The Psychology of Individual Difference - Hiring and Retaining the Right Staff

All jobs require the same Structure of Competence ingredients at varying levels.

 Success = Not too much deficiency in any one area in The Structure of Competence – Factors of Human Effectiveness.

 The Three Most Failures – The Ones Harder to Develop or Change:

1. Interpersonal

2. Motivation

3. Self-Management

Why?

Because of the human factor in staff – the psychology of individual difference.

Skills are the easiest to develop – you can simply be taught.

Knowledge and Experience can be gained with moderate intervention – after being taught, it’s a matter of observation and continued supervision and practice, practice, practice to improve.

These can be developed. It’s the internal processes – what happens inside of us - that is harder to develop and less likely to change:

1.       Innate abilities and talents

2.       Personality traits that lead to predicable behavior

3.       Interests, values, motivation – work ethic

In other words – how they look at and experience the world and interpersonal relationships, developed early on in life, results in how they behave.

1.       Self-Management Factor: ability to control impulses, stress management, and ego control.

2.       Technical Knowledge Factor: all jobs have technical requirements – what are the specific ones you’re in need of?

3.       Thinking Factor: decision analysis and common sense.

4.       Administrative Factor: planning, organizing, details, paperwork, etc.

5.       Communication Factor: write, listen, presentation, and clarity.

6.       Interpersonal Factor: people skills, team.

7.       Leadership Factor: initiative, problem solving, ability to lead.

8.       Motivation Factor: work ethic, task completion, effort, integrity, will do attitude.

 These are critical to be successful in your company and what candidates / hires need to bring to the table on their own. How do you evaluate that? Let’s find out…