Hiring Athletes

A colleague once noted that I tended to hire "athletes" rather than "position players" - that I chose personal performance attributes over specific experience within a position.

In retrospect, I think he was right.

After all, in my experience, I've seldom hired someone into a job that they were expected to have for a very long time. Even technical positions (at least in my experience) get rotated to provide growth opportunities for staff or to increase depth at a specific position. So to me, it always seemed appropriate to hire "athletes".

Athletes are people who possess that "spark". They're people you want to work with. They smile a lot. They're bright and energetic. They look you in the eye. The very best "athletes" have one additional trait.

They're curious.

They ask a lot of questions. They wonder how things work. They need to know why we do things the way we do. They have a built-in desire to improve things and an energy level to make it happen. They'll come up with three ways to do address a problem, not just one.

To carry the athlete analogy further, baseball manager's love "utility players" - players who can perform well at many positions - not just the one they were hired to play. It allows managers the flexibility to "tune" their lineups - moving players into positions to allow for more right (or left) handed batters depending upon the opposing pitcher. If a position player goes into a batting slump, a utility player can easily be substituted to improve offensive power against an opponent.

Hiring athletes, at least in my experience, provides the employee with a potentially wider range of experiences and improves your team's strength and flexibility to adapt to challenges.

Next time you need to fill a vacancy, ask yourself, "Is this person an "athlete?" If the answer is yes, hire them.