Elliott’s Four Absolutes, required for success in a role (any role, no matter the discipline), here is the list.
- Capability (measured in Time Span)
- Skill (technical knowledge and practiced performance)
- Interest, passion (value for the work)
- Required behaviors
Required behaviors, with three strings.
- Contracted behaviors
- Habits
- Culture
Today is about habits.
When I interview a candidate, I look at the role description, identify the critical role requirements and those habits that support those role requirements. We all have habits that support our success, we all have habits that detract from our success.
Habits are those routine grooved behaviors that we lean on during times of decision, times of problem solving and times of stress. Some habits, we lean on, even if those behaviors were not successful in the past. Habits are familiar, habits require less brain power. Habits are a short cut to decision making and problem solving. In the face of urgency, we lean on our habits.
As a hiring manager, interviewing a candidate, we can anticipate the problems to be solved and the decisions to be made in the role. The question is, what are the habits that contribute to success, what are the habits that detract from success?
We all think we choose our success. We do not. The only thing we choose are our habits, and it is our habits that determine our success.