One of the first audio books that I read, as I mentioned, was From Good to Great by Jim Collins. This was an incredible book. In it, Jim and some of his researchers created a system by which to profile a company to understand if they were good or great, and how to get down to an understanding of what made the company become great. They profiled over 500 companies, and in the book they detail many of the Great companies and the details.
I won't give away everything, but Jim talks about many core, fundamental concepts that companies must follow or do to help them to become great.
In one of those statements he talks about the fact that companies, traditionally, always say that people are their most valuable asset. But, that's not true. It's the right people that are your most valuable asset.
And, he's absolutely right. This principle rang clear and true for me and our practices here at Telligent. As some people may have heard, Telligent has a tough interview process and we're VERY picky about new hires. We are adamant and unwavering in the fact that we must always hire the right people.
Now, that's not to say that we don't get it wrong sometimes. I'll admit, we have hired a few people that weren't a good fit, for one reason or another. But, we're very good about identifying those persons and making the corrections as necessary.
That may seem cold and cruel, but it's a terrible fact about business. Sometimes you have to make those hard decisions. Sometimes you can't avoid conflict. And, sometimes that affects people's livelihood. That sucks. We don't like it at all. But, it's unavoidable, unfortunately.
Take for example our internship program, this summer we started off with 6 great interns. Unfortunately, about half way through one of those interns were asked to leave. In this case, this particular intern wasn't right for Telligent - he was too young, too immature and had too much of an ego to really fit in. Very unfortunate because he was very, very smart. But, that's how it goes - you have to make sure that you're always hiring and keeping the right people.
Definitely check out that book, and look around at your company and think about it - do you think your company has done a good job of hiring the right people and making sure they're in the right roles.
It's good that Telligent focuses on cultural fit as well as abilities. If you only hired "brains" you wouldn't foster an environment that encouraged good people to stay or a workforce willing to go that extra mile.
A lot of companies don't get this and hire people based on their resume. This does not create a company where the employees are raving fans - something I think is necessary even before you are looking for the same in your customers.
Way to get rid of the bad apples.
I think saying anything in public on the situation a couple weeks ago was in extremely poor taste. Why would you re-open the wound for the person in question? You know there's more to the story than your characterization, and bringing it out into the open just opens up more opportunity for him to aire the issue in public right back... which will not be good PR for either of you.
Colleague-to-colleague, you could have gotten your point across without referencing that particular situation. Best to just take the reference out and leave it privately in the past, where it belongs.
Just my $0.02.
Robert, great feedback. I'll certainly keep that in mind in future blog posts. Unfortunately, this blog post has a great point in mind and less about the person - that's why I kept out details and stuck to subject at hand. But, you're right, I could have just left it out all together. I'll certainly not mention this in future posts.
Hi, Jason. I agree with Robert on this. I was astounded a company CTO would publicly criticism an intern. Extremely unprofessional, regardless of your post's "great point." Thanks.
No, you guys are right. I'll definitely watch my P's and Q's on future posts. And, apologies that was actually a misspelling - "great point" should be "greater point", but that doesn't necessarily make it right.
Jason, My comment also had a grammatical goof that you no doubt noticed. "publicly criticism???" Geez. Thank you for your reply.
Hey Jason, I’m a big fan of your blog. I believe that Robert and Dave are completely absurd with their feedback. That’s completely uncalled for. The whole point of your blog was to demonstrate how your company filters its employees and interns through a rigorous, on-going process. The example you provided with the intern situation is remarkable. It shows the strength and determination of Telligent Systems in choosing the right fit. Obviously this intern had done some despicable actions against the company and was treated appropriately. I believe the actions that Telligent took were diligent, proper, and respectful. In no way have you defamed this individual or have slandered his/her reputation. Discrete action is always the best choice in announcing details of termination. Once again, I am an avid reader of your posts and a strong supporter of the Community Server. I look forward to reading further posts discussing how Telligent is treating it’s amazing employees.
Tom, I'm curious if you feel the same way if someone identifies the employee. For example, from various sites (e.g. Telliterns) we can conclude the intern was [Jason: Removed the name, sorry guys.]. As a result of this post, we are now left knowing that he is immature and has an ego issue. If this employee changes, which I hope he will, will this post come back to haunt his future career prospects?
Tom:
"Obviously this intern had done some despicable actions against the company and was treated appropriately. I believe the actions that Telligent took were diligent, proper, and respectful."
How do you know any of that? I don't even know all the facts, and i know the guy in question, so don't presume that you do either. Remember that every story has two sides. As I understand what happened, both sides feel they had a valid point. It's better for everyone that it not be hashed out in public, and that speculation by people who weren't there and haven't heard either story on what happened be kept to a minimum.
I know the person in question, and he's young, so it's easy to confuse a lack of experience with "immaturity" in a negative connotation. This was a learning experience for all involved. The situation in question was not handled very well by anyone involved, and in the end it's just best that it's over. Instead of rehashing the past, all involved should be focused on the future.