Hiring, mentoring, and growing leaders ahead of the curve

Executive overview

Most hiring and retention problems come from two sources: bringing in people who don't want to grow, and failing to develop leaders fast enough to keep pace with the company. The fix is to hire for growth orientation first, then build deliberate mentorship and skill development structures around your team.

Hire people who grow, then grow them deliberately — or they will cap your company.

Hiring and retention principles

• Hire people already passionate about personal growth; don't try to convert those who aren't.
• Herb Kelleher's rule: happy employees come from hiring happy people, not from programmes.
• In job postings and interviews, make growth a requirement: what books are you reading, what are you training on?
• Use executive search firms to poach senior talent; social media works for mid-level roles.
• Title levels reflect: strategic insight, autonomy, P&L responsibility, ability to recruit externally.
• Always hire senior people slightly ahead of where you are — someone who has already built what you're building.

Activity inventory and delegation

• Every six months, audit your plate: categorise tasks as incompetent, competent, or excellent/unique ability.
• Offload incompetent and competent tasks; keep only your unique ability.
• CEOs rarely need to replace themselves — they need to delegate everything except genius.
• Show your team you're doing this too; it gives them permission to admit their own weaknesses.
• The school system trained people to fix weaknesses; instead, staff around them.

Finding mentors systematically

• Write a list of 5–10 areas you want to improve, then describe what the ideal mentor looks and feels like.
• Identify companies you respect that have solved the problems you face; find the right title inside those companies.
• Approach through warm introductions; leverage franchisees, communities, LinkedIn.
• Ask for one hour per month by phone and one full day per quarter in person, alternating locations.
• Do not pay mentors — ask them to give back as someone once gave to them.
• Apply the same process to find mentors for each of your executives.

Growing leaders ahead of the curve

• Leaders who can run a $5M company often can't run a $40M company — the gap is skills, not effort.
• Grow their skills, confidence, and network at the same pace the organisation grows.
• Put managers through structured training in cohorts: two modules per week, five-minute report-out on Monday.
• Skip-level meetings let CEOs gather intelligence without bypassing their reports — listen only, never judge ideas on the spot.
• The CEO's job is culture, vision, strategy, and people — not day-to-day operations.

Salary, bonuses, and expectations

• Salary is payment for doing a great job; doing a great job is the baseline for keeping the job.
• Bonuses come from taking on more responsibility or more business scope, not from meeting expectations.
• A-players embrace this framing; C-players resist it.

The cash flow near-disaster

• At 1-800-GOT-JUNK, a soft-spoken finance head repeatedly warned against overspending — and was ignored.
• The company drained $5M in cash on an office move, a glass stairway, bonuses, and taxes, then couldn't get a bank credit line.
• Had to fire 25 people, manage cash flow hourly for three weeks, then daily for two months.
• Lesson: if you won't listen to someone, hire someone you will listen to.