CHINESE FACE READING FOR EMPLOYERS
© BY CHARLES YARBOROUGH, L.Ac.
Have you ever looked at one of your employees and wondered what went wrong? You may have interviewed that person several times, checked his or her references, been satisfied with their responses and felt comfortable with your decision to hire them. Then, during the course of weeks or months, as small sums of money disappeared or as coworkers and customers complained of discourtesy and conflict, you began to wonder why you hired this person.
Perhaps the new employee was on a ninety day probation. He or she may have performed competently until the ninety first day, when he or she committed a "foul." Like many employers, you found yourself in a common predicament: keep the employee and risk damaging your business, or fire them and risk suffering a bogus discrimination/harassment lawsuit.
According to Lillian Glass, Ph.D., "if you make a mistake in hiring, the cost of replacing that employee is usually two and a half times the person's annual salary. If you hire someone at $30,000 a year it will cost you $75,000 should you choose to replace him or her--not to mention the emotional costs." (1) Wouldn't it be better to eliminate unstable, unreliable or conflicted people before they punch their first timecard--or their first coworker?
ELUSIVE INFORMATION
Of course, since you can't foresee each work-related situation with perfect precision, it's impossible to predict everything an employee will do and say. Like most employers you probably can't justify the high cost of a professionally administered personality test as part of your screening process. But you can make some general assumptions about candidates' character and how their temperaments will fit with the nature and image of your business.
While it's common to run crime reports and credit checks on prospective employees, these merely provide a deductive profile, in which a history of negative behaviors is produced. That is to say, with a favorable credit history, you can assume the employee probably hasn't evaded financial responsibility. But credit histories don't provide an inductive profile: they don't assure you the employee will be responsible, honest or cooperative when placed in unexpected situations. How do you know they'll find creative solutions to small problems rather than run to you for every minor decision? Will they handle difficult customers tactfully? Employers often want to acquire additional, somewhat elusive information about employees. They want to know about character and probable behavior. This is especially true in situations where unsupervised employees interface with the public and are, in a sense, the face of the business. The use of "case interviews" can give employers the information they need. By placing the job applicant in an imagined situation, the interviewer is able to witness how that person responds to challenges. Another means of getting character-related information is the ancient art of Chinese Face Reading. Chinese Face Reading is a technique used by more businesses than you'd expect, from finance and fashion to film production. If you're an employer, it may work for you.
PROTOTYPE MAKES PERFECT
Employers are generally adept at using provocative words in want-ads and job leads. Adjectives such as "dynamic" and "high-energy" are common, as are phrases such as: aggressive; go-getter; self-starter. This is an opportunity for unqualified job seekers to eliminate themselves from the running. But there are those who will apply for such positions anyway, knowing that none of these descriptors fit them. Chinese Face Reading may well expose the truth of their character. It can also help you create a prototype of the ideal employee, against which you'll compare all applicants.
Let's suppose you're looking to hire a concierge at your high-end, destination spa. Your clientele is well educated, politically moderate, finicky, willing to purchase newly marketed add-ons, and is 99% female. They expect to handled with "kid gloves" but they deplore obsequiousness. Any flattery you direct their way will elicit suspicion and contempt. Whom should you hire to deal with these people? It must be a person who can "read" the clients, who is sensitive not only to their physical but emotional needs. Ideally, he or she can confidently recommend services and create therapeutic programs for clients' spa visits, who can impart the enthusiasm that he or she feels for the therapies and treatments offered. Where do you start?
You might consider choosing a character type from a pool of five energetic archetypes, creating your ideal concierge from that base. The five archetypes are recognizable from their facial features. These types are:
Water: Round face, large ears, shading under eyes
Wood: Angular, sinewy face, features often defined by bone rather than fat
Fire: Pointed features, may be a triangular or diamond shaped face. Bright eyes, lively
Earth: Squarish face, perhaps with a pronounced square jaw, often stocky physique
Metal: Rectangular or oval face, often pleasant looking with translucent or pale skin
Each archetype will bring a special quality to the job, and it will be up to you to decide which type is ideal for your spa. Considering the nature of the clientele I described, you might want to hire a Metal person. Metal people are notable for their proficiency in sensing the needs of others: they often instinctively shift their body language and even spoken manner to create affinity and to put others at ease. As they typically possess a high degree of self-awareness, their grooming and sense of personal style will likely be finely tuned. At their worst, the Metal person is a rigid character, possessing a stiff or formal manner. While this may be an effort to appear more attractive or worthy, it usually has the opposite effect. However, the highly evolved Metal person will be equally at ease whether in a cummerbund or in sweatpants. If he or she possess any characteristic rigidity, the evolved Metal person will express awareness of it in a comical, self-deprecating manner (think: Kelsey Grammer). Social proficiency comes naturally to the Metal type; when emotionally invested, he or she can usually find just the right word at the right time. Who could resist the advice a charming character like this might offer?
Of course, beyond the Metal person's characteristic pleasant oval face, there are many other facial features to be considered. The shape of the forehead, ears, cheekbones, chin and other features are all elements that must be factored into an evaluation of any job applicant. It should be remembered that a supposedly unfavorable feature can be mitigated by the presence of a neutralizing or compensating feature. The process is, in a word, multidimensional. Now that we've briefly discussed the Metal person, let's consider another interesting type: the Wood person.
THE ON-TASK TYPE
Suppose your spa isn't a high-end destination spa but rather a respectable, economy-oriented day spa located in a middle-income neighborhood mall. In such an environment, a Wood person might be the better choice as a concierge--or, in this case, as a receptionist. Your clients probably have time constraints and are visiting your spa because of the convenience and basic services you offer rather than their need to be pampered into a transcendent state. A Wood person might be an excellent employee in such a venue, and for several reasons. The Wood archetype is the "go-to" person. If your business requires a less complicated or less formal person, Mr. or Ms. Wood is your best hire. The Wood type is at his or her best "on task," and doesn't feel spiritually unfulfilled by providing a basic service--or by having to perform additional, less glamorous tasks. That's because Wood people are unadorned, unpretentious and tireless. While a Metal person is more likely to direct his or her psychic energy downward into the depths of self-revelation, the Wood person is more likely to use it to propel him- or herself forward on a mission.
Wood people are often found in jobs where conflict is endemic. In fact, while they don't necessarily generate it, many of them find personal fulfillment through contention; they make excellent attorneys and legislators. They're also comfortable facing the continual onslaught of customers in retail situations. That's why you often encounter them in intense, high-volume face-to-face jobs. Large metropolitan areas offer excellent examples. If you find yourself in New York City, you might take a taxi to Zabar's legendary deli on the Upper West Side, on a busy weekend morning. Once there, you might take a number and linger in the middle of the noisy, crowded store, waiting for your turn in line. "Neeext!" comes a commanding voice, cleaving the air and causing a momentary hush. Your number has been called, and probably by a Wood person. The dynamic, colorful character behind the counter will likely be quite helpful but, in the effortless Wood style, he or she will also make it clear who is in charge…and it ain't you.
While Wood people may adeptly manage the flow of "the masses," they also have a capacity for managing those whose behavior is distorted by alcohol, drugs or mental disease. This may seem illogical, considering the innate capacity of the Wood person for contention. However, a highly evolved Wood person is one in whom the ability to strategize and forestall is well developed. In fact, the capacity for strategic design is a traditional hallmark of this energetic type. If a disruptive person enters your business and creates a problem, the well balanced Wood person will set them straight without equivocation and, if need be, eject them without insult or spite.
FOUR-POSTER FIASCO
In a work environment animated by interfacing jobs, it's best to get input from other employees when formulating qualifications for a new hire. The book, "Hiring and Keeping the Best People," gives us a situation in which a hypothetical company decides to hire a product designer:
"The design director wants a seasoned individual who has gained extensive design experience at one of the firm's toughest competitors. The head of finance prefers a bright new (and more affordable) college graduate. The marketing director is pressing for someone with marketing experience in the kinds of product lines the company currently offers. Meanwhile, the new hire's immediate supervisor is looking for someone with 'people skills.' Pity the poor job applicant who walks into this situation!" (2)
Failing to predetermine the type of person needed for a particular position can lead to disaster. Recently, I received a distress call from a human resource director at a major internet technology corporation. A team of technicians that she had assembled was on the verge of mutiny and she was in a panic. It seemed the mutineers were dissatisfied with their project manager, a man whom she had recently hired for the job. Who, I asked, was this man and why was he hired?
Said the human resource director, "There were more than a dozen applicants, all of whom were fully qualified: Ivy League grads, all of them. These kids were chomping at the bit, eager to get out and conquer the world. They were all terrifically educated but I needed something more."
"So, why did you hire this fellow? How was he different?" I asked.
"Well," she said, "when I asked him what his hobbies were, he told me he was a carpenter. He designed one-of-a-kind furniture. This fellow not only designed and built each piece, he carved it as well. He carved figures from the Italian Renaissance, you know, maidens and unicorns. How interesting! Everybody else I interviewed was interested in skiing or skydiving or partying in Las Vegas. They weren't suited as project leaders, not for supervising a group of eggheads. This young man's unique hobby showed me he was serious about life; he was detail-oriented and fastidious: perfect qualities for the kind of project manager we need." There was a pause and, with a guilty tone, she continued. "Anyway, I needed a new four-poster bed, one that was unique."
"Well…yes. And you should see it. So beautiful. The boy's got talent."
"What happens if you fire him?" I asked.
"I simply wouldn't do that," she said. "I just need him to stop making his subordinates hate him."
"Well then, fax me his picture," I told her, "and maybe I can help."
"There's a photo of him at the company picnic," she said. "I'll take it off the bulletin board and send it to you."
As the photo slid from my fax machine, a young man's face appeared. While he would be considered handsome by anyone's standards, his features clearly suggested the cause of his team's discontent. The face was nearly a perfect square, which marked him as an Earth type. While his prominent, square chin showed leadership possibilities, his jaw line flared at a suspiciously wide angle, suggesting stubbornness. His high, narrow nose, small, round eyes and less than generous lips, suggested an overly fastidious character. A mole to the left of--and below--his lip spoke of ruthless decision making, a tendency to value ideals without accomodating human feelings. What's more, one could assume from the confluence of his features that, while he may not be noisy about it, he was a bully and had problems identifying the personal boundaries of people around him. No wonder his subordinates were on the verge of mutiny.
I called the human resource dierector. "Move him to another department or you will lose your other employees," I told her.
"I was hoping I could just have a talk with him and get him to change his behavior, to lighten up," she said.
"There's no point trying to change him. There's nothing wrong with him. The very qualities that make him a gifted artist are the ones that make him a lousy project leader. His overbearing fastidiousness, his obsession with detail and unwillingness to compromise: these are important aspects of his talent. They make him a great carpenter and a talented sculptor. Unfortunately, while wood doesn't rebel at being carved up, people do. Don't bother talking him out of his talent."
"What should I do?" she asked.
"Move him to a detail-oriented task where he can work independently, since he doesn't need supervision. It's that easy." She thanked me and showered me with praise, none of which I deserved. I had merely followed the advice of Sun Tzu in his 2500 year-old text, The Art of War:
"Tactics can change in infinite ways to suit changes in circumstances."
INFINITELY SIMPLE
It's important to remember that virtually on one is a pure energetic type. Unlike the simplified archetypes described here, human beings are infinitely complicated and energetically blended. Each feature is augmented or tempered by various others. For this reason, practice is needed to sort out the many visual clues that will provide a realistic forecast of behavior and capabilities. Used properly, Chinese Face Reading will bring you a new appreciation of people and their personalities, allowing you to employ their talents wisely for your mutual gain.
1. Lillian Glass, Ph.D., I Know What You're Thinking: Using the Four Codes of Reading People to Improve your Life (New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2002), 28.
2. Harvard Business Essentials: Hiring and Keeping the Best People (Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation 2002), 6.
