I have twice used my discussions with my daughter to inspire blogs. Her and I frequently discuss the ways in which the worlds of business and the world of art and literature coincide. Not too long ago, we related this back to Shakespeare’s Hamlet, and then Romeo and Juliet, and how lessons learned from that could apply in both words. Today we’re taking some more advice from the greatest playwright of our time and applying it to the business world of recruiting, because what Shakespeare taught us about love and war, he can also teach us about business and our candidates. Today’s topic:King Lear.

If you are unfamiliar with the plot of the play, here is a very brief summary: King Lear, an aging monarch, decides to divide his kingdom amongst his three daughters, according to which one recites the best declaration of love. Goneril and Regan exclaim their love outrageously, even though their intentions are not pure and they later treat him with cruelty. Cordelia, who is honest and loyal, is disowned by her father after he confuses her honesty with insolence and the progression of their lives and eventual deaths because of these things.

1.  Do not let your emotions cloud your judgment on practical matters.Sometimes it is hard to regulate things between our analytical mind and our emotional mind because both are very important but in certain settings, such as in most corners of the business world, it is important to keep yourself from getting too emotional about analytical issues in order to keep your judgments about candidates from being clouded by outside factors. In King Lear, this happens when the king disowns his only truly loyal daughter because he takes her honesty as an insult instead of simple fact and this puts him on a path to destruction he may have been able to foresee if he did not get overwhelmed by his feelings at the time.
2. Appearances are important. Edgar disguises himself in Act IV to avoid a warrant placed for his death because no one would expect him to dress like a beggar. While I definitely do not mean for this point to be interpreted as a way to avoid the law, I do think it is a good portrayal of the fact that dressing and presenting yourself in a positive way reflects positively on you just like in the play when he does the opposite and it hides him.
3. Even those closest to you are capable of deception. This idea is the basis for the entirety of the play and it is a hard one to address because we all want to assume that we don’t have to worry about trusting those we are close to, whether we are an old king and it is our daughters or a recruiter and it is our candidate. Trust is an earned thing, not an inherent one – it is always good to remember that those you are close to can hurt you because it keeps you humble and aware, even if it is a problem you never have to directly address.

 These blogs are meant to remind you that the best ways to handle your business recruiting and lessons to learn can be found just about anywhere and the sooner you start looking, the more you will find in places you would never expect. To stay at the edge of issues on HR and staffing, be sure to subscribe to the Human Capital Supply Chain Blog.