How often have I heard clients say they know within two minutes if someone is good for the job and then back it up with “and I’m not often wrong?” What they are really saying is “I know when I see my reflection”. And they are not often wrong - chances are they have been living with it for 30 years or more. We like people who are like us. Speak the same way. Behave in similar ways. Approach work in the ways we would.
Mistakenly leaders too often recruit their second-in-command on the basis of similarity. And that escalates to the point where it isn’t unusual to get an entire senior management team that resemble each other. They speak like each other, behave in similar ways and go about business in a familiar way.
What’s wrong with that? Well nothing if you want to continue being what you are and doing the same thing as you have always done as a business. But then not many businesses survive without recognising changing times and moving with changing markets.
The very best business leaders that I have met are secure in themselves enough to know that they can’t be everything for every purpose. They recognise the need for people who are different to themselves and who view the world differently. They have the courage to take an objective view of themselves and their management team. They understand that they need to manage different people in different ways.
With our help they can profile their team and identify exactly what is needed in a person to make it work to maximum efficiency. It isn’t expensive when you factor in the cost of getting it wrong. But then I don’t think cost is the deciding factor when it comes to recruiting the right person. I truly believe that the courage to recognise fully who you are and what makes you tick plays a large part in this.
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