Talent Philosophy Part I
I have had a few readers ask me what my talent philosophy is, so wanted to take a stab at putting it down to paper. It’s a lot more challenging than I thought as a talent philosophy has to be multi-faceted.
Why is it important
Talent philosophy starts with why you need one. I firmly believe that talent is the most critical resource a company can have. Everything flows from talent. It creates IP, develops and launches software, creates compelling mission and vision, closes deals, and makes people feel affinity and attachment to the company. On top of that talent forms one of the three key legs for pursuing the the purpose of a company: Talent, Business, Customers. Without the talent you can’t run the business or serve your customers.
Components
To make my talent philosophy more concrete I started by breaking it into 4 stages:
Acquisition - bring in the right people
Onboarding - get people off on the right foot
Development - grow people
Retention - keep the right people, offboard when needs change
I underpin these four stages with how I think about scaling. As your organization grows, you’ll need to refine your approach and change each dimension slightly as the needs of the business change.
Acquisition
In the acquisition stage I think about getting great talent who will thrive in the particular culture and organizational structure we have. I want the best talent I can get, I want to minimize misses, and I want to leave an impression on candidates regardless if we hire them that our company is a great place to work. I start by outlining what I want in the role from a skills and traits perspective. My time at Google really impacted me here and I try to outline a scorecard on 4 dimensions: general aptitude, role related skills, grit, and ability to thrive in my current company.
General aptitude is the ability to think on their feet and communicate ideas effectively. I believe this matters in almost any role and provides adaptability in talent. I want candidates that have a high ceiling and this is helping me get at that.
Role related skills test for the things I need in the role today. These I’ll usually try to test with a small exercise whether it’s to pull insights out of a spreadsheet, a mock sales pitch, or craft a hypothetical marketing campaign.
Grit is a must have for me. It’s the ability to overcome obstacles, which time and again has been a great signal for me in hiring. In any job there will be obstacles (internal and external) and I very much value people who can use their creativity, influence, smarts, or hard-work to find a way around these obstacles to get the job done.
Ability to thrive in your current company is a dimension that is highly customizable based on the values of your company. The intent here is to make sure that the person fits culturally into the way of working. At Google we called this Googliness, at PandaDoc we look for candidates who are always learning, looking for impact, empathic, and embody fun.
In an interview process I generally divide these 4 areas between different interviewers. I also really trust my interviewers, if one person thinks we have a miss I may try to probe why, but ultimately will let them veto a hire.
Onboarding
You’ve invested time, thoughtfulness, and effort in getting great talent so you want them to hit the ground running. Yet so many people just throw their talent to the wolves and don’t invest any time in making sure they land successfully and get out running in the new job. For me onboarding is well worth the effort you put in to make sure your talent feels affinity for the company and gets to productivity quickly. Onboarding is all about context setting, creating bonds, establishing trust, and laying out goals. Most companies will establish an onboarding program, but I like to go above that and draft an onboarding doc. I want the new hire to understand the culture, understand the mission, and how her role affects the mission. In that doc, I set my top goals for the person, tell them about key partners they need to meet, and establish how best to work with me. I also try to strike a balance between protecting the new hire and getting them involved. I’ll usually give them a week or two to get up to speed, digest information and meet people before throwing them in the deep end. In customer facing roles I also want them to learn the product deeply and capture feedback on using it with their fresh eyes. I try to make myself extra available during this time for questions.
You’ve now got your talent up and running, hired well and set them up for success. Tune in next week to find out how approach talent after those crucial steps.