Peter Abilla over at shmula as been running a Q&A series with Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos. I've been a fan of Zappos for several years as I try to avoid wasting time in stores. I also like that prices are low, and even lower when you consider that shipping is free, and return shipping for no-questions-asked returns is also free.
The entire Q&A is interesting and I encourage you to read it, but one section stuck out:
Also, what mistakes have you made and how did those mistakes change you
and change the company?
I think the biggest lesson I’ve learned is that there is
a lot more hidden talent and potential in your employees than you
think. It’s just about building the right culture and figuring out how
to unlock all of that talent, which isn’t always an easy thing to
figure out.
We’ve made a lot of mistakes at Zappos, but in general I think we do
a pretty good job of learning from those mistakes. If we weren’t making
mistakes, then I would say we weren’t taking enough risks.
Our biggest mistakes in the past have probably been related to
hiring the wrong people, especially those that were bad for the company
culture. It’s actually made our culture stronger today because we want
to try to avoid making the same mistakes.
There we have it again: the value, not cost, of people.
mattf says
Its the value of the “right people”. Getting an individual that will click with the company culture is at times a task in itself. Even if you find someone who is a team player, he might not be the best expert in his field.
Some individuals who are the “wrong people” do a hell of a job when it comes to their skill set. Sometimes you have to hire the “wrong person” and then slowly introduce that individual to what the overall outlook of the company as a whole will be, taking into account his/her involvement.
Making it personal is at times a great way to show workers that they are appreciated within the company, and not just from a working point of view, but a personal point of view.