A Michael Jordan Hiring Process

I generally prefer to avoid analogy stories that are prevalent on articles and posts on the internet. You know the kind of thing: ìWhy training is like football Ö î or ìWhy retention is like football Ö ì or ìWhy succession planning is like footballî.

The analogies often yield an interesting perspective on the issue being examined but itís such a common way to post that I thought it has be well past its sell-by date. Something to be used on rare occasions, or never.

Or so I thought until I heard about Power Ranking and The Resume.

Power Ranking is used by football and basketball coaches and it just asks the question îWhoís better?î or ìWho would beat who, all other things being equal?î Or something along those lines.

In this method the experience of the coach is everything and he just decides based on his gut feeling. No measures of performance, and no tracking of statistics. Something like Malcom Gladwellís Blink phenomenon.

Unfortunately, by and large, thatís how we assess candidates or choose new employees using an interview. Itís not just restricted to China. Every line manager in the business thinks he has the skills of a coach and that he/she can spot a good candidate in 10 seconds flat. Try to tell them otherwise and you will see how deeply this is felt.

The Resume on the other hand is not like the one we are used to. It works strictly with numerical measures of performance, which are readily available for football and basketball players. It looks at the number of successful passes, successful catches, missed passes, missed baskets etc. All slices and diced down to the Nth degree.

This kind of data is not available to Recruiters but all is not lost.

A good substitute is to be found in various scientific methods that we use for assessment, such as behavioral interviewing, ranking, scoring, skills testing, psychometrics, work samples and so on. These methods accept the basic idea that we can rely on such testing measures to assess potential for performance because past experience determines future performance.

For example, someone who comes up with a good plan to tackle the sales market in, say Beijing or Jakarta, is going to be able to deliver on this because he has probably done it before. That why the plan is so detailed or strategic.

Those without the necessary experience will write well formatted Powerpoint presentations that fail to hit the nail on the head. Or they will describe the project in shallow detail at interview. This is normally immediately clear to hiring managers and I think itís the reason that they are so confident of their ability to spot a good candidate.

Unfortunately, life is not so simple.

Yau Ming and Michael Jordan didnít just wake up one day to find that they were great basketball players. Their results are there for all to see throughout their career, even before they turned professional. They show consistent performance leading up to their current peak of success.

Yes, there are some exceptions that take us by surprise and suddenly shoot up the rankings, but these are the exception that proves the rule. Before Yao Ming and Michael Jordan turned professional they were tested and re-tested, and put through the ringer at each of the clubs that they applied to. When they scored high on accurate throws, good passing etc. they were chosen for the team, but not before.

But why were their scores so good?. Obviously it was a combination their inherent physical intelligence and the 10 years of training and playing. No amount of training is ever going to get me into the NBA, no matter how many good wishes or prayers are involved.

So Yao Ming and Michael Jordan are smart and they did it before.

My take on this is to look for the professional that has direct experience of the work you want him to do, or some other area with transferrable skills. Check out the company where he did this and ask yourself if that company is strong in this area ie. do they constitute the kind of training ground that produces Michael Jordans and Yao Mings?. If not, did the candidate have sufficient control over the project so that you can see it as their project.

Then do a deep behavioral interview and a Work Sample. See if the candidate breaks and hire the ones that donít.

Email: frank.mulligan@recruit-china.com