Like any philosophy or strategy, many of my principles, values, hows, etc. are easily linked together. Some are simply conveniently tied…but others nearly require one another. My first how “hire for attitude, aptitude and transferable skill” nearly requires you to have more belief in those that you hire than they do. By the act of hiring folks with those characteristics, you are often projecting that they can grow and become more skilled than they are today in a way that aligns with the role you are offering. That fundamental belief is foundational to leading them to success.
The sentence “believe in others more than they believe in themselves” may sound obvious enough (and it is!), but it does have some unspoken components that are just as important.
#1: The belief must be founded in reality and not blind optimism or plain old hope. The concept here is that once you’ve determined that a person has the requisite skill to do the “thing” that you are entrusting them to do, their attitude, aptitude, and transferable skills will propel them to succeed. I am NOT advising that you think “you know what, Steve is my best friend and I think he could be a fantastic CMO even though he has never worked in Marketing nor has any domain expertise…he is really funny and does have good ideas about things I may like online.” It is fantastic to believe in your friends, but as leaders (and humans) we want to put people in a position where they have a chance to succeed without blind luck being the main strategy.
#2: The situation allows time for the the person you are believing in to ascend the learning/skill curve. Matching strategy and situation is always critical and even more so when you are aligning people with projects/roles. Using sports as a fertile ground for examples, you would be far less likely to hire a first time coach with limited experience for a team that is on the cusp of winning a championship. Why? The window to win in most sports is fairly limited, and you don’t want to risk the new coach’s learning curve cost the team victories/opportunities to maximize their title window. This doesn’t mean that it can’t be done or is never done…it means you have to be really thoughtful as you match people with opportunities. If you need immediate domain-specific results, think long and hard about using that area to bring in someone “stretching” into a role based their potential as you may be setting them (and yourself) up to fail.
#3: That belief must be manifested positively and not negatively in the form of pressure on the person you are placing your faith. This is a critical point in the leading of someone you are projecting into a role/project – you must be really thoughtful in how you guide them. In the majority of cases, folks understand that they are being given an opportunity that they may not be fully prepared for – they already feel some pressure. As a leader, you want to amplify what they do well and create as much rational confidence as you can while correcting but not dwelling on the shortcomings, since there should be some expected. The worst thing you can do is add pressure to someone who already could perceive that they are in over their head…it’s the equivalent of holding their head under the water they already feel like they are under. No benefit will come.
The benefits I have seen from this type of belief:
People will work really hard to prove you right when you take a chance on them. As I mentioned, most folks understand when they are getting to “stretch” into a bigger project or role. At their core, most people want to succeed for themselves and also want to reward confidence that others have shown in them. This doesn’t require a leader to continually point out the “chance” they took on someone…quite the opposite; show confidence and be encouraging when things veer off track and most people will give their all to make it work.
The results are often better than you would have predicted when you align the right person with the right challenge with the right motivation. Any time you are projecting someone into a role/project that is beyond their current level, you are hoping for a good outcome and often believing in it…but in my experience I am often either unable or unwilling to envision how well these things can turn out. Many people see a “stretch” as an opportunity, a vote of confidence, and a springboard to really show their capability. Simply stated…people flourish based on your leadership confidence and trust. As a leader, these are the moments I enjoy most.
Others will see your confidence and want to create or take similar growth paths. This really become the “halo effect” throughout an organizations. Ideally, the organization will see two families of benefit. Other leaders will see the successes you are having and say “wow! I need to give this a try!” They’ll be motivated to think differently about their teams and the opportunities/career paths they can provide. Beyond leaders, employees through the organization will begin to wonder and ask “why not me?” This should produce a flywheel of excitement to take on additional stretch work/projects/roles as people see the benefit for those who do and thrive. There is always a risk that some population will ask “why not me?” in a negative way…the upside is far more attractive than the grumbling is distracting for the vast, vast majority of an organization when it is well explained.
So how and why did I come to buy into this concept? Early in my career, both through situational necessity and opportunity, I had leaders that took chances on me and believed in me to accomplish things I had no business trying, let alone doing. A few examples:
In my first role out of college, a leader by the name of Jim Sullivan took a chance on me as I was failing as a Marketing Coordinator to move into an operational project role (completely made up as far as I can tell!). He entrusted me to work on a few projects he’d been thinking about but not pursuing (low risk with no immediate consequence). He gave me solid guidance, time to learn, and patience with my very timid and slow progress as I lacked confidence in myself, the subject matter, and my skills to accomplish the items. The faith he showed in me (even on low risk projects) helped me build confidence in myself that I could adequately jump into different fields outside of my college major, learn quickly & adequately, and contribute in a positive way. It was a completely transformative experience, even though it may have seemed like a small thing to Jim and the team at Design Ideas.
In my next role a few years later, the leadership team at Anderson News Company (Dennis Knisley, Art Foster, and John Styron) pulled me into more and more consequential projects for not just our team but our company and industry allowing me time and insight to build a fair amount of company and industry knowledge. This made complete sense for me and my role at the time. Where they really took a chance on me – they allowed me to start creating new and novel solutions to problems that existed. And then start building solutions to problems that hadn’t even been raised. All along the way, they took the time to encourage my ideas, focus me on what was important, and shape my ideas to sell within our company and industry. Their faith in me and my ideas (beyond just my ability to execute on the already defined work) really changed how I viewed myself as a contributor. Their faith in me helped me to believe in myself – that I was no longer just an order taker but someone who could (and should) speak up and contribute to strategy and our future. John’s willingness to let me venture outside of my original mandate was crucial. Dennis being so accommodating with my ideas (many of which were complete garbage) and free with his time were priceless – and his patience with me often working on things other than the ones he was most interested in (he was my direct boss!) allowed me to grow in ways many folks do not get the opportunity. My time and work with Art transformed me as a employee and a leader. He brought me into a small circle driving strategy, entrusted me to do some of the work, and encouraged if not required me to have (strong) opinions on what I thought was right and wrong. He was critical in teaching me how to be open to conflicting ideas professionally in an effort to find the best ideas but not ever allowing that to become personal. Each of these folks (and many others) created the environment for a career metamorphosis for which I will forever be thankful.
Later in my career, Don Yager at Mural took a chance on me to lead a large part of his growing company knowing that I lacked experience in several of the most prominent areas. During the interview process, I attempted to sell he and his team about where I could immediately help (maybe 33% of the role or less) and shared my enthusiasm about learning and growing into the other parts of the role. Don not only hired me, but was patient with me as I tried to jump through the learning curve on the original role. All of that was amazing as it was a role I really wanted to explore. But that was just the start – Don let me do many things that not only had I not thought of, but I wouldn’t have expected the opportunity to ever do. I was able to contribute to nearly every aspect of the organization and truly felt as if I was a partner in leading the company. Don consistently allowed me to grow and evolve, with patience and encouragement through my learning curves – and as importantly, he worked with me to avoid the areas that I wasn’t skilled, confident, or interested which would have made for terrible “stretch” opportunities – leaving me as a well seasoned and balanced leader who can speak confidently about nearly every part of a business. Our time together felt like career “graduate school” preparing me for anything that followed, which had you asked me at any point in my career prior I would not have believed to be a possibility.
These opportunities not only improved my skills, but the created and grew my confidence. Each opportunity (backed by people believing in me) helped propel me forward in my career to areas and roles that wouldn’t have been fathomable to a to someone from my humble beginnings and limited background. And these are only a few examples of a career and life of people betting on me when I wasn’t convinced I should bet on myself. For a guy who started as an accidental Finance major who was failing as a Marketing Coordinator, it was an amazing experience to evolve to do things like co-lead an entire company and create an Organizational Purpose which ended up even being shown on a TV commercial. None of it was possible without people putting their faith in me (rationally or otherwise!) to do things I had never proven I could accomplish. This is why I believe in my “how”. I don’t only think it can work…Im walking proof that it does, and nothing about me is particularly special – it’s a repeatable process.
As a human (and a leader), I’ve attempted to pay this gift forward and help others in similar spots in their career grow and thrive. I have found the practice rewarding personally, and seemingly very advantageous for those that I have been able to provide opportunities. As leaders, this is the responsibility we all have that comes with the relative “power” of our roles.
View from the Middle 