Once again, I find myself meeting with people during the week and dealing with how to improve selection through the use of leadership competencies. I found the following great quotes from two other blogs – give them some thought ----
“As Capital One's CEO, Richard Fairbank, put it several years ago, "At most companies, people spend 2 percent of their time recruiting and 75 percent managing their recruiting mistakes." From Harvard Business Review Blog http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/6103.html Feb 5 , 2009
"After interviewing 125 corporate leaders and observing many more during three decades in active corporate leadership, I believe the root cause of the leadership crisis is using the wrong criteria in choosing new leaders. Selection committees often emphasize charisma over character, style over substance, and image over integrity. When leaders are chosen for charisma, style, and image, why are we surprised when they turn out to lack character, substance, and integrity?" From - Bill George THE FOCUS VOL. XII/1 Keynote Topic. Of character, substance and integrity Why companies need authentic leaders and not charismatic stars at the helm. http://www.billgeorge.org/files/media/of-substance-character-and-integrity-pdf/bill_george_focus_article.pdf
William W. George is Professor of Management Practice, Henry B. Arthur Fellow of Ethics, at Harvard Business School, where he teaches leadership and leadership development along with several executive education programs. He is the author of a new best-selling leadership book, True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership. Prof George is the former Chairman and CEO of Medtronic. Under his leadership, Medtronic's market capitalization grew from $1.1 billion to $60 billion, averaging 35 percent a year. Prior to joining Medtronic, he spent ten years as a senior executive with Honeywell and ten years with Litton Industries, primarily as President of Litton Microwave Cooking. In 2001, William George was named Executive of the Year by the Academy of Management.
Note to readers – True North is a great book to read. Try it out.
Charisma over character, style, substance, and image!
I have seen this many times in my search career.
I was with a search committee this past week and one member said, “We look to you to help us avoid making hiring decisions based on the wrong criteria.” I am glad that he considered this (a hiring mistake) as a possibility and am hopeful as his committee meets candidates – AND as the personality / charisma / charm of the candidates turns on the chemistry machine – that he and his committee members will still think this way.