One of my sons has his first crush. My son is a scrawny small-for-his-age middle schooler that I find adorable, but he is not attracting much attention from girls just yet. He is part of the ensemble cast of a
local youth production of Beauty and the Beast and has his eye set on the show’s
star, the gorgeous, charming high school senior cast as Belle (aka Beauty). I have every confidence that someday, my son will be quite a catch, but for now, as cute as he is to his mother, he does not stand a
chance with Belle.
I will not discourage my son from aiming high. However, if he was a client approaching
hiring from this same mismatched perspective, I might caution him.
This is a hard
thing for me to say because I believe in reaching as high as possible. If I am conducting a search on behalf of a
company, I want to find the best person the company can possibly hire and
sometimes this means hiring someone based on what the company will become
rather than what it is today. But that’s
a fine line to walk and must be done carefully.
One of the most critical factors in hiring the right person is having a clear understanding of the company. This is so basic that it almost seems
patronizing to say it, but I cannot tell you how many times I have been able to
recruit someone away from a company because the company had been misrepresented in the interview. The betrayal that the employee feels is not easily overcome, if ever.
I have witnessed many hires go wrong not because the candidate did not measure up to the standards set for the position,
but because the company had been described inaccurately and therefore, the
person ended up not being a fit.
Invariably it is a culture issue.
Not necessarily in terms of personality but in terms of things like values,
priorities, management styles within the company and relationships. The misrepresentation was not intentional. The principal
players really did not know critical things about their own company and culture.
Often, it has to do with companies not knowing their
dysfunctional patterns and the new person unwittingly threatens to expose the
dysfunction, causing discomfort. It’s easy to target the new person as the problem rather than to address
the dysfunction. This is one of the reasons why companies sometimes become revolving doors.
I think a lot about how to find the right person for a startup
team. In startups or small businesses, a
ton hinges on the CEO. The right fit will
largely be determined by the CEO’s personality, leadership style, abilities,
weaknesses, quirks. There is NO way
around this.
Some of the smartest CEOs that I know hire people to
compensate for their weaknesses. In
order for this to happen the CEO must be self-aware and have a healthy
ego.
In helping a client CEO review her hiring process for a key team
member, the CEO described the type of person that she wanted to hire: innovative, driven, a
high level of initiative, self-motivated, creative. But the way the job was set up, there would
be very little latitude for making decisions or determining how to approach a
vital aspect of performing the job. The
CEO no longer wanted to manage this particular area of the company, but she
didn’t want to give up control over how it was run and had created very tight
parameters within which the person would function.
It was clear that this otherwise brilliant CEO was not truly ready to hire the
type of teammate that she described and was having a very difficult time finding
candidates as a result. Eventually, she decided to hire a much lower level
person with the hope that the person would grow into the job as she learned to
trust the new team member and could hand over more responsibility. Fortunately, before it was too late, the CEO recognized that she was not as ready to relinquish control as she thought
she was.
Hires are much more prone to go wrong when the CEO is not
self-aware. It is hard to be self-aware
without feedback. In this particular
case, I was able to help the CEO see the mismatch between the description of
the person she wanted to hire and the job she was ready to have the person
perform. In this case, I believe that
the discrepancy between the job and the requirements would have prevented the CEO
from hiring someone for the job as initially described, but this self-awareness
saved her from beating her head against the wall in making the attempt.
If you are a CEO, what are your sources of feedback, both
personally and about the company? Are
the people on your team allowed to be brutally honest with you about their impressions without fear of
repercussion? Do you have a source of candid and accurate feedback concerning your strengths and weaknesses from people that are aware of
how you work? Do the priorities and
values that you think you operate with match how your priorities and values
play out in reality? Do you have a handle on your company’s culture and any
discrepancy between the current reality and your vision for the type of culture you want to create? Do you have ways of measuring company performance
beyond the financial statements? Do you
know how your company is perceived externally?
If you want to hire successfully – and by hiring
successfully I mean that the people that you hire thrive while helping
you to build a great company – then one of the most important pieces of advice
I can give you is to make sure that you know really know yourself and your
company. Have feedback mechanisms and reality checks in place. Be fearless in knowing the truth. It is not what you know that hurts you. It is what you don’t know.
I think it's great to not discourage aiming high - it's similar to the philosophy of think big. At minimum it's a learning opportunity, perhaps for your son relating to heart and letting go, and perhaps for her - heart and kindness.
ReplyDeleteThis scenario reminds me of a recent situation - a girl who I have had a big crush on, who would be Belle, though there are lots of beautiful people on this planet - this girl I thought had something special about her. It doesn't seem she used this to learn a lesson on heart and kindness though - she was indirect, dishonest, and overall mean - which then made the lesson even bigger for me; Perhaps she will still learn that her behaviour was unkind, though I realize if she's not on that path of realization / holistic self-improvement then it's not likely going to happen - because if you're already securely on a certain path you've attracted similarly thinking / behaving individuals, and so they will be your social network, your socializing group, your peer support, etc. - who will reenforce those behaviours.
Breaking free from a group of people with one type of thinking (say shallow) into another group (say holistic, more understanding and compassionate) is probably the toughest lesson to learn, and toughest old patterns to break free from; Everyone could learn at the same time which would be the best case scenario, though then you really need someone strong to facilitate and support this process.
Some learn social lessons highschool, some have good role models when they're young and learn immediately as they hit those situations - and so don't form a strong guard - which leads to needing to overly control your environment around you, getting locked into patterns - not being fluid, which being fluid would mean you're in more of a management role than controlled.
I think this is why most of my friends or people I like to associate with have always been older. Everyone my age is still learning and working through their own crap - wherever that may be. I still catch myself at times making assumptions about people - and if in a bad mood and not watching what I say, then I might voice it to a friend - which I consider to be gossip - a mistake, though aware so I will continue, as I do, do always be present and actively trying my best; It's part of the process that everyone needs to go through, which is why compassion and understanding is so important, knowing that everyone will be at different points of their own evolution / development.
Relating to developing and evolving, I'm working on evolving into being a solid CEO - though the questions you pose are difficult for me, as I've never really worked for other companies to see . I do know how I like to work, and how I work well / best - though with an organization that will be large, it will need more organization - though early on or even in the future I'm unsure if what I envision now will work; Distributed teams who can work where and when they want, so long as they get the work done? Perhaps with regular times to get together to show the work you've completed, bring questions to the table - and then brainstorm together? I also like people working on their own things, things they are interested on personally - a hobby project - and hopefully of course equally or more passionate about the work they are doing for the company. I don't have the contrasting examples yet to feel secure in one way or another.
Anyway, back to your son and Belle. I'm sure you'll be a great guide for him - really you just have to tell him what you said here, and that there are plenty of other fish in the sea. ;)
Wonderful post - was a great read!
Thank you, Matt. It is not having all the answers that counts, it is knowing that you don't have them and compensating accordingly.
ReplyDeleteI anticipate that your self-awareness will carry you a long way. In some ways your lack of exposure could be an advantage -- less that you have to unlearn. But you will probably need advisers, mentors, etc. A few people who have been around the block but didn't bring the block with them. Some of the ideas that you shared in your other message seem along these lines.
Accidentally hit reply too soon -- wanted to say that I am excited to see what develops with your venture. Lots to look forward to.
ReplyDeleteThis is a fantastic post and I've made this mistake before, though I made it in reverse. About six years ago, I hired several low level people with the idea that I could give them some training, hand them responsibilities, and they could grow into the role that I needed but had very little budget for.
ReplyDeleteI still remember when one of my advisors said, "You're smart, but you know what is going to absolutely kill you?"
That stopped me dead in my tracks. "What?"
"Your naive and idealistic belief that anybody is capable of doing any job if you just train hard enough and they just try hard enough."