Because I’ve been unhirable for the last 3 years, I write an awful lot about hiring.
Here’s a mental model I came up with whilst in conversation with my podcast partner and all-around good guy, Mikhail Bryan.
A recent lightbulb from an old case study of mine, the Chicago Steel.
They are an endless case study.
The Ryan Hardy Hire
I don’t have the podcast saved, but I will link a few that he’s been on at the end of this article. On one of the podcasts, he tells the story of how he was hired as GM of the Steel.
He was offered the position 3 times by owner Larry Robbins.
He said no the first two times and then accepted on a last-ditch effort.
Larry Robbins used the sniper approach.
The sniper studies the movements and tendencies of his target, does research on everything before deciding when and where the best place to take his shot is.
The best people already know who ‘their people’ are before they hire them. They ID and then bet ‘all in.’
When you’re willing to get the best people by any means necessary, you have conviction. When you have conviction, you have what you need.
The Shotgun Hire
To take the sniper approach, you often have to ‘invest’ heavily into that asset.
AKA, you have to pay the man more than the going rate in your league.
But, that investment will return more than you ever paid in salary.
Most aren’t willing to go there…
Instead, many organizations operate from the opposite approach and get the opposite results that the Steel get.
6 coaches in 6 years.
Finite-minded organizations are shotgunning their hiring. Spraying and praying one ‘hits.’
Limping into your bet on a person. Instead of throwing your entire pile of chips, you throw them one or two chips at most.
You get lucky one year with a guy you hired, you make the playoffs and then he ‘advances’ the following year to:
get out of that messy organization while his stock is high
get a pay raise because he can’t live a 2nd year on the salary you’re paying him
Then your next 3 coaches stink it up, you fire them before they can get their sea legs and repeat this process until you get ‘lucky’ again.
That Vince Lombardi guy said famously:
“Hope isn’t a strategy”
We are going to talk more about that in the next post… See you then. Sign up here so you don’t miss it.
Hardy Pods: