You know how it goes - all these requirements asking 2+ years of experience; need to know how to work with this or that tool; and even funnier - those personality traits that cannot actually be tested until you hire a person and work with him for some months - like being a team player, open to criticism or good communication skills.
Does this mean a company should hire a particular type of skillset or talent?
The short answer is a qualified yes.
Skillset is important, I'm not saying that it's not. However, it's not everything. Skillset is obviously important if you want to make sure a person has the training and talent necessary to perform certain activities and the job you are looking him for to do.
But what about roles that require innovative thinking?
I would probably say that when a company considering skillset vs. mindset question, in a lot of cases we want the latter but only screen the former. And this is a mistake that may cost you a lot.
There are things you need in the case of innovation:
ability to learn quickly
ability to adapt to the situation
the use of intuition
recovery from a setback
dealing with the potential 'unknown'
Now look at these personality traits once again. What do you see?
All these are about the mindset but not skillset. When we talk about innovation, having the right mindset is the key.
How you distinguish skillset from mindset in the context of hiring?
I guess you already know this - you can learn skills over time. And people do this all the time.
So, at its core, a skillset is something you can be taught or trained.
Usually, a lot of different factors play into your ability to master one skill or another. For example, I will never be a world-class ATP tennis player no matter how much I practice (damn, being a realistic pragmatic is also a skill, isn't it?).
But to a general sense, most skills can be obtained over time with the right tactics and enough practice + dedication.
On the other hand, mindset is totally different animal.
PhD. Paul G. Stoltz had some great insights on the subject. He wrote how one's mindset and ability to deal with adversity plays an essential part in how we can cope with one simple truth - that things change - and (more often than not) not necessarily how we though they would.
This is an essential truth in life:
the only constant thing is change. Then the question arrises how we deal with that.
By the way, a friend of mine sent me this picture recently that may help every each of you to get the right expectations of life:
So, if I were asked to make an attempt to summarize the definition for "mindset", I would say it is the thing that is at the core of being the person.
Mindset consists of what makes us who we are - our beliefs, understandings, accepted social norms, paradigms and approach to life in general sense.
Do you think these things can change quickly?
I don't think so. And the truth is - they can't (change quickly, if at all).
Now, if you remember, skillset is something that can be learned. Some of us can be considered as 'naturals' at certain things, but in general, this concept holds true. I will never be ATP top-10 player, but I can still make some aces.
Finding mindset traits during the hiring process
Well, this usually never happens. If you were to ask recruiters or companies what are they looking for - skillset or mindset - I guarantee most of them would way they are looking for the right mindset in a person.
However, if we examine the questions during the interviews, we would find out that the most interviewing questions are aligned with determining the right skillset and only finds out a little bit about the real mindset.
Yeah, I mean... it makes sense - it is way easier to access skills than mindset, but recruiters need to be aware of that and push themselves to try to get the mindset of an individual.
If an employer wants to truly innovate, he must find people with the right mindset. CRITICAL.
The concept of "disruptive thinking"
Disruptive thinking is nothing too complicated. It's ability to be agile and open to the most powerful force in nature - change.
By now you should now, that the most valuable form of information is surprising information.
And what a person can do with it - this is one of the most important part of his/hers mindset. Here I'm talking about interpretation and acting upon that information. That's pure value.
People who are most adapted to correctly interpret and act upon surprising information has to question accepted norms, paradigms and beliefs.
This might sound like news to you, but what is true today may not be true tomorrow. In fact, we all tend to cling too much on to what we know from the past, and this is very human. And individuals who can think disruptively has the ability to see past accepted norms, paradigms, and beliefs.
These kind of individuals are the ones you need to team up with.
V.
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