What does that mean?
The best candidate in your hiring pool is 10-100x better than the 2nd best choice.
Meaning, if you don’t get ‘your guy’ because you see it as a cost, not an investment. You’re really doing yourself and your organization and massive disservice.
And I hear you coping right now just like I heard players do it, so let me address an example that will make this point clear.
Linemate Cope: Power Law in Action
Take 3 high school linemates. Even though they all have similar points in the stats columns, one has more goals by a lot. He’s getting USHL scouts talking to him. The 2 other players on his line keep getting talked to by NAHL, tier 2 Canadian teams, and even tier 3 teams.
When August of the following season rolls around. 1 is playing in the USHL. One is a fringe NAHL player and one is playing tier 3 in the US.
The two linemates that ‘played with’ the USHL player will say at some point, “Why am I not in the USHL, I’m just as good as him. We played on the same line in HS and put up similar points.”
The bottom 2 players on the line don’t understand the power law of people.
And then they cope and try to defend their ego.
So do organizations that hire the shotgun way.
Shotgunners See Cost, Snipers See Investment
DMing with New Wave Coach, Kevin… He dropped this gem:
He brings up some major talking points:
The downside of settling has 2nd and 3rd order effects and hidden costs down the line
The downside of losing ‘the best people due to the power law far outweighs them advancing for more pay
Snipers see investment, Shotgunners see cost
After he sent this message, my brain jumped to Fergus Connolly.
Fergus is big on two things when it comes to hiring:
Smaller backroom teams with wide breadth of problem solvers that are dedicated to solving them
Responsibilities not roles
In a 2020 Zoom talk with Cody Royle or in his books Gamechanger or 59 Lessons… Truthfully I haven’t found the quote yet but it’s been stuck in my head for 3 years regardless if I wrote it down or not…
To paraphrase so I don’t do the exact quote an injustice, Fergus said something to the effect of:
“Pay 1 person that possesses range, the salary of 2 people.”
Snipers see the value. Snipers see people as their biggest investment. So Snipers pay you above what you’re worth and then you strive to evolve and be worth more.