Entrepreneurial Beliefs

In an earlier post, we discussed how our beliefs influence our actions.

There may be no more obvious example of this idea than in how many entrepreneurs go about hiring people in their companies. The people you hire are the very essence of what makes your company work, or not. It is their own actions, their interactions with others and the caliber of their relationships that will produce viability or erosion in your firm.

Every position you hire is vital, you are essentially placing the success of your company in the hands of people who will either care for it, or through their own actions when unsupervised,
permit their own personal agenda to supersede that of the company mission.

I recommend to my clients that they always begin the process of human resource management with an exercise on values. Values, those concepts we hold in high regard, that guide our lives, are what holds organizations together. Shared, common values among people in organizations often result in shared perspectives, alignment of action and a regard for serving others as we, ourselves would be served.

An exercise I recommend is this: When hiring for any position, begin first by describing the characteristics you would expect this new hire to exhibit, even in the worst of circumstances.
Would you expect them to be communicative, punctual, perhaps diligent? Would this person best demonstrate the spirit of customer service by going the extra mile, by understanding the client so well that they could make suggestions on more effective use of products or services or by protecting the company position at all costs?

Challenge what you believe about the hiring process by developing a list of words describing the kind of person you'd like representing your company. You will improve your hiring process, and with a description of the personality characteristics you find compatible with your current team members and your customers, you can begin the search for those people who fit that description.

Crafting an interview to focus on those characteristics is the next step.