Thursday, September 24, 2015

Most Important Factors When You Hire Management

When companies decide they need to hire someone in a managerial or executive position, they often limit themselves by restricting the search exclusively to individuals with specific experience. However, there are other factors that may be equally, if not much more important when selecting the ideal candidate. This discussion on management is equally relevant to those who "hire" a Real Estate professional, or financial professional, because the same qualities, assets, and behaviors are significant indicators of future performance, etc.
 
Obviously, experience or lack of experience is an important consideration. Companies want an individual who has "been there before" at the helm when an important decision needs to be made. However, all too often, experience does not always transfer directly from one situation to the next, and what worked under one set of circumstances might not work under others. Companies should realize that experience should be but one factor in determining who should lead and be in charge. Other equally, if not more important factors, include: expertise; skill-set; willingness to learn and adapt; and willingness to work hard and smart.

Expertise can be simply described as having a thorough understanding and capability, by possessing certain training, having certain skills, and having achieved certain accomplishments in a certain area. Most of us consider someone to be an "expert" when that individual is the "go-to guy" about a specific set of circumstances, conditions, challenges or obstacles. Understand that mere experience is far different than meaningful expertise!

One's skill-set is basically "what they bring to the table." These skills are what they are capable of using to meet certain expectations. Companies should evaluate which skills are more important and essential to them, what the company would like to achieve, and what their hopes, and expectations for the individual hired for this position are.

A characteristic often overlooked, probably because it is difficult to know for a certainty, is one's willingness to learn, learn from others, and adapt to changing circumstances. Anyone who has ever held a management position, or consults in the area, knows how essential these traits are to effective leadership. Yet, unfortunately, this area is nearly always overlooked.

Even more overlooked is someone's true willingness to work hard, but even more importantly than hard, effectively, efficiently, productively and smart. All candidates will always insist they are that type of individual, yet few really are.

As you can see, there are many factors that determine who will best lead. Experience, while important, is not only not the only factor of importance, but often not nearly the most important factor. In fact, there are often times when someone with excellent credentials in terms of experience, has become stagnated and distant (or even worse) from having "lived in the ivory tower." When the hiring process precludes people solely because of supposed experience (by the way, companies overly dependent on degrees are even making a more serious error), very often the best candidate for the specific situation is overlooked. In today's changing world, companies need to rethink this process

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