Throughout my career and now, as General Manager at Darling, one of my greatest strengths as a leader in business is my ability to hire and create a dynamic team. Through the years my love for people, in all their uniqueness, coupled with my background in strategic, creative and branding-based management has developed a keen eye for talent.
I am often asked how I pursue, recruit and build-out my teams and I wish I had a ready answer. I wish there was a formula that I could bottle-up and ship-out, but such an individualized multi-layered endeavor can never be streamlined. So, instead of trying to answer the impossible, I often point to the rarely promoted non-negotiables that I look for when it comes to building a dynamic, driven and seamless team.
1. CULTURE
This is one of the most important elements I look for when hiring. I am always asking myself when making a hire, “Is this person going to add to our culture or bring it down?” I want contributors, not distractors. I want peaceful seekers of excellence and bold communicators, not toxic gossips or entitled mentalities. I’m very protective of the atmosphere I, as a manager, am asking my staff to spend a majority of their time in. I learned long ago that one must tend to culture the same way one tends to a garden — with intentionality, love and a commitment to warding off the weeds.
2. IDENTITY
Sense of self. I want to know who you are and that you know who you are. It is important to me that you know not only your strengths, but that you are also at peace with your process in the areas you still need development in. The art of process and development is so often overlooked by managers. I have no problem hiring people that still need development. I do, however, steer away from hires where I do not feel a potential employee is self aware of what they do and do not bring to the table.
I love someone who knows their weaknesses and who isn’t afraid of the fact that they are still on a journey. I can work, mentor and shape those types of people. I don’t have room for ego or pretenses; I do have time for process.
3. RESPECT
Do they honor well? Honor and respect are the foundation from which I manage and are therefore traits that I require in any hire that I make. I want to build a culture around people who understand the potency of respect and of giving honor to those above them, around them and below them. I will not hire someone that lacks in this.
So many organizations and businesses today want to see the world changed, sustainable enterprise garnered, people united, impactful reach developed and walls broken down; it’s all an admirable pursuit that starts here, both in making the posture of respect and the ability to honor requirements in any hire.
… if you are not willing to press into the best version of yourself, alongside a community trying to do the same, then I will not hire you.
4. TEACHABILITY
Can this person be molded? Or do they think they have arrived? Can I give them constructive feedback that yields mature dialogue? Or will I be met with defensiveness? When hiring I want to make sure I am building a team of teachable people who embrace and esteem the importance of growth. I do not care if you have a list of accolades as long as Steve Jobs or Mother Theresa, if you are not willing to press into the best version of yourself, alongside a community trying to do the same, then I will not hire you.
Bottom-line, no one sprints to line up for constructive feedback. It is hard and vulnerable for all of us, but I want to search out those who are brave enough to invite and even pursue feedback. That’s how we grow, by allowing that which we cannot see about ourselves, our blind-spots, be brought to the forefront so we can get there faster, together.
What makes me good at my job? I’ve learned that these foundational pillars can be replicable for anyone, anywhere — employer and job seeker alike — if we are willing to follow them and in equal measure let them mold us. I doubt many would disagree with the above, as they are all virtuous and estimable traits. To that end I’m not actually saying anything new or controversial here.
I’m more asking the next wave of business leaders and business makers (employees) to go beyond the singular, yet necessary, pursuit of abilities by expanding their scope to include these markers which will serve them and the vision far more than skills alone ever could.
Images via Sara Forrest
5 comments
This is a stream of consciousness folks, get the essence and stop parsing sentences – Ms Warnock doesn’t have to tell u all her secrets for success in hiring, suffice it to say she is not made up of the traits she is weeding out and can intuit it in others.
Agreed, great content, love the article, but super distracted by the grammar and fragment errors!
I agree with all of these values for interviewee’s, my question is, how do you go about figuring all of these things out. No one is going to tell you that they are gossipy or defensive when it comes to constructive criticism.
What key questions do you ask during the interview process to find the golden nuggets?
This is a thoughtful and illuminating article, but is marred by the author’ s many grammar and style errors. Your next team hire should be an excellent editor!