Hiring hack: How to better evaluate your candidates | Simon Sinek

New videos DAILY: https://bigth.ink/youtube Join Big Think Edge for exclusive videos: https://bigth.ink/Edge ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In business, the role of a leader is often misunderstood. A true leader takes care of their people, especially when considering new hires. Leaders should take hiring decisions as seriously as adoption. Protecting the culture you've cultivated is more important than acquiring skills. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SIMON SINEK Simon O. Sinek is an author best known for popularizing the concept of "the golden circle" and to "Start With Why," described by TED as "a simple but powerful model for inspirational leadership all starting with a golden circle and the question "Why?"'. He joined the RAND Corporation in 2010 as an adjunct staff member, where he advises on matters of military innovation and planning. His first TEDx Talk on "How Great Leaders Inspire Action" is the 3rd most viewed video on TED.com. His 2009 book on the same subject, Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action (2009) delves into what he says is a naturally occurring pattern, grounded in the biology of human decision-making, that explains why we are inspired by some people, leaders, messages and organizations over others. He has commented for The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Houston Chronicle, FastCompany, CMO Magazine, NPR, and BusinessWeek, and is a regular contributor to The Huffington Post, BrandWeek, and IncBizNet. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TRANSCRIPT: I think leadership is one of the most misunderstood responsibilities in business. Too many people confuse leadership with rank or authority. I know many people who sit at the highest levels of organizations who are not leaders. They have authority and we do as they tell us because they have authority over us but we would not follow them. True leaders understand that their responsibility is to take care of their people just like a parent. To see them grow, to see them gain skills, to put them in situations where they get to discover that they’re capable of more than they thought they were capable of. This is what leaders truly are. It’s not about being in charge. It’s about taking care of those in our charge. When we’re very junior we only have to be good at our jobs. That’s pretty much it. And if you’re really good at your job they’ll promote you. And eventually you’ll get promoted to a position where you’re now responsible for the people who do the job you used to do but nobody shows us how to do that. They gave us so much training how to do our job when we were young and then they don’t give us any training how to do our job when we are put in a position of leadership. There’s no CEO on the planet who’s responsible for the customer, you know. It’s the joke. That CEO is responsible for the people who are responsible for the people who are responsible for the people who are responsible for the customer. And that simple change of perspective dramatically changes the way in which someone makes decisions or even speaks and it has a profound impact on an organization as well. When we hire we tend to hire by someone’s resume and skill set and the past results they’ve had maybe our competitors and how good they are at interviewing. And let me tell you, some people are really good at interviewing. You know, we only hire passionate people I’ve heard people say. Well how do you know that they’re passionate for the interview and not so passionate for the work, right. At the end of the day a hiring decision is like an adoption. You’re going to bring a child into your family. You’re going to let them into your house. You’re going to give them keys to the house and maybe even give them responsibility over your other children. You probably want to do that a little carefully. So sure, you can go through the traditional read their resume so tell us about yourself. What’s your biggest weakness? That kind of nonsense. But I like it when we treat it like a dating scenario. I like it when we treat it like a marriage or a relationship. In other words go out for dinner with them. Take them out for lunch. Get to know them as a human being. What kind of people are they? Do you want to hang out with them? Are they one of us? You have a culture and you want to protect that culture more than you just want the skills. There’s a wonderful story. It’s a true story of a bunch of military recruiters who went to a high school. And the Army recruiter stands up and says to the kids let me tell you why you want to be in the Army with his PowerPoint on behind him. The Navy recruiter stands up with his presentation and says no, no, let me tell you why the Navy’s better. The Air Force recruiter stands up and says they’re both wrong.