“You are a business owner interested in hiring a new employee to fill an essential opening in your company. After an extensive search, you narrow your choice of candidates down to two people.
The first person, Avery, has a high-performance ceiling. By this, I mean that when they are at their best, few people are better than Avery at what they do. However, in most situations, Avery can be considered somewhat of a slacker. Day in and day out, the level of performance they give you could be described at best, a little below average.
The second person, Jaime, is known for consistency. Jamie is the type of person that will give you pretty good results every time they show up for work. However, in clutch situations, Jaime struggles to provide you with any more than what they already give you daily. That is, when pushed to their limit, we find that Jaime’s upper potential is nowhere near what Avery is capable of producing.”
If I were in the shoes of the business owner in this situation I would first, reflect on my goals for the company and reevaluate the values and needs for the company. Depending on whether we need consistency with lack of exceeding expectations or high performance and inconsistency. Avery exhibits maximal performance while Jamie exhibits typical performance which each have their pros and cons. I would personally like to hire Jamie, due to the fact that she is reliable and consistent with her work. I want someone that I can trust to do what they need to and I believe that overtime she can adapt new skills and slowly be pushed to her limit if we build trust and positive reinforcement.
A time I would want to hire Avery over Jamie would likely be a sales representative. Avery would be more willing to take risks with an incentive of commission and push themselves to get top sales or negotiate with potential customers. Jamie would not easily be able to take these risks and go out of her comfort zone, making her a weaker candidate for this kind of role.
Jamie would be a great role for a receptionist. If I needed someone who was consistent and always there to do their job, Jamie would be the perfect fit. It requires the same tasks daily, with no need to take risks or push her performance. Avery, on the other hand, would not be a great fit for the position based on his history of lack of consistency when it comes to performance. This is especially true because Avery would have no motivation or ability to have high performance in this role based on the consistent tasks given as a receptionist.