In 1984, Alan Rudolph directed a film titled "Choose Me". It provided a lot of laughter, tears and radio talk show telephone calls to an on-air therapist. (If you have a chance you should order it on NetFlix when you're in the mood for a great little movie.) It also provided me with an apt title for this blog.

Of the many responsibilities I've had in my career, the "Choose Me" experience, as I like to call it, of hiring new people, at all levels, might be considered the most trying. The titles may have been different, the responsibilities varied, the market factors may have been an issue, the use of a good executive recruiter could have made it easier, but the bottom line would be for me to choose the best candidate for the job!

What really makes one a better choice than the next? You've reviewed their resumes, acknowledged their impressive education, their previously held positions, listened to their thoughts on business and business strategy, received input from the internal or external recruiters (who in most cases are going to try to match the best players for your team) checked references you've been given by the candidate (lot of objectivity there!) done your own Google search, Facebook, etc, etc. With all those things done, is making the final decision to choose one individual over another really as objective as it should be?

In the business book section at Barnes & Noble, I perused a book entitled "I Quit, But Forgot to Tell You". One of the first lines in the book cites a survey which states that 72% of management has failed to acquire interviewing, hiring and profiling skills. But, I find the surest way of choosing the right people lies in the little things we observe about a potential employee---the things that aren't mentioned in "How To Hire" books or business magazine features. They're not really measurable because I believe they're based more on personal feelings, life experiences and one's own ego -- few employers would admit to that.

(The second installment of this entry will appear next week)

The whole process of hiring someone is fascinating. For instance, the physical aspect of confronting the prospect, no matter how many times one has done it before, can be very daunting for both interviewee and the interviewer. Potential employees know why they are there. You're facing them, judging them, rating their comments vs. those heard from others applying for the same job. Like professional boxers in the first few rounds of a fight "feeling each other out" until the opportunity comes for the applicant to strike hard with his or her best shot, delivering the strategic superlative--making the statement that turns the interviewee's "choose me" to the interviewer's "this guy's good!"

I began thinking about the numbers of people I spoke to over the years. Literally hundreds. Trying to remember them. Their faces. Their peculiarities. Their stories. Their desperation. Their smugness. Their confidence. How they greeted me -- shook my hand without worrying about holding it for too long or short of time. Their overall body language. And the banter: How many stories I heard as to why they wanted to leave their current job; or for that matter were out of a job and what made that happen? And then there's the reason they moved from city X to region Y-- because of a great opportunity from which they were now dying to exit!

Interestingly enough and more often than not, personal feelings surrounding their lives dovetailed with discussion of professional goals. Many times these revelations tipped the scale one way or another. How they felt about their past co-workers. How would their new job affect leisure time/personal time. How many kids they had, and dogs and cats too!

There were times, I must admit, that I obsessed over the most minute of details in order to make the right choice of a new hire. During luncheon interviews I started analyzing how they ate their food, and used their napkin. I found it important if they smelled of cigarette smoke or faked it by devouring too many breath mints...and did that really matter? I remember a few times thinking about a pretty good applicant sitting there, in a well-ventilated room, oozing copious quantities of perspiration on a very cold winter day. Would he do the same when meeting with a client? Conversely, I was envious of another potential hire who appeared cool as a cucumber when the temperature was in the 90's and we were sitting by the pool at the Beverly Hills Hotel!

And what happens to the people who don't get chosen? How bruised will their egos be? Will they be vindictive and when they get another job, will they smirk with glee when they hear about your firm losing a big piece of business or better yet, beat your firm in new business competition? For them, the phrase "Choose me, and see what happens", could very well be "Lose me, and see what happens!"