“But I am busy,” protested Byron. “How am I going to find time to read resumes?”
“Schedule it. You need to be thinking, each and every day about your team and what would happen if any of them needed to make a change. Your most important function as a manager is personnel and recruiting. In fact, if that is all you ever did, was to build a high performance team, and then walked in front of a bus, at your funeral, I would describe you as one of our greatest managers. Because you left behind, a high performing team that could carry on.”
“It’s that important?” Byron tested.
“Top priority. The most important decision every manager makes, whether it’s recruiting or delegating, is ‘who?’ All other decisions are secondary.”
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I call this catch up week. Our current online program, Hiring Talent, kicked off Orientation last week. Still time to catch up. Find out more here.
The same is true for those in senior leadership positions they too must always be scouting for top talent to be successors. Having a great talent pool to draw from is a necessary practice in all businesses and organizations. it is also a mark of good leadership that will get people promoted.
Exactly right, as continuity always needs to be considered (even in less dramatic scenarios, like multiple staff being sick/away at the same time). Looking at potential leadership skills and initiative is a big factor in this, and often times those that display a higher than average level of leadership ability are the ones that can be counted on, day in and day out.