You’re interviewing someone that you NEED to have… they are in the final round and you want to make them an offer. Then, they ask you “So, what is your company’s purpose?”
How would you respond?
…Hold that thought – we’ll come back to that.
Now, close your eyes, take a deep breath and think back to the time that you were a part of a team that was humming… I mean really humming.
It was like you spoke a new language that everyone deeply understood. Things were moving fast, excitement was in the air and everyone wanted to win!
Exhale, and look around you. Are you looking at that team? I really, truly hope so. If it isn’t, what’s the plan?
It’s 2025. Happy New Year. We don’t have time to drag along the non-performers anymore. “Turnover” is a great and absolutely essential thing when you’re making more space for better performers and raising the bar. I will make any wager that the lowest performing members of a team are those who are most distant from your purpose…
If they even know what your purpose is?
*If you even know what your company’s purpose is?
I’ve always challenged the term “Talent” and “Human Resources” for what we do, as we’ve all seen the most ‘talented human resource’ in a team fail due to a lack of motivation, perseverance, overall buy-in. They aren’t aligned with your purpose.
Simon Sinek has a great example, comparing the Wright brothers to Samuel Pierpont Langley. Langley held a seat at Harvard with a blank cheque to hire the best minds money could find to figure out this flying machine.
The Wright brothers had… they had no money, no one on their team had a college education and no one has since heard of Samuel Pierpont Langley.
To continue Simon’s trajectory here;
“The goal is not just to hire people who need a job; it’s to hire people who believe what you believe… 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.
… People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it.”
Candidates looking for somewhere they can invest their blood, sweat and tears will ask you – “why do you do it?”
If they don’t ask the question, what do you think really motivates them?
And if you don’t know ‘why you do it’, that might be why you’re not currently looking at the best team you’ve ever been a part of.
