Kamala Harris choose Tim Walz as her running mate to help get her elected, help her govern, and step up as President if needed. As you’re hiring people to work for you, consider criteria beyond just their ability to do the job, including helping others do their jobs, adding needed future capabilities, and strengthening your organization’s brand.
In general, US Presidential nominees’ top criteria for choosing VP running mates is their ability to help them get elected, manifested in different ways. They must, of course, choose a running mate who is constitutionally eligible to be President. And some have chosen running mates who can help them govern.
Walz may help Harris get elected with his public speaking and campaigning skills. The former National Guard Command Sergeant Major, high school teacher, coach of a Minnesota state champion football team, Congressman, and two-term governor has a plain-spoken, Midwest style of communicating that is helping Harris paint her opponents as “weird.” He also balances the ticket demographically and appeals to progressive liberals, though he is less strong on giving her an electoral advantage in any particular swing state.
Harris also sees him as a good governing partner given his liberal policies, and feels comfortable that are compatible, that thinks he will be loyal to her as president while matching her sense of humor, though he does not fill any specific expertise gaps she has.
As The New York Times reported, “The ambitious Josh Shapiro asked about his role as vice president… Walz promised to do anything for the team.” His main question was “How can I help?”
Finally, his national and state governing experience makes him qualified to step in as President if needed.
Lessons for your selection criteria
There are only three job interview questions getting at why someone wants the job (motivation), their ability to do the job (strengths), and how they will be tolerated by everyone else (fit.) They always apply – just in different ways.
As we’ve seen, when it came to motivation, Harris looked at prospective VP candidates’ alignment with the impact she wants to make on the country. When it came to strengths, Harris looked at candidates’ ability to help her get elected, govern, and step up if needed. When it came to fit, she cared about compatibility with her as a governing partner.
In your case, motivation is generally about the three goods. Strengths are about doing the job, helping others do their jobs, future capability planning, and strengthening the brand. Fit is about the closeness of people’s personal preferences with the organization’s current and desired culture.
Motivation
Happiness is good. Actually, it’s three goods: doing good for others, doing things you’re good at, and doing things that are good for you. Everyone does a blend of these three. Leading with the question, “Why do you want this job?” gets at others’ primary motivation instantly. What matters is not their own motivation, but whether their motivation matches what you’re looking for.
Most non-profits look for people driven by doing good for others.
Many organizations look for people driven by continually improving their own and others’ effectiveness.
Some organizations are unapologetically driven by value creation.
Strengths
Strengths are a combination of innate talent, learned knowledge, practiced skills, hard-won experience and, in some cases, apprenticed craft-level caring and sensibilities. Different strengths are required to:
- Do the job itself.
- Help others do their jobs as a peer, customer, supplier, ally, subordinate, manager, leader, coach.
- Add strengths missing in the organization but required for future success, generally flowing from a future capability analysis.
- Strengthen the organization’s brand by adding strengths customers, suppliers, analysts, investors or the like think the organization needs.
Fit
Culture is a combination of behaviors, relationships, attitudes, values and environment. When interviewing for fit, you’re trying to get at the closeness of others’ personal preferences with the culture you’ve got and want to have. My current best thinking is to look at criteria like these:
(Click here for a free copy of our latest culture assessment worksheet)
- Behaviors: Working units | Discipline | Delegation
- Relationships: Power and decision-making | Diversity, equity and inclusion | Communication and controls
- Attitude: Strategy | Focus | Posture
- Values: Integrity | Respect | Innovation, customer-centricity, collaboration, or accountability
- Environment: Workplace | Work/life balance | Enablers.
Bottom line, hiring the right people starts with getting key stakeholders aligned on the criteria for selection.
