In the field of e-commerce operations, there is a saying that “30% operation and 70% product selection”. The same is true in the field of management. Instead of choosing an inappropriate candidate and slowly transforming and training him, it is better to try to select talents suitable for the team at the initial screening. So when selecting people, how can we judge whether a candidate is qualified for a position? The answer is “First look at the pattern and growth potential, and third look at the ability.”
First look at the pattern. Whether a person’s pattern is high or not can be seen from a few minutes of conversation. The so-called pattern refers to everyone’s cognition of things. It is a reflection of a person’s three views (outlook on life, world view, and values). For the position of sales, the pattern of “serving customers attentively will naturally be rewarded” is higher than the pattern of “trying every means to sell products to customers”, and the pattern of “trying every means to sell products to customers” is higher than the pattern of “making money from customers by any means”. The same is true for the emerging Internet industry. For example, for e-commerce operation positions, the pattern of “improving product quality and selling high-quality products to customers through operation means” is higher than the pattern of “products are not important, relying on fake orders to increase sales”, and the pattern of “relying on fake orders to increase sales” is higher than the pattern of “purely making money out of nothing, and making every penny counts”.
Second, look at growth potential. Although as a manager you can lead team members to grow, everyone’s growth rate is different. Therefore, as an interviewer or recruiter, you need to consider a candidate’s growth potential when screening personnel. The so-called growth potential can be understood as a person’s growth rate and growth ability. For example, in the childhood of many people, there will be many elders who praise a certain child as “sensible, mature, and capable of independent thinking”, which is the embodiment of growth potential. When a person becomes an adult, the judgment of his or her personal growth potential can be based on his or her campus experience (school recruitment) or professional resume (social recruitment).
If the candidate is a fresh graduate, the manager can judge his/her growth potential based on the various experiences in school on his/her resume. Assuming that the candidate has self-taught a second foreign language in college, served as a student union or club cadre, or participated in multiple internship projects, then during the interview, the manager can ask him/her why he/she participated in these projects or activities. If he/she can answer the relevant information written on his/her resume in a clear and organized manner, and has a clear understanding of his/her future career planning, then such a fresh graduate can be considered to have high growth potential.
Third, look at ability. The so-called ability refers to comprehensive ability, which includes both business ability represented by execution ability and non-business ability represented by learning ability. It can be judged by standardized certificates such as diplomas/academic qualifications, or measured by performance/resume. The judgment of ability requires “specific analysis of specific issues”. If your team is in a period of rapid development and urgently needs some people with specific abilities to maintain business operations, then business ability accounts for the majority of ability judgment; if your team is in the early stages of entrepreneurship and needs some like-minded job seekers to explore and innovate the business, then non-business ability accounts for the majority of ability judgment.
It should be noted that many managers do not regard ability as the passing line for selecting people, but regard it as the most important link in the selection process, which is the inversion of the purpose of selecting people. Why do you say that? This is because it is mentioned that an excellent manager must be able to lead the team to grow, so the growth of ability is naturally within the scope of growth. Therefore, since you can help team members gradually grow into a person who can stand on their own in the future, why do you still focus on the level of ability at the beginning instead of paying attention to the growth and pattern of candidates?