Why your recruiting methods should be as unique as your brand

When Hollywood directors cast a superstar they count on two things, box office draw and the professional actors ability to act, by which I mean the ability to stop being Philip Seymour Hoffman, Charlize Theron or Jim Carey and instead become the three dimensional living embodiment of someone else. Watch Capote, Monster or Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events and you will see the incredible transformations these actors make in their own personalities to literally become the character, even gaining or losing huge amounts of weight to ensure a complete and congruent representation.

Now think about your own employees, especially those who spend the most time touching customers. How willing (or capable) are they of completely transforming their bodies, minds, souls and personalities into the ideal personification of your brand?

I'm sure you would agree that most are not capable of these radical transformations and that even if they were, they would be unwilling to spend huge parts of their lives pretending to be someone they are not. Radical transformation requires enormous energy, rare talent and is highly stressful. Counting on radical transformation in each of your people is not the formula for creating consistent, positive, scalable customer experiences.

Instead let me suggest that you use a technique well known to the directors of high school musicals and local theatre companies...type casting. Type casting means that you put someone into the role who is already the character! There will be little acting required because they live and breathe the character everyday just by being themselves. Their thoughts are the characters' thoughts. Their beliefs are the characters' beliefs. Their actions are the characters' actions.

In the high school musical, for example, the prom queen is cast as the damsel in distress who mesmerizes all of the men, the school jerk is cast as the antagonist and the captain of the sports team is cast as the hero who will save the beauty. The result?  A very successful play! Why? Because very little acting is required to ensure a consistent, predictable and believable outcome.

Using type casting to hire people who will naturally reflect your brand is a simple and proven method that ensures your people will behave as the natural extension of your brand at every touch point. To be sure, hiring to your brand requires that you are already clear about your brand's positioning and have defined the brand personality you want to project in the marketplace. Let's look at how some great brand builders have used type casting to extend their brand to the front line.

Read the rest of Rick Barrera's article "Hiring to your Brand: Why your recruiting methods should be as unique as your brand" to get real world examples of companies that hire to their brand, and why it works for them. 

Peak Your Profits: The flight to your future is now boarding.

It's somewhat ironic, that one of the most down-to-earth guys I know spent his professional career ... up in the clouds. Literally!  Yet, perhaps it's that sense of being grounded that enabled Howard Putnam to pursue and achieve such lofty goals.

While you might not know Howard's name or the quality of his work, there's a pretty good chance his decisions had a direct impact upon you, your family, friends and co-workers. Especially, if you travel by air.

Howard spent 20 years at United Airlines. His final position was as Group VP Marketing. He was also the CEO at Southwest Airlines, as well as, CEO and Chairman of Braniff International.

Howard was the first airline CEO to take a major airline into, through and out of chapter 11. Successfully. He calls Braniff, "an Enron," for they too, had been "cooking the books."

Today, Howard is an extremely successful speaker and author - "The Winds of Turbulence."

Here are excerpts from our conversation about life, business, values, leadership, and the always entertaining, Herb Kelleher!

Jeff Blackman: What lessons did you learn at the airlines, that are applicable to any size business?

Howard Putnam: A clear succinct vision is critical. Not a motherhood statement, but down to earth words that tell all your stakeholders where you're going.

Next, understand what business you're really in. Not just the product or service, but the ultimate value and experience you provide. At Southwest we figured-out we were not an airline, we were in mass transportation.

Then develop a strong culture, hire attitudes and develop skills to support the vision and business. As CEO, it was my responsibility to drive the vision into the fabric of the organization. One person at a time.  Until everyone believed it and executed it every day. It was extremely important for Southwest. It works in every business.

JB: What does Southwest know, that other businesses don't?

HP: Most businesses know it, they just don't believe in it. Southwest treats their people and families as number one. If you do that, your employees will treat your customers as number one.

It's so simple, but most businesses don't get it. The bottom line will then be the benefactor, as will your investors. That's the most important ingredient, your people. After that, comes high productivity, simplicity, low costs and strong, ethical leadership.