Business is relationship. We truly seek relationship and rarely, “market for the business”. We get asked, “What kind of people do you look to hire?” The short answer is, “We don’t”. At first glance this might seem arrogant or overly passive. The truth is, we believe great culture attracts great talent…and great talent attracts great talent.
So, for the short list of traits we look for in relationships, please consider the following list. As always, we are as much students as we are teachers. We have not somehow mastered this but we are trying to focus on the right things consistently enough to make our journey together rewarding. We would love to hear from you and comments are always welcomed.
So here’s a short list of important qualities we admire and seek in people. Some of these we ask about directly, others we just try to distinguish from our conversation.
- Social Media doer. Everyone says social media is important, but does the person actually consistently lead out and do it? Does she have a valuable Twitter following? Does he have experience getting tribal fans for a Facebook page? Does she have a quality blog about marketing? Did he create and execute a blog outreach campaign that actually worked? Has she ever failed miserably and demonstrated a solid learning from the experience?
- Frugality. “You have to spend money to make money.” Hogwash–no longer true. Perhaps, “You can spend money and you might make money.”
- Client-crazy. We love our clients. We don’t really care for the concept of who the customer should be and what the customer should want, or even the developer’s conception of which features should be useful, but what actually works in practice. To us, this means marketing is not something that is done but rather, relationships that are cultivated. We love seeing this in people.
- Humility. Humility demonstrates restraint and character. We admire the ability to succeed, or fail, and still remain humble.
- Domain Knowledge/Experience. This isn’t a requirement, but it sure helps. This goes pretty hand-in-hand with a willingness to learn.
- Willingness to learn. An eagerness to learn, a willingness to quietly listen and wisely question are highly esteemed. These are characteristics that demonstrate the right mind and heart to grow.
- Thinker. Thinking seems to be a lost art. Its rare to run into someone these days who truly thinks things through and invest time in the process of thinking. A thinker processes and truly has the gift of listening at twice the rate of speaking. A thinker demonstrates insight, cognizance, and reflection.
- Culture cultivator. A culture cultivator seeks to contribute and not just take away. A culture cultivator seeks to understand, embrace, encourage, and support. A culture cultivator can show by their historical input the difference that their character and contribution have had upon their environment over time.
Today former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick was released from federal prison. The build up to his release has been growing as I have seen and heard more conversations around what he will do now that he is out, and people’s opinions on the matter. For me I am anxious to see his path. I haven’t been where he is now, but I have been at a similar point multiple times in my career, life and spiritual journey. I am curious to see how much Grace a lost world will extend to this man.
