Harvard Business Review article, Hiring And Recruitment
by Rich Thompson
January 10, 2014
Companies frequently complain that it’s tough to find the right people. If, amidst high unemployment, this seems counterintuitive, consider the deep trends driving the mismatch: technology and globalization have transformed what it takes to succeed in business. A new generation of professionals places more importance on organizational values and passion for the work than on a paycheck. Organizations, as Cathy Benko argues in The Corporate Lattice, have replaced hierarchical structures with flatter, more collaborative work arrangements. Amidst all this fluidity, it’s difficult for managers to specify the content of jobs, and the skills and specialized knowledge required to perform them; harder still for aspiring job-winners to offer those.
If companies are having difficulty finding that “perfect match,” perhaps it’s time for an equally profound shift in how we think about staffing. Rather than detailing a job description and looking for someone to match it, companies should look for people with the right fundamental qualities and then allocate tasks in such a way that they apply their talents productively and develop important new ones. Furthermore, companies must acknowledge that those people may already exist within their own ranks, and implement processes to make the best use of existing talent. Accomplishing this hinges on understanding people – whether it be a new hire or long-time employee. And when it comes to discovering what makes people tick, a good way to start is with helping them understand themselves.
Self-awareness is a millennia-old area of study – the aphorism “know thyself” dates back to at least to Socrates. Why is it important to organizational performance? According to Gary Yukl, a researcher on leadership, “Self-awareness makes it easier to understand one’s own needs and likely reactions if certain events occurred, thereby facilitating evaluation of alternative solutions.” He defines the concept as including “understanding of one’s own needs, emotions, abilities, and behavior,” indicating that a person able to identify his or her own strengths and weaknesses will be more effective.
The concept of self-awareness as a foundation for effective leadership has been theorized, implied, and researched in a variety of contexts. For example, studies by Bass & Yammarino (1991), Atwater & Yamamarino (1992), and Church (1997) showed that those who demonstrated a more accurate conception of their own skills, abilities, and preferences tended to perform better than those with a less accurate self-conception.
In the literature surrounding the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® we also see great emphasis on the importance of self-awareness. People who answer the instrument’s questions are provided with insight into how their preferences differ from others’ in terms of a) where they focus their attention and energy; b) how they acquire information and become aware; c) how they make decisions, arrive at conclusions, or make judgments and d) how they relate to the outer world. While its publisher CPP, Inc., strongly opposes its use in selection – it was never designed for this purpose – it is highly valuable when it comes to understanding the underlying forces that shape peoples’ thoughts and behaviors. (CPP, Inc. recently launched an infographic series to address some of the popular misconceptions about the Myers-Briggs assessment, including those involving hiring.) As such, it provides an excellent framework for helping individuals develop their own awareness of self, others, and their organizations.
For many people, a great benefit of gaining more self-awareness is developing more flexibility. Understanding that one has certain tendencies leads to recognition that those tendencies serve one better in some situations than others. That recognition in turn leads to a willingness to assess a situation and adjust one’s approach to it, if called for. Knowing what behavior they prefer to show, and what is needed, empowers people to choose effective behaviors. In terms of the Myers-Briggs assessment – which helps individuals see themselves as most resembling one of 16 major personality types — this is referred to as “type-flexing.”
Various models suggest that this is key to effective leadership. There is no one personality type that produces the “best leaders” — rather, they are the leaders most able to modify their behavior based on the situation. The relationship between self-awareness and flexibility is demonstrated by a study of the Royal Navy (Young & Dulewicz, 2006) which found that leaders who were more self-aware were better able to modify their leadership style based on the context. And interestingly, studies by Van Velsor, Taylor, and Leslie (1993) found that managers who underrated themselves were perceived by others to be more effective than those who overrated themselves. The authors suggest that their better performance might be due to their willingness to seek continuous improvement – or in other words, their flexibility.
When organizations put more emphasis on understanding people as individuals, and helping people understand themselves, they also tap into what may be the most fundamental aspect of
workplace engagement. According to Ken Thomas, Ph.D., author of the Work Engagement Profile, people produce the best results when they’re passionate about their work. Yet few organizations seem to place heavy weight on personal interests in their staffing strategies. They hire and assign people according to what their degree or resume says they can do, rather than where they really want to make a difference. Organizations that want to unlock untapped potential and unleash creativity should see the case for investing in training that enables people to contribute where their passion lies.
Assessments can be integral to discovering such passion. Like the Myers-Briggs assessment, the point of using them is not to predict success within a particular job, but to gain insight about how an individual will use – or need to flex – their personality preferences in a work setting.
For most of us, greater self-awareness – knowing our differentiating skills, abilities, and sensitivities and understanding how others perceive us – is not an end in itself. We value it because it allows us to make best use of our capacities. The same holds true at an organizational level. The more an organization – from top leadership to the rank-and-file — is aware of how it thinks, behaves, and communicates as a collective, the more empowered it is to take effective action. This is particularly true when it comes to talent management. Traditional staffing — a process of identifying what needs to be done, and putting people on the job based on experience or education — is a tendency that organizations should recognize in themselves. As they gain self-awareness, organizations will discover they are capable of more. They can understand their people as individuals, ignite their passions, and make their collective contribution remarkable.
Rich Thompson is the Divisional Director of Research at CPP, Inc. and manages the Research Team. He earned his Masters and Ph.D. in Psychology, with a minor in management, from Texas Tech University.
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