In this episode, Scott Becker shares five key insights on hiring, from embracing the uncertainty of new hires to emphasizing reliability and knowing when to move on from a bad fit.
Chapter 1: Who is Scott Becker and what is the focus of this podcast episode?
This is Scott Becker with the Becker Private Equity and Business Podcast. Today's discussion is hiring and talent, five core thoughts. So this came out of a discussion recently with a brilliant entrepreneur who had just had a challenging hire and we were discussing it and just reminded us of some of the rules and thoughts we have on hiring. So rule number one is, is when you hire somebody,
Chapter 2: Why is it difficult to know the true potential of a new hire initially?
You never truly know what you have in that person until they start with you and start to work with you. We've had so many hires over the years where somebody came in and we thought they'd be an all-star and they weren't, or we thought they would be challenging and they ended up being great. So you never know what you have until you've hired somebody and until you've worked with them for some time.
Chapter 3: What should you learn from bad hires and how to avoid getting discouraged?
Some of the best people I work with, I wouldn't have known up front that they were going to be the best, best teammates and colleagues and so forth. So that's number one. Second is don't beat yourself up over bad hires. You have to learn from bad hires or hires that don't work out, but you can't get gun shy.
Chapter 4: How do leaders get affected by bad hires and what is the hiring success ratio?
One of the things that we talk about in growing organizations is situations where a leader – get so flummoxed by a bad hire that they're then scared to hire. The reality is the hiring ratio of what's going to work out versus not. And it doesn't mean you don't have to do this intelligently. You should. And learn from your bad hires. You should.
Chapter 5: What criteria does Scott Becker consider important when hiring?
But you have to always realize it's an educated guess, an educated gamble. And then you go back to it. And yes, we try and work through core criteria we think about in hiring. Like I hate hiring people that have 10 jobs in 10 years. I just don't believe in that. I do like to hire from people that have performed well in whatever they've done before.
But at the end of the day, it's really a guesstimate when you hire somebody and there's a lot of probability to it. The third concept is in any hire, reliability is foundational. Someone could be fantastic at a million levels, but if they're not ultimately reliable, then you can't make it work. The fourth concept really goes hand in hand with that one is somebody could be crazily talented.
They could be brilliant. They can be fantastic with clients. They can be great with customers. But if they're not, at the end of the day, reliable and don't show up on time, we always talk about showing up on time is 80% of any job. So where you're supposed to be, when you're supposed to be there, that's 80% of the battle. And as Yogi Berra would say, the other 80% is talent.
I say that jokingly, but you can have all the talent you want in the world, but if you're not willing to do the job every day and be reliable, it doesn't matter.
The fifth concept is once you find that something is fundamentally wrong with the hire and you can't rehabilitate that hire, you can't guide them to doing what they're supposed to do, you likely need to move forward with going different ways and not to prolong the pain. As one great leader said, you have to rip the Band-Aid off.
I don't know if I'm that harsh about it, but I think there's a lot of decent for that. Again, this is today's discussion. Hiring and talent, five core thoughts. Thank you for listening to the Becker Private Equity and Business Podcast. Thank you.
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