If you’ve ever been hired for any sort of job, you know that hiring managers look for two, specific things: First, qualifications that match those of the job description and second, how closely your past experience matches what the job might entail. It’s not unlike me looking for a replacement for a machine part. I want to make sure that the replacement is as close as possible to the part I’m replacing so that my machine can continue to work as it had in the past. Essentially, the way most managers hire is by looking in the rear-view mirror. They hire for the past.
If we were talking about organizations as industrial machines and people as replaceable parts, all you would need is your spec sheet (aka résumé) and some sort of way to verify that the spec sheet is accurate, say an interview, a mock assignment, a reference check, or all of the above.
But here’s the thing: Today’s organizations are not simply industrial machines and we aren’t merely replaceable machine parts, although many people’s experience both in the hiring and in the workplace itself make them feel that way.
So here’s a different idea that you’re going to want to hear whether you are looking to hire or be hired. Basically, it’s how we hire for the future, for the organization we want to become, and not for the organization you used to be.
Let’s think of an organization not as an industrial machine but instead as a network of interactions among people that happen throughout the day. There are interactions involving exchanging value, of knowledge, of the way we create our identities, of the relationships we form with one another. This network of interactions creates the organization. So, if we change that network—say, by someone new being brought in or someone leaving—the interactions change, the network changes, and therefore, the organization changes.
What this means is that anytime we change people, the organization itself changes; it transforms. The change may be small and subtle at first, but over time, the effects of these changes multiply and the organization as a whole transforms into something new. Hiring is a transformative act.
So, if you’re the one doing the hiring, your most important question is not, “Is this candidate the best person to do the job?” Instead, your most important question turns into, “Is this the person who can help us become who we want to become? Who we aspire to become?”
And if you’re the applicant, your most important question to the hiring manager is not, “Can you describe a typical day or week?” Rather, it is “What would you love to be able to do but can’t because I’m not yet on staff? Who can I can help you and the organization become?”
In that way, you are no longer merely a replaceable machine part. You become the key to the organization’s future success.
@dr.mark.reinvention How to Hire the Right Person & how to make sure YOU’RE that right person #hiring #jobhunting #career #hire #jobinterview #organization ♬ original sound – Mark “Reinvention Project” PhD