When the Union Club’s GM/COO, Lawrence McFadden, CMC, brings in potential hires, he and his team look beyond the answers given in the interview to better understand each candidate’s “personality DNA.”
We all know that you never get a second chance to make a first impression. But not everyone knows that the first impression is usually made within the first 10 seconds.
Interviews aren’t often the best opportunity to get to know a job candidate who are smart and know how to deliver polished answers to interview questions. So how do you really get to know a candidate and uncover what they can bring to your team? Often, hiring managers make the mistake of looking for like-minded individuals instead of differing talents. At the Union Club of Cleveland, we use the Talent Plus Character Assessment to explore a candidate’s natural skills, those not easily identified in common interview dialogue.
Executive Chefs are often labeled as artists who are determined, passionate visionaries of uncompromising standards. While these qualities can be considered assets, they can, at times, be disruptive, too. The Talent Plus interview tool offers us a scorecard to balance experience with a candidate’s personality “DNA.”
When searching for our current Executive Chef, I remarked to the Board of Trustees that we needed to look for someone whose “brand” equaled that of our prestigious club. I cautioned that we needed to see past the criticisms of previous chefs, bemoaning soup temperatures, seasonings, and portion size. Instead, I shared my vision of a Master Chef, one with impeccable technique, who fosters partnerships, who is committed to responsible food sourcing, and who can successfully recruit young cooks who yearn for mentorship. We weren’t just hiring a chef, I declared, we were seeking a professional culinary brand to lead our strategic efforts in building a new culinary culture.
Years ago, a farmer named Charlie came to the hotel I was working at on Amelia Island with samples of Eight Ball squash tucked in the front seat of his beat-up pickup truck. He walked into the kitchen empty handed with only a wry smile on his face. The great German Chef Gunter Seeger had “gifted” Charlie to us, and I was grateful for the opportunity to cultivate a relationship with him. After a few years, Charlie confided to me that he always approached a new kitchen without his “children,” as he called his vegetables. He wanted to observe the kitchen first, to ensure that the staff had the discipline to respect his produce. I knew I wanted to find a chef with the ability to cultivate these types of relationships for the betterment of the club.
A former president of Ritz-Carlton often said, “You have to enjoy Louis XIII in order to sell it.” Simply put, to work in luxury one must understand luxury. It’s easier to enrich previously developed skills for mutual benefit than to teach a chef a job while he or she is already in that job. Therefore, our expectations for our new chef also included Master Chef certification, Michelin Star experience, and Mobil 5 Star property exposure. Each title or badge tells a story about a candidate’s education, exposure and technical abilities.
I knew any change in kitchen leadership would be viewed as a disruption to our members, especially to our more traditional members who are not fans of change at their club. As GM, I knew I would be accountable no matter who we brought on board. It was worth the painful immediacy of the search and decision process when we were able to find a chef that not only has the technical and creative experience we were seeking but has the leadership skills and culinary vision to go beyond the Executive Chef title and stand as the centerpiece of our Club’s brand (see The Master Chefs of Cleveland’s Union Club).