Lesson 6: Hire for Growth Capabilities | Adam Grant

Factor motivation and opportunity into hiring decisions. Utilize challenges and do-overs to assess candidates.

You have an opening at your organization. Do you fill it with a candidate who’s done the role for a decade (but not much else) or one with only a year in the role but a background of success in multiple other areas?

Organizational psychologist Adam Grant would likely suggest giving the second candidate a chance. He argues past experience and past performance aren’t actually the best signs of potential.

In this video lesson, Grant discusses why someone’s ability to learn and grow might be a better predictor of future success and how you can structure your interview process to uncover potential.

Don’t focus solely on skill

Past experience is not a good indicator of future potential. There’s not a statistically significant relationship between years of experience at a job and how well a person does it. Years of experience can’t tell you how much learning the person acquired on the job.

Past performance isn’t a good indicator either because:

It may not be relevant to the current position.

It doesn’t signal the person’s ability to learn.

Consider 2 key factors

Motivation drives how far a person can go with their existing talent.

Opportunity drives whether a person has the chance to work on their skills.

Assess for motivation and capability to learn

To get closer to future potential, set candidates up with a challenge. Choose an exercise that tests candidates for skills relevant to the job. But don’t stop there. Afterward, ask: How do you think you did?

If they’re not happy with their performance, give them a do-over. This gives you the opportunity to gauge their growth from the first round to the second.

© Freethink Media Inc., All Rights Reserved.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Go Deeper with Big Think:

►Become a Big Think Youtube Member

Get exclusive classes and early, adfree access to new releases without leaving Youtube.

►Become a Big Think Web Member

Get the entire Big Think Class library, premium print issues, live events, and more.

►Subscribe to Big Think on Substack

Get all of your favorite Big Think content delivered to your inbox.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

About Adam Grant:

Adam Grant has been Wharton’s top-rated professor for seven straight years. As an organizational psychologist, he is a leading expert on how we can find motivation and meaning, rethink assumptions, and live more generous and creative lives. He has been recognized as one of the world’s 10 most influential management thinkers and Fortune’s 40 under 40.

Grant is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of five books that have sold millions of copies and been translated into 45 languages: Think Again, Give and Take, Originals, Option B, and Power Moves. His books have been named among the year’s best by Amazon, Apple, the Financial Times, and The Wall Street Journal. His viral piece on languishing was the most-read New York Times article of 2021 and the most-saved article across all platforms.

Grant hosts WorkLife, a chart-topping TED original podcast. His speaking and consulting clients include Google, the NBA, Bridgewater, and the Gates Foundation. He writes on work and psychology for The New York Times, has served on the Defense Innovation Board at the Pentagon, has been honored as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, and has appeared on Billions. He has more than 6 million followers on social media and features new insights in GRANTED, his free monthly newsletter.