Business ManageMent
www.landscapeirrigation.com Landscape and Irrigation April 2015 25
probably not. Do you picture the successful jet fighter pilot can-
didate as someone like Dagwood Bumstead from Chic Young's
comic strip Blondie? Or would he be more like Lieutenant Pete
"Maverick" Mitchell, as portrayed by Tom Cruise in the 1986
film Top Gun?
The bIg pIcTure
An accurate profile for a particular job position doesn't give you
all of the minute details about that person or position. Rather, it
provides a larger, more general framework for you to consider.
It's the "big picture," the 50,000-foot view, so to speak. It's not
foolproof and, of course, some individuals who are successful at
a particular position will break the mold (profile).
Using a profiling technique — not dissimilar to that used by
the FBI — can help you hire square pegs for square holes and
round ones for round ones. It isn't foolproof, and, unfortunately,
it's an undeveloped area for the green industry. Profiles for the
various green industry positions are not readily available. I've
included a profile section in my new book, Job Descriptions for
Green Industry Professionals. Profiling doesn't guarantee that the
FBI catches their man every time. Nor will it prove 100 percent
accurate for you in your hiring methods. However, it should help
improve your odds of finding the right people, and building a
strong team. And in today's competitive labor market, any im-
provement is a welcome one.
This article was adapted from James Huston's new book Job De-
scriptions for Green Industry Professionals. Huston is a member
of the American Society of Professional Estimators and he is one
of only two Certified
Professional Landscape
Estimators in the world.
To order Huston's books,
or to obtain a free audio
book version (plus S&H)
of A Critical Analysis
of the MORS Estimat-
ing System, visit www.
jrhuston.biz or call 800-
451-5588.
1
http://en.wikipedia.org
/wiki/FBI_method_of_pro
filing, p. 1.
2
Ibid.
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