Type #1 Hire Downs
I heard this story of a guy who ran a tshirt company that was at first very successful, but eventually crashed. He was charismatic and driven and he was the powerhouse behind his company. He started very independently and built the company around this cult of personality. His employees were mostly much younger than him. He would train them and hope to retain them as underlings. If they got to be too influential, he would let them go. This worked well for some things, but ultimately didn’t work. He became embroiled in scandal, was too diverted from the business and could not be the only tent-pole holding everything together.
There are many people like him.
Type #2 Hire Ups
There are also people who have no idea what they’re doing or what they want to do, so they hire someone who does. Then, they hire the next person who is also great. They hire people who are better than them and by doing so, they look genius. The work they do has impact and the work their staff does is self-driven and high-level.
Both types can fail
There are all types of failures and successes that can happen with these styles. Hire Downs can be extremely strong in vision and voice. They can manage from their strengths and, by respecting others, can be very well branded and established.
Hire Ups can fail because they get too wishy washy, or they have trouble locating the team that truly serves their mission.
I’m a Hire Down in transition to becoming an Up
The thing I’m calling for is an evaluation of how we’re operating. Are we trying to be the thing holding up everything we’re doing?
Freelancers consider: are we willing to invest in progress, or are we trying to constantly learn new skills to expand our realm of control?