We recently had an opening in a supervisor position, because the very successful incumbent was ready to move on to a new job within the company. This particular supervisory spot is a key position because this supervisor runs a training and development unit, and the graduates of that unit go on to perform critically important work. I decided to help select the new supervisor personally.
Seven employees submitted applications seeking to be promoted into the position. My assistant put the applications on my desk and I leafed through them to see who had applied. When I got to the bottom of the stack, I leaned back in my chair feeling, frankly, a little stunned. Every applicant was a superb employee. I looked back through the applications. Sure enough, there was not a single applicant who could be eliminated from consideration.
In fact, as I thought about it further I realized we could literally try to identify the least-qualified candidate of the bunch, give that person the job, and we would still have chosen an excellent supervisor. We apply very high standards in who we promote into supervisory positions, so this was a remarkable realization.
Every once in awhile, we managers get to enjoy the sweet sensation of having an important thing well. This was one of those moments for me. My directors, managers, and supervisors have, for the past five years, exercised a consistently high level of discipline in hiring and firing. It was not always easy and it was not always fun, but we have rigorously pursued the vision of building a truly selective organization and now we could enjoy the fruits of that labor. We have assembled an excellent staff well-stocked with talent and potential, as well as terrific personalities.
Of course, selecting a single individual to promote from that exceptional field of candidates was going to be very, very difficult. But what a wonderful problem to have!
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