In June’s Wake Up Profitable Boot Camp for Business Owners, we showed business owners how to build and align their team. If you ask any business owner about their top challenges about building the team, you’ll find hiring and retaining good employees at the top of their list.
Let’s face it, hiring exceptional talent can be tricky. It’s important to have a well-formulated process, including assessing the candidate’s fit, identifying the culture fit, and onboarding to name a few.
Another important, but often-missed element of hiring is evaluating how the job is executed so that the top goals and performance metrics are more easily met. To make sure you have a good fit from the start, you’ll want to ask these two questions:
1. Is the position best executed by a Generalist – where the result is more important than how it is attained or
2. Is the position best executed by a Specialist – where how the result is obtained is as important as the result itself
Here is a simple example of the importance of identifying if the position is best executed by a generalist or a specialist. Imagine you’re working in a hospital setting. There are a team of RN’s caring for the patients. Their tasks may include monitoring the patient’s vitals, administer medication, and communicate patient needs with the doctor among numerous other tasks.
As part of the patient-care team is a Medical Assistant. A Medical Assistant provide hygienic care (bathing and toileting), transports patients within the hospital, and assist nurses as directed for a variety of needs.
Imagine if you had a Medical Assistant who was naturally wired as a Generalist – where the result is more important than how it is attained. She was told there was a new patient coming in and to change the bedding of an existing patient. She tosses the sheets on the bed and asks the RN to handle the new
bedding so that she can handle the new patient.
This is an example of what happens when a Generalist performs a job that is designed for a Specialist. How it occurs is that the Medical Assistant is not performing the tasks she is assigned and is delegating
back.
Can you see how natural wiring can show up as a performance concern or other employee relation issue? At the root of the issue is natural wiring at work.
The next time you see an employee relation issue, take a look at their human wiring. When you do, you’ll clearly see what’s underneath the behaviors so that you can provide constructive feedback to improve performance.
Remember this cautionary tale when hiring a generalist for a specialist position.
If you’re inspired to creating extraordinary results by learning about your human wiring, join us for the workshop, Wired to Win! Your Path to Passion, Purpose, and Profit on August 21-22, 2020. More at http://www.excellerateassociates.com/wired-to-win
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