A few weeks back I went into my research mode (again) to get as beefed up as possible on the issue of "ethics" in terms of business ethics, recruiting ethics, and just plain old ethics. The authors I've been able to read in that time have talked at length about a number of things and very little about the ethical issues that I sought. But the reading has been enlightening. I'll share some of the titles with you in the next newsletter.

There is one title I chose because of an article by John Sullivan, recruiting industry thought leader and leader. The title says something about "predatory recruiting" and "guerilla tactics." So the book by John Imlay jumped out at me as I perused the library stacks.

Jungle Rules: How to Be a Tiger in Business

John's (Imlay) philosophy for Management Sciences America was "do whatever it takes" "as long as it's legal, ethical, and moral."

What John actually talks about is the strategies he and his colleague used to take MSA out of bankruptcy and into such a strong position that it was eventually taken over by Dunn & Bradstreet. One of the strategies was using a core staff of what he calls tigers.

There's a certain personality the business tiger has. It doesn't fit the normal schematics of a qualified candidate. In fact, he analyzes what the business tiger personality is as he discusses what criteria they used to hire on more business tigers as MSA grew and emerged from bankruptcy. The profile was that of a do-er (see The Do-ers and Troublemakers):

"We began looking for the self-starters, the campus entrepreneurs, the street fighters, the people who had to some extent scraped by in college by holding two or three jobs while going to class, and who solved problems with their wits. These were, for us, more important factors than were their majors, their minors, or their GPAs."

"In the end, we put emphasis on what their genes, their environment, and their experiences had given them, and looked last at what their professors had taught them."

Please note that the person's genes usually contained the tiger instinct to which Imlay makes reference.

"At the end of the interview, the tigers' stripes always showed. .."

Imlay and company over-rode The Talker with hiring The Doer ... "who might not have a resume in order because he was too busy actually doing things to write one. Between classes, not out of necessity but out of drive, he was in the trenches, earning stripes."

There are more characteristics of The Tiger and The Doer, but the research to get the precise page with those characteristics would take longer than my current computer access will allow.

However, there is a discussion question lying in all of this content. Have you had this type of person before you and passed on them? Are you this type of person and feeling frustrated at not getting an opportunity to get through the [glass] door?

What caused you to pass on this Tiger? Why didn't you show that you are the Tiger for this business?

Or have we simply gotten so caught up in hiring precision and complications that we don't see the Tigers any more, just the scientifics of selection and testing -- and then passing on in deference to a more qualified candidate?