“You don’t hire for skills; you hire for attitude.” Is This True?
Herb Kelleher and Simon Sinek said, “You don’t hire for skills; you hire for attitude. You can always teach skills.” Most of us likely agree with this. In theory, hiring managers would claim they prioritize attitude over skills. However, is that true? Some jobs require specific skills, such as a heavy equipment technician, an accountant, and an engineer. Skilled labor and trades exist, and candidates must possess the skills required to succeed.
What about experience? We discussed skills and attitude, but how does experience influence your hiring decisions? There’s a clear difference between a technician with 20 years’ experience and one who just graduated. So, what should we seek in a candidate? How crucial are skills, attitude, and experience? For simplicity in this blog, we can categorize experience as part of skills. Next, let’s discuss the significance of skills and attitudes in hiring.
Many say we hire for attitude, but we often prioritize skill instead. Why do we contradict this principle? My experience as a technician, manager, and executive shows that job descriptions typically emphasize skills over attitude.
Why do we prioritize hiring for skills over attitude? Because we are lazy. Yes, I said it, or better yet, typed it. When we hire for skill instead of attitude, it is because we do not want to engage in the hard work of training, mentoring, and coaching. We do not want to face the challenging and demanding task of teaching skills.
So let me tidy this up: a dealership has a few branches with service departments performing well, and one underperforming. All three branches are in good markets, have new facilities, and feature great brands, but one service department constantly lags behind the others. After investigating, they discovered they had two all-star service managers and one average manager. It’s easy to see where they could wrongly conclude that the issue lies with the service manager.
Here’s the real problem: there are not enough all-star service managers. Wanting to hire an All-Star service manager is hiring for skills. It would be great if we could hire another All-Star service manager and move on.
Usually, the dealership terminates the struggling or average service manager and hires a replacement. However, finding another All-Star service manager is unlikely, so they repeat the cycle of terminating an average manager in the hope that, eventually, one day, they will find another All-Star manager. In the meantime, employee and customer satisfaction are eroded. The department continues to decline because senior management cannot find another All-Star service manager.
Have you ever wondered why not every baseball player makes the All-Star team? Only the best make it. There is a limit to the number of All-Stars, and no baseball team has won the World Series where every player was an All-Star. A balanced and well-coached team with great attitudes wins the World Series. If your strategy is to hire only all-stars, you’ll face frustration and a bloated payroll. Hiring only top employees, like a service or store manager, to fix your issues is unwise.
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Why is it not prudent to hire all-star employees to solve your problems? Because there aren’t enough all-star employees to go around. All-star employees are your top 10% performers, and there are more dealerships and open positions than all-star employees available to fill them. Additionally, all-star employees don’t tend to last very long. They either become bored with their current position, or your competitor offers them more money. This is not to say that you should not hire an all-star employee, but rather to emphasize the importance of a balanced team and the potential pitfalls of over-reliance on a few individuals.
Here’s another drawback of hiring all-star employees: All-star employees will win at all costs, always finding a way to succeed, and can obscure the underperforming issues concerning your product or processes in your dealership.
For instance, in regard to our underperforming service department mentioned above, the problem wasn’t the service manager—it was poorly developed processes and procedures. The average service manager was set up to fail, and only the high-performing, highly skilled All-Star managers had a chance to succeed in that department.
Here’s the point: as leaders, we must take responsibility for developing processes and procedures that allow average to mediocre employees with great attitudes to shine. This approach creates a more balanced team and unlocks the untapped potential of all employees, empowering them to be successful.
Another reason dealerships usually hire for skill rather than attitude is that management is overtaxed and does not have the time to train, coach, or mentor great candidates- those with a great attitude but may lack some skills or experience. That’s where I can help. If you have a manager, whether in parts, service, or a branch manager, who has a great attitude and is loyal but lacks some specific skills and experience, I can assist you in helping them through training and coaching. We can empower your people who may not be All-Stars, enabling them to perform at a much higher level.