As the Titanic made its way through the North Atlantic Ocean on the night of 14 April 1912, the captain was well aware of drifting sea ice. To navigate the dangers, he was reliant on his lookouts and his gut feel - a tricky position, given over 90% of an iceberg’s volume is actually underwater.
Sadly, the trip was a tragic failure.
With significant advances in technology, travelling by ship today is markedly safer. Captains have GPS for navigation and radar to detect objects in the water, while computerised buoys transmit weather and location information. Fortunately, we’re no longer travelling blind.
Interestingly, when it comes to making good hires, the human psyche presents a lot like an iceberg. According to a 2017 study by Statistic Brain, a whopping 78% of resumes are misleading, while an incredible 40% of all candidates outright lie. It makes the standard recruitment process of advertise, short-list, and then spend an hour interviewing each candidate hit-and-miss at best.
There’s a solution though. There are now a range of psychometric testing tools available that use scientific methodology to uncover the hidden depths of people’s skills and behaviours. For the last 18 months, we’ve been using these tools to create benchmarks for success in every role in our industry. We can now match the right people with the right jobs, both at corporate and network level - for the benefit of all parties.
So far, the results have been outstanding. And in an industry where it’s not unusual to see more than 30% turnover of salespeople every year, it’s quite frankly surprising that more leaders aren’t using what’s available.
Gut feel is great, except for when it fails.
