The 6 Easy Steps To Hiring An A-Player

I was thrilled when I saw that Geoff Smart and Randy Street of ghSMART came out with the book Who: The A Method For Hiring on how to improve hiring.

If you are involved in any hiring, I suggest you acquire this book right now!

You may recall that I had an incredible experience studying under Topgrading guru Brad Smart (Geoff’s father) in Chicago a few years ago with Eben Pagan and some of the Hot Topic Media gang.

It’s good to see that the Smart family is even Smarter than I thought!

"If you have anything to do with hiring, buy this book now!

The highlights of Who for me were these simple six steps to hiring an A-player (#s 3 and 5 were mentioned in my original Topgrading article, but Geoff and Randy add a lot in the other 4 steps and also simplify steps 3 and 5):

1) Create A “Scorecard”

A scorecard simply lists out the outcomes and competencies you want the candidate to possess within some defines set of time.

Examples of outcomes include:

• Grow sales by 50% in year 1.
• Lead the launch of a major product launch by Q3.
• Hire 5 people by Q4.

Examples of competencies include:

• Transparency — You are honest and clear about everything you do and provide constructive feedback for those around you.
• Ego — You check it at the door. This is about teamwork.
• Coachability — You are willing to develop yourself through listening to those around you.

2) The Screening Interview

The first interview with a candidate should include questions such as:

• What are your career goals?
• What are you really good at professionally?
• What are you not so great at or not interested in doing professionally?
• Who were your last 5 bosses and how will each of them rate your performance (1 to 10) when we talk to them?

3) The Topgrading Interview

I wrote about Brad Smart’s unique Topgrading philosophy in A Mis-Hire Costs You 13X That Person’s Salary: Why You Must Topgrade!

You start with asking about College (if they attended) with simple ice-breaker questions like: how did you fit into school?; high/low points?; any awards/achievements?; greatest influence?; hold any jobs?; etc.

For the job-related questions, Brad’s son Geoff and partner Randy Street have simplified the set of Topgrading questions to ask that include:

• What were you hired to do?
• What accomplishments were you most proud of…and what were your low points?
• Who were the people you worked with and how would you rate them and they rate you
• Why did you leave that job?

4) The Focused Interview Guide

Smart and Street recommend that you then do a couple of more “focused” interviews in which you take an outcome you want out of the position: E.g. Grow sales 50% in year and then ask the candiate:

• What are some accomplishments you have in growing sales 50% or more?
• What are some mistakes and lessons you’ve learned in growing sales by 50%?

If another outcome you want is to lead the release of a major software product launch, then you ask the same questions about that?

5) Reference Interviews

As I mentioned in my last Topgrading article, get in touch with at least a few of their references to over the same types of questions as you did with the applicant in the Topgrading section (so you can cross-reference). So make sure to cover things like:

What was their role?; What were ups and downs of their performance?; How would you rate their performance on a scale of 1 to 10?

Then, describe the role you envision for the applicant and ask them what’s a good fit and what’s a bad fit.

6) The Skill-Will Bull’s Eye

Finally, they recommend that you look at the data you’ve collected from the interviews and compare it to the Scorecard and answer the following two questions:

• Skill — Do the facts show that the candidate has 90%+ of the skills needed to achieve the outcomes?
• Will — Do the facts show that the candidate has 90%+ of the will (desire) to achieve the outcomes?

If the answer is “yes,” then you have an A-player.