversity.  Diversity is relatively easy to achieve; however, the right diversity is not.  If you are strategic, you will build a strong diversely skilled team.  I would remind HR and my recuitment team that I didn’t just want to add diversity but build an environment where all would be rowing the life raft in the same direction and we all could thrive.
  2. Cultural fit.  This was not used to shorten the candidate pool, but it played a part in the final decision.  It was not unusual for the short list of candidates to come back for a second interview, led by their potential co-workers, to evaluate cultural fit.
  3. Cultural contribution.  Specifically, a person’s character.  Wharton’s Adam Grant warns “Instead of culture fit, what you want is cultural contribution.  Don’t ask whether someone matches your culture.  Ask what’s missing from your culture and bring in people who can enrich it.  That doesn’t require you to be best friends.”
  4. Passion.  Someone who articulates a strong desire to make things better.  In fact, I would never hire someone who said to me “I don’t think I would change anything!”  The best candidates have passion — a fire inside of them that generates momentum and drive forward. It then becomes my challenge to fan the flame, inspire them to direct their energies to achieve the goals we set together.
  5. Predictable success.  You want an individual who will be successful.  Ask good questions; create circumstances and practical assignments to get the answers you’re looking for.  One assignment was unannounced to avoid having an artificial exercise in a controlled environment. I then used impartial resources to review assignments submitted.
  6. Trust your experience and your gut.  Having hired nearly 100 people in my career in various organizations, I had experience on my side.  This experience strengthens the intuition needed in the entire process including reference checks.

Building a diverse team for the success of the organization has never been a task without risk.  I hope these 6 ideas will help you build a world class team.