As one of the founders of a company that is entering it’s 4th year, I’ve had the unanticipated pleasure of attracting talent that is excellent. I mean, the caliber of people are super. Frankly, they’re better at my job than I am at my job. Jeff Stewart from Lenddo passed on some wisdom that I guess is “standard knowledge” of the start-up world – a CEO’s job is to replace himself, constantly. I’ve felt strongly that in the past year this has happened at D&T, and some top-talent hires have gone better than others. So here’s a few things I’ve learned along the way.
Here’s a few DO’s/DON’T’s for start-ups
DO’S
1.) Be Ready! Make sure you have everything ready for that person, a week before he/she needs it. No matter how talented, there’s always a ramp-up period whereby it’s important for this all-star has access to you and to their management team.
2.) Inform your people! Make sure your team knows that this person is awesome, and a much-valued team-member that will make huge/dramatic changes and improvements to the company. Living nebulous is dangerous for the new person, as the organization chart will shift drastically, especially in start-ups.
3.) Celebrate! Make sure you buy yourself a beer for building a business that attracts top-talent. That’s a mark of success – attracting capable people to business.
DON’TS
1.) Don’t compete! You, as the owner/lateral manager/legacy employee do not need to compete against the newbie. In my first hires, I felt like I was competing against the guy who was replacing me from my former duties. Moreover, I was steamrolling the person and just creating more havoc and work for everyone. Plus, I undermined the newbie’s authority. Painful less learned.
2.) Don’t take credit! You already are good at what you’re doing. Do those new responsibilities that you’re assigned to do well, and don’t take credit for the success of those below/lateral/above to you.
3.) Don’t get fired! This is a bit facetious, as a co-founder it’s pretty much impossible to be fired by a subordinate. But the figurative meaning is that you don’t just rest on your laurels, and gradually cede all responsibility/authority to those around you. Effectively kicking back, and letting others do the big work. You have important work to do, and the newbie was hired so you can do more of it, not less.
These are just some quick tips. Hopefully y’all feel they’re helpful. I’d love to hear back from the community and add to the list, so please feel free to comment!
This is some great knowledge for me to work with, thanks Tom.
Hey no problem Joe! Hopes this helps when working with your hugely-talented wife, Cari! 😉
Congrats on the new Dojo, btw!
Can I please also suggest you learn social and emotional skills. The absolute worst thing when there’s a disparity of knowledge and / or ability is the talent getting frustrated. Be sensitive to this. I’ll stick my neck out, and suggest it’s almost a maternal role, not a paternal role. At least try thinking that way. This does not mean condescending it means being protective of the emotional state of your hire. Super bright people who are truly engaged in a job simply want to get that done, and by getting that done, I mean so they can move more quickly to their own lives. What’s the point of being smart, able to do so many orders more work for a quanta of time, when you get nothing personal? Learn to spot these states, because they will happen, you will find your super talent is at some point, or even frequently, feeling they are held back by others, and they are at this time feeling their life is on hold, held to ransom by everyone and everything. That is a super bad place to go, because if you are the talent, you can make the mistake of starting to think everyone in the room is a idiot, purely because it is starting to impinge on your private life and you almost inevitably resent that. It need not be said how that can destroy a team. So, as a manager, be really alert to this, and if wearing your heart on your wrist works, or however you can empathise, use that not as remedy but as a means to gauge how you are doing. In a cold hard analysis, a job is there to get you what you want in life, and super bright people have a habit of giving their all to their work, but being disappointed. That happens to different degrees, but just assume it will happen, and sometimes being emotionally sensitive can make all the difference, rebalance tensions.
agreed, and I’d venture to say that your advice for the need for empathetic (or sympathetic – it’s splitting hairs…) skills is true for ALL new hires. Thanks for the additional insight. I only listed out a few Do’s/Don’ts, and I appreciate you expanding the list!
2.) Inform your people! Make sure your team knows that this person is
awesome, and a much-valued team-member that will make huge/dramatic
changes and improvements to the company. Living nebulous is dangerous
for the new person, as the organization chart will shift drastically,
especially in start-ups.
so everyone else can be jealous and hate them to? you are foolish.