{"id":35826,"date":"2021-02-18T13:40:42","date_gmt":"2021-02-18T18:40:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/?p=35826"},"modified":"2021-02-19T17:39:52","modified_gmt":"2021-02-19T22:39:52","slug":"you-need-more-than-skills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2021\/02\/you-need-more-than-skills\/","title":{"rendered":"You Need More Than Skills"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_35582\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-35582\" style=\"width: 200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-35582\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2020\/12\/cruz-c-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2020\/12\/cruz-c-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2020\/12\/cruz-c.jpg 444w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-35582\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Michael Cruz is president of Lighthouse Advisors LLC in Queensbury.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Your new employee is starting Monday. You think, \u201cI hope they work out well.\u201d The worst thing that can happen to you is that you have to start searching again. Or even worse &#8211; they do not work out &#8211; and stay on your payroll.<br \/>\nThe big mistake we make is to focus on their skill. Can they perform the tasks well? Let\u2019s modify the question to what you should be thinking? Can they perform their tasks, here? We often interview for skills. Why not, skills are often easier to measure. Yet the key question is whether they have the right soft skills to fit into your company\u2019s culture.<br \/>\nMost people struggle to define \u2018soft\u2019 skills. Those traits have more to do with success than anything else. Does your company focus on getting results? Is it freewheeling or do you follow specific structure? Do you give specific direction? Or do you expect others to \u2018figure it out\u2019? Answering these questions helps you hire better. This allows us to change the way we get to know candidates. Take the time to figure this out.<!--more--><br \/>\nI want to know how a candidate thinks. I want their job history. I begin with asking about their first job. Through this level of detail, I usually find job gaps, or other critical information. If I am to make a large investment in someone, I want to know that person. Then I want to ask about successes, team contributions and other skill related issues.<br \/>\nYou need to understand how they work in different environments. When asking about accomplishments, you often get \u2018we did\u2019 this. I then ask what \u2018their individual contribution\u2019 was to the success. The answer tells you what they really do. Likewise, if you work in a fast and fluid environment, you do not always give clear directions when handing out tasks. So, I say to the candidate \u201cTell me about a time that you had an assignment and felt that you did not have the information necessary to complete it. What did you do?\u201d This gives an idea of how they accomplish tasks in my culture.<br \/>\nPush for depth. Peel back answers. And reject answers that begin with \u201cUsually\u2026\u201d Explain that you want to understand about a specific project or event. This will allow you to assess their behavior. We do what we have always done!<br \/>\nI know that it takes time. And time is valuable. So are dollars. And you are about to commit a lot of your money to a new hire. Make sure it is well spent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Your new employee is starting Monday. You think, \u201cI hope they work out well.\u201d The worst thing that can happen to you is that you have to start searching again. Or even worse &#8211; they do not work out &#8211; and stay on your payroll. The big mistake we make is to focus on their [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":196,"featured_media":35582,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\r\n<title>You Need More Than Skills - Saratoga Business Journal<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2021\/02\/you-need-more-than-skills\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"You Need More Than Skills - Saratoga Business Journal\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Your new employee is starting Monday. You think, \u201cI hope they work out well.\u201d The worst thing that can happen to you is that you have to start searching again. Or even worse &#8211; they do not work out &#8211; and stay on your payroll. The big mistake we make is to focus on their [&hellip;]\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2021\/02\/you-need-more-than-skills\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Saratoga Business Journal\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-02-18T18:40:42+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-02-19T22:39:52+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2020\/12\/cruz-c.jpg\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"444\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"666\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"jessewinters\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"jessewinters\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2021\/02\/you-need-more-than-skills\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2021\/02\/you-need-more-than-skills\/\",\"name\":\"You Need More Than Skills - 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