August 22, 2023
Mistakes Will Be Made
Why do so many people have difficulty with recruiting?
One reason is that recruiting can be a psychological minefield. Recruiting is hard, and an individual who is recruiting for an important position is under a lot of pressure. As a result, many hiring managers get wrapped up in negative emotion. They become paralyzed by self-doubt, and fear of making a bad choice clouds their judgment.
If you find yourself getting emotionally wound up about a recruiting project (and sooner or later everyone does) it can be helpful to remind yourself of two things.
First, recruiting is a lot like golf — that is, perfection is impossible. If you make perfection your goal, you will be chronically frustrated and disappointed, even when you are making great progress. You must give yourself permission to make mistakes.
Second, it might help to imagine what would happen if you made the wrong choice. It may not be as bad as you fear. Hiring the wrong person can be embarrassing, expensive, disruptive, and lead to lost business opportunities. But in all but the most extreme circumstances, you will get through it.
Even the most accomplished CEOs make hiring mistakes all the time — they just make fewer of them than everyone else.
Mistakes will be made. Progress, not perfection, is the right goal.
