- 20 Oct, 2020
- 0 Comments
- 2 Mins Read
More communication, just in case you haven’t had enough yet
The Sunday Star Times can have some great articles and Sunday the 18th had a couple of really good ones. “Build your team like it’s a Mars mission” David Winsborough, in particular was spot on. I would put in the link but I can’t find it online now so here’s a couple of quotes that sums it up.
“The idea of choosing people purely on their technical abilities just won’t work for missions like these (heading to Mars). Choosing crew will rely on deep-level characteristics, like values and personality, just as much as medical, engineering and slight skills. (This was actually a colleague of Winsborough’s, Suzanne Bell).
You may feel, as an employer or head of an organisation that your place of work isn’t as intense as a mission to Mars (or maybe it is?) but if think of the cost of recruiting poorly, it can actually make your business implode, then taking these characteristics into account right at recruitment is an excellent idea.
Recently I’ve worked with a business that employed someone whose values did not fit theirs. Long story short there was a personal grievance that was extremely costly. So why did they employ someone who’s values were so completely different? Because, when I asked, what are your values (this is me to the business owners). Ummm, we don’t really know. Excellence I suppose? (that’s them to me). Right. So. There lies the case in point.
- Know your own values so you can recruit people who match yours.
“Research from Earth-bound workplaces has shown that personality is one of the most powerful drivers of team effectiveness” Winsborough states. Should I have put that in capitals? There are a multitude of personality tests out there, some that take 10 minutes to complete and could be a life saver when you are interviewing. My favourite one has 4 different personality types, is easy to complete, is fun and once done you can see very quickly what type you are. If you do something like this with your team first, you will see where the gaps are and can recruit to fill that specific personality type.
- Know your personality type you recruit those that don’t match you.
A mix of personalities can balance out negative tendencies. Even Elon Musk is in on this “My biggest mistake is probably weighing too much on someone’s talent and not someone’s personality. I think it matters whether someone has a good heart” Hear, hear Elon!
To find out more about personality testing and how this fits into workplace communication flick me an email miriam@sayitclearly.co.nz.
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