As seen before, every business, task and function has an optimal stage. Your business has a primary stage and that should inform most of your hiring. Specific jobs and projects, however, might benefit from a different stage.
This gets challenging in a few ways.
- People do not stay in the same stage forever
- and, what if the stage needed for the task is counterproductive to the primary stage of the business?
First, people do not stay in the same stage forever. We evolve. Life events completely out of your control will move your star employee from one stage to another. Perhaps they were in the perfect stage when you hired them, but now they are somewhere else.
For example, suppose you hired the perfect Human Resources employee advocate in Stage Four. They were squarely in Stage Four (others) when you hired them. But then, one day, you find they have evolved to Stage Five (ideology). Unless you are a Stage Five business, this is the worst possible stage for any employee to be in. It makes them prone to arguments, and divisiveness, spending most of their time angry and offended. This is not good for clear thinking, helping others, or any other task you can think of. What can you do? They came by this new stage naturally. See if you can find the cause. Is it an election year? Can you keep those spaces free of anything ideological? It would be detrimental to move them backwards to Stage Four, but you can move them forwards to Stage Six (live and let live). If you can help them move there permanently, then you will have yourself a fantastic low to mid-level manager there! Better yet, help them reach a solid Stage Eight or Nine and they will shine in any job they choose, as their naturally altruistic nature meets their inborn purpose.
Sometimes your business will have specific tasks or functions whose best stage is counter to the primary stage of the business. For example, suppose your business is a charity or other Stage Four business. You will still need to have someone in charge of security, information, and of course the C-suite and board. These positions are best carried out in Stage Five. But Stage Five (ideology) is largely counterproductive to Stage Four (others). What can you do?
Isolate them. Literally and figuratively. You do not want these key roles to be pulled back to Stage Four. And you don’t want the bulk of your employees pulled into Stage Five. If you can separate offices based on stage, you can create unique environments appropriate to each, optimizing everyone’s efforts.
So hire the best stage for the job. Create an environment that amplifies that stage. Recognize that future evolution will happen, and be ready to turn that into an advantage.
