Smart businesses don’t rely on the smartest people

I am always wary of companies that say they only hire the smartest people because it indicates a complete lack of understanding of both people and business.

If you make this claim are you really saying that you only hire people in the top standard deviation or two of IQ Bell curve for the general population.

The smartest people often get bored quickly, don’t like routine, don’t like process, and will constantly look at improving or changing things even when they are working just fine. On top of that many of the smartest people have a healthy sense of self-esteem and a potentially high conflict personality.

Put that another way, throw a few seriously smart people into a room at a small startup and you can almost guarantee conflict. Disruptive behaviours can become the norm and you need to be on top of them constantly.

Also, if you aren’t at least as smart as them then you won’t be respected.  And as they will be highly marketable they need to be paid more than average, and you have to question the ability of anyone that smart who will work for a lower paying startup like yours. Is something wrong with them?

Not a recipe for success.

From a business perspective you need trailblazers and operational delivery people.

You and your start up team are working in a highly fluid environment that has high uncertainty and high risk. 

You are the trailblazers. You work out through trial and error what needs to be done to make the business work.

Once you start getting solid business coming in the door then you need to ensure that the business can be delivered by normal people who enjoy working there but don’t feel the need to invent new ways of doing things all the time.

That is, they just get on with the job delivering for customers and follow the rules and processes that have already been set up.

Of course for high end consulting or engineering you need smarter than average people, but you don’t necessarily need the smartest.

So, too many of the smartest people will slow down your growth and may adversely affect your sales.