When hiring, companies tend to demand plenty of requirements and skills that, in most cases, can be acquired if the company spends some time training its employees. But there are other qualities that you either have or you don’t, and unfortunately they are very hard to spot in an interview.
Of course, you soon recognise these people when a conversation goes beyond a job interview, or through regular contact. And the types of people we are about to name are not only ideal for running a business; they are also ideal for developing your career. One way or another, they will help you achieve your goals.
1. The visionary
The visionary sees things that others can’t. They are often mistaken for deluded madmen, but as Steve Jobs said, “the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.”
The visionary often anticipates a situation or a new market, and sometimes is even able to make a product the consumer isn’t ready for yet. A visionary is easy to spot, because they are always letting their imagination run free and sketching out scenarios. They tend to reject what already exists.
2. The creative
As Richard Branson puts it, if you hire creative people you never have to tell them what to do: they have no time to get bored or lose motivation, because they are always busy with new ideas.
If you build a team of visionaries and good creatives, you will have a truly crazy team, but it will probably be a brilliant kind of crazy for the company’s future and for staying ahead of the competition, as well as giving you a motivated workforce.
3. The realist
Optimism is fine, but sometimes it isn’t realistic; pessimism is disastrous, but at times the pessimist is more realistic than the optimist. The ideal for success, without a doubt, is the realistic optimist.
You need someone with their feet on the ground: a sensible person able to see the situation exactly as it is, and not as it should be.
An optimist might think a particular business won’t be affected by new technologies; a pessimist would believe the business is already lost. The realist will look for a way to bring both views together.
4. The talent spotter and developer
Every company needs someone with the talent to recognise other people’s talents and make the most of them.
The talent spotter knows that nobody knows everything, but everybody knows something. So they are able to bring out the best in each person, and a little from many people, put to good use, often makes the difference in a company.
Spotting a useful skill in someone is not easy. Finding a person with the talent to identify those people is even harder.
And these are the kinds of people you would find in every single successful company.
Further reading
Featured image: UCT MOOCs, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
