The Biz of Coding

3 Sure Ways to Make Hiring and Promotion Blunders

by Ujwal Tickoo on February 7th, 2008

Here are 3 common heart wrenching blunders I have witnessed during my career — on hiring and promotions. Typically, these mistakes are made by Gatekeepers, or the people in power. Often it is not the error of an *entire* organization but the weakness of the Gatekeeper or the person in a power / decision making position. Yet, at the end of the day the organization loses out for the folly of a person. Here are the 3 mistakes:

1. I won't hire/promote a person because my friends/other people in power don't like or don't have good words for him/her

This mistake happens at mid to senior levels. People sometimes depend on informal references and it is quite possible that two capable people didnt get along well, or that one capable person is wolf wearing sheep skin (and you still don't know). Yet, it is so *human* to be caught up in personal loyalties or opinion groups that you fail to look at the truth and the value of the other individual and either overlook him/her or bypass him. It takes a lot of maturity, humility, and human insight to understand others & take right decisions.

Power & Success are relative facts. Time moves fast and empires fall — both business and personal. People often reach to power or success by taking short cuts or wrong routes — recall Enron, Harshad Mehta…? Examples abound. Power also gives immunity to wrong doers for a long time — and gives the evil smart people longer shelf life to do more harm. George Bush got away with big lies about non-existent nuclear bombs in Iraq.

2. I won't hire/promote a person because once in past I didnt have a good experience with him/her

What is important is not your personal biases. You may not have had a good experience with an individual because the circumstances were not right and you knew little of the reality because you were presented only a limited perspective. Is there a success record that a person has that speaks for itself? That is a very important data point not to overlook.

Situations in organizations are often political and complex. People never present the whole truth — just their egoistic version of the situation. Your understanding of a person cannot be based on someone esles opinion or a given difficult circumstance.

3. I won't hire/promote a person because the person doesn't wear great University Labels

Life is full of variety. People going to well regarded universities are blessed with the positive fortune of having access to good education. That does not mean that those who were not aware of the importance of University branding, or who were not interested in the business world during their school/college years — are not intelligent and capable. Then there are people who are late bloomers — out of chance or circumstances. Just as there are people who go up fast and then burn out. There are enough stories of people going to good universities and doing badly. Jeff Skilling CEO of Enron, who was deep in the Enron financial scandle, was from Harvard. George Bush is an MBA from HBS.

Again look for intelligence, capability, passion and a track record that gives enough indication about possiblities.

When Bill Gates finally got his degree from Harvard this is what he said:

"Judge yourself not on the professional accomplishments but on how well you have addressed the world's inequities, how you have treated people who have nothing to do with you other than a shared humanity"

POSTED IN: Leadership/Life