Adversity builds character.  I find that the people I admire have not always had things easy.  Somewhere, at sometime in their past, these people overcame circumstances in their lives that changed them.  They walk with a limp.

Through my 15 years of interviewing, hiring and training people I discovered that finding people who walk with a limp is often an indicator of their character.

In the business world, competency is the price of admission to any job or leadership position.  Competency alone is not a differentiator when hiring today.  This is a buyers market.  There are competent people everywhere looking to fill open positions in good companies.

I write and speak often about character being an individual’s and an organization’s key to success.  But character is difficult to determine in the hiring process.  How can a leader determine if the person they are interviewing is of high moral character? 

Adversity Builds Character

Hire People Who Walk With A Limp

Some of the wounds of my best team members and peers included:

• The unexpected passing of a spouse.
• Leading a failed start-up venture.
• A long illness that they overcame.
• Failure at a job in their past.
• Experiencing loss of life on the battlefield.
• Losing an athletic scholarship due to injury and having to pay for college themselves.
• The experience of being a whistle-blower.

Each of these circumstances left these high character people walking with a limp.  The lessons they learned through the adversity they faced shaped who they became.

Not everyone who encounters obstacles in their lives responds in the same way.  The ones I did not hire were the ones who could not articulate what they learned and how it changed them.

Some people choose to retreat in self-pity rather than advance towards a new and better self.  Many do not have the insight into themselves to look in the mirror and see the opportunity to adapt and grow.

The people who grew and changed as a result of their negative experiences usually became my most trusted team players and friends.  Their experiences gave them:

Perseverance

What many considered obstacles, they saw as speed bumps

Courage

When others would back down, they stepped forward.

Perspective

When some griped and moaned about small annoyances, they kept a positive outlook and often lifted others up with them.

Based on these attributes, I believe we would all want to work with people who have character that was forged in the fires of adversity.  But HOW do you find people who walk with a limp?

HOW is a question not always addressed in these conversations about hiring for character.  There are two reasons for this:

1.    Character Is Hard To Measure

There are no metrics for character.  We live in a business environment where senior leaders and HR professionals demand objective measures for everything.  Since character is hard to measure, we tend to use our gut to determine a person’s character.  More often than not what we are determining is whether we like the person not whether they have high character.

2.    Professional Interviewers Abound

Today teaching people how to interview for a job is an industry.  If a hiring manager continues to use standard interview questions, most savvy candidates are so well prepared for them, the insight gained into that person’s soul is minimal.  Face it.  Who isn’t going to say their biggest strengths are work ethic and integrity?

In this day and age, we must become better at interviewing.  We must dig into a person’s character with more probing questions.  One area to question is this area of adversity they faced in the past.

Some questions I have learned to ask through experience and research:

• Tell me about an obstacle you faced in your life?
• Tell me about the toughest person you ever worked for?
•  Tell me about a time when you failed to measure up to your own, or someone else’s standards?
• What one experience in your life do you think shaped who you are the most?

Notice I did not add “and what did you do about it”.  I want to see if the person in front of me automatically shares how they solved the problem or addressed the issue.

If they don’t share that, I should be concerned about their initiative.  I do not want to work with people who need me to remind them to do something about the problems they face.  High character people see a problem and can’t help but address it.

Also notice that I did not ask them about a time they showed integrity, perseverance or some other desirable trait.  Again, asking a question like that plays right into the hands of a professional interviewer.

There are a couple of books that I recommend leaders to read when they decide to focus on hiring for character.  Hiring On A WHIM and Hiring for Attitude are two great resources that you can link to here.

The Bottom Line:

Find the people who walk with a limp.  These people were wounded once in life or in business, but adapted and grew as a result.

People who walk with a limp know the scars that they have.  But, they have healed and are well past the pain.  They have made the choice to be a better person as a result of their wounds.

Question:

What circumstances in your life left you with a limp?  How did that shape your character?