You should like the people you work with.
It’s a facet of hiring often missed during interviews, but the personality of who you hire matters. Especially in office environments; stress can cause staff to lose their motivation and garner resentment.
This is where the personality hire comes in.
What Is the “Personality Hire”?
The “Personality Hire”, a term popularized in late 2023, refers to an employee who is known for their positivity in the workplace, and for making other staff members feel motivated.
This manifests in a variety of ways. Remembering other’s birthdays, being excited to take on new tasks, evangelizing the benefits of your products and services not just to potential customers but to other employees.
When boiled down to its most essential element, the ‘personality hire’ comes down to authentically caring about people.
Who is the Personality Hire?
The traditional view is that you hire someone for their skills, experience, and qualifications. Finding a Personality Hire means adding attitude, outlook, and caring about their colleagues and customers to that list.
This can be any role in the company. Despite the name, the “personality hire” is not a literal job description. It’s an attitude that great employees possess and is something that should be encouraged within all roles.
The personality hire takes personal responsibility for the outcomes of their actions on others. They view themselves as capable of making a positive change in the environment, for themselves, their customers, and their coworkers.
“Bluntly, there are some people who just don’t like people. And that’s toxic for any work environment.”
How to Find a Personality Hire?
The best way to find a great personality hire? Become one yourself.
As a leader, how you approach the concepts of compassion, empathy, and authenticity will impact how your employees do as well.
Do you see yourself as personally responsible for the welfare of your juniors beyond a paycheck? Are you dedicated to their growth, success, health, and happiness? If not, you cannot expect them to care more than their contract hours, either.
As a leader, you need to be willing to be the source of positivity. That does not mean being lenient, but your company culture is a direct reflection of your own interactions.
True leadership means having uncommon care for your people and owning every last detail of your operation.
“I get to be the owner because I’m willing to do that.”
The Cycle of Care → Success → More Care
The cycle of care becomes stronger every go-around.
As you inject more excitement into your business, your staff gain the motivation to do better, as they can more easily visualize and believe this is their best path for success.
This becomes a prosperous cyclical pattern:
- You deeply care about your employees, customers, and every aspect of your business
- This fosters better teamwork, innovation, and customer service – allowing for success
- That success gives you more opportunity to expand your care through growth
- Which then leads to even greater success in an upward spiral!
Why Does It All Matter?
Beyond the buzzwords, the power of getting better personalities in the workplace is making it a more positive, productive place to be in. When your employees want to come to work, they’re going to work harder on, and off, the property. When your culture emphasizes taking accountability for results, emotional and numerical, everyone will take more care in what they do.
So when you’re interviewing, and conducting your own daily tasks, ask yourself: is this the kind of personality I would want to work with?