Member-only story
This is a pretty nuanced issue, and I’m not sure I’m going to give it the most comprehensive treatment available (simply because there are huge gaps in own knowledge), so I’ll try to keep this (comparatively) brief as a potential discussion-starter. I feel like a numbered list may be the way to go (but I could be wrong).
EQ, IQ, CQ, etc.
There was a big buzz a few years ago — and in some ways, it’s around right now — about EQ, or your emotional intelligence. I always thought this was pretty relevant. We’ve gotten to a point in 2014 and beyond where the basic work you do — the actual functions of your job — are probably fairly technology-driven (of course, relative to industry) and if you don’t know exactly how to do something on one of your platforms (say, Excel or SalesForce), you can likely Google or YouTube search what you’re looking for and see a demo.
The broader point is: the actual work is almost interchangeable in some respects, and even if you don’t believe that, you probably do believe that most people with a basic skill set of “A, B, C” can be taught to do “D.” If that’s the case, then shouldn’t your hiring focus on finding the best fits? After all, you can teach a person to use Google suite; you can’t teach a person to stop being an asshole. Don’t you want people to have empathy, to react to…
