SparkPilot blog

I came across this blog post yesterday; it is by F. John Reh and titled Hire Talent, Not Just Skills – http://management.about.com/b/2009/07/06/hire-talent-not-just-skills.htm.

It got me thinking about how hiring the right person can solve both the short term and also the long term challenges that the business is facing.  Even the most talented candidate will require time to acclimatize before they can work on meeting the business needs.

However even with someone with immense talent, in addition to time, it takes an investment from the manager to provide the candidate with regular coaching sessions and also ensure that the opportunities are provided for the candidate.

I have seen managers totally ignore this responsibility and as a result not only does the company lose because it takes longer for their investment in the talented candidate to mature.  The candidate also loses because their career does not progress as they expected, which often creates a negative perception about that company.

The candidate is not without responsibility in this equation.  The candidate needs to evaluate both the managers and the company culture on growth.  After the candidate has joined, they now need to manage their growth and totally embrace the opportunities presented.

I recently had a conversation with some managers regarding their hiring criteria.  They were looking at candidates that could fulfill the role that was advertised. I presented them with a different perspective that has caused much followup discussion.

In the graphic above, the yellow dot indicates the work capability of the team.  The blue dot is meant to indicate the expected contribution of candidate.

In this graphic, the green dot indicates another candidate with what we expect to be able to contribute more than the blue dot.  Bringing someone into the team that is capable of a higher level of work output also tends to raise the output level of the whole team.   One of the people that benefits significantly from this addition, is the team manager.  The higher the level of the people on the team, the more the manager can delegate, thereby allowing the team manager to expand into other areas.

Therefore simply by bringing in a more capable person into the team, the productivity of the team expands beyond the yellow to include both the yellow and the orange.  And over time, it will only increase.