How do you motivate your people? You don’t.
You find motivated people.
You find people who are already motivated and that’s it.
In the beginning, you would want to hire for attitude and train for skills.
When your business goes to a certain stage then you want more skills.
I wouldn’t bring on someone who actually doesn’t have the experience. I need someone with it.
Because I don’t have time to train that.
It depends on the role but in a senior position, I need someone who’s done that.
Just like I’m not going to hire someone to manage my books who doesn’t have accounting?
It’s the same idea, right?
But in the beginning, you want those, when you’re smaller, motivated attitude.
Because they could get the skills. Right?
You cannot train them on attitude. Even without tools, it’s your interview process.
If you ask them about, tell me about yourself and all of that stuff, you don’t get that.
You don’t get that, because it’s a lie, right?
One thing I do. A number of things I do is I need to test them.
I call them doofus tests. You test them ahead of time.
For example, one thing that I used to do, an example would be let’s say, let’s say, Jackie, okay?
You apply for a position in my company, okay?
Then I’m going to say okay Jackie, we are going to meet at
5 a.m. I want to see how he reacts.
Oh, that’s a bit too early, that’s like traffic and my kids.
We’re done.
– Actually, I’ve done that myself.
– It works.
– I use that all the time.
– It works.
You know, if they want it.
– I pick the oddest hours and stuff like that.
– Oddest hours, okay.
And then I will say, okay, so Jackie, we’re going to meet
at this place, okay?
It’s purposely at that place. And I’ll say, so Jackie, now let’s say you’re applying for a management position, okay?
I might say something like oh Jackie, do me a favor when you come, can you pick up the Times of India Newspaper with you?
Can you pick that up for me, please?
And can you bring the sports section?
And we’re going to use it for our interview.
Now if Jackie shows up and he comes in and he brings exactly that newspaper.
Let’s say he forgot to bring the newspaper.
What does that tell you? It’s these little things.
It is. Let them know, so it’s not like you try to get people.
You try to filter people. You give them obstacles.
So I would say, let’s say bring the sports section which let’s say you bring the newspaper and the sports section, which is great.
That’s a doer. The ones who’re really good they might bring the sports section.
Just in case, they might buy another newspaper in case you need that one, too.
Then you know that’s a behavior thing, right? And then when they showed up, some who are really good might actually have seen they memorized the scores in case you quiz them.
Some might do a little spreadsheet.
All these things tell you what kind of people are they.
Right?
And one thing I do, I’m going to grab this, make sure it doesn’t fall.
So I’m going to demonstrate.
So I say hey Jeff, welcome to the interview, right, okay?
So if he brought me this, right?
He brought me this so then I might say okay. So this is the newspaper, is that right?
I ask.
– One of them.
– Yeah, one of them, that’s good.
So I’m just going to grab something. Just have a seat right now.
– Okay.
– I walk away.
Now then when I come back I’m looking at behavior.
Some people they put a newspaper, they’re like Because you asked me to sit.
So I sit.
So what does that tell you?
Guess what happens when they start working?
When you’re not around?
They’re going to make some stupid mistakes and they’re afraid to tell you.
One minute, I find out their personality. Some, are afraid to sit.
If they’re afraid to sit, it means that when they started working, they will be afraid to make any kind of movements without you telling them.
They don’t initiate. They wait for you to tell them what to do, Because they know it’s kind of odd, right?
The ones are good, maybe they just come here and then they just, normal thing, you may just do this.
It’s a very normal thing, right? And then when you come back, okay, do you still need this?
Should I put it aside? Right, that’s someone that’s proactive.
A simple trick like that tells me a lot about you. That’s one example.
I don’t need to read your resume. And then for the questioning period, you know a lot. Like, that’s one simple move.
Make sense?
