Fractional Talent Leader | Scaling Startups | Career Coach | Career Content Creator | Drone Pilot (RePL/FPV)
Skills over Attitude🤨? Do you agree with Joel Di Trapani? While I don't think I fully agree; if all other things being equal I'd go attitude over skills. I do, however, think Joel makes an important point about the commercial considerations and the ability to upskill team members as an early-stage startup. This is just a tiny snippet of a larger chat that will go on YouTube and maybe even a podcast so stay tuned to hear some of the key learnings about mistakes and wins for hiring for startups. I've got a free resource that breaks down the core needs of any role considering both skills, attitude and values alignment. If you're interested in getting this free resource send me a message or comment 👍 #hiring #startup #talentacquisition #skillsvsattitude
This is such an interesting one, I agree with you when all things are equal yes. I've also seen start ups bring in folks without key skills and not provide the right training which can be a disaster in functions which require it, such as HR, finance etc. I think having experienced folks in functions first is key so that the skills gaps can be mentored and trained effectively, in that scenario attitude is key 😀
Skills would win over attitude, Certain skills take years to achieve, tell me who would pass over Profit for attitude.
As a start up both of these run the risk of causing damage if you don’t nail them. Poor attitude not demonstrating the company values and belief can be toxic and spread quickly in a small team. Lack of ability and skills can be costly in terms of time and mistakes. Find the balance between the two. As a business grows and becomes more established with larger teams you have greater scope to hire on attitude alone and train inline with your companies approach.
Ooooo a 🌶️ one, but one that founders face daily. No simple answer (like most things in HR), but one I think founders need to have early on. Be consistent, know why you have chosen skills over attitude (or vice versa) and be open to changing it up if its not working or the team/business evolves.
This one is complicated. If you're not finding the skills for the price then maybe you need to accept you have to hire for attitude and train on your time, as Joel suggests. I don't know if there is a default answer here except to say skills first attitude later (so long as they pass the no d*ckhead test first).
Its simple the right attitude can acquire you the skills - but no skill will lead to the right attitude... It is interesting how poor education is today - and it is not the fault of the student - but in what is being taught.
You can chop a tree down with a Hammer, but it will take about 30 days or you can chop it down with an Axe and it will take about 30 minutes, the difference is the Skills to know which tool to use. A person with a great attitude and no skills has less value compared to a person with a great attitude and some skills but in saying that a person with plenty of skills and a poor attitude is dangerous. Guess it comes down to balance and the ability to convert Attitude to Skills quickly.
Skill’s received in are class room are but empty pieces of paper, whereas the learning curb from being on the job and learning the ropes from those that are before you will make those instructor lessons make sense and then come to life, and ai will dampen the learning curb by taking away the opportunity to do and be who you really are, so having the right attitude will help deliver the appropriate skills into your role whatever it may be
Business Analyst (Automation & AI) | Strategic Operations & Product | Startmate Women Fellow
5moInteresting perspective! I think it also depends on how quickly skills gaps can be bridged and how critical those skills are to the success of the business/product at that point in time. If you are building a highly technical product and no one in the team is technically skilled, that’s probably going to be a huge handicap. Attitude alone isn’t going to get the work done there. However, I think attitude might be a better predictor of how those skills will grow overtime and how people will deal with the challenges that inevitably come with building a start-up, so I don’t think you can have all skill and no attitude there either!