Articles—Issue 15, October 2006 Back to Article Index Let 'em Run! I was fortunate to hear a talk recently by Jack Daly--a very talented and high energy speaker--on sales training and culture. One of the things that he espoused was hiring for where you want to be rather than where you are. For instance, you might be a $5M company shooting to become a $200M company. Daly would energetically coach you to hire talent for the $200M company that you hope to become.   Someone asked me several days later if I agreed with this. I immediately said, "Yes," but had some qualifiers. If you are not prepared to let the thoroughbreds run, don’t hire them. Here is what I mean by that.   I met a CEO/owner several years ago who had hired a race horse for a VP of sales and put in a compensation plan for high growth. But the CEO/owner was worn out and didn’t really want to grow. He was far more concerned with maintaining his healthy cash flow and didn’t want the “headaches” of growth. His attitude was that he wanted the rewards without the headaches. Both the VP of sales and the CEO were frustrated. The CEO had made a "bad" hire; too much talent for his abilities. A bit like buying your 16-year-old with the newly minted driver’s license a Corvette. In fact, he was about to lose most of the talent on his team because they were not allowed to perform. He couldn’t understand their frustration. I’ll bet some of you can.   As I rethought my interaction with this "leader," 2 things came to mind: 1) Cultural, talent and compensation must all be in alignment and 2) If you are ready to go "out to pasture," perhaps you should. Leadership comes with obligations. (c)2006 by Tood Ordal. You are welcome to share this informational article with others. Todd Ordal is a business consultant helping executives struggling with execution. Prior to founding the consulting firm Applied Strategy LLC, Todd spent over 25 years in management and executive roles such as President and CEO. You can contact Todd at todd@appliedstrategy.info