Hiring for Attitude Ch 1

Hiring for Attitude - Brown Shorts

• Attitude over Skill: High performance is defined by attitude, not skill. A strong attitude (coachability, emotional intelligence, motivation, temperament) is beneficial, but not universally applicable. The "right" attitude is unique to each organization.
• Organizational Fit: An individual's attitude must align with the organization's culture. A competitive, individualistic employee might thrive in a commission-driven sales environment, but not in a collaborative start-up.
• Brown Shorts Concept: Identifying the specific attitudes critical to an organization's success. "Brown Shorts" is a metaphor for these essential attitudes. Southwest Airlines uses this concept (although the shorts used aren't actually brown—the story is about attitude assessments).
• Jim's Hiring Mistake: Jim, a hospital VP, hired a top nurse (Sue) without considering her analytical and tough attitude's mismatch with the hospital's warm culture. This led to interpersonal conflicts and decreased patient satisfaction.
• Identifying Brown Shorts: The goal is not to replicate another company's culture, but to identify the specific attitudes that make your organization successful. This involves both positive and negative characteristics.
• Types of Low Performers:
• Bless Their Hearts: Possess great attitudes but lack the necessary skills. They try hard, but repeatedly fail to perform adequately.
• Talented Terrors: Possess great skills but lousy attitudes. They can be highly skilled but are negative, blame others, resistant to change, and demanding of personal recognition. They are often difficult to identify in interviews due to their skills and ability to mask undesirable behaviors.

Brown Shorts Interview Questions

• Detailed Interviewing: The key is behavioral specificity. Vague descriptions (e.g., "courtesy," "professionalism") are unhelpful. Instead, focus on concrete behaviors and examples.

• Probing Questions: Key questions for the Brown Shorts discovery process:

• "Think of someone in the organization who truly represents our culture... Could you tell me about a time he or she did something that exemplifies having the right attitude?" (and follow up with "Could you tell me about another example?")

• In the inverse, ask, "Think of someone who did not represent the culture...Could you tell me about a time this person did something that exemplifies having the wrong attitude?"(and follow up with similar questions about another example)

• Behavioral Specificity: Questions should elicit detailed behaviors. Examples such as "this person arrives late," or "this person blames others" indicate attitudes. Critically, ensure two strangers could observe and assess the behavior.

• Fuzzy Language Disease: Avoid vague descriptions. Use specific examples of behavior to understand an attitude, not vague buzzwords.

• 3-3-3 Exercise: A method for identifying Brown Shorts by reviewing the attitudes of three best and worst employees in the last three years (in a behavioral manner).

Obtaining Employee Input - Further Brown Shorts Discovery

• Frontline Employee Surveys: Surveys, with 6-10 open-ended questions, are beneficial for gathering more granular insights from frontline employees about attitudes. Questions should be linked (whenever possible) to the attitudes identified during the Executive Interviews.
• Survey Examples: Example from the text - "Describe a situation when you were asked to do something work-related you didn't know how to do." ; or " Describe a recent mistake you've seen other employees make in their dealings with customers."
• Employee Participation: Employee surveys work best when there are clear plans to act on the insights gathered.

Brown Shorts Application

• Microchip Technology: This company used the Brown Shorts process to identify essential qualities of high-performing sales engineers, such as empathy, and to recognize undesirable behaviors, like condescension.
• Performance Improvement: Eliminating the "wrong attitudes in hiring" improves performance. These "wrong attitudes" decrease efficiency and create conflicts.

Note on Universal High Performers

• Organizational context is key: "High performers" are not universal; they must fit the specific organizational culture.