Attitude Trumps All
How many times have you kept a position open while looking for that someone with just the right experience and/or expertise for your association job? Well I think experience and expertise are over-rated. And, credentials, well it’s almost blasphemy for me to say so as a certification consultant, but they are trumped too. Let’s face it, there are many jobs within an association for which attitude is WAY more important.
Dealing with member requests all day can be challenging. I used to work for a certifying agency and sometimes took call after call from individuals who’d failed a certification exam (including a few members of the Board of Directors). It takes a person with a special attitudinal gift to handle calls like those with grace (and frankly, that person likely isn’t me).
I understand the desire to hire staff with association experience since association work is often quite different from the corporate world. But honestly, have you EVER hired a genuinely nice person that wasn’t able to “get” the member focus?
In many association jobs, experience means little if your staff member has a lousy attitude. I’m confident you can train an inexperienced person how to do most (although not all) association jobs, but can you teach a rude or disgruntled person how to “delight” the members?
Next time you’re hiring, look for experience, expertise, credentials, AND attitude…but don’t settle for the former three without the latter.
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