Welcome to this week's issue of Executive Insight. 

Hire to the "T"

Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of attending the 45th annual Encore Awards of the Arts & Business Council of New York. This was an evening celebrating partnerships between arts organizations and businesses, which began with a dialogue, "Encore Exchange - Being Entrepreneurial."

My interest was piqued by the extent to which Laura Walker, President of New York Public Radio and Cooper-Hewitt Museum Director/IDEO co-founder Bill Moggridge, focused on the importance of their people as essential to their organizational success.

Several questions from audience members also zeroed in on the people factor, in particular, how do you hire good people?  Laura responded that "you know it when you see it," emphasizing the importance of a person's passion in doing a great job.

Bill shared a great concept, which is to conceptualize a "T" when hiring. The vertical line of the T represents a person's expertise in a particular area, while the horizontal line reflects one's ability to collaborate across the organization, with clients, etc.

What a cool image!

I invite you to think about this the next time you begin a new employee search, or even an internal transfer or promotion. It provides an easy way to preliminarily assess a candidate, before going through your usual hiring process.

I've just mentioned a couple of many inspiring moments throughout this exciting evening. Kudos to ABC's Executive Director, Will Maitland Weiss, and his great team for producing an inspiring event.

As Memorial Day weekend is upon us in the U.S., I wish you a relaxing, fun long weekend and great week ahead!

 

 

Copyright 2010 Lisa M. Aldisert

 

 

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Our goal is to provide you with timely tips so that you can more effectively run your business. We know you have a ton of mail in your inbox, so we're committed to brevity and practicality.

 

 

 

 

On this Day in History
Janet Guthrie was the first woman to race in the Indianapolis 500 in 1977.