There Are Ways To Reduce The Risk Of Making A Bad Hire. Just Ask The Beatles.
By Thomas J. Roach
Before they were The Beatles, the most influential musicians in pop music were called The Quarrymen. Much has been written about their talents and philosophy, but they also represent an important lesson concerning management and hiring that can be useful to those who work in the aggregate industry.
In his book, “Here, There and Everywhere,” chief recording engineer Geoff Emerick details the highly creative working relationship between The Beatles and the recording engineers at Abby Road.
The staff at Abby Road had a famously collaborative relationship with the four musicians, often working through the night and developing groundbreaking recording techniques to help them realize their artistic potential. However, things began to fall apart in 1968 when upper management at EMI turned Abby Road over to studio manager Alan Stagge, and Stagge changed everything.
Even Better
According to Emerick, Stagge started by announcing that he was going to make the studio “even better…and if any of you don’t agree with my plans, there’s the door.” Stagge’s background was orchestral recording, and he proceeded to professionalize the studio that in the previous two years had produced “Rubber Soul,” Revolver” and “Sgt. Pepper.”
Emerick describes Stagge’s management style as rude and arrogant, saying there was no logic to his decisions; they were just about exercising power. Stagge changed the acoustics of the recording rooms. Engineers who had worked for years with certain pop bands were reassigned and replaced randomly with no regard for the collaborative relationships they developed.
He enforced strict time limits on recording sessions, pulling the plug on Pink Floyd one night when they went past their scheduled 10 p.m. deadline. And in an era when the musicians were wearing tie-dyed shirts, beads and bell-bottom jeans, he required engineers to wear white lab coats.
Personal Friend
Stagge was a personal friend of the corporate executive who hired him, and it took 18 months for the executive to realize the mistake and remove him. However, by then key engineers and staff had left the company. Music historians record that the Beatles fell apart during this period because of infighting, but Emerick claims it was more because the studio where they performed their musical magic became toxic and dysfunctional.
The lesson in leadership isn’t that managers shouldn’t act like tyrants; that is obvious. Based on his background, Stagge’s actions were predictable. The real lesson here has to do with upper management. They didn’t involve staff from the studio in the hiring process; they didn’t consider the unique business culture; and they didn’t monitor their new manager to ensure that he was living up to their expectations.
When senior level managers hire middle managers or line managers, they make a choice that has profound ramifications for the assigned workgroups. Even in a quarry where procedures and objectives might be well established, a manager assesses skills, motivation, and knowledge in workers and assigns responsibility, provides reward and recognition and makes crucial calls regarding safety.
Performance
Hiring is easy; predicting how someone will perform on the job is hard. While it may be impossible to absolutely know how someone will perform, there are ways to reduce the risk of making a bad hire.
Members of the new manager’s workgroup should be part of the hiring process. They can review the job description and provide feedback to upper management before the manager job position is posted.
They should also be represented on the hiring committee so they can interact with the candidates and have input on the recommendations to the supervisor who makes the hiring decision. Lastly, the supervisor should mentor and monitor the new manager.
When it is all over, the supervisor who hired the new manager should be singing “With a Little Help from My Friends” and not “I Should Have Known Better.”
Thomas J. Roach Ph.D., has 30 years experience in communication as a journalist, media coordinator, communication director and consultant. He has taught at Purdue University Northwest since 1987, and is the author of “An Interviewing Rhetoric.” He can be reached at [email protected].