Have you heard that much touted employee hiring practice of “getting the right people on the right seats”? Whenever I hear that I always think of seating people on a bus… and then I always think of the movie Speed. You remember Speed right? Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock burning down the road on a bus, jumping broken bridges, looping cameras, staying above 50 miles per hour, flirting like crazy, and all so the bomb in the bus doesn’t detonate (OK, the flirting may have been optional in terms of bomb safety, but you get my point).
How different would this movie have been if Ellen Degeneres were cast instead of Sandra Bullock?
She almost was, you know! Now don’t get me wrong, I think Ellen’s a riot (and I dance with her daily) – but I cannot imagine that movie with her in that role!
In my early days in real estate I almost put on a staff member who I’m sure would have been good, but would not have fit in with my organisational culture. In short, they wouldn’t have been the right fit for my bus. The short term loss of not putting them on stung (but nowhere near as much as the long term pain of having that cultural clash would have).
Now the bus analogy works equally well when you’re looking for work. Don’t do a Meg Ryan and miss the fabulous bus.
Meg Ryan has had some great hits but, Top Gun not withstanding, what about the movie leads she turned down – Pretty Woman, Basic Instinct, The Silence of the Lambs and Ghost. Some great buses for sure there.
Whichever bus you’re hopping on or loading people on today – I hope it’s the right one for you!
Kirsty Dunphey is the youngest ever Australian Telstra Young Business Woman of the Year, author of two books (her latest release is Retired at 27, If I can do it anyone can) and a passionate entrepreneur who started at age 15 and opened her own real estate agency at 21. Currently Kirsty heads up www.reallysold.com the premium online copywriting site for real estate agents and is a co-director of Elephant Property www.elephantproperty.com.au Launceston, Tasmania’s only boutique real estate agency purely for investment property owners. Kirsty’s other ventures are outlined at her website www.kirstydunphey.com where you can also sign up for her newsletter.
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