Aptitude + Attitude = Altitude

2003-08-01   email this article to a friend.

The moment of truth has arrived. You have just spent the last week interviewing six or eight people for the job. All of them have their strong points, but you’ve narrowed it down to two.

One person impresses you by the great personality they projected during the interview. They came across energetic, articulate, upbeat and self-assured. The other person was less animated, but sported the most experience of all the candidates. She could probably step into the job and “hit the ground running”, with less need for training. Hmm. So who do you select?

My answer may surprise you. If, as employers usually do, you concentrated your decision making on those two factors alone -- experience and personality -- the person you should have hired was probably one of the six others you screened out!

Don’t get me wrong. Having a great personality is normally a positive, not a negative. Depending on the position, a winning personality may be absolutely essential. But in the interview process, personality is often a cheat. It masks other deficiencies and carries the employer off, enamored by what a “wonderful person” they are talking to. Well, maybe. Or maybe the person is just naturally extroverted and does a darned good job of interviewing. That doesn’t make them good or bad. But it requires that the employer look beyond personality, to those critical traits that will predict their success or failure.

What about experience level? Isn’t that the most reliable measurement you can use, for predicting performance? Well, not necessarily. It’s an important factor, of course. But many employers make the mistake of placing too much weight on experience alone. A highly experienced person in a given trade or profession may be an outstanding performer at the top of their game. On the other hand, they may be secretly desiring to do something very different, out of burn-out or simple boredom. Or, as is often the case, they may have followed that particular occupational path not because they had a great aptitude or interest in it, but because it happened to be what was available at the time. A great many people with lots of experience at something are nevertheless mismatched to what they are doing. Because of this, their performance is relatively uninspired -- and they will likely rise no higher than the level at which they currently fly.

Recently, I was speaking with a well know painting contractor about this. Fred Lynch has a reputation for doing some of the finest work in the valley, and his helpers work by the same high standards that Fred demands for himself. Fred told me that when hiring someone, having a great deal of experience working for someone else doesn’t necessarily impress him. Neither does the “hot-shot” personality who oversells himself in the interview, projecting total confidence in whatever the job requires. Fred is more drawn to someone who shows humility and sincerity, who has a meticulous, perfectionist nature, a strong work ethic and a genuine interest in the painting profession. Fred may hire a person with little or no experience, who has a low-key rather than self-promoting personality, who is slow and unsure at first, but who has clear ability and a great attitude.

This approach has certainly worked for Fred, and it works for other employers, too. It has led to what I call “Koopman’s Triple-A Principle”: Aptitude + Attitude = Altitude. You can hire a person with lots of ability, but if they lack the right attitude about their work (or work in general), they will never be a peak performer or reach their full potential. Or you can hire a person with a dynamite attitude but no natural interest or ability in the job itself, and you’ve created a formula for frustration. The willingness may be there, but the ability isn’t, and no amount of training or encouragement will bridge that gap.

Here’s the critical point. Attitude is not necessarily measured by how much personality a person projects. Be careful! Great attitude can be hidden inside of a very non-verbal or even self-effacing person. Outward personality does not always give an accurate picture of inward values, character traits and upbringing. In the final analysis, what’s on the inside is what really counts.

Likewise, experience at a particular job does not necessarily speak to that person’s natural aptitudes or personal interests. They may have been stuck doing something they really didn’t like, or at the very least, had no passion for. They jumped on that track and found no way off. It’s been an okay job for them, but not a real career. Why would you want to hire someone like that to do the same work for you?

My advice: seek out new employees with Triple-A Ratings: Aptitude, Attitude and Altitude. It will take longer to evaluate candidates with this in mind. Reliable personality assessments can be a big help, reference checking is essential, as are second interviews and interviews conducting by different people within your organization. The outside assistance of an independent professional, who will screen the candidates from a different perspective and uncover information not revealed in the job interview, is also highly recommended. Do whatever it takes. But put personality and experience factors -- as important as they are -- in their proper place, and put aptitude and attitude in the forefront of your hiring decisions.

The result will be top performing employees with high satisfaction levels and extremely low turnover. In the “HR” world, that’s called a recipe for success.