Who is on the Bus?
Jim Collins in his wonderful little book From Good to Great, and his follow-up for the social sectors, influenced so many of us in the nonprofit world when he helped us understand not only the importance of good hiring but also those vital first three years of employment, when both the new employee and the organization ought to be actively working on understanding and developing the nature of the “fit” between them.
Thinking back to how Collins influenced me as a leader and hiring manager through his books, and more recently the practical advice Adam Bryant gives in his New York Times article called “How To Hire the Right Person,” I find myself considering deeply the enormous importance of this aspect of our work as leaders.
In the article by Bryant he describes some ways to re-think interviewing. Standard interviews tend to be rather formal, quite sedentary and reveal less about the candidate than they do about the interviewer. Mix it up a bit; take them for a walk around. How do they react to people, what questions do they ask? In schools, I always took the candidates into classrooms, especially when students were doing group work. The candidate who stiffly stands to one side looking as if they are ready to move on, is not going to make a good teacher. The ones who engage, even briefly with students, are worth paying more attention to. I also had to know whether or not a candidate had a sense of humor—I tried to do this by engaging in some kind of anecdote sharing—with the candidate telling a story and seeing if they might see anything light or more humorous in the situation. I had a colleague who always asked the question: “If you were an animal, what would you be?” I used to poo-poo this one, but Bryant argues that ‘The “why?” part of the answer will also tell you a lot about their level of self-awareness.’
Collins has a deep focus on getting organizations from good to great and one way to do this is to get the right people on the bus, and the right people into the right seats. He urges us to use whatever leverage we have within our organization to accomplish these goals. If a teacher comes up for tenure and they are good, but not great, do not grant them tenure, leaving a place for someone great. “Early assessment mechanisms are more important than hiring mechanisms.” [Good to Great and the Social Sectors].
How important is hiring and the retention of the right people to you as a leader? What new pressures and opportunities might arise as we hire and re-hire in this time of living with the Covid-19 pandemic? What kind of effort and energy do you expend on this work? Is there wisdom in your organization that you and other hiring managers can access? Many organizations now have talent management departments and highly developed human resource groups. In my recent workshop at The Center for Creative Leadership in Greensboro where I participated in a high-level training in assessment, about 60% had titles reflecting a huge emphasis on hiring and retention. Are you hiring the right people in these key roles and do they have what they need to hire and retain the best people? Smarter wisdom really comes into play here; use the wisdom you have and work smartly to build the right teams. Driving a bus has never been a particular ambition of mine, but I do hope I might be able to pick out an excellent driver and handpick those passengers.