The people you work with play a crucial role in your tactical “happiness index” as well as your long term success. Whether you are evaluating potential hires or interviewing for a job, you should consider the ability and the attitude of the team members you are going to work it. The prevailing thought is that the attitude of the person is more important that ability because it is easier to develop ability than to change one’s attitude. I believe it’s lot more nuanced than that.

Needless to say, there are four categories of individuals based on ability and attitude. Here’s some thoughts on whether you should consider them as your team mates.

  1. High ability, high attitude: This is a no brainer. They are the ideal teammate. If such people consistently refuse to hire or join you, you should take a hard look at your own attitude and ability. No kidding. They considered your ability and attitude before saying no.
  2. Low ability, low attitude: Another no brainer.
  3. High ability, low attitude: Let’s not write them off immediately. They must have done something right to build their ability. In other words, they got some part of their attitude right. If we use the Five Factor Model (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Five_personality_traits), such individual may rate high on “openness to experience” and “conscientiousness”, and may rate low on “extraversion” and “agreeableness”. For most jobs, low extraversion is ok and low agreeableness is a deal breaker. Individuals with high openness could improve their agreeableness if they are made aware of the implications of low agreeableness. It comes down to providing them with the right feedback and coaching to improve self awareness.
  4. Low ability, high attitude: The most common reason for this is a lack of experience in the given domain. You would expect them to build their abilities given the right opportunities. Someone with low ability even after a good experience in the domain points to low openness and/or low conscientiousness. Self awareness is a key attribute in this case too. If the individual is aware of their level of ability, they could focus on tasks that match their level of ability. Self awareness could also increase their openness to learn new skills.

To summarize, when evaluating team members or potential hires, look at their natural talents, relevant experience, track record of achievement, and mindset. For individuals with the right attitude, a lack of ability, even after ample time and experience, may indicate that they are not suited for the role. Individuals with high ability would not have achieved their success without acquiring at least some aspects of the right attitude. In all cases, self awareness is the key to improve attitude and ability.