HR Professional - April/May 2008 - (Page 54)

T H E L A ST WOR D what needs measuring. Just like educational institutions focus their tests on the skills that predict academic success, HR must create tests that zero-in on the cognitive skills that determine business aptitude. For instance, while we frequently hear how essential it is for someone to think “outside the box,” what skills make someone a creative thinker? Typically, they can view the same issue from multiple perspectives. They are able to define a particular problem in several different ways, anticipate likely obstacles and identify sensible solutions. Or, we often say that someone has exceptional political or social savvy, but what specific cognitive skills allow these people to handle interpersonal situations so effectively? Typically, socially skilled people are exceptional at recognizing underlying agendas, gauging how these agendas may conflict with one another, anticipating the probable effects and likely consequences of a chosen course of action and weigh this information appropriately. Once we understand the skills we are seeking, designing a means of assessing these traits becomes easier. BY JUSTIN MENKES INTERVIEWING FOR EXECUTIVE INTELLIGENCE You are the CEO of a large software company. Your prices are being severely undercut by both domestic and foreign competitors and your executive team wants to cut costs. Your COO feels the answer is to outsource most of the company’s programming to foreign subcontractors, thereby reducing labour costs. In fact, your COO has already received a number of bids from service firms in both India and South Korea. What questions do you have? A candidate displaying a high level of EI would challenge the COO’s core assumption that outsourcing automatically equals cheaper production. They might point out the indirect costs (upfront investment, ongoing customer service and software development issues) involved with such a move and cite the unintended outcomes, such as the affect a distant workforce may have on productivity or labour relations. An EI test doesn’t measure the absolute quality of a candidate’s solutions but rather the likelihood that their reasoning skills and lines of inquiry will lead them to a desirable outcome. Most of us recognize that there is not a magic bullet when it comes to evaluating a job candidate. But by employing a multi-method approach that includes an intelligence assessment, interviewing methods can now achieve a whole new level of accuracy and help us to better identify those clear thinkers that businesses so desperately need. Justin Menkes, PhD, is managing director of the Executive Intelligence Group and author of Executive Intelligence— What All Great Leaders Have (HarperCollins 2005). HR P R OF E S S I ON A L I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y R É M Y S I M A R D / W W W. I 2 I A R T. C O M A lmost every HR professional struggles to find people with great business acumen—those who can think things through and consistently arrive at the right answer. Research has proven that intelligence tests are the biggest predictor of employee success, yet they are almost never administered to management. Charges of racial and gender bias, as well as the rudimentary nature of traditional IQ tests, make them a poor choice for a managerial population. But, instead of completely abandoning IQ tests, addressing the flaws and adapting them to a business setting will harness their tremendous predictive power. The first step is figuring out Executive Intelligence (EI) The goal is to determine whether someone can critically examine underlying assumptions and anticipate unintended consequences. Rather than asking the candidate to recount an occasion in which they did either of these things, instead present a fact-based situation where they need to apply such skills. For example: 54 A p r i l / M a y 2 0 0 8

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of HR Professional - April/May 2008

HR Professional - April/May 2008 Contents Editor's Letter Contributors Leadership Matters By the Numbers On the Web Careers World Watch Accounting Health & Safety Foreign Professionals Management Office Life Legal Compensation Web 2.0 @ Work Talent Management Systems On Message Strategy HR 101 Interview With Colin Mackay Off the Shelf The Last Word

HR Professional - April/May 2008

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