As a business owner, or any type of leader, choosing between typical or maximal performance is a tough decision to have to make. It would be influenced by the current situation and the most pressing need. Is my business in need of a rockstar? Or is my business needing reliable quality work? However, approaching this from a “business owner interested in hiring a new employee to fill an essential opening in your company” without insight to what the “essential opening” entails, here is how I would choose between the turtle and the hare.

If you were in the shoes of the business owner and had to choose which person would you hire (Avery or Jaime) and why?

Without knowing the specifics to the ‘essential opening’, I would hire Jaime who has reliable, steady solid performance, aka the turtle where slow and steady wins the race. I have found that quality, dependable performance is a relief for a leader because it removes one of the hundreds of worries that they carry. Achieving pretty good results every single day is something that I would welcome to my team.

Selecting Avery with rockstar, stellar performance, aka the hare, would require a lot of follow-ups and reminders, essentially a ‘handler’ for the rockstar. It’s essentially needing two people for the role which I wouldn’t do (unless the essential opening really needs the stellar performance which makes the payoff worth the extra babysitting duties).

Describe a type of job where it would be better to hire someone like Avery (i.e., high potential, poor consistency) than Jaime? What is it about that job that makes someone like Avery more valuable than Jaime?

A type of job where it would be better to hire someone like Avery is where performance metrics are closely tied to revenue or profits, perhaps sales or innovation. The inconsistent performance would work better in a role that has peaks and valleys in the workload. Roles that work intensely at maximal performance and then have a slow down between projects to slack, would make Avery more valuable because it suits their natural way of working.

Describe a type of job where it would be better to hire someone like Jaime (i.e., low potential, high consistency) than Avery? What is it about that job that makes someone like Jaime more valuable?

A type of job that would be better to hire someone like Jaime is in roles where consistency, steadiness, and reliability matter. This could be in operations, management, finance, compliance, or supply chain. The roles where the day in and day out performance matters greatly would benefit from having a steady performer which is what makes Jaime more valuable to that type of job. While steadiness isn’t flashy, it is most definitely underrated.