The challenge for managers is to hire the future not the past. Most hire the past and try to up-skill it. They hire continuity. They adopt contingency planning to cope with change. They hire motivational speakers to increase "engagement" in their workplace. They assign bonuses to those who hibernate inside the comfort of their cubicle. They spend more and more on "for purpose" systems because they are incompetent when it comes to hiring and retaining real talent.
An alternative strategy is to "hire dreams and discipline". Talent comes with a precious combination of dreams and discipline. These people bring the power of imagination to mundane tasks everyday. They prevent problems because they perceive them as possibilities before they begin to infest a workplace. Then they have the discipline to act on preventive solutions long before most of the people in the workforce are even aware that there is a crisis brewing.
The hidden issue is incompetence. Incompetent people form clusters, cliques, tribes, and group-think mobs. Talent with "dreams and discipline" can not flourish in such a toxic culture. So the talent leaves; they "fire" themselves as they move on to take up better opportunities.
Hire dreamers with talent and your workplace will thrive. When a workplace has genuine talent it a destination for more talent who seek purposeful work not a free lunch or time to play games. In the end talent with dreams and discipline hire themselves and attract their equivalents. They are productivity magnets who produce top line revenue at minimal cost. And then they move on and promote the workplace that nurtured them and thus they ensure that they are replaced by their high-quality peers.
If you hire "dreams and discipline" you will become a legendary boss with your work colleagues and with your own bosses. Then it is time for you to move on.
Richard
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