You know Beyonce’s song “Single Ladies?” My favorite lyric is, “If you liked it then you should have put a ring on it.”
What in the world does that have to do with hiring talented teams?
It reminds me of the #1 most common mistake that leaders make when they begin a process to hire somebody. They fail to put a number on what “success” means.
Excuses I’ve heard include, “You can’t put a number on what this person would do. It’s intangible,” “How do you put a number on customer service?” or “I think that if you put a number on it, you are never going to exceed that number.”
Well, my mentor Peter Drucker would have disagreed with those excuses. Drucker is called the Father of Management. And one of his most powerful ideas was the term he coined “Management by Objectives.” What was true last century is true today—the more clear you are about the goal you are trying to hit, the more likely you are to hit it.
For all the leaders out there: When you start a process to hire someone, put a number on it!
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