Don't Just Interview Sales Candidates; Interview Past Managers, Too!

I was just spending a few minutes at the Chicago White Sox web site, absorbing some of the techniques being used by pitching coach, Don Cooper.

He was jumping on his staff for exhibiting too much of a laid back quality. Instead, he wants them to aggressively challenge hitters.

The article got me to thinking about the coaches I had in baseball. Some were laid back, others were micro-managers. I was trying to recall who I did better with.

I'd say it was the hands-off leaders that got my best performances.

My mind shifted to this business question: Why don't we spend more time and invest more effort in interviewing past managers of our candidates? Don't their styles also have a lot to do with the overall success of their "players?"

If I'm a salesperson, for instance, and it's your job to recruit me, wouldn't it be useful to know that my last manager elicited my best achievements by utterly leaving me alone and staying out of my way?

What if you're next in line to become my manager and you believe there is only one way to sell, that's it's "Your way, or the highway?" You want everyone on your team to follow a set presentation and not to deviate.

But I'm your candidate and I'm not used to having someone like you breathing down my neck, or even monitoring my techniques at all. Won't there be an inevitable clash down the road?

Perhaps we should not only check employment references in a standard way but also it would make sense to probe a little about the management philosophy and styles that were in place at the last locale.

Manager to manager, we might be able to learn valuable information that would enable us to hire with more intelligence and confidence.