Vision attracts more talent than products

Simon Sinek talks at TEDx about his theory of the "Golden Circle" which codifies the simple rule that if you believe and communicate why you do what you do - people will follow your vision because they believe it too and not because they work for you. The product or service that you offer is just a vehicle that transports your vision for change or enhancement of your current situation which ultimately leads to success.

The goal is to work with people that believe what you believe, because ultimately that's whats going to be what attracts great candidates to work for you as opposed to somewhere else. Don't have your prospective candidates work you because you pay them the most, otherwise they will find someone who can pay them more; don't have your prospective candidates work for you because you have the coolest technology, otherwise someone will have something cooler; but have your prospective candidates work for you because they believe in what you're doing and you give them your vision.

Sure you need to hire the most qualified people you can find - with skills that are so sharp they can slice through any deadline or competitor's product. Just pay attention on how you hire this person who can hit the ground running - because you're setting a prescendant on how you will manage the rest of your team. Is it worth it to hire the rock that demands to be treated as such?

If you're comparing a candidate who is under qualified from a hard skills but sees your vision with one that has the hard skills but is working for your money - you essentially just hired a contractor. Hire the candidate that has a role they can grow into with a person they believe in. This is the recipe for building a successful team.

Simon repeats his goal in this video: "People don't buy what you do they buy why you do it." That message rings true with the people that work for you:

"Your team doesn't work for you because of what you do, they work for you because of why you do it."

Setting Realistic Hiring Expectations

If you're a company that's hiring you often think that there is a plethora of candidates to choose from and think that you're one of the few companies that are hiring “in this economy”. I follow up with you a month later and you still have that need available. You end up having to reshuffle your wish list to align with what's really out there. Why not start off with a wish list that reflects realty.

Here's our reality right now:

• Yes, we’ve been in a recession.
• Yes, there have been a lot of layoffs from large companies.
• Yes, those companies are hiring again.
• Yes, you need to be competitive on how you find, interview and hire talent.
• Yes, you need to this now.

The current state of the technology job market is high demand/low supply. Yet your list of must have skills reflects that of an economy that's low demand/high supply. You’re confused.

In other words, the amount of good talent available in technology is decreasing, the amount of job openings is increasing, but you think you have the pick of the litter. You have the perfect poker hand and no one else has anything better than a pair of two’s, so your wish list is almost impossible to find.

Unless you want your job to be open for 2 – 3 months (maybe more), you have to be realistic about your expectations. Ask yourself before you write up your job description: 

• The skills I’m asking for, are they Must Have skills or Nice to Have Skills?
• For the skills I’m asking for, am I paying market rate for them?
• How can I find this out?

You will never know the answer to these questions unless you actually interview people that fall outside your wish list. Do you really need this technology? If so, maybe you should interview the guy that’s 10K above your salary bracket – then ask yourself the same question: Do I really need this technology? Is it worth it? 

Evaluate what technology you need for someone to have up front, and what you can train on. I always suggest to hiring managers to see a portfolio of what the current market has to offer and you move past a wish list and start gaining momentum on what is really available in the current market. 

Remember: when you hire someone that doesn’t have all of the skills on your wish list, they know it too, and they want to learn those skills. Often they will out-work those that have everything.

Reshuffling your wish list isn’t about settling, it’s about making sure you turn all of the cards in your deck. The more cards you turn over, the quicker you’ll find that Ace.