OPUSBOB: How do you like your candidates, with or without lead?
March 2, 2010 – 5:14 pm
So here’s today’s question. Would you rather have an individual that you are adding to your team that is not very assertive and you know that you are going to need to work with this person to make them more assertive in order to be effective on the job or to have somebody that you are adding to your team that you know is extremely assertive and you know that you’re going to need to tone them down. I had both of those incidents happen one right after the other just recently.
In the first case, I had a client that was trying to hire a sales person for their operation in Brazil and the manager knew that he wanted a very strong, very direct, independent assertive person for the job and low and behold, he found a candidate that really fit the bill. This person had dominance as their highest trait and everything about them in the conversation, in their resume and their results showed that they are a very strong, very assertive person. And with that we know there is good and there is bad that can come along because the nature of that person although they can be very strong, can also be a bit challenging to work with on the inside. They perceive other people that don’t see things their way as potentially being incompetent and they have a really difficult time dealing with anything that they see as interference or micromanagement. So, we know that going in and so the manager and I had a very good conversation about the nature of this person and the manager said to me, “You know what Bob, I’d rather worry about taking a little bit of lead out of the person’s pencil than trying to put the lead in” and I said, “You know, I understand right where you’re coming from.”
Well right after that phone call, I had another conversation with the manager that was trying to hire somebody to work for them to run a program running alliances in Europe and this person was going to need to work with country managers all over Europe working with different partners and different areas of their business and in conversation with this manager, the manager said to me, “I am looking for somebody that’s very collaborative. I need somebody who is a consensus oriented person who knows how to get things done while not making waves” and low and behold, he found himself a great candidate for that role. This person’s dominance was by far their lowest trait and their patience was their highest trait, but when you take low dominance matched up with high patience, you definitely have a consensus oriented collaborative oriented person.
So we had a conversation and said all of that is great, but some times the person who may need to know how to break a little glass and you’re going to need to coach them on that and the manager said, “No problem, I am great at breaking glass. I don’t have any problem in working with somebody that I am going to need to coach them to be more assertive than is their natural style.” So it was a great lesson. In both cases, mangers would go in to get what they think they were looking for, but they knew going in what the nature of their candidate was and they knew exactly what they were going to need to do to make this person more effective. And isn’t that what leadership is about? Understanding the strengths of the people that we have on our team, knowing how to position them to take advantage of what they do well, but also knowing where they may have difficulties and being able to anticipate that and coach them on that, so they can work through those areas that are not as natural for them.
Thanks for your time.
Tags: assertive, behavioral traits, dominance, leadership, patience, Performance
2 Responses to “OPUSBOB: How do you like your candidates, with or without lead?”
Wow, what a great question. I think I’d weigh more into the personality of the person. For instance, if the person is not as assertive but is hungry, open to change, open-minded, and I see a desire to better themselves, I’d hire them. Compare this with the person who is very assertive but who is also close-minded and set in their ways on the way they communicate. If that’s the case, I think it could be harder to remove the led from them. Very very interesting question, though. I’d be curious on other comments here.
By Matt on Mar 2, 2010
Matt, I agree with you. One of the most interesting aspects of the story, in hindsight, is that an adult was recounting this to me. It would have been different if she would have said – “and guess what, I was even the top girl scout cookie seller in my troop”, and left it at that. I think the fact that she proudly told me how she went about doing it was the scariest part of the story. Is she okay with “ends justifying means”, or is it that she’s oblivious that she just broke all the honor and integrity issues having to do with being a girl scout? Either way, it’s so interesting that she volunteered the info. Thanks for your comment. bob
By Bob Kreisberg on Mar 4, 2010