Quotes, factoids, and white papers!
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”
- Charles Darwin
" Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken. "
- Warren Buffett
The New Science of Hiring article on Inc.com offers a good review of best practices and common errors in the hiring process
Times of economic hardship are precisely the moment when a hiring error can be most damaging to an organization. The cost of a "bad hire" or promotion is widely estimated to be between four to five times the annual salary of the position. In other words, a poor hiring decision for a $100,000 per year job costs the organization between $400,000 and $500,000 in losses in productivity, morale, damaged client relationships, etc. in addition to costs associated with recruitment and potential litigation.
We highly recommend the book, "Good to Great" by Jim Collins. It reports on the results of an empirical study of why some companies become phenomenal performers while others don't. It is filled with useful and scientifically-based conclusions, such as the following (pg. 63):
"We uncovered three practical disciplines for being rigorous in people decisions:- When in doubt, don't hire - keep looking. (Corollary: A company should limit its growth based on its ability to attract enough of the right people.)
- When you know you need to make a people change, act. (Corollary: First be sure you don't simply have someone in the wrong seat.)
- Put your best people on your biggest opportunities, not your biggest problems (Corollary: If you sell off your problems, don't sell off your best people.)"
Critical thinking is one of the single most powerful predictors of success in professional, managerial, and leadership endeavors! So much so that it practically constitutes negligence to offer a position of leadership responsibility without an assessment of critical thinking capacity, particularly when critical thinking effectiveness can be measured relatively easily with high degrees of validity and reliability. From CriticalThinking.org... "A well cultivated critical thinker:
- raises vital questions and problems, formulating them clearly and precisely;
- gathers and assesses relevant information, using abstract ideas to interpret it effectively
- comes to well-reasoned conclusions and solutions, testing them against relevant criteria and standards;
- thinks openmindedly within alternative systems of thought, recognizing and assessing, as need be, their assumptions, implications, and practical consequences; and
- communicates effectively with others in figuring out solutions to complex problems."
"E pluribus unum" (Out of many, one.)
- Motto for the Seal of the United States. Adopted 20 June 1782, recommended by John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, 10 Aug. 1776, and proposed by Swiss artist Pierre Eugene du SimitiËre. It had originally appeared on the title page of the Gentleman's Journal (Jan. 1692)
More about Mel Reid
MELVIN P. 'MEL' REID (1926-2005): Psychologist determined many executives' futures |
