You don't hire for skills, you hire for attitude. You can always teach skills.
Herb KelleherRead
We will hire someone with less experience, less education, and less expertise, than someone who has more of those things and has a rotten attitude. Because we can train people. We can teach people how to lead. We can teach people how to provide customer service. But we can't change their DNA.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Attitude is more important than experience or education when hiring.
This quote emphasizes the significance of a positive attitude in the workplace, suggesting that it outweighs the conventional metrics of experience, education, and expertise. Herb Kelleher argues that while skills can be taught and developed, a lack of a good attitude is inherent and cannot be changed, making it essential to prioritize candidates with the right mindset over those who may have more qualifications but a negative demeanor.
Themes
AttitudeHiringLeadershipTrainingCustomer Service
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used during a job interview to stress the importance of mindset.
More from Herb Kelleher
All quotes →To be an excellent leader, you have to be a superb follower.
Herb KelleherRead
You [the employees] are involved in a crusade.
Herb KelleherRead
If you're crazy enough to do what you love for a living, then you're bound to create a life that matters.
Herb KelleherRead
The business of business is people.
Herb KelleherRead
If the employees come first, then they're happy. A motivated employee treats the customer well. The customer is happy so they keep coming back, which pleases the shareholders. It's not one of the enduring green mysteries of all time, it is just the way it works.
Herb KelleherRead
Similar quotes
I can't tell you how much you gain, how much progress you can make, by working together as a team, by helping one another. You get much more done that way. If there's anything the Steelers of the '70s epitomized, I think it was that teamwork.
Chuck NollRead
When hiring somebody, I never ask to see a curriculum vitae. I feel that since I didn't have one myself, it would be a bit presumptuous to ask to see anyone else's.
Richard BransonRead
The three most charismatic leaders in this century inflicted more suffering on the human race than almost any trio in history: Hitler, Stalin, and Mao. What matters is not the leader's charisma. What matters is the leader's mission.
Peter DruckerRead
I begin by taking. I shall find scholars later to demonstrate my perfect right.
Frederick The GreatRead
You have to lose yourself in the team and you have to lose yourself in the game
John CalipariRead
A statesman... must wait until he hears the steps of God sounding through events, then leap up and grasp the hem of His garment.
Otto Von BismarckRead