Do You Hire Like a Pharaoh?

REINVENT YOUR WEB PRESENCE

Hiring and promoting only from within?  A sales management team leader told me that this type of hiring and promoting had been their downfall. "You need new blood, ideas and experience from OUTSIDE of the industry and the company to bring a fresh insight," he told me.

Some of the best reinventions in history came from outsiders who saw opportunities where those within the organization only saw stumbling blocks. For instance, it took an outsider to turn Ford and then Chrysler around in the last century - Lee Iaccoca. It took an outsider to change the face of IBM. Former CEO Lou Gerstner was brought in as a high-profile outsider CEO. He became an effective change agent.

My daughter was fascinated with Egyptology when she was younger. She wanted to go into the field when she grew up. One thing learned about the ancient Egyptian royal houses is that they were known for marrying within their family...very within their family. Often brothers married sisters, nieces and very close relatives, and so on to keep the royal line pure....  Thutmosis II, Cheops and Ptolemy II, for example.

Today, we find that practice unacceptable and call it incestuous.  Our reasons are mainly moral, but biologically it keeps poor genes in the family lineage and scientist believe it perpetuates disease and certain genetic disorders. You will find though, that companies practice the same type of "inbreeding" by only hiring and promoting from within the organization.

Many organizations stick close to their industry by only looking within. It is cheaper and takes much less effort to hire trainers, speakers, managers and C-Suite executives from within. But companies who want to innovate their processes, policies and services need to look outside for ideas from the outside.  Case in point:

Does your organization promote and hire only from within? How can you change the inbreeding that is holding your company back? Do you hire "like a Pharaoh?"