It is impossible to imagine Goethe or Beethoven being good at billiards or golf.
- H.L. Mencken
There is a much cheaper, easier way to raise the odds of finding your Captain Sullenberger, and it's rarely factored into the selection process. After you have narrowed the pool of applicants down to those with the skills, experience, and knowledge to do the job, ask each candidate one question:
What do you do in your spare time?
In Captain Sullenberger's case, the first clue that he would become Captain Sullenberger the hero is that, in his teens, when most of his friends were getting their driver's licenses, he got his pilot's license. What did he do for fun? He flew glider planes. Which is basically what he did when he landed in the Hudson River with no engines. Extracurricular activities? He was an Accident Investigator for the Air Line Pilots Association and worked with federal aviation officials to improve training and methods for evacuating aircraft in emergencies.
As a boy, he built model aircraft carriers with tiny planes on them, careful to paint every last piece. Perhaps that attention to detail explains why he walked through the cabin twice, making sure no one was left behind before he escaped the sinking plane himself.
But here's the thing: given his personality, it is unlikely you would have discovered any of this without asking directly about it. When Michael Balboni, New York State's deputy secretary for public safety, thanked him for a job done brilliantly, he responded in the most unaffected, humble way, "That's what we're trained to do."
Even if you had learned about all of Captain Sullenberger's activities, you might have considered his obsession dysfunctional. Wouldn't you rather hire someone well rounded? Someone who has interests beyond the particular? Someone who might be a better communicator?
But people are often successful not despite their dysfunctions but because of them. Obsessions are one of the greatest telltale signs of success. Understand a person's obsessions and you will understand her natural motivation. The thing for which she would walk to the end of the earth.
- Peter Bregman, The Interview Question You Should Always Ask
