This summer, my youngest daughter Evie and I took surfing lessons while our family was on vacation in Hawaii. While we were in the water with the surf instructor, a great guy named Eddie, he shared about the operation he is part of—“we only hire surf instructors who can surf,” to which I said something like “that seems pretty wise.” I thought he was joking at first, but he explained how sometimes some of the surf schools are tempted, when it is high season and there are lots of tourists and not a lot of surfers who want a job, to hire anyone who can stand behind a board and just push people into a surf.
So, while “hiring a surf instructor who can surf” seems like a basic, “yes, of course” conviction, a surf school can be confronted with a choice: do we not have as many customers this summer or do we only hire people who can surf?
People often think the reason an organization starts to falter is because leaders grew complacent and stopped caring as much. However, leadership consultant and author Jim Collins has argued that complacency is not the main reason. In his book, How the Mighty Fall, he wrote:
When an organization grows beyond its ability to fill its key seats with the right people, it has set itself up for a fall. Although complacency and resistance to change remain dangers to any successful enterprise, overreaching better captures how the mighty fall.
Wise leaders know the character and competence required for the key seats on their team.
Collins would say, “If you can’t fill seats with surf instructors who can actually surf, you are set up for a fall.” Something to consider as you lead: “We only bring people on the team who ____________.” As for me and my house, I fill in the blank with “authentically live out our mission and values with integrity.”
When it comes to our personal lives, if the weight of our responsibility is greater than our character, we are set up to implode. When it comes to the teams we build, if the weight of the vision is greater than the character and competence of our teams, we are setting up for a fall.
