A colleague reached out to me one day asking if I'd be willing to meet with their spouse. The spouse was interested in making a career change toward the type of work my team was doing. I asked what their background was and the colleague responded that their spouse had a geology degree.
I was not on the hunt for a geologist. Full stop. But I'd worked with the colleague enough to spare an hour of my time for a cup of coffee with their spouse. I wasn't looking forward to delivering the bad news that this pivot was going to require another degree. (For the sake of the story, I'll refer to the spouse as the geologist going forward, though they spent very little time working in that field.)
I was immediately impressed with how the geologist presented themself - clear communication, authentic graciousness and a good vibe. They asked for more details about my type of work, listened attentively and followed up with intelligent, relevant questions. About halfway through the conversation, it was clear we'd developed a good rapport. As the geologist was walking through their work history, they shared an anecdote that indicated they were good at skimming through technical information and identifying the key nugget of information required for the task at hand. I poked at this and the geologist told me that this is a key skillset they picked up on the way to earning their degree.
The next day I greeted my office mate by saying, "I found the next person we're adding to the team. Oh, good morning by the way." My office mate was helping me build a new team from scratch and we were scrambling to find several more people. I had been focusing my search on people who had experience doing that specific role. The deeper I got into my conversation with the geologist it became obvious that they were exactly what I needed - a clear communicator who practiced curiosity, was detail oriented and could pull nuggets from pages of technical information. It also needed to be someone that could quickly establish a good rapport with a variety of stakeholders. Turns out, I was hunting for this particular geologist. Thank goodness I said yes to coffee!
The geologist? Star Performer. Within a couple of months on my team project stakeholders gave them the nickname of ninja for their ability to dig through data, identify a gap multiple reviewers had previously missed and propose a solution.
As humans, it's easy to fall into the trap of sameness. It's easy. It worked before, surely it will work again. Difference is uncomfortable. It requires us to put our thinking caps and exercise the brain. Sameness means that everyone is coming at the project from the same angle, which means the entire team has the same blind spot(s). Difference means that everyone is coming at the project from different angles, covering each other's blind spots.
When it comes to building a team or bringing in a new team member, I start with a basic set of questions to make sure I'm not boxing myself into a corner I'm going to regret later:
- What's the ideal skillset needed? - Build enough teams or hire enough people, you're bound to stumble across the occasional unicorn.
- What's the absolute minimum skillset needed? - In my line of work, it's easy to fall into the trap of thinking I need someone with the exact skillset and experience of the person that filled the role previously. Often what's needed is someone with foundational education and experience in one of multiple areas who can problem solve, think critically, practice curiosity and work collaboratively,
- Who's available with transferable skills? - Often there is someone who'd jump at the chance to stretch themselves in a new way that has transferable skills. This could be internal to the organization or an external candidate with non-traditional career path.
- Is an expert absolutely required or could the project benefit from an injection of beginner's mind energy? - We've all checked our own work and missed mistakes because we know what we expect to see and so that's what we see. A fresh set of eyes can be very valuable. Countless times I've seen junior folks as a question about something that didn't make sense to them only to have the team realized that the person just identified a collective gap.
In my line of work, there's a traditional path most people take. I came in from a different route. Many years ago, someone saw my skillsets and gave me opportunities that set me on the path to where I am now (Hi Dan!). In the years since I hired my geologist, they've gone on to do things that neither of us could have imagined at the time.
When have you benefitted from thinking outside the box? Is there something on your plate that could benefit from a fresh perspective? How can you encourage your team to consider a different approach?
I'd love to hear from you. Please comment below or send me a note via the Connect section of the home page.
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