By Brad Schneider, Ph.D.
Step into any Chinese restaurant and it’s there, a placemat with the Chinese Zodiac. If you were born in 1986, you’re a Tiger. If you were born in 1966, you’re a Horse.
In the Chinese Zodiac, the year you are born determines your personality. Boars, people born in 1995, for instance, are prone to marital strife. Dragons, born 2001, are attractive and vain.
Why do I have such an interest in all of this, you ask? Well, if everyone who is born a certain year shares the same physical and mental characteristics, then, theoretically, all you need to do as an employer is to hire people who are born the same year as your top performers.
Want better salespeople? Determine which year your top salespeople were born, and hire every job applicant who was born that same year. You could fill an entire department filled with creative, intelligent, and dependable Goats.
Could hiring and promoting top talent really be that simple? Not a chance. However, if you have the right processes in place it’s not that challenging.
It may be more difficult than choosing a Horse or a Dog, but you’ll have better luck with new hires if you:
- Identify what it takes to be successful in the job
- Determine which candidates have those characteristics
- Use the data collected during the hiring process to determine development needs for new hires
By the way, in case you’re wondering whether the Chinese Zodiac placemat is as prevalent in China, I can tell that in the eight days I spent shuttling between Beijing and Shanghai, I did not see a single one.
Brad Schneider is a senior consultant for Development Dimensions International (DDI).
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