Get the right people
Sometimes you find the best people you need for growth in the oddest of places.
For example, when Sprecher was looking to hire a vice president of operations, he found his man at his condo.
Sprecher had noticed that the president of his condo association was a solid leader, that people listened to him and that he was a thoughtful person. So Sprecher hired him to fill the position, despite not having the technical experience. He has since taught him the skills needed to do the job.
“You can teach good people the discipline that’s required, but it’s very, very hard to teach people who have knowledge to have passion and to have good work habits,” Sprecher says.
Hiring for growth is tricky, but one attribute you want to look for is passion.
“Do people love what they do?” he says. “Do they work long hours because they enjoy it? Is their passion for work their passion for life? You often find people who their passion is something outside of the office, which is great, and that’s probably the case of most people, but when you come across somebody who, when you ask them about their hobbies and they tell you that they really enjoy their work or describe anecdotes where you can glean that, those are the things in people you tend to look for.”
Another thing Sprecher says to watch when hiring is your initial instincts when you meet potential candidates because he believes that first impressions really matter.
“Sometimes you override your first impressions, and normally when that happens, you’re wrong,” he says. “There is something that happens when two people meet in an interview that you’re gleaning these intangible perceptions. If you think about what it is you liked or disliked about a person, I tend to think those are the right attributes in hiring, and you should focus less on the specific line items in the resume.”
It’s also important that you hire the best person for a position, even if it’s not a popular decision. For example, when ICE bought the New York Board of Trade, the company was more than 100 years old, it had a very defined culture, and most of the managers were in their 50s and 60s. As part of the merger, the CEO was going to retire, so Sprecher had to replace him, and he did something radical — he replaced him with a 32-year-old, who wasn’t the most popular choice.
“We were very aware that we were putting a young person into a company that had an old history,” he says. “We wanted to infect the enthusiasm and business practices that he had as somebody who was younger.”
When you do get these great people, then it’s important to work with them to keep them in the organization. For example, Sprecher had one really passionate employee, but he also had a habit of excessively yelling, using foul language and being difficult to work with. While the inclination for most managers would be to fire the person, Sprecher saw something in him and decided instead to hire somebody with the skills to manage him specifically.
“Because that passion for the business that the employee had was so great, I figured it’d be easier to fix the bad behavior than it would be to hire someone with that kind of passion,” he says.
While it was a huge challenge for that person, he eventually succeeded, and today, that employee is one of ICE’s most valuable employees — all because Sprecher decided to invest in him instead of fire him.
He says, “I just think that in life, you can train people, educate people about the job, but it’s very hard to find people who are dedicated and loyal and go the extra mile.”
