For example, sales statistics have been erroneously used to rank performance. Many organizations hire for skills and fire for attitude . Our own biases about skills and knowledge keep us from understanding what the job would say about what is required for superior performance. If skills and knowledge always lead to superior performance, every nurse, medical doctor, lawyer, engineer, CPA, or any person who has passed a certification exam would produce superior performance. Perhaps the reason so much emphasis is placed on skills and knowledge is because they are the easiest components of performance to define.
Many organizations hire for skills and fire for attitude.
Our biases inevitably keep us from listening objectively to the voice of the job. There are three voices we hear when analyzing performance in jobs. One voice tells us how the job should be performed. The second voice tells us how we would like to do the job, and the third voice is how the job has always been done. Most people are not aware of which voice they are listening to relative to performance requirements.