Do You Suffer from a Lack of Coachability?

The biggest reason that new hires fail is a lack of coachability.

The 2012 hiring season is here and 46% of the people about to be hired will fail within the first 18 months on the job.  And the real surprise?  They're not going to fail for lack of skills; they will fail for lack of attitude.

When new hires fail, 89% of the time it's because of attitude and only 11% of the time because of skill.  It's not that skills aren't important, but when the top predictor of a new hire's success or failure is dependent on attitude, then attitude is clearly what we need to be hiring for.  And that requires defining the specific attitudes (both good and bad) that make a specific organization different from all the rest, and then turning the hiring and interview process focus onto those attitudes.

What do job seekers need to know about getting hired?

Because companies are now looking for attitude, as well as skill, it really changes how people need to prepare for an interview.  If you do have the right attitude, and you've got the experience to back it up, then make sure you let them know.

Networking is one way to get a company's attention, but one thing that people misconstrue is what networking is actually about.  Job seekers need to ask, "how can I add value" and then work from there.

Based on research of 20,000 new hires over a three-year period, "Hiring for Attitude" (McGraw-Hill December 2011) by Mark Murphy, CEO of Leadership IQ, reveals a new approach for choosing high performers with fantastic attitudes and great chemistry.

Here are the top five reasons why new hires failed:

Coachability (26%): The ability to accept and implement feedback from bosses, colleagues, customers, and others.

Emotional Intelligence (23%):  The ability to understand and manage one's own emotions and accurately assess others' emotions.

Motivation (17%): Sufficient drive to achieve one's full potential and excel in the job.

Temperament (15%): Attitude and personality suited to the particular job and work environment.

Technical Competence (11%):  Functional or technical skills required to do the job

Note: For what questions to ask to determine if a job candidate is "coachable" read chapter 3 of this book:

 Mark Murphy: Hiring for Attitude: A Revolutionary Approach to Recruiting and Selecting People with Both Tremendous Skills and Superb Attitude

If you are a newly recruited or promoted executive, be sure to connect with an onboarding coach before beginning your new assignment.  Why?  

Leaders often fail for a few common reasons: due to unclear or outsized expectations, a failure to build partnerships with key stakeholders, a failure to learn the company, industry or the job itself fast enough, a failure to determine the process for gaining commitments from direct reports and a failure to recognize and manage the impact of change on people.

Executive onboarding coaching (of the newly recruited or promoted executive can turnaround this high rate of failure).