This guy’s clearly the winning choice to solve this problem!
I love the culture-building side of leading a team. I love the team work and the camaraderie and knowing that I’m creating jobs for people where they get to do the kind of work they love to do every day.
In short, I love people.
And also? The whole reason I have people on my team in the first place is to solve specific problems I have in my business. As much as I love working with them, they simply wouldn’t be here if I didn’t have problems I needed them to solve.
That’s why when it comes to hiring, coaching, managing and...frankly...firing, you need to be crystal-clear about what problems each position is accountable for solving and what specific talents and skills a person in that position needs to possess in order to do those things. This clarity will help you to get the most out of your team while also setting them up to thrive.
In Geoff Smart and Randy Street’s book, “Who: The A Method for Hiring,” they say, “There is a tendency to gravitate to the best all-around athlete; you know - tremendous skill set, resume that is knock-your-socks off.” And they’re right. It’s so much easier to hire someone who can do a lot of things pretty well and just load them up with a variety of responsibilities. This is especially true when your team is small and team members need to fill multiple positions to get all the work done.
But as you grow your team, you’ll get better results when each person is more specialized in the problems they solve.
Let’s say I need to solve the “problem” of client retention. I post for the position and encounter someone who seems awesome. It’s clear to me through the hiring process that they’re a good fit for the company culture, they've successfully led teams and projects to impressive outcomes, and have demonstrated the ability to perform the main functions of the position. They even attended an elite university. Wow! What an opportunity to hire a rockstar employee, right?
After I hire this person, however, although they are a great fit for our team and culture, I begin to realize there are some issues. They seem to be getting bored with the repetitive nature of their role and they just aren’t giving clients that extra-special TLC I was hoping for. It’s not that they’re doing a bad job, but the problem still feels a bit...problemy.
What happened? They’re an A-Player, aren’t they?
Well, they might be...for a different position. (And if you can afford it, you might still want to hire them because A-Players are hard to find!) But we needed to solve the client retention problem with this hire. And they’re just not thriving in that position. I want to identify someone who is uniquely talented in solving that problem and that problem alone. Probably someone who…
Is process-oriented.
Follows through consistently, even if things sometimes get repetitive.
Is fulfilled by serving and helping people and determined to make their experiences better
Stays calm and kind under pressure
If I find someone exactly like this to fill the role, they’re going to excel at solving my client retention problem, even though they might not be the best at leading others or project management. (And they’ll LOVE doing it! Win-Win!)
Sure, an “all-around athlete” can probably do a decent job at whatever you throw at them but you’re leaving a ton of potential on the table when you assign responsibilities this way.
Matching your employees' unique talents to the problems you solve and taking the things that don't align off their plate...that's a gift. It gives them their dream job.