Some Thoughts on Hiring from Richard Branson
Richard Branson
In exploring the subject of hiring a new employee, we discovered a recent article by Richard Branson. You may know Branson as an extremely successful entrepreneur, the head of the Virgin Group which includes companies such as Virgin Airlines and Virgin Records.
He starts by emphasizing the importance of the having the right people in a company. “There is nothing more important for a business than hiring the right team. If you get the perfect mix of people working for your company, you have a far greater chance of success.” He also stresses the importance of finding someone whose personality fits with the company culture. Judging a personality during an interview can be difficult and he observes, “Personality is the key. It is not something that always comes out in interview – people can be shy. But you have to trust your judgment. If you have got a slightly introverted person with a great personality, use your experience to pull it out of them. It is easier with an extrovert, but be wary of people becoming overexcited in the pressure of interviews.”
We are sure that Peter Branson is not alone in emphasizing personality as a key to the selection of employees. In last month’s article, Business Success Comes from Hiring the Right People, Jim Collins makes the same point. Most of us have not developed those techniques to measure soft skills, such as personality, motivational values and decision making perspectives. Tools available from organizations such as Innermetrix can be useful in shaping a conversation during the interviewing process. They provide insights into an individual’s makeup that lead to a much more revealing conversation and a better assessment of the fit of a person into an organizational team.
We invite you to determine for yourself the value of these tools by clicking on the assessment link, answering a number of questions, and completing the exercise. Afterwards we will contact you to discuss the results.