How any Manager can win simply by hiring people who suit their style and objectives

Hiring people who suit your management style and hit team objectives matters more than any other skill

When I was first a manager, at 23, I inherited a team of senior people who had more experience than me and were much older.   Though my intentions were great, and I wanted them all to perform to the best of their ability, I did not lead them well.  I was out of my depth, didn’t build a relationship with them, and used intensity and high expectations to attempt to push them into performing better than ever before. The team, understandably, did not like or appreciate my approach. They were mostly generous and accommodating, though some left. Mostly, they quietly suffered from my lack of skill as a manager and generously worked with me to get through it together.

They were proven people with years of experience before I inherited them. My young, intense and activities-focused management style did not suit them and was inappropriate. I hadn't gained their permission to push them, they didn't share my objectives, and I did not communicate my intent.  Frankly, I wasn't skilled enough to lead them and was the wrong person to be pushing them hard.

A few short years later, however, I was running the 27th fastest-growing company in the UK, managing a very high-performing business.  This wasn't because I'd transformed as a leader, it wasn't because I was better at motivating, though I probably was. It was because I had a new team of people better suited to me.

Both teams were ambitious, smart and hard-working, but the new team, importantly, had all accepted a job with me on the basis they wanted to be pushed hard, and were inspired to work towards my objectives.  I was still not an overly talented manager. The people in the new team around me now suited my leadership style, were energised to achieve my goals.  They wanted the goal as much as me and were hired specifically because they enjoyed the hard work in reaching our goal.  I had little management to do, or opportunity to get it wrong!

Steve Jobs said, “The greatest people are self-managing. They don't need to be managed.” So what do they need? “A common vision,”.

Looking back on that time, the major difference was the people in my team, not my management of the team.  This is the same for all managers.  The most important management technique to learn is hiring people who share your objectives, engage with your leadership style, and enjoy the challenging aspects of achieving your goals. 

My management ability has improved significantly over 20 years, but even when my management skills were lacking, I was able to achieve incredible results just by being better at hiring.

As a manager there are multiple elements of management that demand attention. You could focus your personal development on several things to improve your ability and, therefore, your career. Thousands of books focus on optimising teams, organisations, and companies.  I have read hundreds of books on leading and motivating,  

developing people through training, management, coaching and goal setting.  Some are excellent and have helped me become a much better manager. 

No technique in any book however, matters as much as hiring great people.  All the elements of leadership that determine your success are downstream from the quality of hire.   

Nothing you can do as a manager of people will have more impact on your career than the quality of people you hire into your team.

If you, as a manager, are faced with a set of challenges and a difficult environment and business with very strong competition, you will be significantly more likely to be successful if you are leading a team of top performers than you are if you're leading a team of above average or average performance.

This is the same for inexperienced and experienced managers.

If you are a manager who is highly skilled, able to motivate, lead, develop, train, and set direction to an extremely high standard, when you do that with a top team of top performers, you will perform better than if you do it with a team of average or low performance.

If you're a manager just starting out in your career, yet to be highly skilled in those areas of management. Hiring a team was top performers is probably the only way you're going to outperform other managers who have more experience in you.

No skill you can learn is more important to learn than the skill of hiring better people.