Hiring Employees

You Must Take a Few Chances

by Dr. Todd DeWett

Hiring:  so vital, but so often neglected.  One of the most neglected aspects of hiring is honesty.  After
you have amassed a huge pile of applications, selected a few to interview and initiated contact – do
not feed them a line.  It is called a realistic job preview and there is evidence that using them helps
reduce unmet expectations after someone accepts the job.  It is a nice hedge against turnover. 

The “job preview” part is not a problem for most firms.  They are accurate in describing the specific
duties the person will be asked to complete on a regular basis.  It’s the “realistic” part that causes
some fumbles. 

Assuming that no workplace is perfect – I am sure you will agree that is true – you need to tell them
not just about the job, but life in general inside the organization.  Including some of the warts. 

I recall an internship I took during my time in business school.  I was interviewing with the President
of a small software firm.  He was trying to impress upon me how frugal the firm was in an effort to
manage their cash flow.  At one point he told me to follow him out of his office and into the men’s
restroom.  As the door opened and a foul odor smacked me in the face he said, “See, the floors are
dirty and the urinal stinks.  You sure you want to work here?”  I did, and thanks to his honesty and
candor, there were no big surprises.  I knew exactly what I was getting into.  Do the same for your
candidates.

Down to decision time.  Several people have been interviewed and it is time to choose a new
colleague.  Who do you pick?  I like to think about the Safe One, the Superstar and the Rabble-
Rouser. 

If there are enough people involved in the decision making process, my experience tells me that the
Safe One usually wins.  This is the person who is qualified, though not necessarily the most qualified. 
He has a nice demeanor and is not obviously a jerk.  He likely ranked second or third for many of the
people voting in the process.  Safe play, but not likely a superstar.  This guy often wins because the
Superstar scares people. 

“We won’t be able to afford him.”  “We won’t be able to make him happy and keep him.”  Secretly, a
few think to themselves, “He’ll make me look bad.”  Assuming he is also not an obvious jerk, he often
loses for these very reasons.  Nice job embracing mediocrity. 

Without a few superstars your organization will not be a superstar.  It is better to have loved and lost
than to never have loved at all – at least I believe that.  If you get burned one too many times by a
Superstar, fine, revisit the issue – until then, go for the very best one you can get and enjoy the ride.
Finally, we have the Rabble-Rouser.  This is a guy with sufficient, if not strong, credentials who is
most unlike the prototypical employee currently in the group.  He looks different, has a very different
educational or professional background, communicates with a different style, dresses differently, who
knows. 

Most people flee from the Rabble-Rouser as someone who simply “will not fit in.”  People think they
will somehow upset the group’s dynamic.  This must be true since they did not fit the norms that were
expected during the interview! 

The simple point is that sometimes the group’s dynamic needs to be upset.  Unlike the Superstar, the
Rabble-Rouser has a shot to really improve the place, not due to his wealth of relevant experience,
but due to his novel perspectives.  At least 5% of your new hires should be Rabble-Rousers.  They are
an investment in new thinking, an insurance policy against the status quo getting to far out of hand.

Here is a challenge.  Do a little analysis of the folks you have hired recently in your organization. 
Classify each as a Superstar, Safe One or Rabble-Rouser.  If you come up with no Superstars and no
Rabble-Rousers is it any surprise you have not hit the homeruns you have been dreaming about? 
Having a lot of Safe Ones is just fine (and often unavoidable, talent is difficult to find).  They are good
people with good skills – maybe even great personalities that add positively to the group’s culture. 
But they should not be a dominant majority.  No amount of Safe Ones ever radically changed a
company for the better.  That is a job for Superstars and Rabble-Rousers. 

So next time you are lamenting the high price of the Superstar or the ambiguity and risk associated
with the Rabble-Rouser, consider this:  hiring someone is easy, getting rid of them is often far more
difficult.  Sadly, we do not have a crystal ball so we cannot predict perfectly how things will turn out. 

Some Safe Ones and Rabble-Rousers, and possibly some Superstars, might not work out.  Assuming
they do not leave or get fired, they can turn into the highly undesirable Dead Weight employee.  That
is the employee who for whatever reason is an underperformer, for whom no amount of coaching or
training will ever help. 

I do not like to admit it, but pressed, I will.  Dead Weight is not completely avoidable, but you can
hedge your bet by striving for a few Superstars and Rabble-Rousers.

Dr. Dewett is a business professor, author, consultant and speaker specializing in leadership and
organizational life. As quoted in the New York Times, Business Week, the Chicago Tribune, MSNBC and
elsewhere. His new book is Leadership Redefined. Find out more at drdewett.com.