Hiring Secrets From Robert Townsend

"You find lots of little things going on in every community in the country.  If there is a world here in a hundred years, it will not be due to any big organization of any sort, no big political group, no big church, no big government.  It is going to be saved by millions upon millions of little organizations.  It might just be that what Jesus and Jeremiah and Mohammed and Buddha talked about will come true." - Pete Seeger

HIRING SECRETS FROM ROBERT TOWNSEND

In the 1970's Robert Townsend gained acclaim by taking the tiny unknown Avis Rent-A-Car and making it into USA's best known #2 corporation.  He followed this up with the popular, iconoclastic management books, Up the Organization:  How to Stop Management from Stifling People and Strangling Productivity; and Futher Up the Organization (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1984).  In the latter book he offers this advice on making hiring decisions:

"By the time you narrow down to three candidates for the job, you're past your own deadline, your boss wants a decision now, and one of the three says he's got to tell another company yes or no tomorrow.

"Take your time.

"Tell the one who's pressing you to cool it or take the other offer.  Get to know all of them as well as you can.  Make room for it.  One at a time, take them home; listen to their life stories. . . .

"If you pick a lemon, it's a three-year catastrophe you'll suffer with.  Of course, you tell your boss if the new person doesn't make it in eighteen months, you'll get rid of him or her and get somebody else, but it doesn't work that way. When you hire, you're filling an empty box on a chart; when you fire, it's Susan or Bill.  It's easy to give him or her another year.  Or so.

"I was weak at selection.  They all looked good to me.  So I needed a strong idea to help me.  It was: Hire the one you would rather work for. . . . Even better, find someone in your outfit who deserves a crack at the job and give her a try.  It'll save you a lot of grief."

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