Executive Briefing: Vol.1 Issue 8 distributed by Amerinet - January 2009

Have you ever hired someone who seemed to be a great fit for you and your organization but ultimately didn't meet your expectations?

Have you ever been hired by someone with whom you subsequently learned you were not compatible? In your personal life, have you ever dated someone who seemed ideal initially only to discover later that the match wasn't as good as was originally hoped?

The Synergy Organization's four-factor theory contains two columns and two rows. In the first row, the left column considers content (Can candidates do the job? Do candidates know what to do?) and the right column considers process (Will candidates do the job? How will candidates behave?). So this four-box model considers not only if candidates have the capacity to do the job, but equally and if not more importantly, whether they will be a good fit for the job.

The left column also reveals inherent weaknesses of traditional "paper matches" between generic job descriptions and professionally prepared resumes. At best, these narratives typically explain only what the employee will be required to do and what the candidate has done. Too often, an overreliance is placed on what the candidate knows and has allegedly done. In contrast, the right column stresses the importance of identifying how the job needs to be done and how the candidate is likely to behave. Interviewers must also focus on those make-or-break variables for leader success: style, personality and the relative fit for the job.

To get an accurate picture of a candidate, we recommend evaluating their "heads," "hearts" and "feet." The head represents what they know; the heart represents their passions (how driven they are to help other people); and their feet represent their actions (e.g., how they've developed productive relationships, generated new business, etc.).Interviewers can use this model in many ways to help select the right people and avoid costly hiring mistakes.

Many healthcare professionals have witnessed the revolving-door syndrome occurring in key leadership positions. Positions with the highest turnover likely are ones with unclear or conflicting expectations. These expectations predispose organizations and employees to needless difficulties and failure. In addition, "snipers" or "Monday-morning quarterbacks" take potshots at others' hiring decisions. These people, who are reluctant to be pinned down in advance about their expectations of candidates, are exactly the same ones who say, "Well, I can't really tell you what I think about this person right now, but I'll know the right one when I see him/her."

Using behavioral profiles can help identify unique needs of the position more accurately and cost-effectively by getting buy-in of the position's major constituents on the front end - before you advertise, interview, hire and get second-guessed when that hire doesn't work out. Another example is promotion within an organization: a dedicated, longtime employee asked to take on management responsibilities and subsequently found to lack essential ingredients for being a manager. People who end up failing as managers were neither comfortable nor effective in persuading others to do what was required. They neither stood up to others nor had the backbone to stand their ground in the face of resistance. They may have wanted more or less autonomy than the new position provided. In many cases, candidates likely weren't interviewed thoroughly and effectively up front, and this situation could have been avoided.