‘Recessionistic Thinking’: We Want to Hire Great, but Nobody is Good Enough …

In his book, “Winning“, Jack Welch alludes to the following, of which I completely agree (and not just because it’s how I make my living):

* Hiring Good People is hard.  Hiring Great People is brutally hard. *

But there’s an elephant in the room, and it’s a big problem if you ask me.  Here it goes: It’s my personal observation that Hiring Managers, in this economy, tend to judge 99% of talent as “Good”.  If a candidate has 99 of 100 of the Hiring Manager’s wish-list bullet items, they’re only Good?  Hiring Managers often misconstrue “Great” (5-star talent) as only “Good” (4-star talent) on the premise of a simplistic, Draconian, philosophy:  ‘If an employee wasn’t retained by their current organization, then by definition, they can’t be Great’.

In some cases, this is true . . . but not all.  Frankly, this sweeping generalization doesn’t work in the worst economy since the Great Depression (at least according to the World Bank.)

So given this competing paradigm, here’s my own medicine for elitist Hiring Manager thinking:

*** Mr. or Mrs. Hiring Manager, the time has come for you to get up off your ass and man up to your leadership responsibilities.  The time for excuses is “so 2000 and late” (hat tip: Fergie Ferg).  As a Hiring Manager, it’s your job to hire Great Talent, and when you can’t (due to timing issues and/or opportunity cost), it’s your responsibility to develop Good Talent into Great Talent.  That’s the bottom line, and if you don’t agree, hand over your Coach-hat and carry this clipboard over to the sideline where you belong. ***  And if you’re an Internal or External Recruiter, you’re not abdicated of responsibility here, either.  It’s on you (and me) to inject some reality into conversations with Hiring Managers, and frankly, we need more consultative salespeople and less “Yes-Men (and Women)” manning the Recruiting function.

Just imagine what a conversation between a C-level Exec and a VP of Sales & Marketing would look like if the VP said, “Mr(s). CEO, I regret to inform you that we didn’t meet growth objectives this quarter because I have yet to find a Great candidate for that particular job.  I can’t do it all myself, and as a result, our performance and share price went down the tubes, but I’m hoping a great candidate will fall out of the sky this upcoming quarter!”  You know the rest of the conversation – the filler; the loser language of “shoulda-beens, coulda-beens, and next-times.”

I’ll tell you where that VP would be — on his way out of the building, riding on the back of the security golf cart, practicing his best “Welcome to Walmart” voice in preparation for his upcoming greeter interview.  And you know what?  That’s where the former VP should be . . . because you’re either a player in the game or you’re not.  And if you’re not, your days of riding on cruise control are about to be in the rear view mirror of “remember-whens.”