Why Leaders Avoid Hiring Top Talent
People are 90% of your success.
You know it. I know it.
Every business coach, advisor, mentor, and guru knows it.
So, question for you: Why aren’t you bringing in top talent?
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I define “top talent” as those A players who will do a great job in the role they are hired to do.
It’s not just executive-level people. You can have top talent in any position in the business
You also need to calibrate what top talent means for your business. It does NOT mean the most expensive person you can find. That person may actually be too far ahead of your company to make the best contributions.
But that does lead us to one of the main reasons people don’t bring in top talent:
It costs money. Especially if it involves creating a new role you’ve never paid for before.
Many business owners balk at the idea of dipping into the company’s hard-earned profit. They aren’t certain that the investment will be worth it.
(Well, intellectually, they know it would be. But they aren’t certain that THEY can make the investment worth it. That’s fear talking.)
A few other reasons you might not be bringing in that top talent:
You aren’t sure what a senior leader looks like. You’ve grown and stretched into your role, and others around you have done the same. You haven’t had enough exposure to a different kind of senior leader to fully realize how that experience might be different.
It might not work out. Top talent also has a failure rate - higher than any of us would like. If you bring in somebody, and they fail, it’s expensive. It’s tumultuous.
It’s also part of doing business.
You’re too focused on specific requirements. The parameters you’ve set for someone make it extremely difficult to find the right hire. You may not need someone with industry experience, or a past with one of your competitors. Those limitations might be, well, limiting.
You aren’t sure you can lead them. This one is applicable only at the senior level. Deep down, you may be afraid of not being the smartest person in the room. Could you guide someone who might have more experience than you?
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These reasons may all be perfectly rational. At least, that’s what I tell myself - because I experience some of the same challenges.
The problem is this: while your excuses may be rational, they aren’t helping you solve your problem.
In the meantime, your organization doesn’t have the people it needs to accomplish the things you want to do.
You’re missing that person, or people, who could catalyze change.
And you lose a lot by waiting.
Underneath all of these reasons is one thing: fear. Fear that things won’t work out, fear that you’ll set your company back, fear that you will fail.
I can’t make those fears go away. I wouldn’t even try
There is a risk associated with bringing in top talent. There’s risk associated, frankly, with anything you do in business.
So my suggestion is this. Figure out what you’re afraid of.
Then use whatever skills, tools, or people you’ve used in the past to take action—even if you feel fear.
Until you move beyond it, you can’t see what might be waiting on the other side.
All the best,
Need help evaluating your next hire—or talking through why you’re putting it off? Setup time with our consulting team.
