Experience comes from experiences, not years
I’ve spent a large part of my working life hiring, managing and leading teams of people.
Someone the other day asked me what three behaviours, or capabilities, I look for when hiring, or building a team, or leading. It’s pretty simple.
Firstly, I want someone who has commercial awareness. They know why a company exists, how a company works and why a company needs to make money. They understand how their role contributes, and why commercial decisions get made. In other words, they’re not trying to change the business to make it more in their image, nor more preferential for themselves, but are instead trying to change the business to keep it alive and create a positive place to work in the process. Without money coming in, the business won’t last.
Secondly, of course, I’m looking for someone who can communicate effectively. They could be highly skilled at what they do, but if they can’t get on with other people, listen, articulate their ideas or appreciate the diversity of communication styles, they’re going to be challenging to have in the team.
I often say that 99% of problems in business are due to ineffective communication, so it makes no sense to add to that, by hiring someone who cannot communicate effectively.
Thirdly, they must have experience.
Hold on Rob, what about people straight out of University, or with limited years of work under their belt?
Well, I didn’t say “job” experience. I said experience.
We all have experiences - some of us more than others, and it's these experiences we often discount when it comes to making us who we are. I'd rather dig deeper than the hard and soft skills so prized in the workplace - and get to the essence of who someone is; experiences.
Experience comes from having experiences.
It’s entirely possible to meet someone (and I often meet these people) who have repeated broadly the same year for the last 10 years with few stand out experiences.
Equally, there are people who have traveled, failed at starting their own business, volunteered their time at a local shelter, raised kids, worked in several industries, got married and organised a wedding, got divorced and learned to get through the pain, written their own book, started their own website, tried lots of different hobbies, lived abroad, spoken at conferences, setup their own local community group, excelled at a sport etc.
These are experiences. And they make us who we are - and they should be prized in our workplaces.
Experience comes from having experiences - and experiences grow your mind, body and spirit. Many experiences grow your knowledge, your appreciation of other people and sometimes test your own limits of competency and capability.
Some experiences broaden your cultural awareness, your observation skills, your communication skills and your ability to bring people together. Some experiences are done mostly for other people like volunteering, or speaking at a conference. Some experiences end in failure and teach us something. Others grow a set of skills that are highly likely to be transferable; like commercial awareness and communication skills.
To gain experience, you need to have experiences. As a hiring manager and leader I always hire for the person, not the position. And I prize people who want to create experiences.
Yes, there should be some level of competency for the role, but I’m more inclined to hire someone with a varied set of experiences and keenness to learn, than someone who may have spent 10 years doing the same thing.
We don’t all have the same opportunities to garner these experiences, but we can still experience a lot in life. And all of those experiences teach us something, show us something or lead us to something - and with those experiences come transferable skills and competencies and behaviours.
I always hire for the person. And the more experience(s) that person has encountered, the more likely they are to have an appreciation of others, a varied set of practical skills and a wider perspective they could apply to our company problems.
Experiences give you insight and references to call upon, that when combined together often create a unique view of the world. People with experience can bring fresh thinking, creativity and awareness to issues. But, at least in my experience, the more experiences someone has, the more likely they are to appreciate others and accept people for who they are.
I’d much rather hire someone who has traveled, tried to start their own business and been part of a community group, than someone who’s spent the last 10 years living the same year over and over again.
You cannot gain experience without having experiences. What you choose to experience is personal of course, but don’t assume that these experiences “outside” of the job are not helpful, useful and in demand. They are helpful, useful and in demand.
