“An intelligent person hires people who are more intelligent than he is.” Robert Kiyosaki in Rich Dad, Poor Dad.
“A” players only hire A+ players
You’ve heard the term, “marry up. For example, my friend Steven married up. He married someone of a higher social class than himself. When it comes to hiring, “hire up”. Only hire people who are better than you!
“Good people hire people better than themselves. So, A players hire A+ players. But others hire below their skills to make themselves look good. So, B players hire C players. C players hire D players, etc”. Guy Kawasaki
Here is another quote from Steve Jobs.
“It’s too easy, as a team grows, to put up with a few B players, and they then attract a few more B players, and soon you will even have some C players. The Microsoft experience taught me that A players like to work only with other A players, which means you can’t indulge B players.” –Steve Jobs
Lazlo Bock, Google’s VP of people says the same thing. “Hire only people who are better than you,” he says. “Organizations often act as if filling jobs quickly is more important than filling jobs with the best people… it is an error ever to compromise on hiring quality. A bad hire is toxic, not only destroying their own performance, but also dragging down the performance, morale, and energy of those around them. If being down a person means everyone else has to work harder in the short term, just remind them of the last jerk they had to work with. Hire by committee, set objective standards in advance, never compromise, and periodically check if your new hires are better than your old ones. The proof that you are hiring well is that nine out of ten new hires are better than you are. If they’re not, stop hiring until you find better people. You’ll move more slowly in the short term, but you’ll have a much stronger team in the end.” Lazlo Bock in his book, Work Rules!: Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead.
Don’t be a B player and who will hire C players. Be the A player who hires A+ players.
The type of people you hire, say what kind of leader you are.
An Ancient Hiring Lesson From Pharoah
Egyptian history, the mummies, the pharaohs, etc. is en vogue here in the West. Well, when we talk about A players hiring A+ players, we have to mention the famous Egyptian pharaoh who ruled when the Israelites first moved to Egypt, decades before their slavery began.
History records that Pharoah discovered a talented and gifted young Israeli leader called Joseph, who was more capable than the Pharoah himself. Joseph was an excellent leader. He was full of amazing wisdom. Everything he touched turned to gold. Joseph had such great insight and vision that he could interpret dreams and see the future. Talk about visionary leadership! He foresaw the nation going through several years of good times where the nation would flourish followed by a period of great famine, an economic crisis that could destroy any economy at the time. He saw clearly when no one else in Egypt could.
As smart as he was when the Pharaoh met this young leader, He didn’t focus on the fact that he was a foreigner or the fact that he was a slave. He must have thought to himself, a visionary leader who can foresee trouble years ahead and plan for it? That’s exactly the kind of person I want setting the course and steering the ship of my country into the unchartered waters of destiny.
Pharoah wasted no time. He hired Joseph on the spot. He did something that no pharaoh in history had ever done and probably none since that had ever done. He made a foreign recruit the most powerful person in his empire, second only to him. Because this Pharaoh did what no other Pharoah did, he got the results no other Pharoah has ever gotten.
Boy, was Pharoah right with his choice of Joseph to lead his country! With his supernatural insight, Joseph made some strategic choices that not only positioned Egypt to be the strongest empire at the time when the famine was ravaging the entire known world. Joseph made Pharoah more powerful and wealthy than any other Pharaoh had ever been. By the time Joseph was done, Pharoah had bought all the land of Egypt except land owned by his priests.
I give credit to Pharoah, a great historical example of an A+ player. Pharoah was humble enough to not be threatened by a young leader with such great insight. Many managers today are not like that. They try to protect their own interests by hiring people who won’t compete with them or take their place. By doing so, they shoot themselves in the foot.
