Make Character Count in Hiring and Promoting

It’s been said that we hire for competence and fire for character. Missing from the conversation is the recognition that what’s needed is a leader with strong character-based judgment. 

While managers often think that they hire for character, most have equated character with values fit. They’ve tended to give too much weight to character dimensions such as drive and accountability and too little to humility and temperance — which can result in bringing toxicity and weak judgment into the DNA of the organization. That often prompts individuals with strong character to either leave the organization or disengage. This is especially so when yet another high-profile promotion signals that the organization values a limited or unbalanced set of character behaviors.

There’s no doubt that hiring, firing, and promotion fundamentally shape the culture of an organization for better and worse. Simply put, organizational culture reflects the character of individuals within it. Therefore, attending to character is a real leverage point. Having worked with many organizations seeking to elevate character alongside competence in their HR practices, the author shares some key lessons.

1. Understand the Differences Between Competence and Character:  Many people think they are assessing character when considering candidates for hire or promotion because they assess some isolated elements of character, such as courage, along with traditional knowledge, skills, and abilities. However, this is a severely limited perspective: Research has shown that character comprises 11 interconnected dimensions, with an associated set of observable behaviors.  These dimensions are: transcendence, drive, collaboration, humility, humanity, integrity, temperance, justice, accountability and courage.  And character can be developed.  The critical point is to assess character comprehensively rather than simply naming a few qualities thought to be desirable in isolation.
2. Conducting Character Interviews.  Assessing character as part of the process of evaluating job candidates needs to occur separately from assessing competencies because it requires a more conversational approach than a typical interview. The following are the key considerations to keep in mind.  The following should be considere:  prepare for character interviews by developing your own character, Treat a character interview as a conversation, Understand that the interviewer’s character is revealed as well as the interviewee’s, use probing questions, observe the clusters of dimensions and their strengths and weaknesses, look for signs of strengths and weaknesses in interviewees’ stories, observe whether integrity and humility are on display, choose two to four interviewers, determine the overall strength of character development based on the interview, and provide feedback to the candidate after a character interview.  
3. Considering Character in Talent Development.  Assessing character in candidates new to an organization is surely important, such assessments are equally important when it comes to promoting individuals. In fact, promotions may send the stronger signal about what qualities the organization values, because the individuals being promoted are known to their colleagues, who have already formed opinions about their character based on their behavior.