The advent of new digital marketing
has left companies scrambling to update their social media page, improve brand
engagement and purchase new content management technology. It has also left
marketing managers with a unique dilemma – who in your company is going to
execute all these new cutting edge strategies?
There Are No “Experienced” Digital Marketers
The problem with adapting new
technology and tools is that precisely because of this newness, there are very
few accomplished practitioners out there. It’s not like there are storied
programs where you can pull the newest inbound marketing graduates to flesh out
your bench strength.
In fact, digital media is facing
quite a talent gap. According to SearchEngineLand, Fortune 500 companies looking for new applicants
face a distinct between the skills these companies are looking for, and the
skills common to their applicant pool.
Despite this lack of skilled staff,
marketers still need to fill their digital roster. That leaves hiring managers
and HR managers alike in a bit of a conundrum.
Without any good old-fashioned,
skilled-based evaluation to test against, you are are left guessing if someone
will be a fit for your job or not.
And, trying and hire against a skill
set that is hard to quantify to see if your applicant’s attitude can tell you
about their likelihood something that can’t quite be quantified, has HR
managers across the globe reconsidering their approach towards hiring
altogether.
How to Find the Right Stuff? Ask Russell Crowe
If we all had a crystal ball, we
might be able to find that magic ingredient that will make sure that the
candidate you pick is not just going to give his/her best right now, but
continue to contribute to your company’s culture and growth, say five years
down the line as well?
However, before we get into the nitty-gritty
of this hot debate, and put every little angle of it under the scanner, let’s
think about the movie 300! Yes, that’ll be the one with the Spartans and the
army of 300 that gets the Persians breaking out into a cold sweat.
King Leonidas and others in his kingdom have to fight
for survival from their very birth. They are trained to be the best and the
fiercest. But, when King Leonidas decides to take only a trusted few into the battlefield,
do you really think it’s their years of training that helps them stand their ground
in the face of adversity or could there be something else?
Now, training could have only conditioned them to be
pitched against three hundred or perhaps even an army thrice their size. But,
no training in the (Sparta) world could have prepared them for the onslaught
brought on by a million Persian soldiers. Whether historians debate these
numbers to be incorrect, the point to be noted here is that the single most
important ingredient that led these gallant soldiers to hold their head high
against hopeless odds was ATTITUDE!
300’s Lessons on Attitude
Here’s why the Spartan’s core
characteristics also resonate in the business world:
1.
Skills might get you to
the job desk (read battlefield), but only a strong attitude will help you
survive through the tough times (read onslaught by a million).
2.
Skills can get old (and
make a God throw a fit) – especially in the ever-changing world of digital
marketing. On the other hand, an attitude to learn and adapt never goes out of
style (just like the Spartan war cry).
3.
Last, but not the least,
even God-like skills can fall in the face of a ‘never say die’ attitude.
Perhaps this quote from Lou Holtz
could put things into perspective for those who missed the movie (or even the
point):
“Ability is what you're capable of
doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do
it.”
Hire the Right DNA
With very few accredited programs
for digital marketing, but lots of social media gurus and growth hackers, it’s
difficult to separate who will be good in your marketing roles and who will
just surf the net.
Mark Murphy, the renowned author of
“Hiring for Attitude” had this to say on the subject when interviewed by the Forbes magazine:
“When our research tracked 20,000 new
hires, 46% of them failed within 18 months. But, even more surprising than
the failure rate, was that when new hires failed, 89% of the time it was
for attitudinal reasons and only 11% of the time for a lack of
skill.”
According to Mr. Murphy, the “top
attitudinal deficits” that doomed the fate of these new hires were:
·
Lack of coachability
·
Low levels of emotional
intelligence
·
Lack of motivation
·
Misfit of a temperament
He further went on to add that the
research by no means wished to degrade the importance of technical and soft
skills, but just needed to bring to light that they’re much easier to assess,
which is why attitude ‘the erratic factor’ emerged as the top predictor of the
success or failure of the new hires.
Murphy also commented that “virtually
every job (from neurosurgeon to engineer to cashier) has tests that can assess
technical proficiency. But, what those tests don’t assess is attitude; whether
a candidate is motivated to learn new skills, think innovatively, cope with
failure, assimilate feedback and coaching, collaborate with teammates, and so
forth.”
That makes sense. What we know will change
with time and experience; who we are is something that’s most likely to stay
with us for a lifetime.
There’s No Such Thing As “Just a Job”
The key to finding exceptional
personnel is to make sure that no one is to never consider any position - no matter
how important or trivial - as “just a job.” If you adopt that kind of thinking
in our interconnected digital world, you’ve put the very future of your
organization in jeopardy.
Customers have become more educated,
more aware and much more demanding than ever. As a result, what they expect
from your company and/or product is something unprecedented as well. So, if
you’re going to fill your ranks with people who are technically gifted, but
lack the right attitude, you’re going to have run-of-the-mill results on your
hands. To offer your customers the unthinkable, you need people with an
attitude that would bring a positive change to the workplace, if not the world.
And, it not only stops with what you
have to offer to your customers, but trickles down to the very identity of your
company. Perhaps the adage of “you’re only as good as the company you keep”
fits best here. When you employ people whose personal values are in sync with
your company’s culture, you’re bringing their DNA to match yours for an X-men
mutant-like effect (basically meaning, giving your organization superpowers
like never before).
On the contrary, imagine hiring someone
with a disruptive attitude. You’re not only creating a toxic environment for
the rest of your staff, but also paving the way for it to be passed down and
poison your customers. Something no company would ever wish to happen even in their
wildest of dreams.
Just think about U.S. Airways recent
Twitter/PR catastrophe – you simply can’t afford to have a bad apple
representing your brand.
Six Qualities of an A+ Attitude
So what makes a great attitude?
Fortunately, a recent Telegraph UK
survey revealed just that – listing the top six, essential attitude qualities
respondents feel comprise a top workplace attitude:
ü Commitment
ü Honesty
ü Trustworthiness
ü Adaptability
ü Accountability
ü Loyalty
Interview Questions to
Spot the Battle-Born and Battle-Tried?
The most logical thing to ask next
is: How do I identify the right people with the right attitude for my
organization?
To get there, first, you must commit
to eliminating questions like, “tell me more about yourself” or “what are your
strengths and weaknesses?” Instead, you need to overhaul your interviews so
that they tap into the very core of the individual in front of you - and find if
they are a Spartan for your company.
Since no two companies can share the
same culture (think Google and Apple) there is no single set of questions that
would make sense for every setup.
Look within to identify what makes
your organization’s attitude unique, and then develop an answer key accordingly
to map results that would create a cultural fit.
Here’s a glimpse of questions that
would allow you to look beyond what resumes have to say:
ü Have you ever used humor to diffuse a tense situation?
Tell me more about it.
ü Have you ever broken the rules to help out a
distressed customer? How did you go about it?
ü Have you ever tried to reach out to or help a
co-worker knowing you wouldn’t receive any credit for it? Could you elaborate
on that?
ü Have you ever had a serious goof-up with a customer or
co-worker? How did you handle that?
ü Have you ever take on any additional responsibility
knowing there was no guarantee for success? How did that work out for you?
Keeping such questions and more
focused towards what a candidate has done in the past will help you figure out
what they’re capable of doing in the future rather easily.
Also, revisit these questions over
time. As you evolve and grow, your company’s attitude may also change. The key
is to find the right match in candidates is to ensure that your interview
questions are always an organic reflection of your most successful people.
Go Forth, And Conquer!
Your people are the most important
resource in any company, and online they can be the first impression anyone ha
with your company. Using this internal compass and teasing out what kind of
attitude your company can’t live without is key to finding successful matches
for your culture.
Finding the right attitude is also the
key to reducing turnover, creating a positive work culture and making your life
easier as a hiring manager.
Very simply, companies keep the
people who try, whether they have the perfect skill set or not. The Telegraph
UK study mentioned above also found that two-thirds of employers said that if
they had to reduce their workforce, they would fire someone with a perfect
skill set over someone with deficient skills, but sporting the right attitude.
In the words of
Winston Churchill, ”Attitude is a little thing that makes a big
difference.”
