Where Have All the ‘Good People’ Gone?

I recently stayed at a nice hotel with my family. It was a staycation at a local luxury resort, and it’s nice to treat yourself once in a while. But the entire time we were at the hotel, I couldn’t help but think – gosh – I’d be a great hotel GM. I would run a tight ship. I would meet with staff in housekeeping. Run my finger on top of picture frames to check for dust. Make sure occupancy is high. Increase profits. Get the food and beverage program just right. Help create a memorable and meaningful guest experience. I’d lead with service first. And I’d make sure staff knew that client service was the highest benchmark upon which we would be assessed. Then, I would build us a roadmap to get there.

All things I have done before in other businesses. The thing is, on paper, I have no hard skills in hospitality. I did not go to restaurant and hotel school. I have never worked at a hotel in any capacity. Other than the occasional server job waiting tables to make ends meet, I don’t have much background or experience in hospitality.

Does this mean I would be a poor choice for a hotel GM job?

I have hired and fired roughly 500 people over my 20-plus-year career. I used to get this all wrong. I would hire on hard skills only. If the candidate did not have previous experience in the specific field, I didn’t hire them. I played it safe. I looked for schooling that matched the job opening. A linear history of niche accomplishments. This has embarrassingly taken many years of my hiring philosophy into the dumps. And I often wondered why I couldn’t find “good people” to hire.

Then it got worse. I overcorrected. And somewhere along the way, I started cultivating an even bigger problem. I’m embarrassed to tell you this, my dear reader, much less having had to write it down. But what I did was I hired people who were just like me. Same background. Same experience. Same hard job skills. Same outlook. Same approach.

What a disaster. It took me years to find out why none of this worked. Like most things I have learned, I learned the hard way. I would compete fiercely with my competition over available candidates. I would poach. I would steal. I would beg. Still, no good results. People would quit.  Or worst – if they stayed, my hires would not produce fresh ideas. Their outlook was entrenched in past achievements. We would get “same ol’, same ol’ ” results. No innovation. No thought leadership. No real and measurable contribution.

I thought I was doing everything right. But nothing worked.

So I started to rip apart everything I knew about hiring. And I started to hire on soft skills instead. I’d look for soft skills like empathy. Understanding. Listening. Patience. Humor.  Positivity. I would look for people who had passion. Who were interested in switching career paths. Who cared. Who showed a hunger to learn something new. I lessened my focus on hard skills and found a very rich and diverse pool of applicants with soft skills. I began to look for things like military service. Or volunteer work. Or charities of passionate importance to my candidates.  

And, in that, I found meaning. Meaning that gave whatever role I had open some purpose to someone. Sure, you can fill openings all day with musical chair candidates. Those who bounce around with the same title looking for this or that advantage at the new place. But if you truly want a fresh approach – and genuinely new ideas – hire on soft skills. These are the types of skills that make for a great unexpected candidate. But they are also the same skills that make for a pretty darn good human being.

Nir Bashan is an executive creative director/managing director with more than 18 years of advertising, entertainment and business development experience. He helps teach folks in non-creative fields how to think creatively to solve problems. He leads workshops and lectures on topics relating to The Creator Mindset. He is publishing a book on The Creator Mindset that will be released soon. http://www.nirbashan.com/lectures-workshops/