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what a fantastic introduction thank you
very much
so over the next 15 minutes I'm going to
talk exactly about what we said before
which is I'm gonna talk about one of the
most important things for any leader to
be good at actually gonna argue it's the
most important thing for any leader and
CEO to be good at the interesting thing
with this particular subject is that
nobody teaches as anything about it it's
actually really hard to find any books
on the topic it's really hard to find a
university course on the topic it's
really hard to actually find any TED
talk on the topic but before I tell you
about what I'm gonna talk about I'm
going to talk about a guy called
Benjamin sander now Benjamin sander is
the conductor for the Boston
Philharmonic Alec Esther now the Boston
Philharmonic Orchestra if you don't know
it is one of the best orchestras in the
world now Ben is one day standing on
stage on his podium conducting his
orchestra of about a hundred people and
he's realizing at that point in time
that out of the hundred people in the
orchestra Ben is the only person who
doesn't have a sound and is the only
person who doesn't have a sound does
that mean you can't hear Ben no of
course not of course you can hear him
you can hear him how he delivers through
other people you can hear him through
how he's selected people to be in his
orchestra now many people have very
advanced ideas of a leadership it but I
think Ben nails it pretty damn well in
that sentence there really for us
leadership and our very simplistic way
comes down to two things it's about
setting the right team setting the best
team that you can for your company your
organization whatever part of your life
it is and this is about helping those
people to achieve the results that is
going to make them successful in that
particular role that's it now I was
introduced before and very often I am
introduced as an entrepreneur or I'm
introduced as a CEO and the reason for
that is I've been part and lucky enough
to co-found over 20 companies with
absolutely amazing people people who are
extremely smart and who I will make
success to but really I don't consider
myself a CEO I don't consider myself an
entrepreneur I consider myself a
recruiter that's it
my job and my role is to find the right
people if I find the right people and I
select the right people my job is really
really simple
if I don't select the right people my
life is very complicated now we all know
this when we have a great team and we've
selected the right people for our team
our life looks something like this maybe
not quite something like it but the fact
is we're not creative selecting people
and it's they're very very good reasons
for it there are no subjects in
university as I mentioned earlier on the
topic when we become a leader in an
organization our boss doesn't take us
aside and says Mass now I'm going to
teach you the secret of how you select
the right people for your team we just
assume that people are going to be great
at selecting people for our team so we
just say look congratulations master
you're now the manager of this and this
restaurant of this in this part of the
company go and build a team great thank
you very much now when we get it wrong
we know the cost US Department of Labor
said the cost for any particular bad
hire for any role is 30%
McKenzie took it one step further and
said the difference between average
performance top perform in a position
67% productivity and bottom-line profits
but it's not just these numbers that it
impacts we know what else had impacts it
impacts culture when you hire the wrong
person we select the wrong person for a
team the culture goes down the drain you
know what it also impacts it impacts
your happiness and I got the wrong
person you go stress to work every day
because you have to deal with a person
you don't want to deal with it also
makes their life miserable if you select
the wrong person for a job you're not
just doing yourself at this favor you're
doing them at this favor as well it
limits your growth it limits a bunch of
different things for you there's a good
old saying that says people spend ten
percent of their time recruiting 90% of
her time make enough for recruiting
mistakes anyone laughing in here is
probably a leader who's faced this as
well and it comes back to the part of
being if
you hire the right people your job is
actually really really easy now I gotta
tell you we are horrible it's we're
getting better but if you're horrible
it's because nobody taught me how to
recruit so I had to go out and figure it
out for myself
one of my CEOs who had newly elected for
one of our companies as a CEO you know I
figured out I'd failed through
practically training him on recruiting
and I went to him and I said to him look
you're coming to ask me questions about
marketing you're coming to ask me
questions about Finance you come to ask
me questions about sales but never once
have you asked me a question about
recruiting why is that that was exactly
I was met by complete silence and a very
red face the face of somebody very
embarrassed so we have to be proactive
about seeking this information that we
can improve our efforts now the good
thing is we're not alone in being
horrible at recruiting the UK
billionaire John Caldwell once said that
if I'm lucky I only get recruiting wrong
70% of the time now knowing that we're
bad at this we set out as a team we
wanted to build a framework that allows
us to be much better recruiting I think
we have a slight issue there we go thank
you we set out to build a framework that
would make us much better at recruiting
a structured process that we believe can
be one of the best recruiting structured
process and frameworks in the world now
I should say before I do this we're
really bad at recruiting if you look at
the talents that I have in some of the
tests that we use the ability to
understand people falls the lowest of
all my talents so I'm really doesn't
come natural for me the second thing I
should tell you is we probably
understand 20% of what we need to
understand we probably leverage only 10%
of that because of things like arrogance
because of our cognitive biases because
we still think that we can do things on
on our backbone and just computer
whether person is right for the role
like this
now all these cognitive biases there are
many of them but let me walk you through
some of them so the first thing is to be
trying to hire our hire ourselves why
not we're excellent we're the best
employee there is and we know how it is
look I'm analytical
he has to she has to be analytical I am
empathetic the person has to be
empathetic I am competitive
everyone should be competitive so we
look for ourselves the second issue is
we try to hire people who can do
everything I spoke to one of our CEOs
the other day and he was trying to hire
a CMO he wanted to see him oh came from
a PR company true story when a CMO come
from a PR company who is analytical
detail are not good at sales good at
building relationship in strategic easy
to find that person right so we try to
find a person who could do every single
part of the entire company because then
we feel like we're gonna be successful
but the truth is selecting the right
people is a bit like a football team you
don't want a person who's good at
everything you want the best attacker
and you want the best goalkeeper and you
want the best defender we also like to
hire people who are worse than ourselves
there's good old saying that says ace
hire bees be higher CC Hyades and so on
and so forth I try to tell our leaders
all the time to say look I don't care if
you're the smartest person in the room
because ultimately what's gonna tell me
that you're the smartest person is that
you hire people who are smarter and
better than yourself you don't actually
as a CEO or as a leader need to be the
smartest person you don't even need to
know more of about the subject and the
people work for you as long as you can
find and select the right people we also
make quick decisions we go into an
interview and we know how this works
we go into an interview in about a
couple of minutes maybe sometimes
seconds
we've decided I like the guy I don't
like the guy and next 45 50 and our
minutes we end up spending all the time
and all of our energy just to confirm
that we're right we know that it's a bit
of the facebook error today where we
love to look for stories that confirm
the bias that we already have and the
last thing of many is the Whedon do not
hire and oh sorry we hire for single
positions not for teams we're trying to
build a team we don't need 15 strikers
we don't need 15 golden keepers we need
to put people together in a team because
we know that we have these biases and
because we know we make these mistakes
all the time we wanted to make it much
more structured we wanted to do
something that's almost like an Ono
thing to say
which is we built an algorithm to
predict whether a person is going to be
right for the role yes or no that is we
build a mathematical formula and
algorithm the runs on a computer that's
going to predict if your apply for a job
with us if you're going to be successful
yes or no now before you think that
Darren's think well as is such an idiot
while you know how can he treat people
this way how can you put people into
algorithms I want to say that what we're
doing is really we're doing what we're
doing up here already which is we are
trying to compute whether or not this
person is right for this particular role
that's really what's happening when we
were sitting across from someone and
interviewing them and asking questions
we look what we're trying to just gauge
is this person going to be successful in
this job in fact if you want one hidden
really what we're trying to figure out
is we're trying to figure out if this
person is going to be able to create the
outcome that we want the person to
create so we built an algorithm which is
we basically built a scorecard of all
the different things that are important
and we build an algorithm then
calculates a percentage chance of that
person to be successful in that
particular role now the algorithm isn't
perfect yet it's just a supporting tool
right now but what the algorithm forces
us to do is as it forces us to be
conscious about what goes on up here it
forces us to think about the decisions
that we're making the trade-offs that
we're making and by putting on a piece
of paper we've already altered
significantly the way that we do things
now all the things the algorithm today
I'll let by people so there are still a
bunch of biases and a bunch of things
that we do wrong because all the input
comes from us whether it's from us
direct to your tools that we use it
comes from people ultimately so it's
just a computing of score that it does
today one of the reasons why we like
this approach is because besides
selecting the right people we have
another thing that we're very passionate
about and that is giving every candidate
every person out there a fair chance at
a job you see in high school I was
horrible
I was absolutely horrible I went to the
principal's office multiple times the
fact that I even got through high school
I still don't understand I was fired
from McDonald's
and that takes a lot I agree it didn't
quite buy my reason that my cat fell out
the window as a reason for not showing
up to work one day which happens to be
true but you know there probably other
reasons for firing me as well but the
truth is some of us mature later for our
careers some of us need the right
position the right motivation the right
leadership to be excellent now the
problem is today everybody is screened
on their resume if you don't have the
right mess in May you're out the door
now that limits the world that limits
the candidates that we're able to find
and attract that means we cannot find
the diamond in the rough and we love
finding diamonds in the rough that's why
we're entrepreneurs
that's why have you build companies by
having tools available to us that allows
us to look beyond resumes beyond the
obvious we are able to find what we call
whispering talents now let me explain
what a whispering telling this first of
all you have the shouting talent a
shouting talent to give you an example
as somebody who went to war University
they got chopped grades they went to
great investment bank in the city they
got promoted faster than anyone else
that's a shouting Talent now anyone can
spot a shouting talent because you just
look at their resume you know how they
look we like to find whispering talents
whispering talents are just as good as
shouting talents other people just don't
know it it's not as easy to see have an
algorithm and tools allows us to open up
our candidacy flow to everyone out there
it allows anyone with any resume off the
streets with the university without a
university degree to come and join our
company now we may pretend like we have
certain barriers on the outside but
actually we look at every single
candidate who comes in very thoroughly
through the tools that we have available
to us now when you're looking at hiring
somebody you're trying to determine
three different questions ultimate
you're trying to find out if they can
deliver the outcome but that really goes
into three different buckets its will to
person be able to do the job will they
be successful if they deliver the
outcome that you want them to deliver
number one it's very important the
second thing is will the fit your
culture will they be able to fit in the
culture you've created that is key for
us that is binary if you don't fit our
culture
doesn't matter how good you are you're
not gonna be part of our job company but
if you do fit our culture then you're
able and you're able to deliver the
outcome then it comes down to you do we
fit your life and it's important that
you fit the candidates life as well are
you going to be part of their lives for
a long time or a short time do you fit
into their family situation what they
want and what they want for their career
now if you want to go through an
interviewing process very structurally
we find that there are three things that
you have to be good at the first thing
is you have to be a didn't able to
identify the correct needs that is you
have to find out what is it that you
have to be good at in this particular
position to be successful now need
identification is where most people go
wrong if I had to say from this entire
talk what is the number one thing you
should improve on it's identifying the
correct needs for the particular
position and be careful like I said
earlier that you don't try to say the
person should be good at everything the
second thing is you want to have the
right questions and the right tools to
be able to figure out the data for those
needs is the person able to answer how
do you answer the questions the person
fits those particular needs that you
have for role now a need could be you
want somebody who's good at building
relationships for example then the
question becomes what questions what
tools can I use to figure that out by
the way it could be cases and other
things and then you want to have the
right interpretation of the information
somebody comes to the door and sells you
sells you look here's the candidate the
candy that got top grades at work but
they never were part of arranging a TED
conference anything like that does that
person have dry but does that person not
have drive is an interpretation question
and interpreting that correct it becomes
very important and oftentimes where
people go wrong now the way for us to
figure this out in particular identify
the needs is we want to think about it
as if we asked a Formula One team about
their car now imagine you ask the
Formula One see about the car they would
say look a car this consists of chassis
wheels suspension within the wheels
they're different subcategories of
robbers that you can have and you would
say to them well how do you choose your
robber well it depends on the condition
it pens on the road it depends on how
you want to drive and how your car is
set up while interviewing is similar
when you look for someone in Canada said
look I want this candidates who have
empathy you need to understand the
trade-offs you're making what are the
things that are good about having
empathy we also we like people them
but the problem can also be it's hard
sometimes to make decisions because you
understand why people have it tough and
you understand their situation so you
have to understand the trade-off between
those different things now for us we
found out that we believe by talking to
executive search firms we talk to human
analytics firms we talk to psychologists
that a person on a very high level
consists of three different things they
consist of a brain which is an IQ which
is your ability to learn and comprehend
information leverage that information
the second thing they consist of in a
work situation is their heart which is
their personality and their talents and
the third thing is their toolbox which
is the past experiences this is what you
usually see a resume that's their
education the things they've learned the
functional learnings exam now most
companies and most people in they
recruit they start out with the
functional learnings they start about
what the person has done before we start
with the heart before we've identified
we want the person to have studied this
or studied that or have this background
we say who do we look for as a person
because we're huge believers in higher
Fitzalan train for skilled methodology
which is we hire the best person and we
help them to get the tools because we
believe they can they can find the tools
of the right person to be successful at
this the second thing we look at is do
they have the IQ to a comprehend and
understand and leverage information and
then the third thing is we look at our
resume that's true for probably 95% of
the position that we look for of course
if you want somebody to build this roof
they better have the right skills it's
not enough to have enough motivation and
then we try to look at the ways to test
that now I should say that there are a
lot of ways you can test people most
people do through interview questions
you can give them cases you can ask them
to do presentations you can use
assessment tools that exist out there
but really what you're trying to find
out is can the person do the job so the
best thing you can do is actually to
take the person and have them work at
the particular job for a couple of days
and you'll be surprised that I found
CTOs
CEOs CFOs and CEOs come to our office
and actually conduct a job for
everything for between two one day to a
week no matter how senior they are
that's the best way for them to get a
feel for the company and the best way
for you to get a feel for the company so
figure out how you're going to test the
things that are important for you and
then the last thing you have to do is to
go back and look at the information so
when you hire someone keep your notes
write down your notes keep them
and then look at them three to six
months later and say was I right or was
I wrong most people just say I hired
wrong okay let me try again very few
people go and say what did I interpret
wrong did I ask the wrong questions did
I use the wrong tools to get that
information so keep the notes and
whether you're successful in hiring or
not go back and have a look at it and if
you do all those things right and you
apply your own Drakkar to this and you
don't have to build an elder in you can
do it your way then you're going to be
better and better and better at
improving your ability to select the
right people and ultimately you can get
to the part where you will spend 10% of
your time recruiting 90% of your time
building new companies or whatever you
like to do thank you very much
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you