How To Hire and Train Self Managing Top Performers

#1 Companies constantly look for opportunities to grow their Self Managing culture.

The Self Manager Series May 2009

Each month this e-letter will provide key information on how these companies select their self managing talent and how they train them to be even better.

Hiring Self Managers

So how do you really know what you are getting when you hire a new candidate who then becomes a part of your company?

It helps to know, as close as possible, what you are looking for. Clients have found over the years that the time they spend deciding what that is pays back big dividends. Once you know, as they say, “Accept nothing less”.

The Hiring Manager seeks this lofty goal and must also deal with the demands of finding that right person, and doing it now! It’s possible to let the system do more of the sorting. Before getting face to face with a candidate, because that’s where the time really begins to burn up, there is a lot of information available.

The resume provides basic background and qualifications, plus a record of skills, and gives a place to start. The psychometric profile provides key behavioural information and predicts success with your company.

The profile used for selection is most effective when it is ‘normative’ (based on stats from your company population) and can be validated and adapted to your needs.

Good data saves you time because you are now interviewing for confirmation of Effort and Fit to the company. Time saved means good selection, means good performance which means good retention. Committed employees that stick with us for a long time are just as important as good clients that stick with us for a long time. It’s quality of life and good profit all around.


Training Self Managers

How is an accountant self manager different from a sales self manager?
They’re not, at the core that is.

Self Managing in any position and in personal life is based on figuring out what’s important and then deciding to do that. It happens when we decide what’s important for us and then decide whether we are going to do it or not.

This can sound a little ‘self serving’. Note well that it doesn’t mean it’s always easy or fun and often the term "short term pain for long term gain" may apply.

For self managers it can be viewed as developing new habits that serve those wants better – takes a little persistence to get into that grove and then it becomes, yes, a habit.

Back to the accountant and the salesperson. They are often totally different in the way they ‘roll’. Just picture accountants you know and salespeople you know and think:

Proactive or Reactive
Risk Taker or Conservative
Attention to Detail or Just Give me the Big Picture

Generalizations are risky however there are general differences here.
In terms of self management, do both do things for their own reasons? Do both make and keep commitments? Do both understand they are accountable for their actions and responsible for the results?

Both self manage and both do very different jobs. In a company that recognizes these core traits, there is terrific leverage here. Individuals and managers self manage to a common set of worthy core beliefs and everybody understands the game.

If I say I’m going to do it, I mean I’ll do it, whether I’m an accountant or a salesperson.

Until next month, keep Self Managing!

Cliff Sutton, the Self Management Group, 416-930-6165, csutton@self-management.com
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