Dropping Off Your Baggage - Copeland Coaching

Dropping Off Your Baggage Have you ever had a date with someone who had recently been through a bad breakup? Theres a good chance they were nervous to go through the same thing again. You can practically see the fear in their eyes. In relationships, we call this sort of thing emotional baggage. And, it can be tough to overcome. Whats interesting is that companies can have emotional baggage too. With companies, the baggage starts in the form of a bad hire. Its a bad hire that happened long before they met you. Its like an ex-spouse. Its someone who is long gone, but whose emotional damage still remains. The company hasnt forgotten them, years later. You may wonder what exactly Im talking about. Heres an example. An interviewer may say to a job seeker, We hired an entrepreneur once before. That person was really controlling. He was hard to work with. Ever since, I really dont like hiring anyone who has ever been self-employed. (Disclosure: Yes, this really happened.) For a job seeker whos currently self-employed, for example, this statement is a hard one to overcome. How can you combat worries about problems caused by an employee that no longer works at the company? In this example, it might be best to be friendly and understanding, and try to reassure the interviewer.  Show them you can get along well with others. Quiet their fears. In reality though, its possible that old employee wasnt difficult because they had been self-employed at some point. Perhaps they were difficult because they are just a difficult person. Wouldnt that make a little more sense? These types of generalizations are biases, plain and simple. Its like assuming that because you dated a chemist once who was very rigid, all chemists are rigid people. But, thats not true. Each person has their own unique personality, with positive and negative features. Just like in the world of dating, if you want to find your perfect match, youve got to stop looking at things through an old lens. You cant assume every relationship wont workout. Otherwise, youll never get anywhere. Similarly, youve got to judge each job seeker on their character and their individual experience. Dont hold them up to a standard set by someone else long ago. Ask the job seeker about their skills, and their past jobs. Ask them why theyre interested in the role. Learn about them. Find out if they will get along with your team. Evaluate them, based on whats important today â€" not something that happened before. Try your best to look at them as a unique person. If you can drop off your emotional baggage, you might just find that you pick up a great new hire. The more that biases drive your decision making process, the less youre evaluating the current candidate. Youre allowing the old employee who isnt even there anymore to continue to run the show. I hope these tips have helped you. Visit CopelandCoaching.com to find more tips to improve your job search. If I can be of assistance to you, don’t hesitate to reach out to me here. Also, be sure to subscribe to my Copeland Coaching Podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher where I discuss career advice every Tuesday! If youve already heard the podcast and enjoy it, please consider leaving a review in iTunes or Stitcher. Happy hunting! Angela Copeland @CopelandCoach