Beware of Hiring Responsible and Dedicated People

What qualities do you look for in and applicant? Which of these are attractive to you?

• Self starter
• Takes initiative
• Responsible
• Organized
• Dependable
• Dedicated
• Conscientious
• Persistent
• Attention to quality and detail

These are the upsides of two Personality Types most likely to be promoted to leadership positions (Thinkers and Persisters). They are promoted because of these very qualities. They are hard workers, care about quality and are task oriented. They want things done right. And they are proud of it.

The downsides: When these same people are in distress, it’s a whole different story.

• Their dedication turns into arrogant frustration with others who they believe are lazy and stupid.
• Their conscientiousness turns into preachy indignation of others who are uncommitted or lack moral character.
• Their attention to detail turns into micromanaging.
• Their work ethic turns into workaholism.

Good leaders master two things; self-management, and communication agility.

Self-management means knowing what motivates you, taking care of yourself to stay healthy, and recognizing your own distress and miscommunication behavior so you can get out of it.

Communication agility means being able to adapt how you communicate in order to motivate others to be their best.

You can’t communicate with agility if you are in distress. Distressed leaders are a liability to the organization. They hurt morale, increase turnover, and reduce engagement.

Identifying attractive qualities is easy. Assessing self-management and communication agility is a bit more difficult. Here are a few interview questions to get started.

Questions to assess self-management and communication agility

• How do you know you are working too hard? What steps do you take to regain balance?
• Explain your philosophy of delegation and give an example.
• How do you approach performance or behavior problems. Give an example.
• What energizes you most? How do you get these needs met regularly?
• What does your distress behavior look like? Give an example.
• What do you do when you recognize your own distress?
• Explain how you encourage people to learn and grow.
• Describe how you work with people whose convictions are different from yours?
• How do you handle failure, in yourself and others? Give an example of each.

Copyright Next Element Consulting, LLC 2017

If you want to further develop your skills for finding healthy, qualified people for leadership, invest in training to learn the ins and outs of how people are motivated and how personality is a strong predictor of behavior under stress. Process Communication Model® training is a great first step.

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