Recruiting the right people for your team is a constant challenge. The process goes far beyond the technical skills. You need someone who compliments your existing team as well as someone who knows how to be a team player.
In this article, I point you to two other resources which have been invaluable to me in the hiring engineers. The first is a good read and very helpful. The second resource became so important to me and my fellow hiring managers, that it was discussed after every interview.
Compliment, Not Necessarily Culture Fit
Author Patty McCord
As the Chief Talent Officer for Netflix from 1998 to 2012, Patty McCord is credited with reinventing HR and developing new approaches to hiring high tech employees. Her book Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility is on my To Read pile but I haven’t gotten to it yet. What put it there was this HBR article: How to Hire.
In it, she advocates hiring members that compliment your team but don’t necessarily “fit” within your culture. I spent years looking for culture fits. Some worked out, some absolutely did not. A few of her major points are:
- Learn to recognize great matches – the musician story was interesting
- Engage managers in the hiring process – recruiters don’t always understand the intricacies of the actual work
- Recruiters should be business partners – I’ve seen too many companies that treat them as a necessary evil
- Recruiting is a way of life – no matter what your company does, recruiting is its other business
When I finish Powerful, I’ll write a review.
The Ideal Team Player
Humble, hungry, and smart. Beyond the technical skills, those are the three most important things you’re looking for in a team player.
I didn’t come up with that. Patrick Lencioni did in his book The Ideal Team Player. Written as a parable — as most of his books are — this easy read provides vivid examples of people and how their humility, hunger, and smarts (people smarts, not book smarts) make a profound impact on their ability to be team players.
Humble
Humble people are incredible team builders. They praise the work of others. They set the team above themselves and talk in terms of “we” and not “I” when giving credit.
When interviewing, ask questions about previous group projects. You may need to dig just a little to find humble, team-crediting responses. The interview is, of course, about that person sitting across from you and they want to look their best. But if you ask some leading, team-oriented questions, you’ll be able to see if they give credit to others. The book provides other example questions to ferret out all three categories.
Hungry
Hungry people are always ready for more. Ready for another challenge. Ready to learn and grow. As a manager, you don’t have to try to push them into taking on more responsibility by dangling a raise in front of them. They’re going to want that responsibility of their own accord. The raise you give them afterward is just icing on the cake.
During interviews, most people are hungry. At least they seem that way. Making sure they stay hungry after the interview is the challenge. Ask questions about times they took on additional responsibilities. Look for volunteerism.
Smart
All engineers are smart. Well, I hope so. It would be hard to become an engineer if you weren’t smart. These smarts, though, are people smarts. Every team player needs to have and use common sense when dealing with other people. They need to be able to gauge their fellow human beings and at least have an inkling of the undercurrents in the room.
Hiring for this trait can be a challenge, especially in a short interview. One trait I’ve noticed which people smart people all seem to have is a curiosity about other people. If you’re doing a panel interview, send someone down early to visit with the candidate. Have them say something like, “My last meeting ended early so I came on in to wait.” Then have them engage in some small talk. Since they’re waiting on the others in the panel to begin the interview, your early bird panel member can talk about themselves a bit. Maybe reference a hobby or a challenge they had earlier that morning when they were getting their kids ready for school. If the candidate bites on this and asks questions — especially if they show true interest — they probably have some people smarts.
Two Outta Three Ain’t Bad?
One of the cool things the book goes into are descriptions of people who only have one or two of the three traits. For example, if someone is smart but lacks the other two, they are classified as The Charmer. Humble and hungry but not smart: The Accidental Mess-Maker.
There are lots of other examples and you’ll probably recognize many of them in your past or present co-workers.
The Final Takeaway
Hiring is one part science and one part art. Practice it every day. Ask your current team members interview questions and study their responses. Unless your company is expanding rapidly or has a lot of turnover (let’s hope for the former rather than the latter,) you probably don’t get to do that many interviews so do everything you can to work on this skill between interviews. You want this skill honed when it comes time to use it.