In our professional lives, we are constantly making people decisions. It won’t be unfair to say that our overall professional success relies on our people choices and how effective are our interactions with them. Whether we are making teams, trying to find the right candidate, rewarding performers, forging partnerships and JVs or expressing our company culture values and progress, we need to connect with people in a immersive and engaging way.
Engaging with people starts with knowing them.
There is lot more to people than just skills and experiences. For example, we have to ask the following key questions when we re finding someone to work with us on our teams:
- Is the person motivated to do the job?
- Is the person manageable?
- Does the person fit in the team?
For making connections way more real than what we have in today’s resume driven world, we have to rely on in-person interactions that allow you to:
- Look for the “PASSION” Factor
- A special spark in his eyes that show excitement for the job
- Passionate people do not need to be motivated and are self starters
- Involve others when deciding
- Listening to other colleagues’ opinions helps viewing a candidate in different ways.
- Allowing the future team to meet candidates helps them find out their mutual chemistry
- Meet in different situations, more than once
- Conducting the interview just in an office environment would never reveal certain personality traits of candidates.
Leader Speak:
Leaders from across the world have found the need for better understanding of people’s personality. Leading professionals from the tech world are leading the charge, but all industries are following soon:
Confidence and efficacy are the key drivers for success. Rather hire the top graduate from a tier 2 university vs. someone at the bottom of the ladder at a tier 1.
— Mark Bartels, StumbleUpon CEO (per Malcolm Gladwell’s presentation)
The first thing to look for when searching for a great employee is somebody with a personality that fits with your company culture. Most skills can be learned, but it is difficult to train people on their personality. If you can find people who are fun, friendly, caring and love helping others, you are on to a winner.
— Richard Branson, Founder of Virgin Group
To address this, we have made Shrofile, a simple video content creation tool – where professionals can express themselves using series of short 30 second videos.