Tweet

Hire the Attitude, Train the Skills

Guest post by: Gary Hernbroth

Article Overview: Trying to force a round peg into a square hole is insanity. This article offers advice on why you should look for people to join your organization who may not have the exact skill set necessary, but have a great attitude from which to build on -- rather than the other way around. Poor attitude, no matter the skills, can undermine your success!

Hire the Attitude, Train the Skills

One of the saddest things I hear from managers when an employee doesn’t make the cut beyond their probationary (usually 90-day) period is “… and they really shined in their interview.” Indeed, even the judges on “American Idol” make mistakes on their talent selection process, too – nobody is perfect. But maybe you should take stock of your interviewing process and skills as a “talent agent.” Maybe you are unknowingly looking for the fit built to fail.

In today’s economy, plenty of people are looking for work, though not necessarily in their previously chosen profession. The market seems to be flooded with mid-level managers who are waiting tables, etc., just to get through the rough times. This has its up-side and down-side. The up-side is, you can afford to be a bit more picky. The down-side is, you may not be able to find that proverbial “perfect fit” and have to invest in more training time and effort if they come on board. Not a deal-breaker, just a bit more patience and cost.

Don’t be so quick to fall in love with an experienced candidate that has the baggage of a poor, indifferent, or shaky attitude. Your customers and business will not want to put up with it. People will likely forgive an employee who comes up short but is honestly trying. They vilify a talented “duck-like” employee who doesn’t apply themselves or quacks about their lot in life.

It should begin at the selection process. I’ve been successful over the years by embracing the idea of hiring the attitude and then training the skill. If you have ever been impressed by experience on a resume but had funny feelings about a person’s attitude or “fit” with your team, you know what I mean. Often, it can be like trying to plug a square peg into a round hole.

Great skills mixed with attitude problems can spread among your current team faster than a virus, and severely affect your customers. A grumpy veteran waiter is still grumpy. It follows that people usually fall into one of four categories:

* Want to, but don’t know how (high enthusiasm, low skills – a training issue)

* Want to, and know how (your best “eagles”, the sharpest people!)

* Don’t want to, and don’t know how (apathy and ignorance; attitude/motivation alongwith a training issue)

* Don’t want to, and know how (Your biggest problem “ducks”; lack of initiative/motivation, poor attitude, mixed with lack of skills)

Positions in your organization are not rocket science – they can be taught. What cannot be taught is how someone feels about their job, their role, their motivation for putting out quality work, feeling the pride of being on a successful team, pleasing the customers/members, etc. This sometimes happens when unemployment is higher – people feel frustrated that they have had to “settle” for a job that they might be over-qualified for. This intangible inner fire issue, without the right attitude within their hearts and minds when they walk in your door, will be difficult for you to later lift to the levels you require. Not impossible, just tougher. And forget about trying to “dumb it down” for these ducks or make exceptions for them so that they don't quack – be careful, the eagles are watching!

I have seen a poor attitude from a skilled worker tear apart a sharp team, and it is horrible to witness. I call it waste. They are wasting their talent with a poor attitude, and there is nothing sadder. And it can infect your strong workers and their upright attitudes in little time. They begin to wonder how to also cut corners, settle for medocrity or "good" rather than "great", etc.

If you try and cannot get any “lift” in attitude from your ducks, I say it’s better to cut your losses and bring someone on who has a great attitude and is willing and able to learn the skills of the job. Those eagles will be helping you and others to soar in no time.

Related Articles
  Is there really a Labour Squeeze in Alberta?
  How To Evaluate Your People In 2 Simple Steps
  Attitude Have It Hire It
  5 Traits of Good Franchisees
  How Are You Doing with Hiring?
  New Tricks
  Hire a Sales Rep - Not a Product Rep
  Hiring New Team Members
  What Employers Really Look For When Hiring A College Graduate
  TRUTH IN INTERVIEW - Part I
  Hire offshore DOT NET developers to get efficient web development services
  LEADERSHIP IS NOT MARKETING FEELINGS BUT DEMONSTRATING ATTITUDE
  Do You have a Selling Attitude?
  Hire Smart: Hire Attitude - Train Skill
  Are You Customer Centric?
  Do you have Attitude?
  Eight Customer Service Secrets to “Jumpstarting” Your Customer Service During Challenging Times!
  All ya need is Attitude and Ownership to have selling success
  Are You Really Ready to Hire an Employee?
  Fail in Favor of the Customer

Article Tags: attitude, hiring, selection process, skill



Related Forum Posts
Re: THE SECRET TO SUCCESS IS ALL IN YOUR HEAD...RIGHT NOW!!! - Yes, you are right Mal. Attitude plays a big role in it. Robert
Re: Feedback on a New Company Name - [quote="litekepr":1krjv27f]Not talking about a domain name. The sites I use to promote the tour business are already established. The idea is to have a name which includes what I do with that division of my business - it needs to be more personalized and professional instead just saying I'm Nikki and I coordinate tours. The SEO stuff is being taken care of on sites and blogs and other avenues. Anyway, I'm getting a lot of great feedback about the name and the search engines bringing up new posts and many older posts by me and about me that all point to my sites. Interesting perk I hadn't thought about. Shri[/quote:1krjv27f] Hi Shri, While I kind of see where you're coming from... but if the name is too long or descriptive, chances are it won't be very catchy or easy to remember. For instance, there's a company in Toronto called "BizLaunch" and their tagline used to be "We Train Entrepreneurs" (so that people would immediately understand what their business and website does). I think they've now changed their tagline to "Where entrepreneurs start", but the point is that "BizLaunch" sounds a million times better than if they had named their business "We Train Entrepreneuers". I think with some work, you could easily brand the name of your business (whatever you end up choosing) with the nature of its activities.
Re: Five Personality Traits of Successful Business Owners - 1. Focus 2. Ability to Adapt 3. Hard Work 4. Good planning 5. People Skills
Re: Moderators on vacation - Well what happens if you own a store or bar/restaurant? You're up at the crack of dawn to do prep work, and the last one there late at night closing... open 7 days a week... what can such an entrepreneur do for time off? Hire a trusted manager?
Re: What to do at the first roadblock? - Upon first discouragement, dig in and see if things are as they seem. Sometimes, even though there are several products out there that appear comparable, they are no match. Maybe they do don't a good job of what they are intended for, or maybe there are several glitches in their system, or perhaps their customer service just plain stinks. Decide how you can "one up" all of these things and decide that you are going to create a better product that more people would want. Attitude is 95% of the battle. If you feel defeated before you've done any research on any of the other products, you're doing yourself a huge disservice. Give yourself a chance and see if you can be the BEST in every way. This will get you far no matter what the venture.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

THE “SECRET RECIPES” OF LEADERSHIP

Sales Courage and Resilience

Top 5 Tips for Better Online Ads

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.