Traits you should look for when hiring leaders

The reason why organisations fail can be traced to the
leadership within the organisation. In Africa, for example, most institutions
struggle to bring in leadership based on merit. Patronage is a key factor when
hiring in most African businesses.  In
this article, I will highlight some of the processes you need to hire the best
people.

First here are the processes you need to have:

1. Develop the right job
   profiles based on objective information. The profile needs to reflect what you
   need from a successful person going into that role. Never use generic job
   profiles when hiring your executive team.
2. Use better selection
   methods such as psychometric tests and assessment centres. If you look at the
   top companies globally, they all use psychometric tests and assessments centres
   for leadership selection. Once you have finished shortlisting candidates based
   on strict criteria, do not interview candidates who have not gone through
   psychometric tests. It is a complete waste of your resources to interview
   candidates who for example have no cognitive ability for the role they are
   going into. Remember general mental ability is the biggest and most efficient
   predictor of job performance. Over and above this check for personality
   defects. There are brilliant individuals, who are technically gifted to have a
   horrible personality that will destroy your organisation.
3. Do not bend your
   selection criteria to accommodate candidates who do not meet the criteria. Once
   you start this process you set a precedent.
4. Be fair and transparent
   in your hiring process so that you gain the confidence of the market. That
   confidence will help you attract the best candidates for roles in your
   organisation.
5. If in doubt do not hire.
   The danger with hiring is that its easy to do but very difficult to terminate non-performers
   in most instances.
6. During the interview let
   the candidates that all they are giving as answers especially where factual
   information is required, you will verify that information through reference
   checks.
7. Never do reference checks
   based on the people listed by the candidate on the CV. It is likely those
   people will overlook the negatives in the candidate. There are various other
   ways of doing reference checks.

When hiring avoids hiring people with the following traits,
especially for leadership roles:

1. Self-centred individuals
   – such individuals are likely to be corrupt and will make decisions in their
   self-interest. They are also likely to start to bring in close friends and
   colleagues from outside the organisation to build their power base.
2. People who think they
   have all the others to all problems. Collaborative individuals are likely not
   to have all the others. Anyone who through your objective assessments present
   themselves as having all the answers to your problems will give you problems in
   the long run.
3. Avoid taking people who
   over-promise. It is likely, such individuals may not deliver. Go for people who
   are practical and realistic.
4. Avoid hiring overly
   aggressive people. Such people may have seriously personality defects. Remember
   personality is a permanent disposition and it hardly changes over an
   individual’s lifetime. Once they are in your organisation you are stuck with
   them for good.
5. Avoid people who agree
   with anything a superior says. They are likely to let problems go unreported as
   long as a superior is involved. You want to hire people we can exercise
   independent thinking.
6. Do not hire people who
   desperate to please people. They are likely to tell you to want to hear even if
   things are going in the wrong way. You should hire people who can acknowledge
   shortcomings early before bigger damage is done to your business.

The above guidelines will assist you when hiring leaders but
remember the list is not exhaustive.

 Memory Nguwi is an Occupational
Psychologist, Data Scientist, Speaker, & Managing Consultant- Industrial
Psychology Consultants (Pvt) Ltd a management and human resources consulting
firm. https://www.linkedin.com/in/memorynguwi/ Phone +263 4
481946-48/481950/2900276/2900966 or cell number +263 77 2356 361 or email: mnguwi@ipcconsultants.com  or visit
our website at www.ipcconsultants.com