When hiring new staff for your business, how often do you recruit with a view to recruiting leaders of the future?
I was at a networking event last week at MMU (“no really Carole – you …networking?? Don’t believe it” I hear you say) Actually I hosted an event at MMU for the Chamber this week. But at the event last week we heard from one of the authors of “Uncommon Leadership” – a book written by Phil Higson and Anthony Sturgess (who is at MMU) and they talk about how leaders spot things that are common sense – BEFORE they become common sense.
So think WAP phones – the first time they were launched they flopped – right idea just a little ahead of its time. 18 months later they flew.
I think back to when I suggested to my then boss that we should be doing internet recruitment at Computer Futures and put myself on an internet course to learn all about this brand new unknown technology (mid 90’s) and her response was – “The Internet – that’ll never take off”
Leaders see what other people don’t see. They have vision and they are not afraid to take risks or challenge the norm. Later on – when they have launched their “thing” and it succeeds – everyone else says “well that was just common sense” in a “it was bound to happen” kind of way. But actually it wasn’t bound to happen – someone saw the future they wanted and went and created it. Or they saw an obvious gap in the market and filled it.
They had uncommon sense – which then became common sense. These are the people to look out for in your business or when recruiting and interviewing. These are your future leaders.
On exactly that note – we believe we have just launched something which in years to come will be seen as common sense.
2 big problems clients have with recruiting is paying a big fee upfront and what happens if the person leaves. At beResources we have just launched the facility for clients to pay over 6 or 12 months with an associated protracted replacement guarantee.
I think that’s common sense – but no-one else does it. So maybe its uncommon sense – we will have to wait and see. Let me know what YOU think about our new idea.
Thanks for the feedback
Till soon