As I look back at part 5 and wonder if hiring is important enough for two posts, yes and no. This second part about hiring is about finding the right person in what is called a ‘fit’ interview.  But it is also something you can do with your current team.  The notion that one type of intelligence is slowly being rectified.  IQ, the common measure of intelligence is the most common, recently there is the finding that EQ, or emotional intelligence has become mainstream.  But what doesn’t show up on resumes or watching them interact?  Unfortunately, I am not sure there is a name for it. 

Let us look at a sports analogy.  When my daughter is playing hockey we spend a fair amount of time at practices and of course games.  Kids when they are young really only wanted to play games.  Coaches kept saying the way to get better was practicing.  The kids would be put through a set of drills, often the same ones each practice.  My daughter played had specific practices for her as she played goalie. The coach started with the same drills.  Buidling muscle memory so that in a game it would be second nature. 

What most people who don’t know my family very well didn’t see half of it.  The whole family often went to open skates, Ariel did what is called ‘Stick time’ with her friends.  In the winters I put up a backyard ice rink.  At open skates she would race around with her friends playing tag, chasing teammates etc. All of this was fun, free time and unstructured play without a coach telling them what to do. The ability to try things, something you can’t do when a coach is watching.   

Delightful story Larry, can you get to the point? Please?  It is something I see happening first with youth sports and seemed to carry over to education.  The notion that structure is everything and the overload that everything has to follow a plan based on some research to build the perfect education.  But is it?  If everyone got the same lectures jammed into them what really differentiates one student from the other?  There needs to be something outside the classroom that adds to the education.  

So how do you interview to decide what outside and life education someone has? As I said it is not on the resume? This again takes practice, but its looking for things that are on the resume or possibly removed. Some summer jobs or volunteering could lead to experiences that teach skills that are not in a book or classrooms. Anytime someone was in any customer service industry like food service, retail etc. ask about what they learned about people doing those jobs. For those who played teamed and individual sports ask how far they went, what coaches the like or didn’t like. Your goal it to understand if the person fits within your team culture, or in some cases can enhance the team culture.  

This post is part about interviewing, but it is also part about the over structure that our society has brought on our kids. With the goal that only certain schools will define your kid’s success there is an overwhelming push to have too much organization in sports as well as education. I may write a future post about the challenges of this, but your job running a team is finding the cog for your wheel.  

This opinion is mine, and mine only, my current or former employers have nothing to do with it. I do not write for any financial gain, I do not take advertising and any product company listed was not done for payment. But if you do like what I write you can donate to the charity I support (with my wife who passed away in 2017) Morgan Stanley’s Children’s Hospital or donate to your favorite charity. I pay to host my site out of my own pocket, my intention is to keep it free.  I do read all feedback, I mostly wont post any of them 

This Blog is a labor of love, and was originally going to be a book.  With the advent of being able to publish yourself on the web I chose this path.  I will write many of these and not worry too much about grammar or spelling (I will try to come back later and fix it) but focus on content.  I apologize in advance for my ADD as often topics may flip.  I hope one day to turn this into a book and or a podcast, but for now it will remain a blog.