Each chapter is made up of essays whose titles complete the following:
Under no circumstances should you...

Chap 2 - Building A Team - Thursday, August 13, 2009 9:02 - 18 Comments

…Believe That You Need To Hire “Rock Stars”

In my essay about going it alone, I mentioned a strange quirk about the first dot com gold rush. It was called the “war for talent.” For those of you who weren’t in the business arena yet, it’s a strange thing to think about – a war for employees. It was McKinsey who first coined this phrase in 1997, and they actually meant it to extend beyond simply hiring the best people to your company. The main premise was to focus on the principles of attracting, developing and retaining the best leadership talent.

There was another phrase that fell out of that dot com period that had a similar ring to it, and you see it persisting to this day. “Rock stars.” The myth of the rock star CEO was one which was perpetrated on the VC funded companies by those holding the purse strings. It was believed that one rock star CEO could take a company from contender to champion.

Not to be outdone, or more likely not wanting to be left behind in what could be called a land grab for options and cash, line employees started referring to themselves as rock stars. Engineers started taking this meme to some strange extremes, and in fact began referring to themselves as ninjas. I always found that one a bit strange. Why would you willingly invite a shadow warrior, known not for their honor bur their ruthlessness and viciousness, into your company? An army of one, with little in the way of allegiances seems a strange thing to ask for when loading up on talent. I would prefer to fashion myself a Shogun looking for some good samurai rather than some stab-you-in-the-back-while-you-aren’t-looking ninjas. But I digress.

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