Sense of urgency

"More than a quarter of the staff at the Singapore office of private bank RBS Coutts have quit in a mass resignation and some are joining Swiss rival BSI. The RBS Coutts spokesman said the bank plans to hire 200 more staff in Asia over the next five years and aims to double its assets in the same period." Saeed Azhar reported for Reuters.

During the past 20 over years, I've hired quite a lot of people and have supervised the hiring of many others. Along the way, I've hired some doozies, made some mistakes, and have hopefully learned some valuable lessons.

One of the most important lessons is that if you hire employees and it turns out they aren't moving as fast as you need them to move, there are only 2 possibilities: there are too many speed bumps or you hired a turtle.

Unfortunately, when most managers realise they've hired a turtle, they have a tendency to defend their selection because their ego can't handle admitting mistakes. It becomes a face issue.

My entire work culture is built around being fast. If one doesn't like speed, then they can't work with me. I can't be fast to market a new product, close a deal unless I am surrounded with people who move with a sense of urgency in everything they do.

From right: Shirley and Rae