Hire "Smart" And "Succeed".

Are you ready to hire a “Smart” person?

What does a “Smart” person do when hired? Will he/she live up to your expectations and prioritize issues, solve problems, set goals and achieve results in exactly the same way that you do?

Many who hire a “Smart” person fail to understand, that when you hire someone smarter than yourself, you need to acknowledge that you are not hiring a carbon copy of yourself, and you are going to be stretched by the capabilities and thinking of someone smarter than yourself.

A smart person’s perspective and approach to people, problems, activities, tasks and projects would be different, and in most cases better than how you do the same things. That means you need to have your ego in check and the humility to understand one or all of the following:

You may have to step outside your own bias and old perspective to measure a smart persons output.

An effort will have to be made to understand why the person is approaching problem framing, problem solving and people issues differently than the way you would.

The outcome of the work may be different so would the resources sought by the person.

The processes selected and prioritization of issues could be different.

You may have to forget your title and discuss issues logically.

You may have to understand and accept approaches through reason and open mindedness.

You may need to give them the freedom to operate the smarter way.

You will have to support them and get out of the way.

You may have to let go of control and build a new measurement mechanism than what you are used to operating with, knowing your old metrics may not be useful.

You may need to change your expectation of results.

You may need to understand that results may come in smaller or larger time frames than your expectations.

You may have to accept that the results may be different than what you were expecting.

You may have to accept that the smarter person perhaps framed the problem differently and found more new and valuable solutions.

Remember being “Smart” is not about intelligence, an exquisite memory or the ability to answer trivia questions and score highly on tests. Being”Smart” is about compassion, imagination, innovation, humility and appreciation. A smart person has an understanding that he/she is just a piece of this vast world, knowing that there is an ability possessed to do better and a will to do so.

Before hiring a smarter person prepare yourself, and be ready to be stretched, challenged and changed.

Darryl.I.Pereira