Sometimes being a manager is more about being a benevolent dictator than ruling and leading with consensus.
While it is good to have the whole team in agreement, sometimes an executive decision is what is needed – failure to be decisive will often kill your ability to move forward and this is particularly true when looking for the ‘perfect candidate‘.
It is important to do your best to make the people who work with you happy. In the role of manager you need to hire people who are pro-actively committed to working together to keep things moving forward and help keep each other happy as a side-effect.
A team player is far more beneficial on the long train journey than an educated individual who is distant, aloof, unyielding and even disdainful of colleagues. Believe me, I have worked with such people and it is not a happy situation.
A team needs to be unified to keep the members motivated and work cohesively as a whole. If this isn’t happening and resources are pulling each other apart you will burn yourself out from forever dragging people along in pursuit of team goals.
Ultimately it is also true that getting the right people in your team is critical to success in pursuit of your business goals – competence and amenable personalities will only help the cause.
Like any relationship, finding and keeping that ‘perfect’ or ‘acceptable’ person is a bit of a gamble when you are hiring. Only once they have started do you realise what you have actually taken on and sometimes you will be filled with hirer’s regret.
In the same way that there’s no perfect match-making formula for marital relationships, when taking on new candidates for a position, look to their technical skills and personality and match this with business requirements and workplace culture.
Remember, past performance is not necessarily a predictor of future success so sometimes you need to go with gut instinct.
