Big tech layoffs make the news. But the headlines don’t reflect the norm.

In fact, most companies are struggling to find employees. Which leads to a greater struggle to find good managers and leaders.

This isn’t likely to change any time soon. There are a number of reasons why I believe this. But the most significant is simply that Americans have been having fewer children for decades.

It doesn’t feel like a modern thing to say. But we need more people.

If you are interested in deeper insight into why it is so hard to hire – and more importantly – specific, tested strategies so that you can hire – click here.

The biggest bottleneck for growth: Inadequate leadership

An organization’s growth will be choked if they don’t have the right leaders in place when they are needed.

This is one of the most common reasons for why record-breaking years can crush some companies. They grew beyond their leadership base. As a result, they made too many mistakes, burned people out, and lost credibility.

Nearly all my clients are looking for leaders. Understandably, many are tempted to “fast track” people with insufficient skill or experience.

At times, this is necessary. When you need people, you need people.

But when done badly, it creates problems. Ineffective or prematurely placed leaders chew people up. Instead of making everything easier, they make everything harder.

This is a tough situation. But it is better addressed when things are smaller than when they are bigger.

Here’s the point: It’s worth taking the time to build and place good managers and leaders. It’s worth investing in their growth and development.

It’s very expensive and difficult to fix poor or premature choices.

A Rule of Thumb for Identifying Potential Leaders

Whether hiring, promoting, or building, there are three areas that you should look for.

Character: Can their decisions and behavior be trusted?

I begin with character because this must be screened for. While a full-grown adult can grow and change their character, they rarely will. It’s not a safe bet to hope they will. This is particularly true for leaders.

For people who have a basic foundation of character, you can (and should) model its application. You can help people mature. Many leadership decisions have to do with conflicts between values – or two “right” things. You can teach people how to navigate those.

At a minimum, character means two things: Do they act with integrity and do they treat others with respect? A compromise in either will create problems. Expensive ones. You can plan on that.

Additionally, their character should align with your organizational values. This reinforces and builds your company culture. It makes the company easier to manage.

Managing a misaligned leader is time-consuming and exhausting. You can never trust that they will make the kinds of decisions right for your company.

Character on your team allows you to sleep better at night. Trust is a wonderful thing.

Ownership: Do they act as if they are responsible for what is around them?

Ownership combines responsibility, drive, and accountability into one tight little package.

Any decent leader feels a sense of responsibility for whatever and whoever is in their sphere of influence. They will be internally driven. You don’t have to figure out how to motivate them. And they want to be accountable and keep others accountable for performance and behavior.

Anyone placed into a leadership or management role should already demonstrate some level of ownership.

Ownership can be grown. But it must be modeled and encouraged. It can’t meaningfully be developed otherwise.

Poorly defined expectations are the most common cause of poor ownership among leaders. The second most common cause is a lack of encouragement for both effort and success.

Define your expectations and acknowledge the effort made towards them.

Technical Skill: Is the person able to do the job?

This seems obvious. But I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve seen someone hired for a position they didn’t know how to do. While some jobs lend themselves to on-the-job training, many don’t.

Managers and leaders need to have the technical skills required for the job you are hiring them for. Not the job they used to have.

I most often see a need for leaders to grow in:

· Financial literacy

· Management tools (usually software)

· Meeting management

· General management skills (conflict resolution, expectation setting, communication, problem-solving, etc)

If they don’t have the skills they need now, ensure that a training plan is in place and that they complete it. If they don’t want to learn the skills, they aren’t right for the role.

Choosing and Building

Select for character. Screen for and model ownership. If you can choose technical skills, do so – otherwise plan to train for these.

You are building a house of cards if you stack your management and leadership team with unaligned and unqualified people. Very soon it will stop supporting growth and you’ll spend all of your time fixing things.

Take good care,

Christian

Did you miss it?  Catch my interview on the rebroadcast of the Shrimp Tank podcast, the #1 Entrepreneur podcast in America, here: https://fb.watch/iGjOKwU5g-/

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗔𝗻 𝗘𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗰𝘆 𝗦𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝗻 𝗶𝘀 𝘽𝙚𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗡𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗜𝘁.

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I’m passionate about helping leaders to create workplaces they love going to and increasing the value of the services they offer. My results-oriented approach is tailored to each client’s specific situation and needs.  As a leadership coach, I have developed a wealth of resources to help you and your team grow and become stronger.

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