365QOD- Day1090

Future Perfect People

“When I hire designers, I look for future perfect people. Some people have the potential, but they haven’t had the opportunities. Their portfolios are full of mediocre work, but it’s not because they’re mediocre designers. It’s because they’ve been given mediocre opportunities.

A lot of future perfect people are stuck in current mediocre positions. They just haven’t had the chance to do their best work.”- Jason Fried, 37Signals

In past posts I argued that the hiring process is faulty.  Often as hiring managers we tend to hire copies of ourselves.  As I have said it before, that doubles the company’s strengths and doubles the company’s weaknesses.  So I would rather hire individuals that think and do different than me.  This gets rid of the echo chamber that a lot of managers enjoy.

So Jason brings up an interesting twist.  He bets on the employee being a ‘future perfect person.’  This is a dangerous bet but if you invest in people I believe he would succeed. 

I believe that the key is the investment in making sure they are not stuck in mediocre positions and are nurtured with guidance and training to elevate them to the ‘future perfect’ level.  Most companies fail in either or both of these aspects that lead to success.  They have rigid rules for promotions and or no training to help the employee succeed.  This is not a symptom at only small companies but also in large global companies.  The reason is that it is not a value to a founder/CEO and it never gets engrained in the culture.

Today’s question is:

“Are you a future perfect person stuck in a mediocre job?”