Would I want to play kickball with them?

Do you remember the kickball field in elementary school? Boy, I do! I remember being with friends, laughing, running, competing… For me, like most young boys, it was a break from the classroom. But more than that, looking back it was very formative for me in my professional life in a very specific way: When it comes to recruiting and selection of people, more and more I find I'm asking myself, “Would I want to play kickball with them?”  

Now before anyone gets too worried about unfair hiring practices or throwing job descriptions, behavioral interviewing, and competency profiles out the window, let me explain…  

What I’m talking about is after the threshold components are confirmed, I think it’s wise to consider what type of teammate a person will be. On the kickball field, even at age 9, kids I wanted on my team had a desire to win fair and square, were good sports, weren't boastful or cutting to others, and had a willingness to play any position, etc. Today, my experience tells me that the characteristics that made a good kickball teammate to me 40-plus years ago are pretty doggone close to the characteristics that make great teammates in professional life as well.

One of my favorite books on hiring and selection is Patrick Lencioni’s The Ideal Team Player, which gets to this.  It’s a lot about selection of new people but I can also see how it can be used in coaching, development, and succession of the people already in your organization. 

Lencioni’s three characteristics that he believes make up the ideal team player are:  Hungry, Humble, and Smart. I’ll let you check out the resource for his definitions of those terms in this context but I would argue that my kickball list maps really well to his. Lencioni isn't alone in studying what it means to select and develop great people. Others like Collins called this “getting the right people on the bus.” Maxwell declared, “talent is never enough.” Decades before, Drucker profiled the "effective executive."

Today, this informs why I get so energized in these conversations in our executive peer advisory groups as well as my work in talent optimization and tools like The Predictive Index, why I work with organizations on ensuring selection processes are strong, that organizations’ strategic plans include a people strategy, and, how to identify and develop talent at various roles across an organization.  

Experience has taught me that an organization’s long-term performance and its culture rest in the hands of its people. Whether you’re a believer or a skeptic, I’d challenge you to reflect on your current processes and benchmark them against the best resources available.

And if you have questions on how to turn this thinking into practical actions, reach out to me and others perhaps in your network on how to take this part of your organization to the next level.

Here’s to a great 2021 on the kickball field!