Top traits for hiring new people
Cory Bergman October 4th, 2007
I just returned from a three-day seminar with Paradigm, a highly-respected sales training firm, and they recommend that managers ensure that new account executives are “adaptable” and “resilient” before hiring them. In fact, these two traits should be at the top of the list in the hiring process because the media world is changing so quickly. Wouldn’t it be interesting to apply this same thinking when hiring for new journalists? That adaptability and resiliency are just as important as storytelling skills, for example? Of course, those traits not as easy to identify as watching a resume tape and looking at online writing examples (both of which should be required for reporters, by the way), but it means we need to ask job candidates to explain specific examples of how they’ve flexed with change and bounced back from failure.
10 Comments Add your own
1. Terry Heaton | October 4th, 2007 at 9:33 am
Good advice, Cory. The caveat, of course, is that the company hiring flexibile and adaptive people must itself be flexible and adaptive, and this isn’t something we’re really very good at.
2. Skeptic | October 4th, 2007 at 9:34 am
I don’t think I’d attend seminar held by a company named “Paradigm.”
3. Anonymous | October 4th, 2007 at 9:35 am
yeah, be inflexible and let a name throw ya’.
4. pomoblogfan | October 4th, 2007 at 9:37 am
btw- i would recommend everyone use the handy link in the sidebar to read terry heaton’s “jeff zucker is an at&t puppet piece” too.
5. John Proffitt | October 4th, 2007 at 10:16 am
Adaptability should be a #1 trait for almost any kind of business today. It’s not just the media biz that’s changing quickly and repeatedly. Gotta have folks that think on their feet, are inquisitive, creative, and so on.
Sounds simple, but man is it difficult to find these folks. Truth is, most of us want a steady-state world to live in day to day. It’s just easier. But that’s not the business world we really inhabit anymore.
6. Gorman | October 4th, 2007 at 11:19 am
Pomo, already did, and loved it.
7. Anonymous | October 4th, 2007 at 2:04 pm
was there much synergy at Paradigm?
8. Rob | October 4th, 2007 at 2:54 pm
It would be an interesting world if adaptability was one of the buzzwords used in journalism, especially since there are so many in the business resistant to changes being brought on by technology and the wants and needs of the masses.
By the way, did anything “shift” at that seminar?
9. Doug | October 4th, 2007 at 6:34 pm
Would that adaptibility cover coming in a half hour early to cover a story without giving the desk holy hell?
How about new hires not griping about working weekends and holidays?
Maybe it would mean answering your cell when the caller id shows it’s work?
Then we can get to understanding how the web is different.
10. Howard Owens | October 5th, 2007 at 12:31 pm
This is called hiring for talent rather than focusing on skill set.
All kinds of bad employees can have great skills, but it’s harder to find the right talents for a job.
And people should be working in jobs that fit their talents, not so much their skills (skills can be learned).
I look at resumes for skills sets. I interview for talents. I hire for both.
Much of this comes from the book, “First, Break All the Rules.”
I’ve made some good hires over the past couple of years because of system I’ve developed based on this book.
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