HYDER – Huffington Post Attitude > Experience article

What I’ve Learned from Hiring Hundreds of People for More Than 20 Years: Attitude and Aptitude Always Trump Experience

 “Help Wanted: Experience Required.” With two simple words, you may have just lost out on the perfect employee for your company. In my IT, web development, video, and digital marketing companies in HYDER Industries, several director-level people came to us with no experience in the industries they now work.

So why did we hire them in the first place? Because they fit! We’ve all run across great people who make us think, “I really like her. I wish I could hire her.” Well – hire her for an entry level position and launch her into your company’s culture.

Unless you’re hiring a space shuttle pilot or heart surgeon, experience is really secondary. In Wisconsin, there is a shortage of CNC machinists and welders. Even if you need someone with those specific skills, wouldn’t you prefer a positive team player with a good attitude that will bolster your organization rather than drag it down?

Through on the job training, coaching, and complete immersion into the business, you will find that people with attitude and aptitude that fit your organization will adapt their job skills and experience until they find a career path that suits both of you. The great ones will work their way up to upper level management positions directing your teams toward success and growth.

And they will attract more people with the right attitude and aptitude – they tend to flock together! Great leaders aren’t afraid to surround themselves with the best people. As the late R.H. Grant said: “When you hire people that are smarter than you, you prove you are smarter than they are.” And in this economy, there are a lot of smart people available.

Sure, it is a lot easier to measure experience.  But what does 5 or 10 years really tell you? It’s not even math, just counting. Is that really a useful way to decide which person is going to get your money?

As Thomas Jefferson said, “Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.”

What is the right mental attitude? It is more difficult to “measure” than experience. It’s a bit like good art; hard to define but you know what you like when you see it:

Attitude - disposition, feeling; and

Aptitude – innate capability.

Positive Attitude

It’s more than a belief that the glass is half-full. Positive people are good partners who put the team ahead of themselves. Even when they aren’t 100 percent behind a team decision, they will quickly embrace the task and move ahead, instead of looking back and grumping about it. That is a good team rule, by the way; we can disagree in the meeting, but once we decide and step out into the hallway, we’re all on the same page.

Even positive people get bummed now and then. They not only bounce back quickly, they also look for opportunity in disappointment and try to learn from it.

Curious

You could call this “Willingness to Learn,” but that doesn’t go far enough; we all have to learn new skills in any job. Curious people go beyond willingness to learn; they naturally want to know more. When something gets messed up, they seek to find root causes rather than look to place blame (After all 95% of mistakes are process problems, not people problems!). Instead of firehosing new ideas, they consider them and add their own thoughts – and sometimes that leads to a business breakthrough!

Curious people are also not stuck with a position. They understand that they have biases and try to recognize them so bias doesn’t prevent them from seeing another way or another opportunity.

Confident

A strong ego can be a good thing, but only if a person has learned to keep their ego in check and use it as fuel for the engine rather than as an accelerant to burn down stuff! Truly confident people tend to be flexible and are willing to change as they acquire new information or when conditions change. They are also willing take chances and don’t get bogged down by analysis paralysis.

Questioning Attitude

Why? It’s one of the first sentences we utter as children. As adults, we really need to ask that question more often. “Why are we doing this?” “Why do we do it this way?” We learn in root cause analysis to keep asking the question until we think we have all the answers – then ask it one more time, then again. You’ll be surprise what you can learn after you think you’ve learned it all! Such people are also willing to question themselves because they are more interested in getting results than doing it their way.

Team Player

Those are all signs of a strong personality, one that could tend to dominate if one is not careful. That’s why it’s so important to look for team players, not empire builders or, even worse, bullies. Team players use their talents to build up others, add value to the team, avoid dominating discussions, and seek better results for your company.

Passion

When people truly care about something, they will go the extra mile. Get on their train, because it’s bound to be an interesting ride!

Or, just hire the next guy who walks through the door with five years of experience.