What are the top qualities in a hire? This is a great question! If you run a business you've bumped into this question before as I have. One of the problems we face here is basically the question of how much liability and responsibility we want to take on as business owners. Too much concern is put here. People aren’t a cost. They are your best asset. There is a benefit to the way your agreement with them is structured. I want to look past this question and instead examine the qualities I look for in a hire.
To determine our answer we must as usual, know what we are looking for. I personally, am looking for people who are goal driven, "in"-trapreneurs, have a high ethics level, and act with a high sense of self determinism.
Being goal driven isn't just a cute phrase that is thrown around in the interview process. A goal is defined as "a terminal point in a race". Driven means "being under compulsion, as to succeed or excel". Goal driven quite literally means a person is OCD about achieving the next checkpoint and finishing the race. For me, the checkpoint is always a statistic representing the value of their work in dollars or quantity of work units performed. I'm looking for someone whose entire existence is based on achieving a target. Call it a quota if you will. They are obsessed with their quota and desire to win. This could be an employee or an independent contractor.
What is an "in"-trapreneur? Well an entrepreneur is someone who organizes and manages a business taking on significant risk. So, an "in"-trapreneur is somebody who manages a business within my business and has significant skin in the game. The ideal teammate is somebody who treats their role like a business, puts their skin in the game, and plays with the rules and boundaries of your company. This person can thrive under pressure and by definition they actually seek out pressure situations. This could be an employee or an independent contractor.
Having a high ethics level is the most black and white for me. Ethics refers to the moral principles of an individual. Essentially a person does not violate their own personal agreements. When a new teammate is hired, they are agreeing to abide by the rules of your company. If before they are hired, they cannot keep their own agreements with themselves they definitely will not be able to keep their agreements with your company. It starts with little things like getting out of bed when you say you will. Going to the gym when you say you will. Finishing that book you started. It can be as big as putting in the required work to finish a project by the deadline or ethically managing a company budget (which is a fancy way of saying to spend on what you're supposed to and not spend on what you're not supposed to). For me, keeping your agreements is black and white. You either do or you don't. There's not a grey area here. I know that sounds harsh and so let me add this: Every unethical action by a person is some sort of perceived solution to a problem that person is having. And any problem a person is having directly stems from some form of misunderstanding or lack of understanding in a given area. So basically, if a person does not understand how something works, then that thing is going to give them problems. Everyone desires to solve problems and that person will attempt to solve the problem with any means he can find, regardless of whether it is ethical or not. So, the reciprocation of a highly ethical environment is an environment with lots of training, high expectation, frequent post inspections, and lots of rehabilitative training. Long story short, both a 1099 contractor and an employee can be equally ethical and unethical.
My last quality and the most important is the person's level of self-determinism. Self-determinism is defined as "the theory that every present state or condition of self is a result of previous states or conditions of self". Basically, a high personal sense of cause and effect. The ideal hire for me is someone that chooses to do right because they want to cause something right. This is really the split between Independent Contractor and Employee for me. With an employee, I get more control. But what is the price that is paid for my control over a person? The price is their control. It is an inverse axis. The more control I have, the less control they have. This results in a lowered self-determinism. With an Independent Contractor, I can communicate the result I desire and then allow them a series of choices that will move them closer or further from the result. This allows the person to maintain self-determinism and with close inspection I can mitigate my risks by simply observing the direction they are headed. If they continually do things that take them away from the result, they are either unwilling or poorly trained. I can train them and if they improve they turn into rock stars. If I train them and their production doesn't improve I simply get rid of them. With an employee, I can make every last sub-product a requirement and this gives me more control. As long as I don’t enforce that control too harshly or act too abrasively, I can have employees without injuring their self-determinism. So again, it doesn’t matter which one you hire to get a high sense of self-determinism.
I value people who think for themselves and make right choices. These people will voluntarily submit to authority because they know it will cause success, not just because their contract says they legally have to. I desire teammates who do things voluntarily out of self-determinism. I work these people like slaves and then pay them like royalty.
On that note, I am expanding my company. We are hiring B2B sales, B2C sales, inbound marketing, and outbound marketing. If you or someone you know would thrive in an environment like the one I've just described, email me at [email protected] to learn more.
Own Your Potential!
Jerry Fetta
Jerry Fetta is a husband, son of Yahweh, Entrepreneur and owner of 5 privately held businesses. Jerry lives in Alaska with his wife and 2 dogs. His no-nonsense approach to business, finances, and life speaks truth and provides clarity to his clients and followers. His personal mission in life is to empower millions of leaders to own their God-given, ultimate potential.
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