Your Dream Employee – Start with Purpose

Last week we finished up the Your Dream Job series and shared a video synopsis of Daniel H. Pink’s book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us.

As you’ll recall, the book summarized the key motivators for most adults as Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose.

In our consulting, we work with leaders to consider these three motivators but in reverse order: Purpose, Mastery, and Autonomy.

As we’ve worked with leaders on how to lead using this helpful perspective, we’ve started to coach them on using this exact same framework to increase the chances of hiring their dream employee.

There are very few people who find the task of hiring an easy one, and the research suggests that somewhere between 40 – 50% of hires fail. Poor hires have significant costs, so it makes sense that it’s stressful!

We’ve found that using the framework of purpose, mastery, and autonomy in your hiring process can increase the odds of success. Consider this as you’re creating a role description, advertising for a position, and interviewing candidates.

PURPOSE:
Is this candidate aligned with the organization’s and the leader’s purpose?

• Often when we suggest this to retailers or organizations that are for-profit, the leaders will say that there is not really a purpose to be aligned with.
• All organizations have a sense of purpose whether named or not and you’ll be more successful in hiring if you name it and hire for it. If your organization doesn’t have a named purpose, ask yourselves these questions:
  • • What do we actually value? For example:
  • • • • Serving people
        • Making money
        • Growing territory
        • Supporting the community with jobs
        • Exposing people to wonderful design at a reasonable price point
    • What do the people who have been most successful in the organization value and get excited by?
    • What do you, as the hiring manager, care about? For example, one hiring manager we spoke with said he wanted to work with people who:
      • • Leaned toward action
        • Loved working within a team setting to create success
        • Loved helping the organization stand out in their industry

MASTERY:
Assess if the person has the mastery needed to do the job now or the potential and passion to develop the mastery needed.

• Ask yourself these questions:
  • • What’s the candidate’s skillset and in what situations have they been most successful?
    • Do they seem to love to do the work that’s needed, or do they seem like they’re doing it because ‘it’s a job’?
    • If they don’t yet have mastery, what data do you have that indicates that they learn quickly and well without high demands on the team, who are already working hard?

AUTONOMY:
When an employee is both aligned with the purpose of the organization and has demonstrated consistent mastery of the skills critical to their work then it’s time to continue to motivate them by allowing them increasing levels of autonomy.

• Giving strong employees autonomy recognizes their success and takes some of the work off your shoulders—a double win.
• Ask yourself these questions:
  • • Have I been clear with the candidate that this is the way we do things?
      • • Hire
        • Orient
        • Train
        • Assess alignment with purpose and demonstration of mastery before we give them autonomy
        • Continue to give them greater levels of autonomy as they demonstrate growth in mastery and continued alignment with purpose
    • Does this candidate seem to genuinely understand your rationale for this approach and get excited to demonstrate how they can contribute to organizational success?
    • Is the candidate curious about what will make them invaluable to your team?

This week, consider how you can use this simple and powerful framework to hire your dream employee! It will make your life, your work, and your organization more successful.