"Hiring Potential vs Hiring Experience"

Yesterday I sat down with the directors of a business to discuss what the next 12 months may look like for them.

Yesterday I sat down with the directors of a business to discuss what the next 12 months may look like for them. Interestingly, a large part of the conversation drifted towards a particular employee they had hired close to a year ago. This individual was originally brought into the business with the vision of eventually growing into a leadership position.

The individual had strong values — loyal, wanted to do the right thing, cared about customers, genuinely wanted the business to succeed. And honestly, those qualities are becoming harder and harder to find. But at the same time, there were also frustrations — office tensions, lack of implementation, difficulty converting discussions into action, growth not happening at the pace originally expected.

What I found refreshing though was that the directors did not spend the meeting simply pointing fingers at the employee. Instead, they looked inward as well. They openly acknowledged that until now, their approach had largely been giving the individual space to find their own feet independently. Now the conversation has shifted towards more guidance, clearer expectations, stronger KPIs, better use of internal resources and more involvement from leadership.

That level of ownership from leadership is honestly not something you always see. I think sometimes businesses forget that not every good employee arrives fully developed for the exact role they were hired into. Some people require mentoring, exposure, patience, structure, confidence and leadership involvement.

Of course, this does not remove accountability from the employee either. At some point, implementation, ownership and results still need to happen. But I do think there is something very powerful about businesses that are willing to first look inward before immediately looking outward. Especially in a world where replacing employees has almost become easier than developing them.

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