If you want to unseat your competitors and take your business to the next level, you need to hire people with high potential (HiPo). HiPo employees are individuals who can enter any market or economy and consistently outperform their peers. These employees are the ones who will be ready to tackle anything as long as you give them support, respect, and encouragement. And ironically, they are often the ones most overlooked in traditional hiring processes.
What makes HiPos so outstanding? An instinct for action, incredible resilience, and strength of character.
Instinct For Action
Forget the fancy degrees and polished résumés—an “instinct for action” trumps a pedigree every time. You need people who jump in and get things done without being told.
I came across the term “instinct for action” in Daniel Coyle’s book The Culture Code.1 To me, an instinct for action is the ability to respond quickly and effectively to obstacles or challenges. People with an instinct for action are those who jump in and tackle things head-on, rather than hemming and hawing about it. People with an instinct for action don’t fall prey to paralysis by analysis. This doesn’t mean they’re reckless. It means they’re proactive and decisive, and they’ll move on when others are still scratching their heads.
Resilience and Character
Resilience and instinct for action are kindred spirits. In the resource-constrained start-up world, you need people who can sniff out issues or chances to get ahead and actually do something about it.
As an evidence review report on research about employee resilience by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, the professional body for HR and people development, determined: “Although resilience has mainly been developed to look at major events and strains in our personal lives—for example, recovering from the loss of loved ones, or physical or psychological trauma—the construct transposes well to our day-to-day working lives.”2
In Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things, Adam Grant states, “The true measure of your potential is not the height of the peak you’ve reached, but how far you’ve climbed to get there.”3 He shines a spotlight on people who have achieved great success despite a lack of resources. His book emphasizes that character skills—determination, proactivity, and discipline—are more important than cognitive abilities.
“Character skills”—the kind you can’t learn in a classroom—are your secret weapon. Someone who’s overcome real adversity will outperform someone holding a big-name university degree and who has experienced a few hardships nine times out of ten. I believe those who have faced and overcome adversity often develop the strongest character.
A Must-Have for Small Companies
Small companies need all-hands-on-deck players. Someone who’s too anxious to work outside their comfort zone will sink your ship fast. You also need people with a deep sense of accountability if you want to see company growth, especially when cash is tight.
People who possess the innate ability to jump into situations are truly gifts, especially in small, resource-constrained, rapidly moving companies. Likewise, those same employees stand to benefit tremendously in these types of environments because they are allowed the opportunity to be challenged in positive ways. The win goes both ways.
Larger companies may pay higher salaries and offer more benefits, but they may also limit employees to the specific lanes in which they work. It can be very challenging, if not downright frustrating, for people with a more entrepreneurial mindset to be pigeonholed into a specific department.
Bottom line: Find the hungry folks with fire in their belly. They’re the ones who will help you scale, even if their résumé isn’t a traditional standout. How do you do this? That’s what we’ll be discussing in the next blog!