Hiring with your gut Jan 28
12 comments Latest by Tom Dolan
“You have to be willing to do things that the masses wouldn’t do, or I don’t think you will be able to separate yourself from the masses.”
That’s the reason Baltimore Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti gave for his decision to hire new coach John Harbaugh over more experienced candidates. Bisciotti ran a successful staffing company before taking over the team and talked about why he likes to take chances and go with his gut when hiring.
When he fired Billick on Dec. 31, Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti said the decision was the result of a “gut feeling.” Choosing Harbaugh was no different.
Before becoming owner of the Ravens, Bisciotti took pride in hiring young, untested people for Aerotek, a highly successful staffing company in the aerospace and technology sectors. He used that method in choosing Harbaugh over an experienced head coach like Marty Schottenheimer.
“Do I like a guy that has to earn his resume? Yeah. I kind of made a living on hiring people with thin resumes and it’s worked out pretty well for me in the last 25 years,” Bisciotti said. “I think that works to John’s advantage. I said three weeks ago you have to take chances to be successful. You have to be willing to do things that the masses wouldn’t do, or I don’t think you will be able to separate yourself from the masses.
“Is it a little bit more of a perceived chance? Yeah, but the time we spent with John Harbaugh gave me a comfort level that we hired the right guy,” the owner said. “You go with your instincts, and I have pretty good instincts. ... I like the fact that John gets to build his legend right here.”
I always wonder why you see the same unsuccessful head coaches getting plum new jobs all the time. Bisciotti’s approach is refreshing…and offers a worthwhile perspective for hiring outside of football too.
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12 comments so far
Rick 28 Jan 08
So how does someone from 37signals get to be listed in the “Who Are 37signals” sections (at the top right).
I see new hire Jeffrey Hardy is listed, but Sarah H is not.
Is Sarah “untested”, like the quote describes, and is why she isn’t listed as a 37signals team member?
Matt T. 28 Jan 08
“I always wonder why you see the same unsuccessful head coaches getting plum new jobs all the time.”
The devil you know and all of that.
Matt Radel 28 Jan 08
Heh…there might be a little blood in the water in the AFC North for a year or so. Then again, Pittsburgh did wonderfully with Mike Tomlin this year, so my woeful Bengals are prolly still screwed.
More on target with your point though, I think hiring with your gut is 100% the way to go. I used to work in a restaurant that tried to discourage that thought midway through my tenure there. Hiring was done based upon previous experience only. Subsequently the quality of the employees dropped off steeply, and ultimately negatively impacted our company profits, tips and customer satisfaction.
Dylan 28 Jan 08
I saw a sign at my local recreation center. It was a quote from Plato that said, “You can learn more about a person in one hour of play than you can in one year of conversation.”
My wife, friend and I started HugaMonkey baby slings. We talked about that quote and have decided to do all our hiring that way. We’ll find out what games or sports the interviewee likes to play and then we’ll go do that.
Play + gut feelings = Not the masses!
Nivi 28 Jan 08
“You can’t be normal and expect abnormal returns.” – Jeffrey Pfeffer, The Human Equation
PE 28 Jan 08
Because if you hire an established coach and he fails, people say “What’s wrong with Coach Whoozits?” but if you hire an untested guy and he fails, people say “What’s wrong with you?“
Big difference …
Tom G 28 Jan 08
I bet nobody get’s into a lawsuit for not hiring somebody based on “gut feeling”
mike h 29 Jan 08
Isn’t making a decision with your “gut” just an excuse for not taking the time to quantify the real reasons for your decision? Imagine telling a customer, “Your app should have a web interface because my gut tells me so”.
Bisciotti has his reasons for hiring his coach. The reasons just aren’t conventional.
There’s also a difference between taking a risk and not being able to quantify your reasons and risks.
Gordon Brander 29 Jan 08
“You have to be willing to do things that the masses wouldn’t do..” That quote is fantastic. A clear articulation of a principle I strongly believe in. Playing it safe doesn’t get you anything but mediocre.
Stephen 30 Jan 08
mike h: Replace “gut” with “instinct” or “intuition” or “experience.” Ironically, considering the subject, Bisciotti does qualify his decision by touting his experience and previous success using his method.
I’m not sure you can “quantify” the reasons and risks.
mike h 31 Jan 08
Instinct, intuition and experience are still all substitutions for having reasons to make a decision. Above, Matt R makes the point that a restaurant used to hire employees based on experience. When the restaurant started “hiring with their gut” instead, the quality of their service went up. Did they really hire with their gut? Or did they hire candidates because there were concrete qualities of those candidates that matched the job they were hiring for (e.g. communication skills, excitement about the job, etc)? Maybe I’m completely missing the point of a “gut feeling”. Maybe I’m taking it too literally.
Tom Dolan 02 Feb 08
Mike H, you should read Malcolm Gladwell’s “Blink” - his thesis is that our brain takes in a ton of information that gets processed in our lower consciousness and often the very successful have learned to trust this input, process it, and layer it into decisions made at a more ‘executive’ level in the brain. Call it gut or instinct or whatever you wish - sometimes the brain operates so efficiently we don’t even realize it.
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