Sales Assessment – More Accurate Part II

Last week I wrote about the mistake I made in not following the recommendation from our own assessment and how I broke the rule I established.  Today I’d like to talk about the other, not so obvious consequences of my actions.

I mentioned that my colleagues (the senior consultants) were enthused about this candidate too.  Well it turns out that they were only enthused because they believed he had been recommended by the assessment.  Not only that, when they learned that I hadn’t shared his assessment results with them, they were disappointed in me and I lost credibility.  Not only that, but I set precedent.  While the exception proved the importance of the rule ( a no is a no), I opened Pandora’s box and the challenge now will be to close it up.

So, while I learned first hand what happens when clients don’t follow the recommendation in the assessment, I finally experienced what happens on management teams when a manager doesn’t follow the recommendation.

Lesson – There’s much more at stake than whether your gut instinct may be better/smarter than the assessment.  Making an exception compromises the integrity of the entire hiring process.