How to recruit talent for your start up?

I am at the Cyberview Lodge hotel, Cyberjaya, attending a workshop to review an academic program for a local university. I am supposing to advice them on their law subjects. I needed the rest in a relaxing ambience, pampered by top class hospitality of the service industry. I notice that the hotel staff graciously entertains the idiosyncrasy of their guests.

It reminds me of how important to have good talents to work for in your start up company. Talent is the fuel that keeps the engine of your company running. I use the word “talent” and not “employee” because only talented people can generate the right kind of energy and idea for your organization. Employee on the other hand will only work in a company. The latter generates energy, but only negative energy, and a lot of it.

I have first hand experience in knowing the difference between “talent” and “employee’. First, I had partners who had mentality of an “employee”. This was worse than having an employee because you are now have to deal with equal partners but act like an employee. They concentrate on their personal life, expect clients to be given to them and the worse part was that they expect equal shares of the profit.

Then, I had a real ‘employee’ who sits around the office doing nothing, or even when she did something, it will take forever.

Jim Collins in his book “From Good to Great” said that you have to get the right people on the bus. Yes, he is right. 

In my firm, we implement ‘casual’ culture. You can come to the office in casual attire. Every day is Friday in the office. Jeans and t-shirt is a norm rather than exception. There are no office hours as long as you finish your tasks.  The philosophy behind this idea is to create a stress free environment. When there is no stress, you can focus on your tasks and it sparks creativities.

These philosophies will only works on talented people. Talented people want the freedom and some autonomous in doing their works. There is no need for micromanagement. Give them the task; tell them the objective of the task, grant them the freedom and they will come up with insanely awesome results. Why? Talented people have the passion to come up with great work. It is in their DNA; passion runs in their blood vein.

However, apply the same philosophies to mediocre employee, they will take that freedom an opportunities to sleep on their tasks.

So we should hire based on talent? Wrong.

I have hired based on talent and I still got it wrong. Why? I didn’t assess her attitude. Few months after I bring her in, she went into depression. What is the use if they have talent but emotionally depressed?

Not talented + wrong attitude = disaster

Talented + wrong attitude  = catastrophe

If you want to hire, focus on the attitude rather than academic backgrounds. You may find it difficult but I can guarantee you that it is worth it. It will save you a lot of time and money later (and may be your sanity too).

Most companies are doing away with academic background. Apple Inc is concentrating on the attitude rather than technical skills. Accounting firms big four is also beginning to take the same approach. You should do the same too.

We have the tendencies to hire someone who shares the same interest, as if that you are hiring your self. Well, you may hire some one that share the same values for example passion for excellence, but not some one who is exactly like you. You will miss out the variety in your team. Your team may comprise awesome people with diverse background.  The variety will give the team the dynamic feature and creativity to come up with awesome results.

  

How do we assess someone’s attitude?

There is no direct answer for this. It’s guesswork. Most of the time it depends on your gut feeling. There may be some scientific work on predicting a person attitude. At the end of the day, you need to trust your heart. What does your heart tells you.

I leave you with this thought as I enjoying the refreshing ambience of this hotel J

Shahrin Hashim, signing off from Cyberview Lodge, Cyberjaya, Malaysia.