The Risk of Hiring Uncoachables - Spark Hire

The Risk of Hiring Uncoachables - Spark HireWhether your office is a field, court, or high-rise building, chemistry is essential to your kollektivs success. Chemistry abflugs and finishes with the people you hire, and trust to bring your team to the next level whether that is a championship title, or a new round of funding. All it takes is one uncoachable member of the team and you can kiss chemistry goodbye. Uncoachables can have tantalizing talent, but hiring them puts the entire fabric of your company at risk.First lets reference some historically uncoachable team members Randy Moss, Barry Bonds and Terrell Owens. Randy Moss infamously proclaimed, I play when I want to play. Translation No one, not even my boss or coach can tell me what to do. Terrell Owens made his arrogance known by celebrating after each catch, and publicly ridiculing his team for not getting him the ball enough. Barry Bonds almost always sat alone in the dug-out, and reportedly introduced himself to the new te ammates by reminding them of the times he hit home runs against them in his past. In each of ansicht moments, the message was clear this wasnt about the good of the team, it was about an attention seeking individual and their own agenda. In team sports (much like a job) as soon as you start working for yourself and no one else, the good of the company comes second.How do you recognize an Uncoachable?In the interview when you ask, whats your biggest failure? (which you ALWAYS should) youll hear crickets. Or something like, I work too hard. Just so you know, thats a lie. If they cannot admit to something from the very beginning and explain how they overcame the situation, odds are they wont be willing to admit to something later either.Back to the athlete analogy when it comes to notoriously difficult and uncoachable players we often hear they keep to themselves in the locker room or are antagonistic/arrogant. Now, their skill may be undeniably phenomenal but a nose in the air, sharpi e in my sock, attitude is toxic to a team and not worth it. Barry Bonds may have been an all time home run hitter, but I cannot think of one time watching the SF Giants when I saw him surrounded by his team in the dugout. No hilfestellung given, no support received.Uncoachables will lash out when you or another employee is trying to help them by correcting a mistake. They perceive help as criticism and a challenge to their skill and ego. This means whatever knowledge they came to your company with, is what theyre leaving with. In the Uncoachables mind, no one has more to offer than they do themselves.This is what you riskAll of these indicators are something you need to be aware of as a hiring manager or team leader in order to maintain the cohesiveness, productivity, and happiness of your team. The office is a learning environment, and should be collaborative. Like a machine, if you remove the nuts and bolts, everything will stop working. A good employer has employees that are moti vated by the companys mission. The glue that holds everyone together, the it-factors that inspire, are internal motivators the companys values aligned with the individuals. At SmartRecruiters, our shared goal is to get people back to work by making hiring easy. An uncoachables goal would rely solely on stock options. An uncoachable will come in and destroy the comradery achieved by the shared values. Because, they dont share these values. Their goal is to get ahead alone.This is what hiring an uncoachable says to your teamTerrell Owens, Barry Bonds, and Randy Moss are all incredibly talented athletes. No one can argue with that. Yet few of their former teammates say, I want to work with him again. When you hire an uncoachable keeping them simply for their skill you tell the rest of the team, You are not as valuable. You tell them that despite their ability to learn, grow, develop, and work with a team youd rather have this guy run 100 yards down the field or hit a grand slam in b etween the all-too-frequent suspensions. Youre telling your team that you reward bad behavior.The risk of hiring an uncoachable is too high. And trust me, the sprints of skill are not worth the damage to your teams morale.About the AuthorLexieForman-Ortiz is the Community Manager at SmartRecruiters.After graduating with a degree in Anthropology Communications from the University of Kansas she decided she never wanted to stop talking to people. She believes in creating great workplaces, developing talent, sharing knowledge and using social media for good. Follow Lexie on Twitter at LexieFO.Image Rawpixel/BigStock.com