There are so many hundreds of thousands of articles about leadership to be found online. And for those who are responsible for hiring these great leaders, it can feel a lot like looking for a needle in a haystack. There may be many great candidates who are all vying for a position within the company, but as a decision maker, how can you spot which one is best?
Spotting that perfect person may not be so difficult if you use some interviewing strategies and simple questions to determine how the candidate will handle certain situations. This can help you to assess whether or not the individual will be able to transition into someone of leadership potential. You can use strategic examples of behavioral interviewing, functional interviewing and other tactics. These types of questions help you, as a recruiter or HR personnel, to determine the best candidates based upon their answers.
Once you do hire someone whom you feel might be of great leadership potential, what kind of value can you place on their abilities?
That all depends. For example, hypothetically we will say that a particular region of your business does $10,000 per day in sales. Take 5 days per week (for a typical office environment) times 52 weeks for the calculation. Therefore, staying open for 60 days yields approximately $120,000.
Next, determine what percentage of those sales are the direct results of your top leaders. Do they add enough value? Putting tangible numbers not only next to each employee – but also next to your leader – can help you to know exactly the value of hiring great leadership within your organization.
Having strong management can increase profitability, while keeping costs low.
Aside from the monetary value, having a strong leader does wonders to boost morale within the rest of the employees and team members. Having a leader who is positive, motivating, ambitious and driven can mean the difference between lackluster sales or skyrocketing sales. This holds true not only for supervisors but for many other industries, as well.
HR consultant and executive coach Rita Craig is award-winning human resources consultant, keynote and TEDx speaker. This is no surprise when you look at her professional profile; with over 40 years of professional human resources experience, including 23 years as an HR professional for an electric utility company, Rita’s first-hand insights engage, instruct and motivate professionals throughout the U.S. and abroad. Her career experiences, coupled with her upbringing in a household of 14, supply enough anecdotal ammunition to keep audiences and clients entertained and engaged in a way that is all at once disarming and inspirational.
Along with an MBA with a Specialty in Human Resources, Rita’s achievements include being the first ever recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the HR Association of Palm Beach County, numerous recognitions from various HR and civic organizations and two governor’s appointments to serve on Florida state commissions.
Her great love of developing the next generation of leaders inspired her to write Foresight: Finding Your Footing in a Fast-Forward World, and her unique point-of-view is sure to resonate with any person who has ever asked the question, “What’s next?”
Rita is on Twitter at @RitaBarretCraig and on Linkedin.
www.toptierleadership.com
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