What if jerks are the ones who get things done?
That’s how Shark Tank‘s Kevin O’Leary and Kickstarter CEO Everette Taylor began their recent conversation on LinkedIn–saying they do not look for likeability when investing or hiring.
Kevin O’Leary said, with Taylor nodding in agreement: “In the early years and looking at the outcomes, I would always try and work with or invest in men and women that I liked, that I had an emotional connection with that I enjoyed working with. After seven or eight years of that, I realized that the ones that are providing returns are not the ones I like at all.”
“In fact,” he added, “for lack of a better word, and excuse my French, it was the assholes that were really performing, and it occurred to me that executional skills and the ability to set goals for your organization and deliver them amount to much more importance or higher weighting than likeability.”
To keep reading, click here: Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary Says Forget Likeability– Look for These 3 Traits Instead
It’s nonsense that the jerks are the ones who deliver. It’s generally not true.
There is a HUGE difference between hiring for likeability and tolerating jerkitude. People can work well with people they don’t especially like, but they will rarely work well with people they actively dislike, and it gets worse with people who they don’t respect and who they see as jerks.
As for looking at things like how people act in a social setting, that can be extremely useful. Sure, it probably doesn’t matter if a C-Suit person eats with their mouth open. But i*does* matter if they are rude, condescending or otherwise obnoxious to the wait staff. Because that’s the same kind of thing you are going to see in their interaction with people in your organization. And don’t kid yourself. Even if that person is nice enough to the ACxO, there are a lot of other people up and down the chain who are more important than the jerk realizes, and it will affect the organization.