Predicting Success

Make the right hires every time, with an analytical approach to talent

Predicting Success is a practical guide to finding the perfect member for your team. By applying the principles and tools of human analytics to the workplace, you'll avoid bad culture fits, mismatched skillsets, entitled workers, and other hiring missteps that drain the team of productivity and morale. This book provides guidance toward implementing tools like the Predictive Index®, behavior analytics, hiring assessments, and other practical resources to build your best team and achieve the best outcomes. Written by a human analytics specialist who applies these principles daily, this book is the manager's guide to aligning people with business strategy to find the exact person your team is missing.

An avalanche of research describes an evolving business landscape that will soon be populated by workers in jobs that don't fit. This is bad news for both the workers and the companies, as bad hires affect outcomes on the individual and organizational level, and can potentially hinder progress long after the situation has been rectified. Predicting Success is a guide to avoiding that by integrating analytical tools into the hiring process from the start.

• Hire without the worry of mismatched expectations
• Apply practical analytics tools to the hiring process
• Build the right team and avoid disconnected or dissatisfied workers
• Stop seeing candidates as "chances," and start seeing them as opportunities

Analytics has proved to be integral in the finance, tech, marketing, and banking industries, but when applied to talent acquisition, it can build the team that takes the company to the next level. If the future will be full of unhappy workers in underperforming companies, getting out from under that weight ahead of time would confer a major advantage. Predicting Success provides evidence-based strategies that help you find precisely the talent you need.

Chapter 1 How to Start 1

The Blame Game 2

The Office Paradigm, Revised 2

The Awakening 4

The Cost of a Bad Hire 5

Why Things Fail 7

Group Therapy 8

Chapter 2 How to Break Analysis Paralysis 11

Chapter 3 How to Lead 19

Allowing the Employees to Be the Best Versions of Themselves 21

Third-Box Thinking 23

Measure It, Then Do It 24

Using Behavior Analytics to Produce a Better Leader 26

What Is Predictive Index^® (PI^®)? 27

Effective Feedback Is a Second Paycheck 31

Do as I Do 32

Everyone’s a Leader 33

Cultivating Principals 34

National Telcom Company Example 36

More Than Money 38

Self-Development Rules 39

Listening to the Results 40

The Leader as Introvert 41

Using Workforce Analytics to Find Your Next Leader 43

Chapter 4 How to Follow 47

What the Birds Know 48

Following Types: People Styles Meet the Facebook Crowd 49

The Hierarchy-Free Ideal 50

Better Together 52

Building Smarter Teams 54

Putting Teams to the Test 55

Talk About It 56

Chapter 5 How to Decide 59

Timing Is Everything 60

Facing the Unknowns 60

Brain Science’s Decision-Making Play 61

Instinct Favors Intricacy 63

Decision-Making, Deconstructed 65

Evidence Beats Opinion 67

Decision-Making Tactics 68

Making a Decision with Every Tool Engaged 69

Decision by Job Interview: Insufficient 69

Why Cognition Matters 71

PLI^®: For More Than Hiring 72

Chapter 6 How to Persuade 75

The Role of the Subconscious 76

Speaking from the Corps 77

Emulating Emo 77

The Stanford Prison Experiment 79

Asking for More 80

The Forbes List 82

Chapter 7 How to Communicate 89

Communication Rules 90

Do Unto Others 91

Case Study: Communication at Stanley Manufacturing, Toronto, Canada 92

Simplicity above All 93

Body Language Speaks Volumes 94

Communicating with Your Ears 95

Building Trust through Communication 96

Communication Tactics 99

Communications Leader, Lead Thyself 99

Barriers to Communication 101

Communication Tips 102

Chapter 8 How to Assess 105

Case Study: The Big Brothers Big Sisters® Organization 106

The Science of Human Resources 107

United States Government (EEOC) “Rules of the Road” for Using Testing 107

Behavioral Assessments 109

Putting Behavior Analysis on Ice 111

Selling Apple Pie to Americans 113

Motivation and Human Behavior 114

Asking Questions: Behavioral Surveys 116

Business Applications of Behavioral Science 117

Behavioral Assessments in Reverse 120

An Assessment of Behavioral Assessments 121

Picking a Behavioral Assessment Approach 123

The Productivity Ambition Matrix 124

Chapter 9 How to Engage 127

The Engagement Anxiety 127

Defining the Engaged Employee 128

Why Is Engagement Important? 129

Employee Engagement: A How-To 131

The Role Behavior Analyses Have to Play 135

Share the Wealth 136

The Microsoft Example 138

Employee Engagement in Down Times 139

Chapter 10 How to Resolve 143

The Cost of Conflict 144

Conflict Is “Good” 145

The Psychology of Conflict 147

Laughter’s Long Legacy 148

Think About It 149

The Predictive Index^®, Explained 150

The ISAT™/SSAT™, Revealed 152

On-Ice Application 154

The Predictive Index^® and the Social Profit World 155

Transitioning from Boredom to the Top 156

Leadership Development and Deconflicting 157

Conflict 101 158

Stories of Success 159

Making the Perfect Pick 162

Conclusion: How to Finish 163

Intergenerational Management 164

Identifying Your Pink Dolphins 166

EQ: The Missing Link in Employee Testing 167

Necessary Endings 169

Index 173

DAVID LAHEY is the founder and CEO of Predictive Success, which helps firms align people with business strategy. In 2013, Predictive Success was awarded Profit Magazine's Profit 500 Award for the fastest-growing new companies.David's work has been featured in The Toronto Globe & Mail, Vancouver Provence, CBC Radio, Calgary Herald, Star Phoenix and Financial Post. He is also a frequently requested guest lecturer at top MBA programs.

Once upon a time, you could hire people off the street, tell them what to do, and expect them to work loyally for the company for the next decade or four. But those "set it and forget it" days are over. The culture has shifted. Employees are no longer willing to toil their lives away unquestioningly, padding their bosses' pockets with a smile. For those of us doing the hiring, this culture shift has been more like a culture shock. But, when the shock subsides Predicting Success will be here to help us move forward. In fact, as talent acquisition guru David Lahey enthusiastically puts it, "This is what opportunity looks like."

At the same time that employees are demanding more recognition and better work-life balance, businesses are gaining access to tools and resources that are drastically improving our ability to make the right hiring choices. Predicting Success provides insight and access to a number of these tools, including the Predictive Index^®, which has helped firms like Microsoft, Google, and Salesforce maximize their recruiting potential. The strategies in this book are based on recent research on how data, analytics, assessments, and other next-level approaches can lead to win-win hiring decisions.

Anyone involved in corporate recruiting at any level knows how expensive a wrong hire can get. In Predicting Success, David Lahey makes a compelling case for diverting resources to the hiring process before the wrong decision is made. Anyone who is still uncertain about the bottom-line value of analytic hiring practices will be interested in the hard evidence presented in this book. In 2014, there is no longer any need for guesswork. Finding top talent with the right style to lead the organization to greater heights can be easy—if you're ready to adapt.

Predicting Success is not just about the hiring process. Effective teams have effective leaders who know how to engage, assess, and communicate productively. Understanding how leadership traits and activities contribute to retaining talent is crucial, especially in this era of high turnover. This book addresses every link in the chain, with research data and tips to bring readers into the new world of talent management. The bottom line of Predicting Success is that smarter hiring practices, smarter leadership, and smarter companies will attract smarter employees. And that means better results for everyone involved.

Once upon a time, you could hire people off the street, tell them what to do, and expect them to work loyally for the company for the next decade or four. But those "set it and forget it" days are over. The culture has shifted. Employees are no longer willing to toil their lives away unquestioningly, padding their bosses' pockets with a smile. For those of us doing the hiring, this culture shift has been more like a culture shock. But, when the shock subsides Predicting Success will be here to help us move forward. In fact, as talent acquisition guru David Lahey enthusiastically puts it, "This is what opportunity looks like."

At the same time that employees are demanding more recognition and better work-life balance, businesses are gaining access to tools and resources that are drastically improving our ability to make the right hiring choices. Predicting Success provides insight and access to a number of these tools, including the Predictive Index^®, which has helped firms like Microsoft, Google, and Salesforce maximize their recruiting potential. The strategies in this book are based on recent research on how data, analytics, assessments, and other next-level approaches can lead to win-win hiring decisions.

Anyone involved in corporate recruiting at any level knows how expensive a wrong hire can get. In Predicting Success, David Lahey makes a compelling case for diverting resources to the hiring process before the wrong decision is made. Anyone who is still uncertain about the bottom-line value of analytic hiring practices will be interested in the hard evidence presented in this book. In 2014, there is no longer any need for guesswork. Finding top talent with the right style to lead the organization to greater heights can be easy—if you're ready to adapt.

Predicting Success is not just about the hiring process. Effective teams have effective leaders who know how to engage, assess, and communicate productively. Understanding how leadership traits and activities contribute to retaining talent is crucial, especially in this era of high turnover. This book addresses every link in the chain, with research data and tips to bring readers into the new world of talent management. The bottom line of Predicting Success is that smarter hiring practices, smarter leadership, and smarter companies will attract smarter employees. And that means better results for everyone involved.