Can you tell me what the best method for choosing team members is? Should I hire for attitude, or for skill?

-- David Searson (dsearson@fastcompany.com), August 25, 2000

Answers

1. What You Know Changes, Who You Are Doesn't

Popeye was right: "I y'am what I y'am." The most common -- and fatal - - hiring mistake is to find someone with the right skills but the wrong mind-set and hire them on the theory, "We can change 'em."

Davidson's response? Forget it. "The single best predictor of future behavior is past behavior," he says. "Your personality is going to be essentially the same throughout your life." As evidence, he points to U.S. Air Force research on personality types that began in the 1950s. For decades, researchers tracked their subjects by observing their behavior and interviewing their families, friends, and colleagues. The conclusion? Basic personality traits did not change, Davidson says. "Introverts were introverts, extroverts were extroverts. The descriptions were constant."

Companies that ignore the Popeye Principle do so at their peril -- although the temptation is never far away. Ann Rhoades, executive vice president of human resources at Doubletree Hotels Corp., admits she's strayed on occasion. Rhoades is something of a legend in hiring circles. She spent much of her career at Southwest and is the executive most closely identified with its current hiring methodology. She joined the Phoenix-based hotel chain two years ago, soon after the merger that created it, to reinvent its culture by remaking its employee base.

Everything about the new Doubletree culture emphasizes freedom, informality, flexibility. Rhoades's acid-test interview question for job candidates is, "Tell me about the last time you broke the rules." A long silence or a noncommittal response is an indication that a candidate is trying to figure out what she wants to hear. "The good ones," she says, "don't care."

Rhoades recently hired a senior financial analyst who told her he never broke the rules. When he sensed that was the wrong answer, he changed his story. Rhoades didn't buy it, but his qualifications were so strong that she made the hire. After all, she thought, maybe he'd change. Think again. "He was so by-the-book, he read from the book," she marvels. "Literally! 'It says here on page 10 that I can't do that.'" He quit before Rhoades could fire him.

-- David Searson (dsearson@fastcompany.com), August 25, 2000.

You Can't Find What You're Not Looking For

Bill Byham, perhaps the world's foremost authority on hiring, is president and CEO of Pittsburgh-based Development Dimensions International ( DDI ) . He's also the father of a hiring methodology that goes by many names ( "Targeted Selection" is the most popular ) but revolves around a simple idea: the best way to select people who'll thrive in your company is to identify the personal characteristics of people who are already thriving and hire people just like them. In the Byham model, companies work to understand their star performers, identify their target behaviors and attitudes, and then develop interview questions to find people with those attributes.

Byham is quick to emphasize that these questions are about facts and achievements, not psychoanalysis. "The worst thing you can do is ask managers to pretend they're psychologists," he says. "You want to take the interpretation out of it. Behavior predicts behavior. When interviewers ask theoretical questions -- 'tell me about your father' -- they don't get useful data."

Ann Rhoades is using just that approach at Doubletree. She's hired DDI to conduct interviews with 300 employees to analyze the personal attributes of her standouts and washouts. ( Employees don't know in which category they fall. ) She's using the results to create a database of "dimensions" for success and to search for people who fit the dimensions.

Take the case of reservation agents. Based on her interviews, Rhoades believes there are seven dimensions for success on the job: practical learning, teamwork, tolerance for stress, sales ability, attention to detail, adaptability/flexibility, and motivation. Tolerance for stress means "an ability to exhaust frustrations and maintain effectiveness on the job" and "observe emotions displayed in body language." Behavioral flexibility means a person can "handle each call on an individual basis" and "prepare [for] each call with the thought that positively outrageous service is the ultimate goal." Rhoades has designed specific interview questions and exercises to probe for these and other attributes.

-- David Searson (dsearson@fastcompany.com), August 25, 2000.

Everyone has talent. Hire character, then find the sculpture within the stone.

-- Tony B (cromagnet@hotmail.com), September 22, 2000.

When I put together a temporary project team, I alway ensure diversity of thought by including people with different work styles. These work styles are determined by a work preference inventory. I try to create a balance between those whose focus is on quick results (production), those who want detail (analysis), those who are concerned with people issues (relationships), and those who are highly creative (dreamers). The dreamers come up with the ideas, the analyzers cross the t's and dot the i's, the relationships ensure that people concens are considered, and the producers push to get the work done by the deadline. This way I am more able to ensure that I'm not blindsided by some aspect of the project that wasn't considered.

As for permanent teams, I would agree that hiring for aptitude and attitude is more important than hiring for skills, UNLESS there is a critical need for the skills NOW. I also consider the work preference styles to ensure a balance of differnet styles on my permanent team. The diversity, though it creates conflict sometimes, keeps our team in balance.

-- Jeff Gossett (gossettjl@bowater.com), September 29, 2000.

Don't make the mistake I made. I hired for skill and now have an HR nightmare on my hands. Attitude is everything! An employee with a positive attitude and who is willing to learn, will develope skills....that is, unless you are hiring a heart surgeon!

-- Tony Di Caprio (tdicaprio@worldnet.att.net), January 03, 2001.

We took a look at that very challenge way back in our fourth issue. Hire for Attitude, Train for Skill -- http://www.fastcompany.com/ online/04/hiring.html

Heath

-- Heath Row (heath@fastcompany.com), January 04, 2001.