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Paying People for What They Know
A good friend of mine is a real-estate developer. He recently asked two contractors to bid on some work. The first contractor said the project was too complicated to bid and therefore he would only take the project on a ‘time and materials’ basis. In other words, he wanted to be paid for his time no matter how long it took to complete the job. The second contractor took a look at the work that needed to be done, offered a quick explanation of how he had solved similar problems in the past, and offered a fixed bid for the work. My friend hired the second contractor.
What was the difference between the contractors? Experience. The first contractor did not have the confidence to provide a bid because he did not have the experience to know what needed to be done. The second contractor had that confidence because of his previous experience. He knew what to do because he had done it before. In other words, the first contractor wanted to be paid to learn. The second contractor wanted to be paid for what he already knew.
Performance Principle: When you consider hiring or promoting someone, your job is to rule out the people who lack the experience to do the job. To do this, you need to find out what an individual has accomplished up to this point in his or her career. Ask people to describe for you in detail past accomplishments that are relevant to your open position. Listen carefully to their answers.
Individuals who lack first-hand experience cannot provide detailed, in-depth answers or a step-by-step description of how they solved a problem. Their answers are characterized by generalities and broad-brush statements.
In contrast, people with proven experience can describe their accomplishments in detail. They can give you an in-depth first person account of what they did, why it was important, and how they accomplished it. They are able to explain their personal role in creating these results.
Very few people have all the experience and accomplishments you would ideally like to have. But by following this approach to interviewing you will have a more realistic picture of the person you choose to hire. And this will allow you to obtain as much proven experience as possible in every person you bring into your organization.
Questions to Consider when promoting or hiring someone, you should know:
- What are their biggest accomplishments to date?
- What were the specific steps they followed to create those accomplishments?
- Why did they choose these strategies vs. other possible approaches?
