Hire Managers of One

Matt Bowen of 37signals has a short, and extremely interesting post on the Signal vs Noise blog regarding the hiring of self-managing employees. 

I think this is a most important distinction to make when you are looking at potentially hiring new staff. Over the past 12 months at Quiqcorp we have had a number of new staff join our team and the ones who are capable of managing their own time and working consistently without constant guidance have performed much better in their roles and continue to impress with their attitudes toward work. 

It is certainly important in early-stage start up companies to hire the most appropriate people for the job, and it is important to realise that these people aren’t always the most technically qualified, uber geeks you find. A self-managing, self-starting employee who can manage their time, set their own goals and work of their own accord without guidance is a godsend to any time-poor start-up founder (of which most are). 

Matt sums it up best with his last paragraph:

You want someone who’s capable of building something from scratch and seeing it through. When you find these people, it frees up the rest of your team to work more and manage less.