I’ve been there and done that, it’s a frustrating experience for everyone involved. To that point, I read an article about good Human Resource (HR) practices the other day. It offered some valuable insight. The only problem was, the final nugget of wisdom was, “to hire great people.” Does this strike anyone else as easier said than done? In this scenario, the ‘what’ is a great idea, but without the ‘how’ it’s like going on a scavenger hunt blindfolded.
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This got me thinking, is there a practical yet simplistic way we can go about hiring great people? After all, HR and hiring are so difficult for the sheer sake that human beings are the ultimate wild card in any organization. A mentor once told me, if you want to see a person’s true character, give them power. I think the same can be said of hiring. Have you ever interviewed an outstanding candidate and found after hiring them that they could have won an Oscar for their modern day rendition of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde? If you have, you know what an organizational nightmare it can be. Despite these challenges, I believe there are four simple steps we can take to try and find great talent.

1. Balance what you want with what you need – This starts long before the first interview. We have to be able to separate our future wants from our immediate needs. For example, maybe the want is to double sales over the next three years, but at present internal communication is akin to a game of telephone with a hundred participants. So while you might want a rock star sales person, what you may need is a strong operations manager.
2. Be transparent – Everyone wants to put their best foot forward in the interview process, even the hiring manager, and rightfully so. After all, first impressions are a big deal for a reason. That said paint a realistic picture of where the organization is today and where it wants to go. Not doing so will blindside even the best candidates and set them up for failure before the ink is even dry on their employment contract. That doesn’t mean berate your organization and scare candidates off; it just means no rainbows and unicorns when it comes to areas where you’re struggling.
3. Seek values alignment – This one is tough for a couple of reasons. First, because people can talk a good game in the interview process and they require next to nothing to back it up other than the resume that they created themselves, how convenient. Second, if we’re being honest, a lot of the questions we want to ask we simply can’t, it’s the law. This doesn’t mean you can’t be acutely listening and looking for general character traits that will be a good fit for the organization. For example, if your organization is all about customer service, what might demonstrate that the person sitting across from you has a servant’s heart?
4. Look at the person, not just their credentials – When I got out of college, my first full-time job was interviewing for one, or so it seemed, but one interview still stands out to this day. The hiring manager asked me, “the girl that was in here before you graduated from Harvard with a 3.9 GPA, so why am I going to hire you?” I replied, “you’re not,” stood up, shook his hand and went on with my day. Maybe she was the best candidate for the job and Harvard is a wonderful institution. But, the moral of the story here is someone’s identity is not defined by where they went to school or what companies they’ve worked for in the past. Are they valuable in terms of experience? Of course. Do they tell us everything about the person? Absolutely not. We must learn to see the whole picture.

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While these may feel like unconventional practices in some respect, I’m a firm believer that if we want to get better at something, we have to be willing to see it and approach it differently than we did in the past. What I’m really suggesting here is that we bring the human element of Human Resources back into our hiring processes.

I’m sure you have all heard but James Wiseman the projected #1 overall pick in the 2020 NBA draft, top freshman in the country, and Memphis Tiger was ruled ineligible by the NCAA this past week.  To first put things in perspective being deemed ineligible by the NCAA doesn’t really mean anything, it’s a simple suggestion by the hypocrites that run the NCAA that the player should be disciplined.  Ultimately the final call comes down to the universities president.  Normally the university bends its knee and complies but rightfully so Memphis has stood its ground and is allowing Wiseman to play.  The only thing the NCAA does right is run a corrupt organization that doesn’t pay its employees, beautiful business model!  It’s really good at running a pyramid scheme where each lower level of the pyramid does all the work and sales but all the money feeds up to the top.  These are smart people, let’s not get that wrong, and they know this and they know they created this pay for play, win at all costs mentality that has ruined major college sports for so many.  In fact not only do they force the win at all costs “wink wink” mentality but they then try and persecute those for taking part in this scheme.  This is not even one of those cases but this is still the NCAA going after a big name, a famous couch, and a hyped up team to put forth this façade that they are protecting the “integrity” of the game.  It’s a complete sham; the James Wiseman news reminds me of The Minority Report which starred Tom Cruise.  They are effectively going back in time to punish someone for something they had absolutely no idea was going to happen.  There was no pre-meditated game plan by Penny Hardaway he was simply doing what was right and helping a family in need.  If you don’t know the back story Penny gave the Wiseman family $11,500 before his junior year of high school to help them move to a school that was closer to Wiseman’s sister.  At the time Penny was coaching a high school team, Memphis East.  Fast Forward 2 years and Penny is coaching at Memphis and Wiseman decides to enroll there for the upcoming year.  Penny had no idea how this would transpire and wasn’t even fielding college level coaching calls at the time of Wiseman’s move.  As a side note don’t major college programs hire AAU coaches all the time hoping that one of their players will commit to that school?  Is that not similar?  To me that is more pre-meditate than anything that happened here.  You are punishing a player, coach, and team for something they had no idea would happen, none.  The NCAA is trying to make an example, a splash, in the media to make themselves look better.  Newsflash, it isn’t going to happen.  Memphis rightfully so seems to be standing firm, in fact Penny and Wiseman got a judge to put an immediate temporary restraining order on the NCAA for these actions and Wiseman’s lawyer issued the following

​This case is far from over and Yes Memphis is risking the NCAA coming after them later this year and potentially punishing them but for now they are standing their ground and doing what’s right.  I hope Memphis proves in the court of law that the NCAA pretending to play policeman is not just and that this will lead to Memphis, Wiseman, and Penny not only being cleared but lead to reform in the rules and definition of who a “booster” really is.

What does it take to be an entrepreneur? This is a question people have been asking for a long time and depending where you turn, you’ll get a lot of different answers. The real answer is, anyone can file the appropriate documentation to become a self-proclaimed entrepreneur. The question we should be asking is, what does it take to become a successful entrepreneur?

This question is slightly more involved. We know the odds are stacked against the aspiring entrepreneur, but it’s more than feasible if we have the right perspective in approaching the whole situation.

​Got an idea? Great. Got a product? Great. Got a service? Great? Now What?
 
I’ve read several articles lately that say entrepreneurship really takes passion, perseverance, and resilience. These are all true to be certain. But is that it? If you have elements like these in your character will you succeed alone?
 
Here is where we have to make a key delineation. Successful entrepreneurship happens with two requisite elements, the intangibles of spirit and the tangibles of skills.
 
Let me explain, in 2019 and going forward, a successful start-up requires visionaries and missionaries. The visionaries cast a net, wide and far. They dream big. Their future end game is beyond what many might be able to comprehend, but they can articulate it well. The missionaries are the boots on the ground. Those willing to put the vision to paper, set a plan, and execute it because they buy into the vision.
 
Can one person be both the visionary and the missionary? It’s possible, but it’s the exception and not the rule. So if you’re thinking of starting a business, here’s the #1 thing you have to self-assess first before getting started, are you the visionary or the missionary? Be honest! Do you have the intangibles of spirit or the tangibles of skills?
 
Both types can start a business, but if you know what you are, whom you surround yourself with could be the difference between success and failure. Early in my career, I was at a corporate Christmas party and the CEO got up to speak to us. An accomplished Wall St. executive, he said, “I’ve been successful because, I surrounded myself with people who are smarter than me.”
 
I took those words to heart in my early twenties and carried them with me throughout my career. But, I would like to expand on them now. It’s not just about getting the smartest people. In innovation, we use a term called “creative abrasion,” which in essence means competing viewpoints that can come together to solve the most wicked and challenging problems this world can throw at us.
 
Today’s entrepreneurs succeed largely in teams. The teams who get the dynamics right are the ones we actually read about. So despite, your idea, product, or service, think about this notion above all else, appropriate chemistry often supersedes your desired organizational chart.
 
Put a bunch of visionaries together in a room and you’ll get great ideas. Put a bunch of missionaries in a room and you’ll get great plans. Put a bunch of visionaries and missionaries in the same room together and you could well wind up with a revolution that will change the world for the better!

To learn how to embrace innovation more, you can purchase my new book, Next: Reinventing Your Future Through Innovation here