E = Enthusiastic
A recent article on a website for hiring managers posed the question:
If you have to choose, do you hire for experience or attitude?
Their answer was clear—HIRE FOR ATTITUDE!
The reason is simple—you can train skills but it’s almost impossible to train someone to have a positive attitude… they either have it or they don’t! Attitude is a product of one’s mindset. And mindsets run deep in an individual’s personal and emotional life. Every experienced manager knows this is true, because almost every manager I know has that one person on their team who exhibits a firmly-entrenched NEGATIVE attitude.
Motivational author and speaker Jim Rohn agreed with the concept of hiring for attitude or mindset. One of our subscribers (Joan Augsburger) sent us an on-target article from his archives where he quotes a service-based company that embraces this principle. In their advertising, they say,
We don’t teach our people to be nice… we hire nice people!
Attitude matters because it has a direct impact on performance. Many studies in the workplace have shown that an enthusiastic and optimistic frame of mind has a measurable positive impact on a worker’s productivity and resulting profitability!
Why is that?
Enthusiasm and optimism are self-fulfilling mindsets—a person with a “can do” attitude usually accomplishes what they set out to do, whether it is solving a difficult problem; devising a creative alternative; learning a new skill; achieving a certain result; or overcoming a challenging obstacle.
Up Close and Personal
I’ve told stories about David Payne before—how he took over managing a failing factory in his company and turned it into one of the organization’s highest profit centers. In his factory-wide meetings, he told his beleaguered employees, “You are our company’s SECRET WEAPON. You are so good at your jobs, that our competition is SCARED TO DEATH OF YOU! They are deathly afraid that you will put them out of business with the incredible work you do!”
The same employees who were failing under incompetent management, were able to THRIVE and SUCCEED under David’s positive, enthusiastic, and optimistic leadership! Yes, David was also extremely COMPETENT as a leader! But his positive attitude infused everything he said and did in his leadership role. AND IT AFFECTED THE ATTITUDE OF HIS EMPLOYEES, who ended up producing measurable and profitable outcomes as a result!
IT CAN HAPPEN WITH YOUR LEADERSHIP AS WELL!
How do you determine if a particular candidate has a positive attitude?
Ask the candidate questions like these:
- Why should we hire you?
- What sets you apart from the run-of-the-mill employee?
- Why do you think you are particularly well-equipped to solve the problems you will encounter in this position?
- What makes you think you will be able to learn and grow into the challenges of this job?
Ask them to give examples from their work history that illustrate their positive mindset:
- Tell us about a problem you faced in the past and how you went about addressing it.
- How did your positive spirit help you deal with a difficult challenge at work?
- Have you ever faced a disappointing or discouraging barrier at work? Tell us about it.
Be prepared to ask follow-up questions, to explore their answer in greater detail. And look for clues in their answers that point to a positive, enthusiastic, and optimistic mindset.
If you want more great tips on hiring, don’t miss the last post in this series! And give us a call if you need help—we’re leadership experts who believe that you will achieve extraordinary results when you unlock the leadership potential in everyone in your organization!
Until next time… Yours for better leaders and better organizations,
Dr. Jim Dyke – “The Boss Doctor” ™ helping you to BE a better boss and to HAVE a better boss!
