Ability

So you have figured out job specifications. Next step is to figure what is trainable and what do you hire for.

 

So how exactly do you figure out what is trainable and what is not?

 

I had touched upon this aspect in a previous post titled ‘Ideal Job Specification’.

 

Most capabilities are trainable given adequate time, effort, and cost.   Capability of a person is defined in terms of Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities.

 

Knowledge is easiest to pick up and possibly easiest to forget.

 

Skill is more difficult to pick up and more difficult to forget (e.g. – do you forget how to cycle or swim even if you have not cycled or swam for a long time).

 

Ability is most difficult to pick up and most difficult to lose/forget.

 

If you are have a constrained recruitment budget, then you might want to hire a candidate with high ability – who can make up for gaps in knowledge and skills with a focussed onboarding program.

 

So when ‘cost-constrained’, think ability!

 

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Sourav

 

Mentoring and Coaching

What feels more empowering - being told the answer or being told how to find the answer?

I will go for the ´how´. My natural inclination is go to for the ´how´. Knowing the how increases my capability to deal with similar situations in the future.

What's the flip side of this approach? It usually takes longer to find the solution and usually involves repetitions/ iterations.


What do you do when there is a time crunch (need for quick action) or when cost of failure is high or when ecosystem is such that a lot of pre-knowledge is required to figure out how things work?

I think a combination of the answer and how to find the answer, in the future, might be beneficial in such cases.

Hence both mentoring and coaching have their place in organizations. 

I don´t think it´s a question of which approach is better.  Rather the question is 'which approach is more appropriate in a particular situation'.

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Sourav