May 28; Are Good Looks Good For Business?;
MANAGEMENT BY THE BOOK:
365 Daily Bible Verse &
One-Minute Management Lessons For The Busy Faithful

Chapter Five: May Hiring; May 28

Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting,

but the woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.

Proverbs 31:30

Deception

It was one of the most inane hires that I ever approved. And it was my fault.

One of my sales guys needed to retain a translator for our Chinese customers based in Hong Kong.

The new woman was brilliant and polished with a maturity beyond her years. She was a striking young woman who gave new meaning to ‘China doll.’

I didn’t think my interview team of young single men thought to ask if she spoke Cantonese.

I asked my secretary how the interview was going, she didn’t know. The guys didn’t seem to ask too many questions—they simply stared at her…

…giving new meaning to ‘round-eyed Americans.’

And she didn’t ask or volunteer about dialects. She spoke Chinese, and, well, that was enough, right?

The sales team knew within a week that she spoke Mandarin; the dominate language in China. The Doll, as she soon became known, didn’t speak Cantonese.

It took about a month before the Sales team got around to telling me.

Yes, we should have tested her more thoroughly. But I was a new manager and didn’t know what I was doing (this would happen a lot). It still took another month to fire her (as the sales guys scrambled to find more Mandarin speaking customers to justify keeping the asset. We’ve got the extra capacity! Let’s use it!).

I could have avoided a bad hire if I had done the basics. Not to tolerate a lie or anyone who does. Avoid anyone who ‘massages’ the truth by not being (completely) honest.

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Jack Welch

Jack Welch calls this the “acid test” for human resources: Integrity, Intelligence and Maturity. Welch grew General Electric from $13 billion into a $500 billion business over his 20 years as CEO.

It is true he got this done by hard work. It was the work of finding smart, experienced people who told the whole truth. He says that new managers get hiring right about half the time. Which is still a good batting average in baseball and management.

Welch writes and,

Warns against trusting your gut in hiring decisions because he says instinct often “makes us ‘fall in love’ with a candidate too quickly.” It’s easy to be seduced…

He got that right.

Proverbs 31:30 Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting, but the woman who fears the LORD is to be praised. 

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