When Leaders Show You Who They Are…The Importance of Background Checks

By
“I’ve learned – that credentials on the wall do not make you a decent human being.” – Paul Presley***

Past Behavior is a Predictor of Future Performance

The above statement was shared with me when I was learning the job of employment specialist when I started my career in human resources. It is a fairly universally utilized and understood term that hiring professionals know well. The statement “The best predictor of future behaviour is past behaviour”, has been attributed to numerous individuals ranging from from psychologists, Albert Ellis, Walter Michel, and B.F. Skinner, to writers, including Mark Twain. Paul Meehl, an American psychologist, is one who actually explored the idea in depth.

While it is a gross oversimplification, psychologists agree that past behavior is a useful indicator of future behavior but only when behavior is Frequent, because habitual behaviors are more predictive than infrequent behaviors; you are looking at short time intervals; the anticipated situation is essentially the same as the past situation; there was no corrective action or negative feedback and the person basically remained unchanged.

References Give a Snapshot of Past Behavior

The reason we obtain references from a person’s previous employer, landlord etc. is so that we can determine how well they might perform in the future.

When we interview someone for a job or, yes, a leadership opening, or even when we are considering someone as a tenant for a rental property, our goal is to get someone who is dependable, reliable, responsible and who can take care of whatever needs to be addressed to keep things operating smoothly. We check their references because we are not sure if when they say they will do good, they actually will. After all, most people are trying promote themselves during an interview, so of course they will speak well of themselves and their abilities. So even if they know they are poor performers, which they rarely recognize, they are not going to say so.

That’s the good thing about references. They can be helpful. Without them, we are groping in the dark, hoping for a win.

So when President Barack Obama initially ran for the office of President I’m sure we all realize how much he was vetted… no, scrutinized… before the Democratic National Convention chose him as the democratic nominee. One would think they would look into the individual’s background, academic, political, employment and personal history before choosing that individual. That’s a presumption on my part. Not something I can prove without much digging but because he is African American we can safely assume that to be the case… why? Because historically and statistically, people of color are usually put through much more stringent scrutiny than their white counterparts before being given positions of power or authority…. Mmmm, actually people of color are put through much more stringent scrutiny than their white counterparts before being given any position, whether there is power and authority or not.

Discriminating Practices in Background Checks

A 2017 study conducted by the Harvard Business Review showed continuing patterns of discrimination in hiring practices and that such discrimination has gone unchanged since the 1990s. They were able to affirm through attitude surveys the fact that overtly prejudicial beliefs have declined, and that Americans overall have increasingly embraced diversity and inclusion, however, they further state:

“…assessments of subtle forms of racial stereotypes and measures of unconscious bias have shown little change over time. The vast majority of hiring is subject to very little oversight, and compensatory policies that address racial bias reach a very small fraction of hiring overall. Together, these trends offer little support for optimism about racial progress in the United States. While some people may assume that discrimination has declined over time, through increasing diversity in institutions along with other cultural changes, it seems as though, at least in terms of hiring, this expectation doesn’t meet with reality. We believe that our results provide a strong rationale for affirmative action policies and point to the continuing need for the enforcement of anti-discrimination legislation.”
So what about the 45th President, Donald Trump? Would we assume that he went through a rigorous background check, inclusive of employment, academic, political, financial, legal and more? The answer seems to be a resounding NO!

When Someone Shows You Who They Are

Unfortunately, for the highest office in the land, the most important position who presides over the most powerful position in the world, not much vetting is done for presidential candidates in the United States of America. From what I could find, the vetting process is left to the media. Thankfully, most journalists take their jobs seriously, because what they (we) dig up is what the American public receives on the candidates that are presented and American voters get to decide whether or not to employ the individuals based on reporters’ assessments. It’s a WOW moment! It’s almost laughable.

An in-depth background check of the current president might have shown us what most background checks are intended to reveal: Work ethic, strengths, weaknesses, again, how dependable they are, how reliable they are (there is a difference, which we explored in “What No One Tells You About Reliability”), how they leave a job and whether they are eligible for rehire. Since his candidacy began and throughout his presidency, we have gradually been given horrifyingly clear particulars about his psychological, financial, physical, emotional, educational, interpersonal, business and family background, most of which would have all but eliminated him from the presidential run, long before he would have ever been given nuclear clearance.

“When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.”
– Maya Angelou

So what might we be thinking America? People who apply for housekeeping, laundry, phlebotomy and any other health care job go through all kinds of pre-employment scrutiny. I would not recommend hiring anyone, without checking references in any industry. Positions that handle sensitive information, financial information, medical information and other key areas are subject to a myriad of background checks and reviews. Law enforcement at all levels are investigated in numerous ways which includes employment history and references, character references from family and friends, credit history, criminal record, drug abuse, military history, driving record and any falsification of information on the application will disqualify a person from being hired. And I can’t find one ounce of evidence that we do any such review for the position of the President?!

In the mid-1990s, even former President Jimmy Carter, who was concerned about the lack of at least one level of evaluation and review, pressed the idea of creating a panel of physicians who would routinely evaluate the president and decide whether their judgment was clear and mental capacity up to par. His concerns were featured in the December 1994 issue of the “Journal of the American Medical Association.”

A Fordam Law Democracy Clinic article, states the Supreme Court has said that Congress and the states cannot add qualifications for congressional candidates beyond those in the Constitution. The Constitution states that the president must be at least 35 years old, a naturalized citizen, and a U.S. resident for at least 14 years. As important as it may be, successfully passing a background investigation is absent from the list. To add such a requirement would likely be an unconstitutional addition to the “qualification” list.

Then we take into account the reality of discrimination and bias that exists against people of color, women, persons with disabilities, sexual orientation etc. Couple that with dirty politics and the American people might not have ever been given the opportunity to vote for a Barack Obama or a Hillary Clinton or been given a vice presidential candidate by way of Kamala Harris.

Can The Highest Office in the U.S. Be Vetted?

I am of the opinion, where there’s a will there’s a way. I am sure we can find a happy medium between the current journalistic investigation and a standard probe into the background of a serious candidate. As the Fordam Law Democracy Clinic article supposes, it could be instituted at the time of the primary debates, or the Federal Election Commission could request the check from candidates when they declare their candidacies, imposing a $10,000 fine on a candidate who is not willing to cooperate. To reduce the risk of discrimination, and increase the need for fairness and inclusion practices, there would be a requirement for the background assessment and assessment panel to be conducted by a highly diverse group of individuals, who have been highly vetted themselves. Oh what common sense will do.

Concluding Thoughts – You Know Them By Their Fruit

I think highly of the value references and background checks can bring when placing people in positions of importance. Tradition served us fairly well throughout history in this country, in that most presidential successors adhered to American political customs, but we see times and people have changed. Tradition was put to the test and we failed.

I also strongly believe in the reality of scripture and how it gives guidance to how we live can live our lives in ways that yield greater wisdom and success. I’ll close with proof:

“You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits.”
Matthew 7:16-20

Kind Regards!
C.
Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

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