They Can Do The Work, But...

If yours is like most organizations, you try very hard to hire only the best and brightest people.   Indeed, hiring can be one of the more risky things to do, financially, with a bad hire potentially costing several times the position's annual salary - therefore making the hiring process all the more critical.

When interviewing for a technical position, ensuring the candidate has the correct technical skills is obviously important.   I'd argue, however, that it's not the most important consideration when evaluating match between the candidate and the position.   Surprising?   It was to me - at least before I had the opportunity some years ago to build a team and observe firsthand the consequences of a bad hire.

The basic problem is that while technical skills (such as specific programming languages, tools, etc.) can be learned to at least a rudimentary level in a short amount of time, other attributes that make a person a great team member cannot.     These attributes are things like attitude, credibility, responsibility, and so on - things which cannot be simply learned by a quick session on Google.   They are instead behaviors; things which are ingrained within our personalities such that changing them is much harder and takes a great deal more time than learning how to use a new app on your iPhone.    These attributes are also what either build up or tear down the bond between team members, and for any non-trivial project the ability of the team to work together is critical.

I recently had the opportunity to speak with someone who set off warning bells; their attitude and mannerisms indicated to me that they have an incredible opportunity to improve just those types of behaviors.   Bright, driven, and exceedingly arrogant, this individual may eventually go on to accomplish amazing things but I would not care to have him on my team today due to the risk to the team's well being that such a "brilliant jerk" would pose.

Identifying the attributes you value for individuals on your team is key, and ensuring that new team members are a good "fit" is critically important - even more so than specific technical skills.   New skills can be learned quickly; new behaviors can take far longer and be far more costly for your organization to teach.

What non-technical attributes do you value most in your coworkers?     How do you develop those attributes within yourself?