Trust someone to do something they haven't done before
As an employer, I have hired many smart, self-motivated people fresh out of college with limited experience and had an amazing experience trusting them to do their work well, even if they are doing it for the first time. Many employers similarly do not have too much qualms entrusting these eager 20-something year-olds with over-sized responsibilities despite their lack of experience. Yes, they need supervision and guidance, but empowering them helps them take responsibility, learn on the job faster and better, which leads to favorable outcomes for the company.
When employers start hiring higher up the ladder, oddly, their past successes in entrusting those with less experience don't carry forward. There is a tendency is to look for experienced people who have done certain specific tasks several times over in various jobs. It's almost like all they want is to have the person copy the homework from their previous job over rather than doing critical strategic thinking to determine if anything they've learned before should be thrown out the window or used in any way. Although it feels risky and scary, it's likely a safer bet to select someone smart, with initiative, who can figure it out while they are doing something for the first time. Such a person is truly thinking through and engaging the problem rather than applying old solutions that may not address the problem squarely.
A company seeking a seasoned person to take on a new job but doesn't actively encourage doing new things for the first time, is:
Steve Wozniak, founder of Apple once said "All the best things that I did at Apple came from...not having done it before, ever. Every single thing that we came out with that was really great, I'd never once done that thing in my life."
This is a really great quote for employers to keep in mind, whether they are hiring people in entry-level positions or even C-level employees. Innovation comes from not having done certain things before. Many companies seek the perfect hire who can think strategically and out-of-the-box, yet, when they hire, they rigidly seek to find a person who checks all the boxes of things they have done before, which is in contradiction to the spirit of the person they desire. It's no wonder that some companies can literally be looking to fill a role for over a year and not find that "purple squirrel". These self-imposed roadblocks do not enable the firm to discover the right people who thrive on decisive leadership with flexible and expansive thinking. In fact, a Harvard Business Review article actually suggests that firms should not hire the perfect candidate.
A case can certainly be made for the person who can find new strategies for growing your business because he or she comes from a different industry and looks at your issues under a different lens that enables them to solve your problems. Their resume may look nothing like what you'd imagine.
It certainly appears on the surface that a hiring manager is doing the right thing by being prudent and hiring someone with all of the requisite experience. But I'd challenge the hiring manager to actively look to trust someone who seeks to solve problems they have not solved before. The results may be surprisingly better than you had ever imagined. And remember to apply Steve Job's advice: "It doesn't make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do....hire smart people so they can tell us what to do."
When employers start hiring higher up the ladder, oddly, their past successes in entrusting those with less experience don't carry forward. There is a tendency is to look for experienced people who have done certain specific tasks several times over in various jobs. It's almost like all they want is to have the person copy the homework from their previous job over rather than doing critical strategic thinking to determine if anything they've learned before should be thrown out the window or used in any way. Although it feels risky and scary, it's likely a safer bet to select someone smart, with initiative, who can figure it out while they are doing something for the first time. Such a person is truly thinking through and engaging the problem rather than applying old solutions that may not address the problem squarely.
A company seeking a seasoned person to take on a new job but doesn't actively encourage doing new things for the first time, is:
- not enabling the person to learn and grow, which can lead to person to become restless and leave sooner than you'd like
- having the hiring manager assume the strategic functional thinking intended for the candidate who has domain knowledge in that space and hiring someone with specific skills sets to implement a prescribed way when in fact another way maybe optimal
- shooting themselves in the foot by selecting a person who likes to play it safe, which can hurt the company when some risk-taking is needed to differentiate and propel the company forward by proposing to do new and different things...yes, doing things for the first time.
Steve Wozniak, founder of Apple once said "All the best things that I did at Apple came from...not having done it before, ever. Every single thing that we came out with that was really great, I'd never once done that thing in my life."
This is a really great quote for employers to keep in mind, whether they are hiring people in entry-level positions or even C-level employees. Innovation comes from not having done certain things before. Many companies seek the perfect hire who can think strategically and out-of-the-box, yet, when they hire, they rigidly seek to find a person who checks all the boxes of things they have done before, which is in contradiction to the spirit of the person they desire. It's no wonder that some companies can literally be looking to fill a role for over a year and not find that "purple squirrel". These self-imposed roadblocks do not enable the firm to discover the right people who thrive on decisive leadership with flexible and expansive thinking. In fact, a Harvard Business Review article actually suggests that firms should not hire the perfect candidate.
A case can certainly be made for the person who can find new strategies for growing your business because he or she comes from a different industry and looks at your issues under a different lens that enables them to solve your problems. Their resume may look nothing like what you'd imagine.
It certainly appears on the surface that a hiring manager is doing the right thing by being prudent and hiring someone with all of the requisite experience. But I'd challenge the hiring manager to actively look to trust someone who seeks to solve problems they have not solved before. The results may be surprisingly better than you had ever imagined. And remember to apply Steve Job's advice: "It doesn't make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do....hire smart people so they can tell us what to do."
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