One of my great bosses and mentors, Toni Sepulveda, was always looking for good business literature to share with her managers (one of her many good leadership qualities). At one point she bought us all a copy of Jack Welch's book, in which he discussed in detail the importance of hiring good people. Mr. Welch is quoted as saying "Hiring good people is hard.  Hiring great people is brutally hard".  I would imagine that any good hiring manager or executive would wholeheartedly agree with Mr. Welch but how do you distinguish between the average and the good and, more significantly, between the good and the great?

I've made some great hires and some terrible ones and in both cases it was difficult to discern from the resume and interview between the great ones and the terrible ones - somehow you had to dig deeper and really take the time for due diligence.  

Mr. Welch said he looked for the "four E's, Energy, the ability to Execute, the ability to Energize people and Edge".  I absolutely agree with all of these but my experience has caused me to look for other characteristics.  Three of these are as follows:

1.  The ability to think on both a linear and non-linear basis.  My experience is that most people tend to think on a linear basis and quite frankly there is nothing wrong with that. It's the, if (condition) then (outcome), a logical approach to problem solving.  Unfortunately business situations occur every day, which may require very different and sometimes unique "non-linear" solutions. If your managers cannot problem solve on both a linear and non-linear basis than you will often see them at your doorstep, looking for you to solve their problem and here's the thing....how many business executives have time to solve what should be someone else's problem?

2. The ability to "connect the dots".  This is an old expression from another great boss and mentor. Basically this is the ability to look at your organization's capabilities/services/products from a unique perspective and visualize how they could be applied to solve a different business problem or customer requirement.   

3. Strength of character.  Finally, if all else fails and you're having trouble deciding between your top two or three candidates, base your decision on who you think possesses the greatest strength of character.  Business and management can be incredibly demanding. In my experience 100 hour, 7 day work weeks for sustained periods of time are not out of the ordinary.  In this and other stressful times it's always strength of character that will make the difference for you in the end.

Hiring great managers and business developers may be the most difficult thing for you to do, but when you really get right it will make a world of difference.

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