5 qualities to look for in a candidate

In this blog I am going to go over the five qualities of a great employee that we have gathered over the years. I know there are so many qualities out there but these are the five that most employers look for they are hiring.

1. Self awareness

2. Communication

3. Teamwork

4. Leadership

5. Critical thinking

Self awareness - self-awareness often looks - this does the person have strong emotional intelligence? Does the person have a good understanding of what their role will be? How well can they take good or bad feedback?

Communication- This is a really big one that you must establish even from the interview phase. Understanding whether you can gage if your candidate has good interpersonal communication skills is very important because this would determine how they would communicate with: colleagues, direct reports, customers etc Being a good communicator doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to be good with words or even use sophisticated language (although it helps) but you must be able to clearly get your message across whether you’re doing it in writing or speaking and on the flip side also get what other people are communicating to you.

Teamwork- They say teamwork makes the dream work, and for the most part most jobs require a degree of collaboration with other people. When you’re looking to add to your team it is important that you look for somebody who is a good team player.

Here are some characteristics of a good team player

1) they are flexible with change

2) they are committed to their own success and that of their team members or coworkers

3) they are very reliable and responsible

4) they are very supportive and respectful of their coworkers

Leadership- leadership skills are very beneficial in all aspects of life and career so whether your candidate is applying for a leadership position or not it is good to have some leadership qualities.

Here is a shortlist of what to look for:

1) do they have strong organizational skills

2) do they have empathy towards others

3) are they able to take feedback in a constructive way

4) do they have the confidence and ability to lead others and

5) do they have the ability to identify their own strengths and weaknesses and as well as their team’s strengths and weaknesses

Critical thinking - critical thinking involves looking at a problem reviewing the different perspectives and also coming up with a logical solution. Some critical thinking traits that you might look for are

1) Are they asking the right questions

2) Are they able to identify business strength and weaknesses

3) Are they aware of the important details regarding the business

4) Do they think outside the box

5) Can they recognize problems and then provide some very helpful solutions?

Some of the questions you can ask a candidate to gauge whether they have critical thinking can be as follows:

1) How would you present a new idea or technique to your team?

2) Explain your decision making process

3) What would you do if you noticed your boss or supervisor made a mistake

4) Are you open to new concepts and ideas

5) Share a time when you had to use critical thinking to solve a problem

In confusion, these are the five qualities that we feel are good qualities to look for in a candidate. And of course there are others that you can look for including: whether the candidate is a good fit for your team that your building, what their willingness to learn, and also if they have good integrity, if they are independent, reliable, confident and dedicated