An former colleague once asked me this question: if you had two identically qualified candidates for a job, how would you determine which one to hire?
They weren’t seeking advice from me, though, they were teaching me about the Communication Superpower Hiring Rule.
When I said I didn’t know, they replied, “Give them a writing task on a complicated topic, and whoever articulates their thoughts in the clearest and simplest way should get the job.”
This rule is simple, but profound.
Its obvious benefit is it helps you hire people who are good communicators—both written and oral.
However, there are other benefits, too!
You can’t write or communicate clearly without first thinking clearly. Someone who can write well, is also likely to think well. And I think we’d all like to hire people who think clearly! (As a personal aside here, this is one of the reasons why I write this blog! I often find my thinking to be muddled, so committing to writing on a daily basis is my way of practising better communication every day).
Finally, writing scales well. A well crafted email is easily understood by all team members. On the other hand, a poorly written one will cause every team member to pause, stop, question, and ask for clarification. Multiply that over tens, hundreds, or thousands of employees, and that’s a lot of wasted time and energy.
Whether hiring is a part of your job, or not, this is an interesting rule to carry with you.