Today’s workplace is fast-moving and ever-evolving, which means finding great talent can be tough. Needle, meet haystack! However, there are a few golden qualities to look for when hiring that can help certain candidates stand out head and shoulders above the rest. These traits are like a universal stamp that labels potential new hires as ‘gotta have ‘em must hires’. Spot them early, and you’ll be well on your way to building a flourishing team.
Trait One: An Entrepreneurial Mindset
This trait is so important when considering hiring someone. Entrepreneurs think differently. When probing a potential candidate on how they think, you’re not just seeking out a person who ran a lemonade stand that one time. You want to know their thought process. Entrepreneurs know how to take ownership and be pioneers.
Did they see all those lemons and wonder how they could turn the lemonade industry on its head? True go-getters are disrupters and thrive in uncertainty. Ask a potential candidate to share a time they had to think fast and navigate unfamiliar waters. You’re looking for the pirate, the guy who takes ownership and is ready to conquer the seven seas, not necessarily the sailor always trying to play it safe.
Team members with an entrepreneurial mindset tend to view projects as small enterprises, with them as the CEO. Those are the kind of new hires you want on your team.
How to Spot ‘Em
Pay attention to the stories a potential candidate shares to uncover an entrepreneurial flair. Look for the stories where they turned challenges into opportunities. Was there a project they worked on where they overhauled the strategy for killer results? Or maybe they helped their team pivot and lead the charge in an unconventional way? These kinds of stories can help highlight not just their go-getter attitude but also their leadership ability and the skill to sway others to their way of thinking. It’s a focus on both influence and action that separates the entrepreneurs from the worker bees.
Trait Two: Keen Curiosity
In the world of business, curiosity doesn’t kill the cat; it makes the cat king of the molehill. Discovering the hows and whys of something is paramount when you want to innovate and foster growth and learning within your team.
A new hire who is curious tends to pursue knowledge and understanding relentlessly, which in turn results in innovation and problem-solving. Team members with high curiosity have no problem blowing past boundaries and finding fresh ways to improve products, services, or processes.
How to Spot ‘Em
When interviewing potential new hires and looking for curiosity, ask the person to describe a scenario where they problem-solved or improved something under their own steam. Curious people tend to be proactive learners who regularly dip beyond their routine work scope and job duties to learn new things and buck the status quo.
They are rarely content with ‘how things are’ and constantly look toward ‘how things could be.’ They tend to ask deep questions that often result in breakthroughs. Ask questions about past projects where they went beyond the initial scope to find the best solution.
Questions like these can help you gauge their curiosity levels and indicate whether they have an adaptable mindset and thrive on challenges. Then, you can better determine the roles they may be best suited for within your team.
Trait Three: Proactive Behavior
Looking for potential team members who are proactive is more than looking for the guy (or girl) willing to take some initiative. It’s about looking for the one who’s constantly looking ahead, foreseeing potential fires well before they’re lit, and standing with hose ready.
People who are proactive don’t just respond when a challenge arises; they actively take charge to anticipate and tackle it before it becomes mission-critical. This kind of forward-thinking is a huge asset to your team’s efficiency and ability to innovate.
How to Spot ‘Em
Proactive people rarely wait for a green light when facing challenges; they are the green light. The key is to discover how ingrained this behavior is within their professional persona when considering a possible new hire.
Ask your potential candidates about examples of a time they identified a problem well before it became a problem and took the initiative to resolve it. Stories like this can highlight how sharp their foresight is and how skilled they are at acting decisively when potential stress arises.
You can also ask questions about times they’ve led projects with minimal supervision and tight deadlines, how they prioritized actions, and how they problem-solved preemptively. The goal is to uncover how capable they are in managing and innovating ahead of potential challenges that may crop up.
Other Key Qualities to Look for When Hiring
Though the three traits we’ve just discussed are immediate’ must-haves, ’ there are other qualities to consider when hiring great candidates.
- Passion—If the person has zero enthusiasm or motivation, they may not be the best fit. You want to hire people who are productive innovators, and passion bleeds out of them.
- Integrity- without personal integrity, there can be very little trust. And without trust, there’s no scenario in which a new hire can grow and progress within your team.
- Soft skills are qualities like adaptability, problem-solving ability, and effective communication. They are essential when building a thriving team.
- High EQ—emotional intelligence is a biggie when looking to fill collaborative or leadership roles. Essentially, folks with high emotional intelligence understand how to manage their own emotions as well as the emotions of others.
- Penchant for collaboration—Strong teamwork abilities in a candidate mean they know how to achieve team objectives in a positive way. Remember, teamwork makes the dream work!
- Agility in learning- meaning the candidate is willing to learn and adapt when it comes to challenges and new situations.
How to Nurture the Traits You Want to See in Your Team
Once you’ve identified those cherry candidates who exemplify the traits you’re looking for, that’s when the real work starts. You have to take steps to continually foster those traits, to help develop them, and to cultivate a thriving workplace.
Offer Continuous Learning
There are many ways to offer continuous learning to foster creative and entrepreneurial thinking, such as:
- Seminars and workshops that inspire innovation and creative thinking.
- Allowing team members to work on cross-functional projects beyond their typical scope.
- Pairing up mentors with these traits with team members to offer less experienced candidates guidance and inspiration when developing similar qualities within themselves.
Offer Rewards and Recognition
- Put a spotlight on your innovators by regularly noticing and rewarding team members who display the key traits you’re looking for. It’s motivating for them and offers a benchmark for other team members to aspire to.
- Lay out a clear path for advancement that is tied to demonstrating the traits you want to see so that their value within your organization is reinforced.
Equip and Enable Your Team
- Ensure you are fostering the kind of work environment where your team members can feel empowered. Encourage their autonomy and equip them to take initiative without needing constant hand-holding and oversight.
- Make open communication paramount so that team members know they have options to share openly without censure or ridicule. Create open channels where they can suggest ways to improve or offer fresh ideas without fear of jeopardizing their job.
The ability to build a strong, dynamic, forward-thinking team hinges on finding the right candidates who exemplify the traits we’ve outlined here. These traits often drive growth and innovation within an organization.
Again, these traits aren’t just ‘nice to have’ but ‘must haves’ if you want to build a culture of resilience and innovation. Industries today evolve at speeds that sometimes seem lightning-fast, so your team’s ability to adapt is pivotal to your overall success.
So, when interviewing potential new hires, keep your focus razor-sharp. Encourage dialogue that helps showcase their real-world application of these core traits and weigh how those traits may have aided them historically.
Ultimately, when you focus on the core traits of an entrepreneurial mindset, curiosity, and proactivity, you’ll find that you’ve built a strong team that’s not just equipped to handle the here and now but also primed for handling anything your company may face in the future.
