A tale of 2 hires

I'm at the point in my career where I'm starting to hire people. (still feels wild to type that)

A few weeks ago I put 2 people on a trial for the same role: social media strategist.

I gave them the same tasks and timeframe.

By the end, they could not have been more different.

The first hire blew me away: She finished her onboarding early, then kept going. She never messaged me asking "what should I do next?" or "how can I help?" She looked at what needed doing, figured out the next task, and did it. By Friday she was a month ahead of schedule.

The second one, by that same Friday, hadn't started. When I asked for an update, she told me she was still trying to figure out her login.

Let me be clear: I'm not here to dunk on the 2nd hire. She seems lovely, and login stuff happens to the best of us. But I’m sure you can identify which one I ended up hiring.

One waited to be explicitly told what to do. The other decided the job was already hers and acted like it.

That second mindset is what I've built my career on, and it's what I write about in my new book.

Put simply, don't wait for permission. Don't ask how you can help. Instead, find what needs doing and do it, before anyone asks, so you prove you both want the job AND can do it.

That’s one of the core ideas in Work With The Best.

If you want to increase the likelihood someone does what you want them to do…

Ask yourself: “How can I reduce the friction it takes for the other person to say yes?”

If you want to learn more about how to create career opportunities, you can check out the book here.

Rooting for you,
-Jay