The Most Important Quality To Look For When You're Hiring

I ran HR for a fast-growing technology company. Some months we hired 300 new employees. One day my boss, the president of the company, said, "If I give you the résumé of a guy I know, can you see which job openings here might be a good fit for him?"

"For sure," I said. "What kind of background does your friend have?"

"He's the manager of my gym," said my boss. I knew the gym. It was a large, upscale place. The manager of that gym would have to be a sharp guy, but could he make the transition to a job in a technology firm?

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"I'd love to see his résumé," I said. I got the résumé. The guy was accomplished in the fitness industry. I went back to my boss. "Here is a problem we have in our company, and almost every company has the same problem," I said.

"Our job specs are incredibly specific. Every hiring manager wants somebody who was born and raised in a petri dish to do their specific job. There isn't a lot of tolerance for candidates who come from different industries -- not at this salary level.

"In an entry-level job, sure, it's no problem -- I could talk a department manager into hiring a bright person with no experience at all. But at this pay level, every manager with a job opening is going to balk at your friend's résumé. They're going to say, 'I could find somebody with more relevant experience for that kind of money.'"

It was a great thing that my boss happened to make friends with the manager at his gym, because it helped raise awareness that our company was hurting itself by limiting the range of backgrounds in our new hires.

We talked to our managers about the fitness guy, and he got hired. You can guess the rest of the story. The new manager did an incredible job and got promoted several times. He came from a very different industry -- so what? It didn't matter. We pretend that industry experience is the be-all and end-all, but it's not.

People can pick up industry concepts and jargon. They can't pick up qualities like maturity, trustworthiness and the ability to solve problems in the moment. You can teach almost anything, but if you're going to invest time and money in teaching somebody new topics, teach them company-specific and industry-specific topics! Teach them procedures. Teach them the mechanics of your organization.

Don't hire someone because they've already performed the same job you want them to perform for you. Why would you hire someone who wants to keep doing exactly what they've already been doing, but in a different room?

The most important quality to look for in a new hire is comfort in their own skin, also known as confidence. I'm not talking about fake, buzzword-laden, bro-type brashness. That's the opposite of confidence. It's bluster -- just another screen to keep the raw and tender parts of ourselves out of the public glare. It's fake confidence. Don't fall for it.

Hire someone real, who knows who they are and what they bring. The more afraid of conflict you are, the harder it will be the first time you hire someone who is almost certainly going to challenge some of your decisions.

To overcome that fear, reframe the issue in your mind. It's not that your brilliant new hire is going to challenge your authority -- it's that they are going to make the quality of your decisions so much better! They are going to take some of the heavy burden of running your department off your shoulders. They are going to fill in pieces of the puzzle that you don't have.

Another old boss of mine always said "Hire into your weakness." If you're detailed and exacting, hire someone freewheeling and creative. If you're a bit of a space cadet, hire someone who will keep the trains running on time.

Hire the person who asks the most insightful questions at their job interview -- not the poor person who gives you the textbook answers and won't step out of the standard interview script to save their life.

If you want to see a job applicant's brain working, ask them questions like these:

1. What can I tell you about the company, the department, this position or me that would help you understand this assignment better?

A candidate's questions will tell you far more about them than their answers to your questions ever could.

2. How would you approach this assignment? Which issues or projects would you plan to tackle first, second and third?

3. You've seen some of the inside of this company now. We have a great opportunity in front of us and we also have our challenges and problems. What do you think we're doing right in the company so far, and where do we need to get better?

When you recruit employees in a human way, you change the quality of every interview conversation -- and improve the quality of your new hires, and your culture as well.

When you put aside the multibulleted job spec and hire people you trust, you stop thinking about job descriptions as boxes in an array of boxes that are supposed to fit neatly together to make a well-oiled machine. You know better. You know that human beings are not machines and that exciting human endeavors never break down into neat little boxes.

We humans can only fit together to make an awesome team when each of us has the support and the belief in themselves and one another to form trusting, human connections.

Trust is the glue that keeps your team together, and the fuel that keeps your organization moving ahead. There is no substitute for trust. We should be talking about trust and fear in our workplaces every day, but of course we don't -- because it's too scary to talk about!

When you're hiring, don't stress about whether an applicant has three years or only two years of experience with a particular tool. Don't worry about what kind of degree they earned. Focus on the person behind the résumé! Listen to their story. Your story is everything. It's how you reached the point where you stand right now.

Tell them your story, too. You are a human being yourself, not a robot. Tell them something you know you need help with.

Don't hire the applicant who says, "You have trouble with THAT? Oh, man -- you really need my help!"

Hire the person who listens to you and understands, because they struggle with various things, too. They don't have to supply an instant answer to your problem. You and they and the rest of the team will find it together.

You will never regret hiring someone who has all the characteristics you need -- and none of the "Essential Requirements" listed in the job ad. Let's be honest. Most of those requirements aren't the least bit essential.

We flatter ourselves that only highly trained specialists can fill our job openings but we know it's not true. Any halfway intelligent person can learn to perform almost any nontechnical, nonscientific white-collar job within a few months.

Hire the person who knows themselves already and who won't bow down to you or any other manager out of fear. Hire a lot of those people, and your company will win!