Good Morning,
I wanted to write you my nocturnal reflections about the work we did yesterday, to clear up any misunderstandings and to give, if possible, a further contribution to our goal of finding people for your company who can provide that extra something, of creating a united team that is focused on achieving business goals, of having a peaceful and productive environment that is in line with your expectations and those of your customers.
Perhaps you have had the same reflections, but I wanted to take this chance to remind you that for the task of staff selection that you entrusted me with, particularly with regards to the manager position though this also applies in general, the goal was not to find the "perfect" person for your company (after all, perfection does not exist, not in this world), with extensive experience in this specific sector, and with fully developed technical and managerial skills for this field (otherwise the hiring selection would have been handled differently, and there would be no need to do a personality assessment for their attitudes and behaviors).
What we were looking for, were people with certain specific technical requirements (sufficient language skills, schooling, and experience) but most importantly someone with great human capabilities and social skills, willing to question themselves and self-evaluate, willing to learn continuously, to fit in with those who already work in the company and help them to improve, to have a good relationship with customers, to create a real team where everybody gives their best, where people help each other, to be surrounded by motivated staff who push to achieve both personal and business goals, and don’t get lost in gossip, complaints or criticism etc ... etc ...
And once you made a choice based on these characteristics, the need to assess the candidate’s compatibility with the team you already have, the empathy that you yourself have with the candidate, the social chemistry that develops...
This is because the foundation of any company is its people. Not its buildings, equipment, or scenery. It is the people who make the difference.
Indeed this was all covered yesterday, with you and the candidates, and we even made examples about this point.
One more example: I can have the most beautiful computer program in the world, but if my staff don’t know how to use it and, more importantly, don’t understand its importance, if they don’t see how useful it can be, if the data isn’t given to the right people, if nobody reads the results from the statistical analysis, or reads them but doesn’t use them etc ... etc ... then this computer program is effectively worthless.
On the other hand, I can have people who know nothing about a sector, such as the candidate yesterday who had never had any experience with spas, but suddenly found himself having to manage the largest spa in Europe. And despite knowing absolutely nothing about spas, still managed to carry out his role optimally and with great results. How is that possible? What’s the secret to his success? Nothing but his will, his determination, his discipline, his motivation. In other words, his human qualities, his attitude and behavior.
That is exactly what you yourself did to create your own company: you threw yourself into the playing field, without all the experience you have today, without all the technical skills, without the tools we now have available, but with a strong will, motivation, discipline, and an ability to dream out of the box and maintain clear goals.
Once we have chosen and hired people according to their human characteristics and attitudes we can, therefore, have very ambitious goals because we know that the people we have will follow us and fight with us, for us, for our goals which, therefore, must be very clearly defined (note: I do not know if you noticed, but all the people yesterday said they are goal oriented and want to discuss the objectives).
On the contrary, people who may be very respectable from a technical point of view, with impressive studies, fancy titles, and a résumé as thick as a textbook, but that lack the human qualities required, not only don’t create anything for us, but can actually destroy all that is good.
The experience with Randy is a good example in this case. Randy had all the technical skills, school requirements, experience, etc ... etc ... however, if evaluated with our method, he wouldn’t even be invited to an interview, because his attitudinal and behavioral characteristics were shown to be unsuitable.
To conclude, my conviction is that every person hired, with or without me doesn’t matter, must have, beyond some obvious technical skills required for the role (obviously you wouldn’t ask a dishwasher who only speaks Finnish to immediately become the manager of a New York restaurant), the correct attitudes and behaviors suitable both personally and in relation to the group, or we may select people maybe even very good technically, otherwise we risk hiring people who may be qualified technically, but are missing the “human” characteristics that the company needs to grow well and profitably.
I apologize if I’ve gotten a little too in depth in this letter, but I think that this too is part of my role and, above all, I am confident in my ability to convey my thoughts to you.
Have a nice day,
John
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