I’ve written about the Right Person, Right Role, Right Stage model with hiring. I’ve broken down the Right Person element and written about Right Role. Now Right Stage.
Right stage is absolutely critical in startup hiring. It is the easiest banana skin to slip on. Some of my most agonising mis-hires have fallen down here. Brilliant people, with roles that seemed a brilliant fit for their skillsets. But the wrong stage of business for them to flourish in. It is essential that all of Right Person, Right Role and Right Stage are in place.
What do I mean by Right Stage? In The Monk & The Riddle, Randy Komisar articulates the 3 stages of a Startup CEO:
The Retriever - from the muck - assemble core team, product, market direction. coherent vision. raise money. secure early customers and partners - tenacity and inventiveness - find product market fit;
The Bloodhound - sniff out the trail. find market and prove business. build operating team and establish a market beachhead - keen sense of direction and company building - repeatable and scalable;
The Husky - Lead the team and pull operational company that grows heavier by the day. Prized for constancy and scalability.
The same principle can apply to all team members. People can thrive in multiple, even all, of those stages. But not everyone can. It is essential to recognise what stage you’re at and get comfortable that this person can thrive at this stage.
At the Retriever and early Bloodhound stage, this is characterised by what I call the Celine Dion factor, which will be the next post.