Hiring
Posted on: July 24, 2012
- In: Hiring
- 4 Comments
“If you hire people just because they can do a job, they’ll work for your money. But if you hire people who believe what you believe, they’ll work for you with blood and sweat and tears.” — Simon Sinek
Today morning, I check this quote as a linkedin post by a friend and it has forced me to express my outlook on the same.
Mr. Simon is an impressive author on human motivation but still I personally don’t see this quote as reasonably appealing.
Firstly hiring people “who believe what you believe” is a quite difficult task and it’s not possible to follow this mantra at all level in an organization especially in mid size and big companies. I don’t mean that author is saying to blindly follow it at every level of the company but even in bootstrapping start-ups; many times it’s difficult to get an apposite person who believe in your philosophy of product/business and if you are able to get, then it means a lot for that start-up. This philosophy is good but it can only practically work in the case of co-founders, early employees or senior members of the company, at all other levels this approach is impractical / unconvincing.
The phrase “work for your money” in this quote is a bit disappointing; if anybody is working for a concern; he is working for money or working for his/her share of money, the use of word ‘your’ gives you the sense of capitalism and one sidedness.
Again, If you are working for money in spite of you are working seriously and giving efforts, the money you deserve is not yours– a pathetic poor joke; but on the other hand company expect your blood and sweat and tears; Sorry but this is a not creating a sketch of a 21st century professional company rather a colonial era mill.
Why working for money or talking about money related to work is such a taboo topic; I really don’t understand- agreed money is not the most important motivation factor but it is one of the imperative one and if anybody is denying the fact he must be joking.
If you are doing general hiring – have the clear understanding- what you want for the related position but also keep yourself open- as sometimes you get to meet some really deserving candidate not apposite for particular business/technology role but you can fix them somewhere else.
Look for concrete basic concepts, capability of grasping new things, openness towards new ideas, inquisitiveness and enthusiasm rest all, I believe is bookish and redundant.
4 Responses to "Hiring"
September 30, 2012 at 4:55 PM
Exactly dude..I am not saying that Companies should not expect such candidates but living in utopian world and bookish HR policies are the real
pathetic things in most of the corporations.
October 29, 2012 at 4:45 AM
fantastic thoughts, Manish. I echo with all of your points. Even I brainstormed at that quote for a while when I first seen it in Linkedin status message..
Straight from the Heart 
September 30, 2012 at 3:30 PM
True. It is difficult to find more than a handful having same goals. If the organization is really really small than it might be possible (eg. gang of pirates). But more than a handful of people giving blood and sweat does not make sense on large scale in corporate sector. Even small organizations can not hold for too long unless conscious effort is made continuousouly to keep everyone motivated and focused towards goals.
Most of us work for money mainly and not because our chosen profession is our passion. Probably that is why for most of feel stressed most of the times in software. And same is true for 99% companies. I have not worked in a single company where goals of the organization are pronounced loud and clear and aligned with individual goals. In case they have, it is employees who are expected to meet those goals