{"id":3146,"date":"2018-09-06T17:43:14","date_gmt":"2018-09-06T17:43:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/loganloomis.com\/ot\/?p=3146"},"modified":"2019-02-20T15:19:40","modified_gmt":"2019-02-20T15:19:40","slug":"the-51-percent-solution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/loganloomis.com\/ot\/the-51-percent-solution\/","title":{"rendered":"The 51 Percent Solution"},"content":{"rendered":"

Balancing Eligibility and Suitability to Maximize Success<\/strong><\/p>\n

Imagine you\u2019re eating a delicious meal at a new restaurant. Everything about this dish\u2014the flavors, the presentation, the concept\u2014makes you want to \"\"recommend this establishment to your friends and family. Not only that, but the d\u00e9cor is compelling; you find yourself gazing at the ceiling, at the walls, even at the tablecloth because of their irresistible aesthetic charm.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s one simple problem that nags you throughout the meal: the waiter looks disinterested, and you have to ask every time your glass needs to be refilled.<\/p>\n

So much for that rave review!<\/p>\n

The point I\u2019m trying to make draws on a talk I heard at a Global Leadership Summit. The speaker was Danny Meyer<\/a>, who has built an empire of successful restaurants on a foundational principle he calls \u201chospitality.\u201d (These restaurants have earned 21 of the prestigious James Beard Awards and perennially rank among New York City\u2019s favorites in the Zagat survey.) To achieve his ultimate business goal of extending warm hospitality while performing at a high level of excellence, Meyer looks for more than just technical skill and raw talent when hiring. He looks for strong emotional skills as well.<\/p>\n

In his view, technical excellence counts for 49 percent of success, and innate emotional skills count for 51 percent\u2014hence what he calls \u201cthe 51 percent solution.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Two Sides of a Great Hire<\/strong><\/p>\n

Like Danny Meyer, I have learned that understanding the ratio between technical skills and the innate skills and tendencies needed for a particular job is essential for getting the right person in the right job. The ratio may vary from job to job, but both sides are always essential.<\/p>\n

As Meyer puts it in Setting the<\/span> Table<\/em><\/a> (a book I enthusiastically recommend), \u201cThe only way a company can grow, stay true to its soul, and remain consistently successful is to attract, hire and keep great people. It\u2019s that simple, and it\u2019s that hard.\u201d That\u2019s why I wrote my book Getting the People Equation Right<\/u><\/em><\/a>, in which I refer to technical skills (skill, education and experience) as eligibility factors<\/strong> and a person\u2019s innate traits and tendencies as suitability factors<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Evaluating suitability is hard. While it\u2019s fairly easy to assess a person\u2019s education, experience, and skills\u2014eligibility factors\u2014suitability rarely shows up on paper. And while you can teach new skills to low-eligibility hires, you can\u2019t teach someone to be a good fit for the company. Therefore it\u2019s essential to evaluate suitability as part of the hiring process.<\/p>\n

How do you do that?<\/p>\n

Evaluating Suitability<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"Meyer assesses innate emotional skills in what he calls \u201ctailing.\u201d Tailing is essentially an audition with added training where managers watching how job candidates perform in the \u201creal world\u201d of the work environment. The process is totally transparent; managers are upfront with candidates about the audition process. And by the end, managers are able to make a more informed decision about which candidates are most suitable<\/strong> for the job\u2014which candidates can deliver hospitality along with great technical service.<\/p>\n

Most companies don\u2019t have the ability to implement an auditioning process, though it obviously works well for Meyer and his team. That\u2019s why I prefer an alternative method of assessing suitability called the Harrison Assessment<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The Harrison Assessment<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Harrison Assessment<\/a> is my preferred method of assessing suitability. It has been highly predictive of job success for my clients because it assesses suitability based an impressive 175 traits and tendencies and aligns them to the specific job. Then, it sets out the paradoxical relationship of 12 pairs of the total traits.<\/p>\n

The Harrison Assessment\u2019s proprietary use of paradox theory in defining the 12 paradoxical pairs provides valuable insights into what I think of a person\u2019s situational awareness<\/strong>\u2014how they manage their relationships with themselves and with others, and how they respond to stress. Despite never appearing on a resume or CV, these qualities can make or break a relationship or a leader.<\/p>\n

Jim Collins illustrates some of these paradoxes in his seminal work Good to Great<\/u><\/em> (which I also recommend). <\/em>For example, he observes that top leaders\u2014whom he calls Level 5 Leaders\u2014embody a paradoxical mix of personal humility and professional will. The personal ambition and will that often drive people to positions of power can derail them if they don\u2019t also have humility to balance their will.\"\"<\/p>\n

By identifying suitability traits and key paradoxes, the Harrison Assessment technology serves as a kind of blind spot monitor\u2014just like what you\u2019d use in your car. Just as a blind spot monitor alerts a driver to hidden risks on the road, the Harrison Assessment helps leaders to identify hidden risks that don\u2019t appear on a resume or CV.<\/p>\n

Finding the right ratio of eligibility to suitability is the key to hiring the right people.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

One key to Meyer\u2019s success is carefully managing the balance between eligibility and suitability. For your own business, it\u2019s essential to find your ideal ratio<\/strong> of eligibility to suitability and to determine which qualities make a person suitable for your company.<\/p>\n

Assess your candidates for their innate personal qualities and tendencies and then\u2014once they\u2019re on the team\u2014keep them engaged by appreciating them<\/a> for who they are and the contribution they make.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Balancing Eligibility and Suitability to Maximize Success Imagine you\u2019re eating a delicious meal at a new restaurant. Everything about this dish\u2014the flavors, the presentation, the concept\u2014makes [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3362,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,23,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-getting-the-people-equation-right","category-hiring","category-leadership"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/loganloomis.com\/ot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/loganloomis.com\/ot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/loganloomis.com\/ot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loganloomis.com\/ot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loganloomis.com\/ot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3146"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/loganloomis.com\/ot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3162,"href":"https:\/\/loganloomis.com\/ot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3146\/revisions\/3162"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loganloomis.com\/ot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/loganloomis.com\/ot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loganloomis.com\/ot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loganloomis.com\/ot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}