In an article recently written by Forté Senior Performance Consultant Dr. Vince Racioppo, whose practice, Center for Expert Performance, is based in the Chicago area, he tells the story of Zach, “a young man of tremendous programming talent,” whose arrival to the team as a new hire was met with “tremendous excitement” by the VP of operations.
 
Zach exceeded expectations, correcting problems others had created. His code was bulletproof, easily understood and maintained. He would be promoted to lead a small development team.
 
Nevertheless, as Dr. Racioppo reported, the honeymoon was about to be over.
 
Zach would soon show very strong feelings about how the development process should work, which were frequently at odds with the company standards. He would become argumentative, often taking the approach that it was his way or the highway.
 
His boss would let a lot of things slide because of the high-quality code he was producing. Then, one of Zach’s valued team members quit “supposedly to pursue better alternatives,” yet the truth was he no longer wanted to work for Zach.
 
Only after missed deadlines that cost the company $200,000 did the VP realize she had made a bad choice in Zach. After that, he was terminated.
 
According to research done by Leadership IQ’s Mark Murphy, www.leadershipiq.com who followed 20,000 new hires,
 
46 percent of new hires failed within 18 months. They were fired, received poor performance reviews, were written up or left to find other employment.
Murphy reports that this statistic exists from poor fit, not a lack of technical expertise.
 
Some reasons he cites are:

• “Poor coachability” – an unwillingness to learn and adapt after receiving competent construction.
• Low emotional intelligence – the inability to use and recognize emotions effectively.
• Low motivation – lack of drive to achieve and perform.
• Wrong temperament – an incompatible personality or nature that prevents him/her from thriving in the organization’s culture. 

So, what are the problems and, more importantly, the solutions? Murphy’s research indicated that leadership in charge of hiring does not understand the job for which they are filling. In other words, they don’t really know the “living” job.
 
A solution Forté offers to help combat this ever-present hiring issue is the Forté Profile Model. This is a survey that utilizes 30 behavior-based questions that three contributors – one who leads the job, another doing the job and a Forté Certified Consultant to facilitate the process - complete individually. Then, they come together to negotiate a final survey and profile to use as a part of the hiring process, or for coaching potential performers currently on the payroll.
 
Our clients find this to be a fascinating process, in that any one individual’s “complete” awareness of what is needed for success in the position is actually incomplete. This process brings the “whole picture” together.
 
Research indicates that hiring is often done based primarily on gut feelings, which Murphy acknowledges are important but not reliable. Utilizing the Forté Profile Model removes a tendency to go with the gut by offering a highly intelligent and effective approach to hiring right the first time.
 
Leadership often fails to create a powerful on-boarding process that teaches the new hire about the “living job” and how to navigate the organization, wield power and influence, acquire resources, negotiate and resolve a conflict. Applying the Forté Communication Style profile, leadership and team members soon learn their motivations, and even the motivations of the new hire, and the new hire learns the same of his/her new teammates.
 
In addition, the Forté Interaction Reports immediately provide the tools necessary to learn how to best balance and adapt with teammates and how to learn the ins and outs of the “living job” quickly with significantly less wear and tear.
 
Hiring leadership can fail to assess “coachability,” which is the candidate’s willingness to learn and adapt as they learn to navigate the “living job.” The Forté Performance Coaching process immediately provides very specific, evidence-based adapting strategies to the new hire, in addition to building immediate strong bonds between the leader and successful candidate at any level of the organization.

It is not so much “who you are” but rather how you learn to adapt to others that leads to success.
 
Leaders can overlook negative clues during the hiring process that indicate trouble could be ahead. Reviewing the candidate’s strengths, motivators and demotivators significantly increases the likelihood those interviews and related “clues” surface in the interview process and can be easily understood, discussed and enhance the decision to either make an offer or not.
 
It is worth noting that in the article, many hiring leaders can easily become more focused on other issues, such as technical competency, which we regard as the critical consideration when adding anyone to a team organization.
 
Simply put, no amount of coaching is going to overcome an inadequate skill set. The role Forté plays is to help the successful candidate round out their skill set with Forté Communication Intelligence processes.
 
Those tools include the Forté i360, Forté Team Pulse report, Forté Adapting Updates every 30 days for the first 90 days, then quarterly thereafter because life goes on, and Forté is not “once then done”. Neither is the growth of the individual, their team and the organization.
 
For additional information on the Forté Profile Model and Communicating to Hire, click here or contact Forté Client Services at 910-452-5152.

C.D. “Hoop” Morgan, III is the founder and chairman of The Forté Institute, LLC, a global behavioral sciences firm best known for developing and providing innovative people, process and interpersonal performance improvement solutions. Forté provides online communication style reports to more than 6,000 corporate clients throughout the globe. To learn more about the company, go to www.theforteinstitute.com or call (910) 452-5152.