You're Not the Person I Hired!: A CEO's Survival Guide to Hiring Top Talent

by Janet Boydell

Book Overview

Janet Boydell, Barry Deutsch, and Brad Remillard wrote this book with one goal in mind: To help companies avoid hiring mistakes. Up to 56% of new executives fail within the first two years of hire.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1420881698
• ISBN13: 9781420881691
• Release Date: October 2005
• Publisher: Authorhouse
• Length: 252 Pages
• Weight: 1.14 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Stop Asking Useless Interview Questions!

This book's title is "You're Not the Person I Hired!" Let me add this thought: "This Isn't the Book I Thought I Was Getting." It's better! I've immediately added it to my Top-10 List for 2009. The authors warn, "When you are tempted to rush a hire, think in terms of Return on Investment over the course of years, not months." They quote Michael J. Lotito, "If you spend a lot of time figuring out who you're going to hire, you'll have to spend far less time figuring out who to fire." I've noticed two startling trends in leadership and management these last four years in my consulting and management workshops. 1) Poll after poll, I ask leaders and managers if they've ever read a book, listened to a CD or attended a workshop on "Effective Delegation." At best, less than five percent of the room stands up. 2) Ditto for "Effective Hiring Practices." People must think they're good at it--and don't need any professional development. Not! This book delivers. How many "Useless Interview Questions" have you asked recently? * Tell me about yourself. * What are your strengths? * What are your weaknesses? * Why do you want to work here? * If you were an animal/tree/plant, what would you be? * How do you feel about long working hours? OK. So those don't work. What should you ask, according to the co-authors? They list five key questions, including: "Would you please give me an example of a situation in which you have demonstrated initiative?" In your search for what they call the "Top 5% Talent," you'll find that top performers are self-motivated. The authors warn that you must unlearn some bad habits--but effective interviewing and hiring skills can be learned. Rule #1 is "Describe the opportunity they want, not your needs." (Their Success Factor Snapshot(tm) methodology "clearly defines what the new executive must achieve during the first 12 to 18 months, and dramatically increases hiring accuracy.") The tools and insights leap from dozens and dozens of pages, like: * The Cost of One Bad Hire Worksheet * The Top Ten Hiring Mistakes and How to Avoid Them (desperation hiring, fishing in shallow waters, and inappropriate "prerequisites" used too early in the selection process) * How to avoid Jane Clone hiring, and worse--getting stuck in the Anti-Clone Zone * Why the "first step to staffing up with Top 5% Talent is to remove deadwood." * How to spot a bad hire within the first three to six months * How to tell the difference between non-candidates, sleeper candidates, selective candidates and aggressive candidates (80 percent of your applicants) * How to market your position--and how to avoid the top five worst sourcing strategies The Number One hiring mistake: "Inadequate job descriptions drove the hiring process; these focused solely on experience and skills, not company expectations. A staggering 93 percent of searches that resulted in new executive failure made this mistake at the outset." The solution: el

What every Executive should know!

An excellent compilation of clear concepts that every executive should know and practice. This book clearly shows how hiring should be done. Any senior management person with experience will recognize the importance of getting the right people for the job and this book provides the roadmap. It is not a panacea, the answer requires a fair amount of effort and preparation. But there is tremendous value here.