Surround yourself with optimistic people...

I’ve written often about the importance of hiring for attitude and training for skills. 

 

·      Most attitudes are innate, 

·      Meaning they can’t be learned.

·      If you hire someone with a bad attitude

·      That’s what they’ll usually bring to the job.

·      And the training you provide rarely changes that.

 

It’s simple: Human Resources screens all candidates for the attitude(s) you wish your employees to have, and hiring managers conduct second level technical interviews only with those who pass that initial screening. In our case, we screened applicants for general optimism – those who pass are generally more upbeat, open to change, flexible, see the glass as half full, and, in general, more prone to smiling. We were very open about this screening concept with those we hired, saying we knew they could, so we’d expect those smiles on the job. Then, and only then, did we train them to do what was expected. Bottom line: optimistic employees were happier and, generally, better employees. And, at the end of the day, that’s what hiring managers wanted. It was a straightforward approach that produced higher performing employees who stayed with the company longer. Make a resolution to begin looking for those kinds of employees today.

 

Jenny Diski (1947 – 2016): English school teacher and writer of autobiography, fiction, non-fiction, and travel books and articles who was mentored by the novelist Doris Lessing.