We’ve been hiring backwards, and it’s time we admit it. This post is for every leader who wants to build something better, more human and more future-proof.
For too long, recruitment has been about filling roles, not building futures. We begin with a job description, filled with bullet points and requirements, hoping to match them with a CV that looks just right. We ask for experience, titles and degrees, convinced that what someone has done before is the best predictor of what they can do next, but it isn’t.
The people who truly move organisations forward are rarely the ones who fit perfectly on paper, they’re the ones who show up with curiosity, energy and intention. They may not have done the exact job before, but they have something more powerful, the mindset and motivation to grow into it. That shift, from hiring for what’s already proven to hiring for what is possible, is not easy, it requires courage, it requires letting go of the illusion that the perfect candidate exists. It means creating a process not built on control, but on connection.
Not blind trust, but real trust, trust that what you sense in a person’s values and energy matters more than how their LinkedIn looks, trust that the best predictor of future success is not always the past, but the direction someone is already moving in. Competence might get someone through the door, but it’s their mindset, values and presence that determine what happens next. That’s where the real match is found, in shared ambition, shared culture and shared responsibility.
If you want to see who someone could be in your organisation, you have to stop testing them like a stranger and start meeting them like a future colleague. Today’s best candidates are not just applying for jobs, they are choosing relationships, and they can tell if your process is built on trust or on fear, if your culture is open or performative, if they’re being assessed or genuinely welcomed. Too many processes are designed to filter, but not to connect. They look efficient on the surface but fail to see who the candidate is becoming underneath.
The smartest organisations are starting to ask better questions, not just what has this person done, but who are they becoming and do we believe in that journey. Because if you’re still hiring based on the past, you’re hiring for a world that no longer exists. Skills evolve, roles shift and businesses change, what stays and what grows is the human being at the center.
When you hire on potential, you don’t just fill a position, you plant something, you make a bet on someone who might not be finished, but who is moving in the right direction, and that might be the most strategic decision you make all year. Because in the end, the right hire is not the one who looks best on paper, it’s the one who feels right in purpose.
What would change in your process if you started hiring for potential, not just experience?
