SubscribeThe Golf Course Interview
Business professionals have all kinds of hiring tools today. Personality assessments, credit checks, scripted analytical questions, 360 degree interviews (sadly, we no longer have references to rely on.) But the one that I've always thought was the most telling is the Golf Course Interview.
For years this was a part of the hiring process at IBM – back in the garters, wing tips and blue suits days. I'm biased but I can't think of another sport that I can substitute for golf relative to this task. First, golf is a game played against either an un-reactive opponent – the course, or oneself. Yes, match play is against another person but if you are playing at any level of competency the battle takes place between your ears. Can you envision a better interview environment?
Put a prospective hire in game where the opponent is himself, the pace of play is slow leaving lots of mental processing time, enforcement of the rules is based on the honor system - turn the heat and humidity up and see what happens. Cracks will show. Psychologists put monkeys in cages to observe their behavior under adverse conditions. We can do that on the links.
Ok, so here's what you can learn about an individual on the golf course. Etiquette: It's a big part of the game. It involves honor – who tees off first, who plays each successive shot next; respect – fixing ball marks raking a trap, replacing divots; courtesy – holding a pin for a fellow player.Honor in business travels along a seriousness scale from grossing up a dinner expense to pulling a Madoff. You can't assess honor during an office interview. But you can on a golf course.
Appetite for Risk or Conservatism: Golf gives me about 72 risk/reward opportunities each round (it gives John O'Donnell about 85 per round and I'll be blogging from a different job next month – thank you very much :-) Fly the bunker with the driver to get a short iron into the green. Hit a firmer putt to take some break out of the line.
Different business roles are best suited for risk takers or risk avoiders. I like staff accountants who are less risky. I like sales people who are risk takers. I like marketing people with a good blend of the two. Assuming there is a correlation between actions on the golf course and actions in the office (which I believe) you can really get a feeling for the match between the person and the job by their risk threshold.
Temper: We've all played with club throwers. I kind of like them. They get anger out of their system fast and move on. The players who let it stew are much more dangerous to themselves and others. They think of ways to get even – for a long time. Give me some club throwers, even though it's not good etiquette, over the pathological schemers.
Collegiality: "Shot," that's all that needs to be said after your playing companion hits a good ball. Not even "good shot". Just "shot". That's collegiality between golfers without being borderline dependent. Companies – especially start ups – need collegiality. They don't need people who won't at least acknowledge a partners success. But they don't need remoras either.
Sense of fairness: Golf is an ultimately fair sport. The course is the same for everyone. If I start to hear the 'woe is me' stories like "I was robbed, that should have dropped," or "that could have skipped out of the bunker" I know this person is not one to quickly accept responsibility. You hit it there. The only thing you can do now is hit it again. Sometimes not taking responsibility is a good thing for people – it's a defense against self doubt. Not a bad trait for sales people. Not a good trait for managers.
There are a lot of borderline golf course behaviors that are telling in context. Does the prospective hire take a mulligan on the first tee? Does this indicate that he expects do-overs in life? Does he shake hands with his playing companions on the first tee and the 18th green? It's a sign of courtesy, acknowledgement of the experience that was shared and subtle indication that today was a good day. Does he want to replay the entire round for you at the 19th hole as if you weren't playing together for the past four hours? "Remember that five-iron I pured on 14 from the downhill lie with the cross wind? I thought that was going to be tight!" "Yeah, I remember, shot."
For years this was a part of the hiring process at IBM – back in the garters, wing tips and blue suits days. I'm biased but I can't think of another sport that I can substitute for golf relative to this task. First, golf is a game played against either an un-reactive opponent – the course, or oneself. Yes, match play is against another person but if you are playing at any level of competency the battle takes place between your ears. Can you envision a better interview environment?
Put a prospective hire in game where the opponent is himself, the pace of play is slow leaving lots of mental processing time, enforcement of the rules is based on the honor system - turn the heat and humidity up and see what happens. Cracks will show. Psychologists put monkeys in cages to observe their behavior under adverse conditions. We can do that on the links.
Ok, so here's what you can learn about an individual on the golf course. Etiquette: It's a big part of the game. It involves honor – who tees off first, who plays each successive shot next; respect – fixing ball marks raking a trap, replacing divots; courtesy – holding a pin for a fellow player.Honor in business travels along a seriousness scale from grossing up a dinner expense to pulling a Madoff. You can't assess honor during an office interview. But you can on a golf course.
Appetite for Risk or Conservatism: Golf gives me about 72 risk/reward opportunities each round (it gives John O'Donnell about 85 per round and I'll be blogging from a different job next month – thank you very much :-) Fly the bunker with the driver to get a short iron into the green. Hit a firmer putt to take some break out of the line.
Different business roles are best suited for risk takers or risk avoiders. I like staff accountants who are less risky. I like sales people who are risk takers. I like marketing people with a good blend of the two. Assuming there is a correlation between actions on the golf course and actions in the office (which I believe) you can really get a feeling for the match between the person and the job by their risk threshold.
Temper: We've all played with club throwers. I kind of like them. They get anger out of their system fast and move on. The players who let it stew are much more dangerous to themselves and others. They think of ways to get even – for a long time. Give me some club throwers, even though it's not good etiquette, over the pathological schemers.
Collegiality: "Shot," that's all that needs to be said after your playing companion hits a good ball. Not even "good shot". Just "shot". That's collegiality between golfers without being borderline dependent. Companies – especially start ups – need collegiality. They don't need people who won't at least acknowledge a partners success. But they don't need remoras either.
Sense of fairness: Golf is an ultimately fair sport. The course is the same for everyone. If I start to hear the 'woe is me' stories like "I was robbed, that should have dropped," or "that could have skipped out of the bunker" I know this person is not one to quickly accept responsibility. You hit it there. The only thing you can do now is hit it again. Sometimes not taking responsibility is a good thing for people – it's a defense against self doubt. Not a bad trait for sales people. Not a good trait for managers.
There are a lot of borderline golf course behaviors that are telling in context. Does the prospective hire take a mulligan on the first tee? Does this indicate that he expects do-overs in life? Does he shake hands with his playing companions on the first tee and the 18th green? It's a sign of courtesy, acknowledgement of the experience that was shared and subtle indication that today was a good day. Does he want to replay the entire round for you at the 19th hole as if you weren't playing together for the past four hours? "Remember that five-iron I pured on 14 from the downhill lie with the cross wind? I thought that was going to be tight!" "Yeah, I remember, shot."