by Eric Samuelson
In 1981, an author in the Research and Development field, writing under the pseudonym Archibald Putt, penned this famous quote, now known as Putt’s Law:
“Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage, and those who manage what they do not understand.”
Have you ever hired someone without knowing for sure if they can do the job? Have you promoted a good salesperson to management only to realize you made a dire mistake? The qualities needed to succeed in a technical field are quite different than for a leader.
The legendary immigrant engineer Charles Steinmetz worked at General Electric in the early 1900s. He made phenomenal advancements in the field of electric motors. His work was instrumental to the growth of the electric power industry. With a goal of rewarding him, GE promoted him to a management position, but he failed miserably. Realizing their error, and not wanting to offend this genius, GE’s leadership retitled him as a Chief Engineer, with no supervisory duties, and let him go back to his research.
Avoid the double disaster of losing a good worker by promoting him to management failure. By using the unique Anderson Position Overlay system, you can avoid future regret by comparing your candidate’s qualities to the requirements of the position before saying “Welcome Aboard”.
Eric Samuelson is the creator of the Confident Hiring System™. Working with Dave Anderson of Learn to Lead, he provides the Anderson Profiles and related services to clients in the automotive retail industry as well as a variety of other businesses.