Recently I have attended some educational training that really put things in perspective in regards to hiring the right personality. Not just hiring the right person, but the right personality for the job. Doing this simple classification upfront can dramatically increase your efficiency, productivity, and revenue. If you did not do this from the beginning, now might be a good time to go through and restructure your company for maximum effectiveness.

There are many personality tests out there. Some classify by color, others by adjective, and yet others by a veritable cornucopia of different options. I have not found any to be perfect but I have found some to be easier to use and implement. I prefer the classification system put in place by the founder and CEO of The Blue Star Business Institute, Dan Vega. His system can literally help you classify someone as quickly as a handshake. His system is not the topic of this post. However, if you want to learn more about the system you will need to attend one of his many classes or seminars. Contact me and I can tell you how to attend.

Back to the topic at hand, you should hire the right personality for the position. Let me elaborate and I’m sure clarity will begin to set in. Let’s say, for example, that you need to hire someone who is going to handle client support. If you had a firm and exacting prospect and you had a warm and motherly prospect, who should you hire? Because the position requires a certain level of understanding and sympathy, the person with the warm and motherly disposition should be considered (assuming the qualifications for both are similar). Conversely, if you were hiring for an executive position, the person with the firm and exacting disposition would be the superior choice over the warm and motherly type. Or, let’s say that you need a sales person. Would you pick a methodical introvert or an enthusiastic extrovert? The enthusiastic extrovert is the clear choice. Conversely, if an IT position opens up, a methodical introvert is generally better suited for the job.

I am not advocating hiring someone purely because of attitude. However, if you have a list of similarly qualified candidates, the personality that fits the job in the particular industry should be the tie breaker. I have heard first hand accounts how restructuring a company to take advantage of their current labor pool in a more efficient manner (i.e. matching jobs with personalities) yielded results of 200% performance increases and higher. It is just easier for a person to perform a job that they are naturally talented at performing. When you can match skill and attitude with a position there is no ceiling on your altitude of performance. So when you hire, make sure you pick the right personality for the position.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 9th, 2009 at 1:10 am and is filed under General Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.