We all desire to grow our organizations. We want to see business thriving, people excited, and customers happy. Yet, we self-sabotage our businesses by hiring too small.
What’s hiring too small? It’s when we try to prevent great talent from entering the organization because they’re better than us. Their skillsets dwarf ours. We’re intimidated by their education. We see them as a threat.
I believe we have to hire bigger. What does that look like?
Hire Bigger
David Ogilvy talked about hiring bigger. He knew the importance of bringing in people who know more, share more, and have more connections than he does. In turn, that means we should be looking to hire bigger.
Ogilvy wrote something profound in his bestselling book, Ogilvy on Advertising. Ogilvy ran an advertising agency that he transformed. He and his partners made the agency into a global powerhouse. How did he do it? He said they created one of the most powerful advertising agencies by doing the following:
“When someone is made the head of an office in the Ogilvy & Mather chain, I send him a Matryoshka doll from Gorky. If he has the curiosity to open it, and keep opening it until he comes to the inside of the smallest doll, he finds this message:
“If each of us hires people who are smaller than we are, we shall become a company of dwarfs. But if each of us hires people who are bigger than we are, we shall become a company of giants.”
I want you to go back and re-read what Ogilvy said. It’s powerful. It’s transformational.
Ogilvy and his associates knew the power of hiring people who were smarter, faster, and better than they were. They did their best to instill the value of hiring bigger, hiring better than themselves. They knew they had to encourage their leaders to do this.
So, what did they do? They did the following to hire bigger.
Give a gift:
Ogilvy gave his staff members a Matryoshka doll. For those who don’t know, a Matryoshka doll is a Russian stacking doll. You’ve probably seen the dolls but don’t know the name. The dolls contain a small doll nestled within increasingly bigger dolls.
They didn’t tell the person who was getting the Matryoshka doll to open it. It was up to the new head of the office to take the initiative to open the doll.
Encourage the leadership:
When the head of the office opened the gift, got to the smallest doll, they would find a note. The note reminded them to look for others who are bigger than they are. This would make the company grow.
Hiring people who are bigger than you can be a difficult task. Not because there’s a drought of people to hire. The challenge is to break free from the thought you have to be the brightest person in the room.
You don’t!
This was Ogilvy’s way of encouraging the team to look for the best talent. They encouraged them through a gift and then through a note.
Find the talent:
Ogilvy then gave them the ability to look for talent that would grow the company, not shrink it. You have to be willing to give your leadership the same permission.
Don’t let your people shirk the responsibility of growing the company. They have to hire the talent that will bring growth, not shrinkage.
Tell them to go find talent that will grow the company, despite the talent being bigger than the leader.
When you do the three things above, you’ll find your organization begins to grow. Why? Because people aren’t afraid of bigger talent. They’re looking for ways to bring growth to an organization, you’re not only growing the company, you’re showing others you’re a team player.
