It should come as no surprise that skills are the first criteria employers look for in filling technical positions.
“My customers begin by talking about the specific skills they need for an opening,” said Jeff Clement, managing director for the Atlanta office of Revolution Technologies, an international IT staffing company, “but the conversation very quickly evolves to finding the person with the right attitude.”
Back in the day when IT people were considered geeks and housed in the basement of corporations, personality, communication skills, team-playing ability and leadership potential didn’t matter all that much, he said.
“Now that business is so thoroughly wrapped around IT, attitude matters a lot,” Clement said. “Skills may get you an interview, but attitude determines whether you will get an offer and whether you’ll be happy on the job.”
In his initial discussion with employers, Clement usually receives a two-dimensional job description with the skills and experience listed. His challenge is to fill that position with a three-dimensional person.
“We have to learn enough about the role, the company, the culture and the expectations to discover exactly what type of candidate will be a right fit. Attitude is a big part of that third dimension,” he said.
By asking questions on both sides of the hiring process -- and listening closely to the answers -- Clement can make the call that a genius programmer who prefers being alone isn’t a fit for a close-knit team that works and plays together.
“I don’t think you can stress the importance of attitude enough in today’s hiring process,” he said.
Research by Leadership IQ confirms it. The Atlanta and Washington, D.C., leadership training and management consultant firm tracked 20,000 new hires over a three-year period. It found that 46 percent of them failed (got fired, received poor performance reviews or were written up) within 18 months.
“That wasn’t the surprising part,” said Mark Murphy, CEO of Leadership IQ, and author of “Hiring for Attitude” (McGraw-Hill, 2012). “Our data showed that 89 percent of those failed hires were for attitudinal reasons. They lacked ‘coachability,’ emotional intelligence, motivation or the right temperament for the job. Only 11 percent failed because of technical or functional incompetence.”
With high unemployment and a global market delivering talent to U.S. shores, there is an abundance of skilled workers in today’s market, Murphy said. “Companies are pretty good at finding and testing for skills. It’s much harder finding people that fit the culture,” he said.
Murphy contends that most bad hires could be prevented with a better hiring process, and he wrote “Hiring for Attitude” to show companies how.
While “coachability,” the ability to seek out, receive and learn from feedback, is universally sought, the definition of right attitude changes from company to company. Google and IBM are looking for different characteristics.
“To consistently hire top performers, companies must understand their own company culture, to know what makes them different from everyone else,” Murphy said. “If a company will look closely at its three best and three worst performers, it will get a clearer sense of who will fit and who won’t in their culture.”
With that knowledge, a company can write non-generic job descriptions and construct interview questions and answer keys that will reveal the attitude the company desires. “Valuable questions will tie back to high and low performance and reveal attitude,” he said.
Facing fierce competition, job seekers should seek companies, not just apply for positions, Murphy advised. They should talk to employees about the culture, determine if it’s a good fit and then apply through a company referral for greater success.
“With companies looking for the best possible fit, having the right attitude can be more important than skills,” said Richard Kirby, principal of Executive Impact, an Atlanta consulting firm, and author of “Fast Track Your Job Search (And Career!)” (Executive Impact Inc., 2011). Employers have learned that it’s much easier to teach skills than to change behaviors.
“How to self-assess and improve attitude is the first subject in my book, because candidates often skip that step in the job search process,” Kirby said. “Discouraged or angry over job loss, they may try to suck it up and hold it in, but negative feelings will show through in tone of voice, word choice, facial expression or body language in interviews.”
Like it or not, your attitude is being evaluated by everyone you meet. “Individuals with strong positive attitudes are perceived positively and tend to succeed faster,” he said.
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