Hiring and promoting is essential to running a company and doing both well is vital to the growth and success of the business and the employee. But getting it right is a lot easier said than done, and even management veterans get it wrong most of the time. That’s why Management Development Specialist Ralph Peterson shares his One Big Tip on how to select the right people for each job.
Super Worker to Supervisor
One of the main problems with putting the right people into management positions is the difference between the super worker and the supervisor. The reality is that, just because an employee is a reliable workhorse in a non-management position, doesn’t mean they will thrive when they’re put in charge. “Either way, I am going to lose.” Ralph says, “I am putting my company and myself in jeopardy of losing or, at the very least, de-motivating my best employee. It is very challenging to make that transition from super worker to supervisor.”
Sevens Hire Fives
It’s not uncommon that many companies find themselves stuck in a rut of hiring mediocre workers, producing mediocre results. The reason behind that, Ralph says, is due to the fact that “sevens hire fives.” What this means is that if your manager is a seven on a scale from one to ten, that manager will never hire someone more competent or driven than they are in order to protect their job. They fear that the new person may be more respected or valued for having some characteristics the manager is lacking still, so they’d rather hire a five on that same scale than an eight, nine, or ten.
However, if a manager “gets over that hump and you're looking for people who are 10 times more educated or way more capable...That's an eight hiring a nine, a nine hiring a ten or a ten hiring another ten.”
The best people to have working for you are those that are so good and passionate about what they do that they won’t require you to check on them constantly. That’s why it’s important to select leaders who understand that “hiring up” is the best way to create a team with unlimited potential.
So What Do You Look For?
From his years of experience, Ralph shares a sobering statistic: “It is estimated that more than 5 million people are promoted to a leadership position in America every year...3.3 million of those candidates will fail in the first 90 days.”
Deciding who to hire or promote to a position of leadership in a company is far from an exact science. “We get it wrong two-thirds of the time,” Ralph admits. But there are criteria that, as a hiring manager, you can keep an eye out for when making these crucial decisions.
“I look for people who say what they mean, and mean what they say. I'm going to look for people who finish what they start, people who are always on time, people who other people look to and trust because they're going to have to be that kind of person. I look for somebody who is demonstrating that they have the ability to be better than everybody else.”
Hiring the right talent for your business is not exactly rocket science, but there are a couple of qualities you should be looking for to ensure you can trust your employees' long-term results based on their performance. If you find yourself trying to decode how to identify the best candidates within your organization and you need some extra help, you can get in touch with Ralph by visiting his website or checking him out on LinkedIn.
