You've hire top talent - let them work!!!

Over the course of the last two years (basically at the onset of the recession where some great talent became available to the market) I’ve been asking two questions. The first question was to some top talent individuals; in essence, how is the new position going? The second to business owners, GMs, hiring managers; how’s the new employee going?

From the employee side, and these are keen folks I’ve known and worked with, understand their abilities, their dedication, their ability to make it work, I hear over and over again:
- It’s a one man battle and I’m expected to be the front line, reinforcements and supply.
- There’s a bunch of lip-service, I’m the only one biting into any of the tasks.
- Management can not make the tough decision(s), they look me to make them but don’t like the fallout.
- Lack of structure, support.
- Keeping getting told to not get absorbed into the ‘rut’, stay fresh.

From employers I’m hearing, and it’s not just one employer or about one employee, it’s a disturbing pattern:
- On paper and in the interview process was perfect, but he/she can’t win the staff over, they get lip-service from the staff (peers) but no real buy-in.
- They can’t implement the change required.
- They don’t understand the culture, they’re upsetting the current balance.
- They’re not ‘joining’ the team, they stand out, not entirely accepted.

When I first started hearing this I thought it was a bit of whining, some coincidence, personality mismatch, but there is a pattern, there is a trend and there is a problem.

Business owners have to realise a few key things:

One person is not going to solve the problem or address all the issues – not when you are hiring them at a manager or directors level – especially when you have not given his/her peers the same mandates for their departments. If you are telling the organization it’s status quo and then telling the new hire to make this change, make that change, increase this, decrease that, you are setting them up for failure. The organization is a living, breathing, interconnected mechanism. All the pieces have to work together.

There is a reason they accomplished so much prior to coming to you. I would venture to say it’s mostly due to their intelligence, drive and ability, but they did have the tools, structure and support needed to get things done. In hockey terms you’ve hired a great goal scorer but if he has no one to feed him the puck, no one to block a check and a goalie that lets every other shot on net in, your start scorer will never win you a game.

You’ve hired them for their ability, their know how, the fact they’ve done it before – use them to help transform your organization, help them get other managers on board to the changes, address the issues with managers that resist the change. Support these guys/gals and you’ll see they’ll go above and beyond to make things happen. Yes, they are the types you can put in a sink or swim situation (and they’ll swim) but you can’t expect them to survive if you throw them to the sharks. Think about how you won them over to join the organization, what you said that got them to join – they knew you had issues – but they saw the potential, help them unlock it.