Whenever I meet with someone who handles the hiring of staff, I ask whether she has ever gardened.
Whenever I meet with someone who handles the hiring of staff, I ask whether she has ever gardened. I often get a bewildered look, but as I share my story, the motivation driving my question becomes clear:My grandmother was an avid gardener. When I was six years old, she gave me my own seedlings and taught me some secrets to promote a bountiful garden:
- Create good conditions for growth – fertile soil, clean water, good light.
- Tend your garden. It’s not enough to let nature take its course. Take the time to note when things should or should not be planted.
- Pay attention to threats and changes like pests and the weather. Adapt to these threats so that your plants can thrive.
The most important thing she taught me was how to use intuition to become a skilled gardener. She told me that gardening lives in her bones. I took her words into my worklife, and they guided me. Her key lesson: if you cultivate the intuitive knowledge of fostering human talent, you will have a rich harvest.Jay W. Lorsch, Professor of Human Relations at Harvard Business School, said it this way -
“The work of any organization depends exclusively on the talent and intelligence of the people delivering it. Good firms hire the absolute best people and develop them, motivate them, and build careers in which they'll stay committed to the profession and the firm for a long period of time.”
I have worked with CEOs who expressed frustration when they recruited well regarded stars in given fields, only to lose those individuals within a year. In these situations, I’ve observed that the person responsible for recruiting and hiring – whether it is a Human Resource director, a department director or the CEO himself – often lacks or ignores the intuitive grounding to determine whether a candidate is aligned with the organization’s culture, values and overall mix of personalities. As with the gardening lessons from my grandmother, the essence of these lessons can’t just be explained. It is absorbed through the experience of working in the soil.Years ago, I served as the nominations committee chair for a board and took on the challenge on the condition that my colleague, Joyce, a longtime board member, serve as co-chair. Joyce felt her presence wasn’t necessary. “You’re an expert at this Kevin. Why do you need me?” I shared the story of my grandmother and told her that, while I have some skill in board recruitment and care, she had the organization in her bones.I learned from Joyce how to develop my organizational sixth sense. It took some time, but as we worked together, the quality of the board members we recruited aligned with the organization’s culture, values and practices. The resulting contributions of the new board members paid off beyond what we had imagined.If you have the responsibility to recruit, hire and support people, take the time to assess if your organization's nuances, patterns, practices and traditions are in your bones. If you need help, ask for it, but don’t skip this essential step. In fact, consider planting this spring. Great seeds take time to grow.Copyright © 2013 by Elemental Partners, LLC. | Reprinted with permissionClick here for all previous articles | Find out more at elementalpartners.net