Scaling Out - Mentoring for Consultants
Scaling Out - Mentoring for Consultants
Hiring People Smarter Than You
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Well, lets talk about hiring and feelings. What would keep you or one of your managers from hiring the best candidate?
Welcome back to my podcast Scaling Out!
The last three episodes were all about unicorns, those employees who are so awesome but yet so rare that we have named them after a mythical creature. What if you don’t have a unicorn? What do you then?
Well, lets talk about hiring and feelings. What would keep you or one of your managers from hiring the best candidate?
Recall the Weakest Link podcast where I talk about the team is only as good as the weakest team member. Just hiring incredible resources from the start nullifies this whole discussion. But I have seen the fear in manager’s eyes when they KNOW that an employee is better than they are. This emotional response can really screw with the business. It also REALLY screws with the employee, because the manager is no longer interested in helping them along their career path b/c it’s better than their own.
So a few things to think about as you reevaluate any negative emotions you might have when hiring:
1. The manager & contributor play different roles. Both roles, manager & contributor, have different objectives for the organization. The manager does NOT have to be the ultimate expert in everything that their team does, and the manager will free themselves up for MORE management opportunities if they allow the contributor the space to become the expert.
2. Managers, with all the responsibilities given by HR, is responsible for career development. It is SO exciting to help lift up each person to a hirer position in the company. Sure, that might mean they leave your team but they are expanding your own network outward & they will remember the mentoring/advice while pushing to continue their advancement.
3. Unicorns lift EVERYONE up! If the team is successful, more work will appear than you can shake a stick at. The more work, the more value you are providing your company. The more value you provide, the more bonus/raise/promotion budget you should get to distribute to this incredible team. The more incredible people you hire, the more managers your team will need to manage them. This just means huge growth for the entire team & a promotion or two for yourself to continue to handle the growth!
Emotions are always in play in business and when they get involved in hiring things can go poorly. Evaluating your own emotions in your communications and decision making will give your team a calm confidence that logic rules emotion. Maybe Star Trek’s Spock is a good model here, but why don’t we go into that more next time.
Until then, Stay Safe Everyone!