1. Hungry, Smart, Humble
3 Key Elements to Finding the Best Fits for Your Team,
a Different Way To Interview

2. Previous Selection Criteria
Skills to competently perform the job functions
Attention to Details
Higher Education Experience
Go-getters, ambitious (bubbly personalities)
Employment History
Previous salaries
Can you multi-task?

3. The “Aha” Moment
Registrar’s Office interview process changed drastically in when two key players (Registrar and Associate Registrar) joined a book club and read The Ideal Team Player
Self-evaluation
We identified with the characters in the book
Reflection of the past:
What pain points did have over and over again?
Why did we select those staff, what drew us to them?
Bad choices lead to current employee hurt/damage/ – hard to regain trust with employees therefore hard to repair damages.

4. The Interview Transformation
HUNGRY
SMART (this is not IQ!)
HUMBLE
We began interviewing in ways that would help us determine 3 key elements identified in the book: Hungry, Smart and Humble.

5. Humble
Humble people:
Great team players lack excessive ego or concerns about status
Humility is the single greatest and most indispensable attribute of being a team player

6. Identifying Humble People
Key words, phrases, and cues during an interview which might indicate lack of HUMILITY.
Use of “I” … instead “We”
Heavy focus on skillset instead of character
Unable to share a true personal unflattering story
Unable to state what their fault was in a past experience
Stating weaknesses as strengths
Struggles to identify a person (other than family) who made a profound impact in their life

7. Hungry Hungry people: Are always looking for more
Constantly think about the next step and the next opportunity
Have a manageable and sustainable commitment to doing a job well and going above and beyond when it is truly required

8. Identifying Hungry People
Ask questions which will prompt your candidate to clearly reveal signs of hunger for growth and/or knowledge.
Work ethic is generally established early in life … ask questions that lead to conversations that identify a time when there may have been difficulty in learning, hardship in achievement, or sacrificing of self in order to reach a desired goal.
Candidates who focus on expected work hours may reveal a team player who will not be committed. One who will work the 8 – 5 with no intention of ever giving more for the good of the team.

9. Smart Smart people: Possess a common sense about other people
Tend to know what is happening in a group situation and how to deal with others in the most effective way
Ask good questions, listen to what others are saying, and stay engaged in conversations intently

10. Identifying Smart People
Smart people know themselves and find it interesting to talk about their behavioral strengths and weaknesses.
Probe to see what they do that annoys others and then expect these same behaviors in your work environment.
Asking probing questions about what annoys them and discern how they handle those annoyances. Is there self-awareness and self-control in knowing how to handle them?
Interview in a non traditional way to see the person in a setting that would not be expected in an interview process.
Non-traditional ways: Take the person to lunch with a few of your staff – watch the interactions, take them on a walk across campus with you (walk and talk), give them 10 minutes at your front counter or your reception area and watch the interaction. Then ask your staff their thoughts on the candidate.

11. Smart Hungry Humble The Model Pawn Charmer Bulldozer Lovable Slacker
Accidental Mess Maker
The
Ideal
Team Player
Skillful Politician
Lovable Slacker
The Key Elements of the Ideal Team Player include: Humble (click), Hungry (click) and Smart (click) There are also other hidden pieces to the model!
The Pawn (click) only possesses the humble element. Pawns are pleasant, kind-hearted, unassuming people who just don’t feel a great need to get things done and don’t have the ability to build effective relationships with colleagues. Pawns don’t make waves so they can survive for quite a long time on teams that value harmony and don’t demand performance
The bulldozers (click) only possess the hungry element. Bulldozers are determined to get things done, but with a focus on their own interests and with no understanding or concern for how their actions impact others. Bulldozers are quick to destroy teams!
The Charmers (click) only possess the smart element. Charmers are entertaining and likeable for a while, but have little interest in the long-term well-being of the team or their colleagues. Their social skills can sometimes help them survive longer than bulldozers or pawns, but because their contributions to the team are negligible, they often wear out their welcome quickly!
Accidental Mess Makers (click) possess both humble & hungry elements. They genuinely want to serve the team and are not interested in getting a disproportionate amount of attention and credit. However, their lack of understanding of how their words and actions are received by others will lead them to inadvertently create interpersonal problems on the team.
The Lovable Slackers (click) possess humble and smart elements. They tend to do only as much as they are asked, and rarely seek to take on more work or volunteer for extra assignments. Moreover, they have limited passion for the work the team is doing. Because they are generally charming and positive, it’s easy for leaders to shy away from confronting or removing lovable slackers. After all, they are lovable!
The Skillful Politician (click) possesses both hungry and smart elements. These people are cleverly ambitious and willing to work extremely hard, but only in as much as it will benefit them personally.
So what we strive for is someone who possesses all three Virtues, know as the Ideal Team Player (click).
Smart
Charmer

12. The Ideal Team Player
Ideal team players possess adequate measure of humility, hunger, and people smart.
They have little ego when it comes to needing attention or credit for their contributions, and they are comfortable sharing their accolades or even occasionally missing out on them. They work with a sense of energy, passion, and personal responsibility, taking on whatever they possibly can for the good of the team. They say and do the right things to help teammates feel appreciated, understood, and included, even when difficult situations arise that require tough love!

13. Things to Consider as you Develop an Interview Process that looks for Humble, Hungry and Smart Candidates
Stop being generic
Debrief Each Interview as a Team
Consider Group Interviews
Make Interviews Non-traditional
Ask Questions more than once
Ask Candidates to Do Some Real Work
Don’t Ignore Hunches
Scare People with Sincerity
Stop being generic – dig deep with your questions (click)
Ask Candidates to do some real work (click)– be specific about targeted
Debrief Each Interview as a Team – Important to have collaborative conversation about each candidate right after the interview (click)–arts
Consider Group Interviews – Each candidate we interview meets with the leadership team, the management team and various staff (click) give a sense of how the candidate deals with multiple people at once, whiis
Make Interviews Non-traditional – take candidate to lunch with a few of your staff, take them on a walk across campus (walk and interview) (click)– Incorporate interaction with diverse groups of people in everyday
Ask Questions more than once – play good cop/bad cop (click) cop scenario. Asking once can discern whether they are humble, hungry
Don’t Ignore Hunches your gut instinct is usually right! (click)
Scare People with Sincerity be transparent with your candidate with what you are looking for (click)

14. Candidate Reference Checks
Put the Reference Provider at Ease
Explain that the purpose of your call is not simply to ask if the candidate was a good employee, but rather whether he/she would thrive in your environment
Describe the culture of your team to the reference provider and ask if they believe this would be a match.
Spend your time asking about specific behaviors and about how the candidate compared to other people the reference has managed or worked with
Any areas of doubt that you had during the interview, focus on these with the reference
Pay attention to references who don’t respond, this could indicate they aren’t enthusiastic about the candidate
Ask reference what others would say about the candidate

15. Assessing Current Employees
If you would like to see how your current employees measure up, the book provides detailed information on ways to do that. I’ll briefly touch on those with the next few slides (click)

16. Manager Assessment There are 3 outcomes of this evaluation:
Confirming that the employee is an ideal team player
Helping the employee improve and become one
Deciding to move the employee out
In this assessment there are a number of questions that they manager can ask themselves about the employee to determine whether the employee is Humble, Hungry and Smart.
In most cases the manager will already have a sense of how the employee ranks, especially if they have the chance to read the book.
(click)

17. Employee Self Assessment
Allows employees to take ownership for their areas of development. There is a brief questionnaire in the book.
Allowing Self Assessment will minimizes the possibility of defensiveness and denial
We’re going to hand out the assessment and give you a few minutes to complete it and go over the results with you.
The first set of questions determines how you rate in the humble category, the second set is Hungry and the last set of questions rates you in the Smart virtue.
A score of 18 or 17 is an indication that the virtue is a potential strength.
A score of 16 to 14 is an indication that you most likely have some work to do around that virtue to become an ideal team player
A score of 13 or lower is an indication that you need improvement around that virtue to become an ideal team player.
Try not to focus on the numbers, but rather the concepts and the individual statements where you scored low.
If you find you have a few employees who may need some work and you are willing and committed to developing them this can be done! (click)

18. Developing Employees Who Are Lacking in One or More of the Virtues
What is the key to making development work? And what do you do when it doesn’t?
Remind the employee if he/she is not yet doing what is needed
When you step up to this challenge/commitment of reminding the employee one of two things will almost always happen
The Employee settles into the reminding with no intent of changing or leaving.
The manager has to own this responsibility of reminding the employee constantly or no improvement will be seen
Reminders: Without consistent reminders improvement will not occur (click)
When you step up:
One the employee will finally break through, determined not to keep hearing those reminders or
Two, the employee will finally decide that being humble, hungry and smart is not their thing and will decide on their own to leave (click)
When Employee Settles in: If this happens the only thing for you to do is take formal action and it may be necessary for you to move them off the team (click)
It is a committed process on your part as the manager to keep reminding if you want to develop the employee.

19. Embedding the Model Into an Organizations Culture
Be Explicit and Bold
Catch and Revere
Detect and Address
Be Explicit and Bold: Leaders should set expectation in order to embed the model into your culture by. Inform anyone and everyone who will be dealing with the organization, team, or department that they should expect the people they meet to be humble, hungry, and smart
Don’t hide your commitment to the three virtues and don’t make it easy for humble, hungry, and smart to fade
Be SERIOUS about your commitment. It’s work but, worth it (click)
Catch and Revere: Watch for displays of the three virtues and when you see them, hold them up as examples for everyone to see. This shows everyone exactly what kinds of behaviors you expect and appreciate. (click)
Detect and Address: Leaders, and eventually, teammates don’t squander opportunities for constructive learning.
Great cultures tend to be appropriately intolerant of certain behaviors, and great teams should be quick and tactful in addressing any lack of humility, hunger, and people smarts.
When you see a behavior that violates one of the values, take the time to let the violator know that his behavior is out of line, tactfully! (click)

20. Credits

22. Teresa Ringo Associate VP for Enrollment Management and University Registrar Maria Busby Associate Registrar
Questions?