5 Voices – A New Perspective For Hiring

Have you ever felt when hiring a new staff member that finding the right person for the job, one that will be a great addition to your team and can excel in the role that they have been hired for, can sometimes feel like rolling the dice or be a bit of a gamble? Over the years, I’ve discovered that no matter how much due diligence I’ve done, how many references I’ve contacted, or how many interviews I’ve held with a potential new hire, there always seems to be an “X Factor,” or some kind of surprise, that appears after they have been hired. Recently I came across a new book, one that I wish the author would have written years ago as I believe it could have saved me a lot of time and stress, and I believe this book will give you a new perspective when looking to potentially hire someone. The book is called “The 5 Voices – How To Effectively Communicate With The People You Lead.”   The authors describe it this way  –

“We have distilled the multitude of personality types down to 5 basic leadership voices, and grounded each one in a distinct character narrative. Keep in mind that no one is all one voice, and yet, each voice matters and brings an invaluable, unique contribution to every team. The best thing you can do for your team is to take the time to learn about each voice, own your voice order, and be sure to value every voice at the table. Too many companies, leaders, and employees suffer because voices are either unknown or unappreciated.”

For me personally, The 5 Voices is one of the first “personality” books that I’ve read and was like Yaaaaaas!  In reading it just makes sense. So here’s the gist of the book and how it applies to what I’m writing about today and hiring. We all have the different 5 voices within us, The Nurturer, The Guardian, The Pioneer, The Connector, and The Creative.    But, even though we have all 5, we naturally work from only one or two of them, and of course, because we’re all human, we can have conflict with those who naturally act within the lesser of our own stronger voices. I wanted to share with you one of my “ah-ha” moments that I had while reading, in relation to hiring new staff and the “X Factor” I spoke of earlier, that always seems to pop up after you hire someone. The basic explanation of my thought is this- The 5 Voices are how people naturally act and respond to certain situation and people and these actions are not visible in our current standard hiring processes that many of us use today.  Resume’s, interviews, references, etc. So if I was looking to hire a person and the new role required them to be, a strong leader, that was not afraid to try new things and was an effective networker, recruiter, trainer and developer of teams.   After reading The 5 Voices for a new hire to have, to best fit this role, would be someone who was a combination of a Pioneer and a Connector.  Pioneers are willing to take the lead, try new things and basically make it happen, and the Connector voice thrives on connecting people to purpose and motivating them to action.  Sounds like a good fit right?  But unfortunately, after the extensive hiring process that you just went through, even though he or she said the right things, and their resume looked right, in theory, in reality, the person you just hired is actually a combination of the  Guardian and Nurturer voice. Guardians are great for keeping current or pre-established systems in check and running smoothly, and then the Nurturers first instinct is to always think about the other person, in any decision made, and how that person is going to be impacted or how they will feel about a decision that has been made.  Now this doesn’t make them bad people, these are both valuable traits, but it does mean that they will not be able to act from their natural tendencies while doing this job, and long-term it will create stress and dissatisfaction for them, and for you as their boss. If you’re looking to become a more effective manager to your team, or if you are in the process of hiring a new team member I recommend buying and reading this book . For more information and to take the evaluation to discover your Voice go to https://5voices.com/ If you are in the process of hiring a new staff member, or you desire to become a better manager and team leader, then I highly recommend this book. Give it a read and then let me know your thoughts about it, and what I’ve said?