2 steps to make sure you have the right staff

By Nathan Jamail

There is an old (but true) saying: “The best candidate doesn’t always get the job.”

If you have ever made a bad hiring decision, don’t worry — you are in good company. And while nothing can truly ensure success in this process, there are three things a leader can do to help ensure they have the right people on their team.

1. Interview before you have an opening. Build your bench. This means managers should not wait to hire until they have an opening. Rather, they should prepare for an opening. Many bad hiring decisions are made because of the urgent need to fill an open spot without the time to properly interview candidates and choose the best one. Building the bench is also a great way to allow a leader to hold current employees to high achievement.
2. Don’t hire a victim. No skill or experience can outweigh the bad effects of a victim. No matter how good the track record or how well the interview went, under no circumstances should a leader who desires to build top teams and hold their people accountable hire a person with “victim disease.” A person with victim disease believes it is always someone else’s fault when they fail or run into obstacles. They often believe they work harder than everybody else and that their former supervisors or coworkers did things wrong. This person never takes responsibility for failures, or when they do, they have an excuse that points to something or someone else. Most importantly, a person with victim disease rarely knows they have it.

Read the last step in “Hire fast, fire faster” in Round the Table.