Have you ever made a mistake of gargantuan proportions? About 20 years ago I was trying to fill a critical role on my team. I had interviewed 4 candidates with no progress, and was getting a bit panicky. In front of me was Candidate 5… a person with an impressive resume who displayed charisma and confidence throughout the interview. By all outward measurements, the decision to hire him was a no-brainer.

However, during the interview, I had serious internal misgivings about this guy. Call it intuition, discernment… whatever… I blew by those internal warning signals and hired him. Big mistake. In six months he nearly destroyed my team, and I ended up firing him. How could I have missed so badly on this hire? I could list a number of reasons… but the biggest contributor to this mistake was ignoring my internal jerkometer.

Your jerkometer is the internal, intuitive measuring device that helps you discern jerky people. The jerk-count is proliferating in our increasingly dysfunctional world. Developing the ability to spot them before they hurt us will spare us a significant amount of grief. We need a finely tuned jerkometer to protect ourselves.

Let me suggest 4 indicators to pay attention to on your jerkometer… jerky people are:

Hypocritical

A disconnect exists between what they say and what they do. They don’t practice what they preach. When you are making a personnel decision, or a personal relationship decision… if something does not ring true or your jerkometer alarms bells are sounding off… pay attention. Jesus warned us to “watch out for wolves in sheep’s clothing.”

Hostile

Jerky people often hide their hostility behind a veneer of charm and charisma. But  just beneath the facade lies a volcano of mean-spirited behavior and verbal abuse. If someone abuses you verbally… and tries to soften it by claiming “I was only joking”… your jerkometer readings should signal danger.

Hollow

Jerky people talk a good game but can’t back it up. They make promises but never deliver. They are self-promoting hype machines… but when it’s time to produce… they come up empty.

Horrible to be around

Jerky people see life through a negative prism. They are experts at criticizing you… but refuse to lift a finger to help you improve. You always feel worse about yourself when you’re with them… whatever you do is never good enough. They are awful to be around.

Jerky people are hypocritical, hostile, hollow… and horrible to be around. Identifying them before they victimize you is challenging because their charisma and charm often mask their intention to injure you. Pay attention to your jerkometer… and you’ll decrease your risk of making a mistake of gargantuan proportions.