There's always going to be an ongoing debate on whether attitude or skill should be prioritised when choosing the right person for a task or job. In general, I believe that most people that I ask nowadays would, without hesitation, say attitude.
However, I've made some major mistakes in my recruitment in the past, purely because I prioritised a person's attitude, enthusiasm and passion rather than his or her skillsets. A few months down the line I am unable to confirm the person because the work delivered is consistently not up to par (although the person is still working hard and committed). I would extend that person's probation period and set milestones for improvement, and interestingly, more often than not, they would still not be able to make the cut months down the line.
It perplexed me greatly because, in my perspective, if a person was committed enough and took sufficient ownership, any task or skill that did not require a 'specialist' could be learned up over time. Of course there were those that came through and became very good employees later on but more than half just didn't work out.
One day when I was mulling over it and I realised that I had approached relationships with the same mindset; I approached them with the perspective that if two people were committed, they would always work things out no matter what till death to us part. And although there is some truth behind this statement, it took me awhile to realise that compatibility plays a major part as well - two entire incompatible people would suffer a lot of unnecessary heartache trying to make things work over the long-term and may be better off releasing each other.
The same thing applies for work as well. There needs to be compatibility in three main areas: attitude, skills and culture. The attitude of a person determines whether there is a proper level of commitment and ownership for a certain role, the skills (and potential to learn skills) determine the basis of knowledge and capability to get the job done, and the culture also needs to be congruent with the organisation's vision and corporate culture.
However, I do concede that the most important of these three is attitude. When all is said is done, in most situations (if not all), a person with great passion and little skill accomplishes far more than a person who is highly skilled with low motivation, especially if the job involves working with people.
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