Does Managment Style Matter in Hiring?

John J Simmons

Does it matter what your management style is when you are hiring? From the point of view of a good hiring process, no. From the fit of the employee, yes.

A good hiring process should work whatever your management style (authoritative, cooperative, delegative, absent (just kidding).) If the process depends on your management style, then the process would need to change for each manager and his/her particular style. And it would get really crazy for those managers who vary their style based on the situation (or the phase of the moon.)

And a good hiring process is more independent of such things. (Including-hopefully- mood swings.)

But! That doesn’t mean that your management style isn’t important. It is definitely something to take into account when you are qualifying candidates and self-disclosing in the interview. If you are looking for a good fit, then you want to make sure that the candidate is aware of your style and agrees that he/she can work with it. How you get that information across will vary from manager to manager. Some are very good at communicating their style. In fact, they can’t hide it. Others are quite good at camouflaging theirs.

There is no doubt that it will come out, given enough time. On the other hand, an interview of a few minutes to an hour, may not display it, since the interview is more structured (usually). Give some thought to how you will indicate your style to the candidate. Some candidates will ask directly in the interview. If they get to interview with your staff, they may ask the staff.

Be prepared for it and figure out how you will evaluate the candidate’s fitness for your style.

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