How do you make sure while looking for the right management candidate that you find a person that doesn’t put his personal agenda above the company goals? In a recent article by a Facebook executive I read that the company is looking for empire builders and self-servers in their hiring process – and then doesn’t hire them. They are looking for team players instead.
A great question Facebook asks is “Can you tell me about four people whose careers you have fundamentally improved?”
You should build that question also into your company’s recruitment process. From the answer of the candidate, you will be easily learning whether he cares about the success and progress of other people. You will be able to sense whether he has a passion for people development or not.
And if the candidate comes short on this question, you obviously won’t hire him, even if he has great technical skills. After all, you want to have a company culture where team work is valued, where people are developed across the organization, where the focus is on the success of the team and the company, and not where everybody is interested only in his own growth and his own career success.
Therefore, hire only the right leaders for your company, even, if it takes some time to find them.
To say it with the words of Harry S. Firestone, an American businessman and founder of the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company: “The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership. It is only as we develop others that we permanently succeed.”
