The seeds you are planting today will be the beautiful flowers or noxious weeds in your garden years from now. Plant accordingly.
In business, as in gardening, the seeds you plant today will determine the fruits you reap tomorrow. If you plant good seeds, you will reap a bountiful harvest. But if you plant bad seeds, you will be left with a garden full of weeds.
This is especially true when it comes to hiring employees. The employees you hire today will shape the future of your business. They will be responsible for carrying out your vision and for delivering your products and services to your customers.
How to Know if You’re Planting Good Seeds at Work
How do you know if you’re planting good seeds? Here are a few things to look for:
- Core values – Probe candidates on what really drives them. Superficial responses are a red flag – people with deep principles will more likely go the extra mile when it’s challenging or a goal needs to be met. Can they provide examples of where they went above and beyond? And what is their idea of work ethic as compared with yours?
- Teamwork – Do candidates have real, solid examples of ways they have contributed in a team setting? Or do you hear a recurring theme of transition because of workplace disconnects?
- Problem-solving skills – What has the person done to be the initiator of a solution rather than simply the communicator of a problem? Candidates should easily be able to provide real world examples
- Initiative – Is the candidate enthusiastic and motivated? Do they pro-actively look for ways to contribute and add value? Or are they passively waiting to be assigned the next task to do the least possible to collect their entitled paycheck? You can pick up on this by asking for examples where they did something that wasn’t directly assigned. As in all the examples above, the candidate should not have any trouble answering. The exact example doesn’t matter, but it should be easy for them to think of one!
If you select employees with these qualities, you’ll be planting good seeds for the future of your business.
