Which candidate would you hire for - ‘Skill or Will’?
‘Skill’ is how competent a worker is at their role while ‘Will’ is how motivated they are to perform well in their role. So which do you prioritize when hiring?
In my opinion, it depends on the role. But when it comes to building a young organization, I believe will is much more essential than skill. Oftentimes, I see ‘will’ as interchangeable with ‘self-motivation’.
A candidate who is motivated but lacks technical skills can be trained and coached (if your company has a culture of apprenticeship where seniors impart knowledge on to juniors). But no matter how great your training program is, it’ll be wasted on juniors who don’t have the will to exercise it from the start.
When a person with high self-motivation faces a tough challenge at work, they’ll have the grit and tenacity to see it through. Among two employees with the same level of competencies, the one who possesses stronger willpower will outlast the one who has less.
Hiring managers tend to fall into the trap of evaluating candidates exclusively on their skill sets: relevant qualifications and experience, domain knowledge and other relevant people skills. And that’s all fine. But probing candidates on their willpower should also be an essential part of the hiring process.
But how do we check for willpower when it isn’t something that can be easily quantified?
1. Ask ‘What motivates you’-type questions and keep digging. For example:
· What’s your dream?
· What does success mean to you?
· What drives you?
· Was there a time when you wanted something badly, but experienced a setback? What did you learn from it?
· I see you played competitive frisbee in uni. How would you handle an unmotivated person in your team?
These questions will give the hiring manager an indication of the candidate’s focus, the consistent actions they are taking towards their goals, and their resilience (how quickly they can bounce back after facing a setback).
2. The X-factor.
This is a little harder to explain, and I need to highlight that this method is not always reliable due to unconscious bias. But if you’re a seasoned recruiter, you’ll pick up on all the idiosyncrasies that tell you this person is the right fit for the job. Call it a gut feel, but there is just something about a candidate – their ‘fire in the belly’, their body language, their centeredness, their likeability, their shining eyes, etc. – that gives them the X-factor.
In summary, skill is still the main requirement in selecting a candidate. But from a field of comparably skilled candidates, go for the ones who possess a stronger willpower. They’ll perform better over the long term. ●