Train for skills, hire for attitude. CEOs and business owners learn this the hard way, but what they all agree to is that the best qualities your employees could possess are curiosity to learn and high adaptability to change around and within them. If your employees are driven they will drive your business to success as well. Want more proof? Read on!
Your employees are human beings
The experiences we have in life shape our mindset and shape our character as well no matter if they occur inside or outside the walls of the office. Look for people who are eager to learn in every single area of their life, who are versatile and who seek for ways how to implement the things they learn during their working hours into their personal life and the other way round.
Work-life harmony is the new work-life balance and when we look at the experiences of an individual during the interview we should see the person as a whole and not just based on the points listed in their CV. Travel experience could worth more at times than a conference attended, just like the books someone reads in his free time really says a lot about him. Get to know your candidates well and don’t be afraid to ask them personal questions.
„Knowing is the enemy of learning” –Tom Chi
There are some people who don’t settle until they hear they are right and listening doesn’t exist in their dictionary. They are the ones you should avoid at all costs and certainly not hire them under any circumstances! Teach your current employees to always look for more than one possible solution and to question everything, even you! Hire people who bring a new shade to the palette of your community and let the ideas flow through collaboration.
What we can learn from the start-up world
If you ask any venture capitalist about where they prefer to put their money, most of them will tell you that they would rather invest in the most promising team than the best idea. The team that has the right attitude and the ability to learn and grow with the idea they hatch will bring back the money as opposed to a brilliant business idea which fades away without proper execution.
Growth is a priority even for companies outside the startup scene and the only way to keep those charts on a rising scale is to hire the people who make it happen. After all, the best entrepreneurs are the ones who jump from the cliff and learn how to build a parachute on the way down. Your team should have the same attitude if you want to outperform others with your business.
Change is inevitable
What we learn today will be outdated, if not useless 3 years from now. That’s why university degrees don’t really prepare students for the jobs they take up in the future. No matter how many degrees and certificates a candidate holds, if they are not ready to develop themselves every single day professionally and personally you are better off with someone with a shorter CV and a better attitude. Focus on finding out their motives and what drives them to learn and you will get a clear picture of whether you can work with them in the long run or not.
Paradigm shift in psychology
While a few decades ago psychological tests divided people into categories and analyzed distinct fixed characters, contemporary studies show that people do change over time if they experience a shift in mindset. We are a collection of thoughts and thinking patterns which we learn from our early age and the more receptive we are to new ideas the faster we learn and grow which is the highway to success, as we know.
The 10.000-hour rule
Malcolm Gladwell talks about the journey to success in his book called Outliers, and he proves that there is not really a thing called talent. Anything can be learnt and anyone can reach mastery and become the best in a particular activity after the magical number of 10.000 hours. Anyone could become a professional actor with this amount of practice, but not everybody has the affinity for spending that much time playing a character and memorizing scripts all day.
Not all your candidates will have 10.000 hours behind their back in their field. But the lesson this theory teaches us is that anything can be learnt, it just takes practice, so you are better off with someone who wants to learn and grow with your business.
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