Commitment, passion, strong values… Which are the features we shall look for when choosing adequate professional profiles for our company?
Knowing whether the person you have chosen to be a part of your team or company is the most appropriate for the job is not an easy task. Expertise and knowledge are the most reliable tools, a priori, in order to define a professional profile suitable for our company, but values and how do they fit into corporate philosophy are becoming increasingly decisive factors when hiring.
Jim Collins, one of the most respected management gurus in the world, provides us with some clues about the general features we must take into account:
The right candidate shares the values of the company
Companies that are most committed to their employees are capable of building a corporate culture inside which their workers develop a strong sense of belonging. Detecting this behavioural pattern is not an easy task, but it is crucial to choose those who show a predisposition towards those basic corporate values, and to never let them go.
The right candidate shows a certain degree of autonomy
If we have to be always managing while paying close attention to some people, constantly motivating and making decisions for them, we most certainly have made the wrong choice. When looking for a candidate to fill a certain position, we must try to choose disciplined profiles and people with a strong drive to perform their duties properly and a sense of commitment to the company’s goals.
The right candidate meets his obligations
We haven’t been wrong if the person we have chosen considers commitment as something beyond question. On the one hand, he will stand for what he says; on the other hand, he will not provide expectations beyond reality.
The right candidate sees work as a responsibility, not as a duty
Being aware of one’s accountability is something far from just complying one’s obligations. Right candidates are capable of discerning between their list of duties and the real reasons that made the company hire them in the first place, and what is expected from them eventually.
The right candidate is passionate about what he does
As a popular aphorism says: “working hard for something we don’t care about is called stress, and for something we love is called passion”. The right candidate, the one we choose, must stay away from apathy. Quite the opposite, he works focused and is capable of adding that “special something” into the mix in order to make things happen.
The right candidate shows “window and mirror” maturity
There’s a key behavioural pattern that provides us with many clues. The right candidate praises and gives public credit to his team when things work out well, and avoids pointing at them when mistakes and setbacks occur; as Jim Collins wrote, “they look in the mirror to apportion responsibility”.
Source: How The Mighty Fall And Why Some Companies Never Give In, by Jim Collins