4 Unique Traits you didn’t Expect to Look for in a Job Candidate
Here are 4 Unique Traits you didn’t Expect in a Job Candidate.
You ever hear people and all these books that we read saying, “You know, I hire for these qualities,” and this other guy says, “I hired for those qualities,” and these go and then eventually, we have a book of 40 different traits to look for in a job candidate.
So, what quality is what? From recruiters who have made so many mistakes on hiring and firing people, we found this group who has come up with four things that they truly want to hire for. Think about it this way, when you’re in business and new at it, it’s typically very easy to hire people and have a tough time firing people. It is because you’re emotionally attached, and you’re afraid of firing somebody, right? So again, it’s so easy to hire, and it’s hard to fire.
However, the longer you’re in business, it actually becomes harder for you to hire somebody because you’re picky and choosy about who you’re going to put your time into. Interestingly, it becomes very easy to fire people because you actually don’t fire that many people. If you do this correctly, you’re not firing that many people. It’s either they don’t become part of the environment which is a small percentage because you’ve
learned how to hire, or life happens, and they end up having to walk away.
What exactly are the best hiring practices? It’s when choosing candidates with certain core qualities. In this article, we will share with you the four important traits to look for in a job candidate.
Number one on the list is Love. Here’s an explanation of why number one on the list is love. You must look for someone who loves the company and who loves a vision that you’re casting. You are basically throwing a love crusade and that their heart starts connecting with it. If you can hire people based on love, you don’t need to find and test their work ethic on the list because love is an action.
If the definition of love to you is an action and that it is, indeed, a verb, then that means work ethics and everything else comes out of it. If someone loves, they can have a work ethic. That is one of the unlikely ways on how to hire good employees.
In another context, if parents make food for their kids three meals a day, it is not because they have to. They simply love their kids, and they put the time to cook. If you know parents who put the time to drop off the kids in the morning, pick them up and still battle a hard day’s work every day, they do that out of love. There is no manual that says you gotta work hard when you’re a parent. No, the manual there is that you love. Your kids have a place in your heart, so you work hard for them.
It’s almost the same thing when hiring based on love. So, another thing about love that you should keep in mind is that you can’t force somebody to love your vision. Sure, your company can instill people to do it, but if you continuously are trying to force somebody to love the company, it’s kind of like the guy who’s in love with this girl. He loves her so much. Unfortunately, she doesn’t love him the same way. Sure, maybe she likes him and, you know, she tolerates him. All his life he’s trying to earn her love, and yet, she’s just not going to love him. Because he is a good guy, they don’t tell this guy that he has all his life ahead of him. Being in either party can be very draining.
You don’t hire by forcing somebody to love. If your employees love it, both of you are going to work to get your goals. If you don’t, that won’t still be a problem. They’re going to find a place that they’re going to love. In the meantime, you’re going to find people who can love your vision and the company.
As for the second point of the unlikely yet best hiring practices, let’s focus on this story: there was this entrepreneur named Jose. He seems to be one of those successful CEOs who even goes out on his extra time to train other people’s staff. He shares how his business has been growing very fast. And that was because of his team’s level of trust.
Their level of trust among each other is at the highest it’s ever been, and it has made Jose’s company very successful. Trust is something that doesn’t happen overnight. When you hire somebody, you’re not going to be just working with them. You are going to put time into working with this individual and establish a deeper work relationship. The trust may take a little bit longer. In most cases, trust starts to form about three to six months.
There was this statement made by Mark Cuban in Dallas that said, “When I hire new talent, I micromanage them until I trust them and it’s not necessarily micromanaging. I think it’s more monitoring, setting expectations, seeing what they’re doing accountable until more and more you’re letting go. When you’re letting go, you’re letting them do it on their own because trust levels are already that high”.
That person doing business with you based on your consistencies, your habits, and them seeing that you are true to your vision and to your cause, the level of trust from your new team member goes higher and higher. When there’s a higher level of trust, it becomes a very easy environment to do business with.
Then, let’s jump right into number three on our list, which is speed. When you are creating your own strategies for hiring the right person, speed is important. There are probably a few people you’ve come across saying, “Would you rather have somebody that works very fast but they’re not very efficient or have somebody who’s very efficient but is very slow? What would be your answer to that?
In theory, the perfect answer would be getting both. You need both speed and efficiency. Those two qualities together are actually out there, and it has become a sad excuse when people say you can’t find speed and efficiency at the same time. There’s plenty of people who can be fast and efficient at once. It’s really just the expectation, and it’s a matter of time management that a person has got to work on.
If you’re working with somebody that’s got speed, especially in a start-up environment, it’s very important to have the kind of quality, not to mention when it comes to deadlines. There are typically a lot faster deadlines in a start-up environment. For a company that’s been around for 50 years, they don’t have a lot of quick deadlines.
However, what makes a company that’s been on for 50 years different is that they don’t have to make decisions quickly. It may take them six months to make a decision, but their deadline also maybe three months. As for deadlines in the start-up company, they may be a week or the next day at five o’clock. The point is that the deadlines in the startup are a lot faster, so speed becomes very essential.
The last one unique quality that kind of integrates and strengthens all three other attributes is the ability to be purely committed to personal improvement.
If you’re working with somebody who is not good in a certain area but they are as determined as ever to improve, you can have about two to four weeks of results and see how much has changed. Having that quality shows that this person is committed to beating their prior best.
Finding someone with the drive for personal development, growing, and getting better is like a cherry on top. There is nothing better than working with a group of people that are constantly working on getting better.
Aside from dealing with oneself, personal development also prevents interpersonal issues and resolves existing ones. Even in a work environment with the usual corporate conflicts between two people where they couldn’t work together, they are best friends now running together as a team. It was, of course, with the help of each other’s drive to become better versions of themselves. There was also this person who was afraid of speaking in front of an audience or calling on people. With the drive for personal development, he has improved to a whole different level. He started speaking out and would later represent the company in offshore meetings.
All of these were achieved because they have committed to personal development. They have committed to constantly getting better.
So, you find somebody who loves what they do with your company and your vision. Find those employees who can be trusted, and those who will trust you as well. It’s very hard when you work with somebody that doesn’t trust you, and it’s very hard to work with somebody that you don’t trust either. Once you have already established the love and trust qualities, speed is automatically going to go to a whole different level. You then find the drive for personal development, which eventually leads to efficiency.
With all these simple yet unique traits, you have a winner. There, you will have somebody whom you are sure to put your time and resources into them. And who knows? That could be somebody for the long-term. Your time is not going to be wasted because they’re not going anywhere that quickly.
They will stay and become significant assets because they love what they do that you don’t need to tell them to work. They trust you, and you trust them too. Speed falls into the right place as well. They also tend to work on themselves for improvement. If you give them a challenge, they are going to work on it together with you. That’s the right person to invest your time into now.
Most of the qualities mentioned are only the core attributes to look for when implementing your strategies for hiring the right person. For other recruiters, it could take other measures and standards to find the fit candidates. Nonetheless, it all boils down to an inner gut feeling of jumping into that leap of faith, hoping the person of your choice will become a great asset in the company.
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