Hire the ones who smile
Whenever you need to add a new person to your team, make the decision easy on yourself: just hire the ones who smile.
Smiling is awesome. The act of smiling makes a measurable positive impact in the physiology of a person. Smilers are obviously more upbeat and smiling is darned contagious. The StartupNation team just returned from the annual eBay Live! conference in San Jose. (We presented with our radio show in front of a packed house in the main ballroom. Look for this show to air on our national radio network on August 13.) I walked through the trade show floor passing by company after company represented with fancy booths with bells & whistles, free giveaways and lots & lots of “come talk to us” pitches.
The single biggest differentiator that had a bold immediate impact on me was the smile emanating from someone’s face. It was inviting, disarming and almost always caused me to smile back, putting me in a mood and mode of “hey, let’s accomplish something with our next words”. Sure, these people are trade-show sales-folk and they know how to positively engage passers-by. But not everyone was doing the smiling. The frowners were at a definite disadvantage.
Here’s my point … when you’re making decisions about which humans to select for your team, even if these people will only communicate internally with other team members and not interact with your customer community, you can’t go wrong with smilers! Of course you’ll consider team chemistry/fit (in my opinion, THE most important conventional selection criteria – and I spent 19 years as an executive recruiter helping companies make these choices) and a person’s skill level to do the job at hand, along with lesser important factors as you make hiring decisions. But when it comes down to that ultimate choice differentiator, go with the smile!
Entrepreneurs especially need people on their team who can roll with the ups & downs of the day to day life of a small business. A smiling positive attitude will go far in both weathering the storms and taking full advantage of the sunshine.
You think I’m being too simplistic? Go ahead … give us a smile and see what it does to your attitude and then your productivity. I double-dog-dare ya’.
June 29th, 2005 at 2:28 am
Hello Joel,
I’m a small business owner a by far my biggest problem has been finding in my case the right employee. I run a small Mobile Paint and Body Service. Over the past 2 and a half years my customer base has risen considerably, but as of yet I haven’t been able to find someone who has the desire, or drive to help me to expand my company. Your article definitely makes good sense to me. It’s important that my employee have a good outgoing and friendly report with my customers. My question is how to find someone who is willing to learn my trade and have the same vision as I do to expand with my business. It has been a problem so far, and I seem to be scratching my head for amswers.
Sincerely,
Paul Z.
June 29th, 2005 at 9:57 am
I agree 100%. I ran a 5-star summer resort (http://www.grandhotel.com) for a few years after college. The best employees I ever had were those that wanted to work hard, do better and smile. They were happy to be there and I was happy to have them.
Great point. Great site.
Thanks, Tony
July 3rd, 2005 at 5:09 pm
Working in the city, and always in search for good employees for my law firm, I have found today’s changing workforce, especially todays college-age generation is very jaded about the corporate culture, they ,are much more skeptical and generally only view entry level employment as temporary stepping stone onto their bigger career, Smiling employees generally do have rosy attitudes, but they are also more predisposed to move on after a few months..
August 14th, 2005 at 12:42 am
Joel,
I’m still researching and I love your enthusiasm because I always get great comments about my own cheerfulness. But as a business owner, when weeding through applicants and candidates, how would you go about spotting people who are just fakes trying to schmooze you? Thanks
August 14th, 2005 at 10:22 am
Great question Donna. The ideal hiring scenario is taking a proactive approach so that you get to know potential employees well before you actually have the need to hire. You get less surprises that way. Check out this online seminar on [link=http://www.startupnation.com/pages/webinars/OS_Power-of-People.asp' target='']The Power of People[/link] to learn how to be proactive in growing your team of stars.
If you haven’t been proactive, try interviewing a candidate several times in different locations and at different times of day. And make the interview process a mini-project instead of a series of conversations. This strategy can take some of the risk out of the traditional interviewing/hiring process.
Here’s wishing you great success,
Joel Welsh
November 5th, 2005 at 8:06 pm
On 8/14/05, the question arose, "How do you go about separating fake candidates from true performers?"
Well, from the moody blue swamp swarmed by questions (job interviews), let me use the Talmudic gambit of answering a question with a question — whatever happened to talking about the job?
Sometimes it seems that the more we advance, the more we fall behind. There are so many books on interviewing, and candidates galore study them. Add to that tons of Web sites dedicated to job hunting. Almost each speaks of techniques to pass and master interviews, even naming types of interviews one may encounter (e.g., "stress interviews", "behavioral interviews," etc.) Very few ever speak about interviews as a theatre and exchange to demonstrate [b]actual job competence[/b].
The one big problem in interviewing is that many times the employer doesn’t know what actual job competence is. He has not defined exactly he wants from someone who’ll do the job. As a candidate, you can tell how unprepared some employers are when you ask them how a stated requirement relates to the job and you get a blank stare and stun. Come on, in terms of the bottom line with which big and small corporation are supposedly obsessed about, we’re here to talk business!
Too many managers conduct an interview like any other casual conversation, believing somehow that’ll lead them to the best candidates in their natural spirit. Hogwash! Unlike many other forms of exchange, a job interview has some real consequences, and the stakes are high for both the employer and candidate, especially those who’d like to make money ranging from company revenue to employee salary. To bring people back together to something that makes financial and emotional sense, talk about the job.
That’s what needs to take center stage, the job. The 3 things that must be covered during the interview are:
1. Can this person do the job?
2. Will this person do the job?
3. Can he get along with others who will do the job along with him?
The employer needs to define the job and the outcome of doing the job in advance of the interview. Nothing turns off candidates more than preparing for an interview, only to see the employer is lost. Some candidates will speak ill of an ill-prepared company, therefore turning other candidates off too.
Additionally, resumes are useless. Resumes only say that somebody was able to deliver in a previous playfield. The candidate has to know the employer’s circumstances and desires. Why waste time speaking about what one did 5 years ago when one will be working on a current project when hired?
I’ve frequently issued projects both during and after interviews to determine both competence and interest. Unlike some managers and companies who conduct interviews as pop quizzes, I let the candidate do research. Research is not cheating. I sometimes give them a take-home assignment. They’re free to call anyone at the company for assistance; besides, if they are hired, that’s exactly what they’ll be expected to do. Several find this process tiring, and they eliminate themselves. That’s okay, those who really want to work for the company and like the work will latch at the opportunity to showcase their skills and fit, whether they’re new grads at 26 or seasoned pro’s at 62.
Restore the job as the main ingredient of the interview and you’ll both do fine.