A growing technology company in the Southeastern United States is ready to hire a Chief Technical Officer. The company is positioned for exponential growth over the next 12 months, so finding the right fit for the position is crucial for the company's success. We were hired by the CEO.
The first step was to define the SME's - Subject Matter Experts. A SME is someone who has a vested interest in the success of the position. There are usually between three and ten SME's for a position.
We started with the CEO and selected the SME's. We identified:
- Company's CEO
- Company's COO
- Two key board members
- One key Technology Developer
- Senior VP of Sales
The inclusion of the technology developer was key to the success of the search. This developer didn't have the experience to be the CTO, but he was considered a key employee. The company didn't want to risk losing him by selecting the wrong person for the CTO. He was as involved in the selection process as possible.
The SME's met with a facilitator for two hours, with the goal of discussing, defining, agreeing and prioritizing the top performance expectations for the role of CTO.
This process can be daunting, especially without a skilled facilitator. The product of the session is a list of Key Accountabilities for the position. The process
- Ensures that the entire interview team is on the same page
- Provides the right interview focus (not qualifications-centric)
- Creates clear performance expectations that can be shared in the interview, reviewed in new-hire orientation and used to set goals in the performance management process
- Ensures accurate job assessment results - every participant has the same frame of reference
The SME's complete the Job Assessment - about 30 minutes per person. Our facilitator compiles the results and the Master Benchmark for the position is created.
13 top job factors were identified. Here are the top four:
- Self Management - able to prioritize tasks to deliver desired outcomes
- Results Orientation and Personal Accountability
- Theoretical Nature - Naturally motivated by learning new things
- High Urgency - Driven to be involved in critical situations demanding on-the-spot decisions made with good judgment.
Notice that there is no mention of qualifications, certifications, years of experience or level of education. The position benchmark defines the quallities the person must possess to succeed.
Next, our facilitator created a hiring manual for the position that includes some key interview questions for potential candidates. For example:
Self Management
- Give me a specific example of a project that you were responsible for organizing from beginning to end. How did you go about it? How did you deal with changes that arose? How did you ensure that the project stayed on track? What was the final outcome? What did you learn from this experience?
- We have all had times where it was necessary to balance work and personal or family time. Give me an example of a time when you had too many things to do in both areas of your life and describe how you went about prioritizing your time.
- What is the difference between activity and results? How do you personally define this difference?
Results Orientation and Personal Accountability
- Give me an example of one thing in your life that you have worked on for what you consider to be a very long time with no distraction or break. What did you dislike most about that? How successful were you in completing it? How long a time did you work it?
- Have results ever been less than stellar for a project you've worked on? What caused the results to be less than great? How did it happen?
- Tell me about a time when it was necessary to admit to others that you had made a mistake. How did you handle it?
- What is the worst business decision you ever made? What made it the worst?Would knowing what you do now have helped you to avoid making that decision?
Theoretical
- Would you consider yourself to be an expert in something? What is it? How did you go about gaining the knowledge?
- Tell me what you especially like or enjoy about learning things. What topics or
subjects do you enjoy?
Urgency
- When faced with a deadline, how do you respond?
- How important is it to you to have all the facts before proceeding? Give me an example of a time when you didn't have all the facts and you proceeded anyway. How did you feel? How did the it work out?
Job Benchmark
