Sharpen the Ax

“if [my] life depended upon [my] ability to cut down a tree in five minutes [I] would spend three minutes sharpening [my] ax.” Wise Lumberjack

If you need to chop down a tree, the most important thing to do is sharpen the ax understand where you want it to drop. If you need to hire someone, the first thing you need to do is determine what they need to get done.

If your business depends upon making the right hire quickly, spend the time up front to define the hiring process. Just as making sure your ax is sharp to cut the tree quickly, you need to define a sharp hiring process.

Getting everything right up front may not seem like it has immediate payoffs. You are investing time and effort not directly working on your goal of assessing actual candidates. You are clarifying your goals and objectives.

By defining exactly what you need, you’ll spend time with fewer candidates, and move faster in the hiring process. If you define exactly what you need, you’ll have more certainty to move quickly when you have the right candidate.

Each hiring project starts with a dull blade. The first goal of the hiring team is sharpening the blade before you begin.

Spend time aligning on exactly what you need accomplished, determine the skills and experience to accomplish this, and create an engaging description and enticing pay structure to attract the right person. This is where you should spend a significant portion of your hiring time.

Measure twice, cut once. 📏 🪓

Haste makes waste. ⏩ 🗑️