Lift. The only thing that matters in a hire.

I've spent thirty years with a marketing lens pressed against every kind of business problem. The one that keeps coming back — the one that costs organisations the most — isn't a marketing problem at all. It's this.

𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐛𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐞𝐝 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐨𝐧 𝐩𝐚𝐩𝐞𝐫. 𝐒𝐨 𝐝𝐢𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 And yet, something's missing. You can't name it in a performance review. It doesn't show up in the KPIs. But you feel it every time you're in a room with them.

This is not a hiring problem. This is a measurement problem.

The word "competent" comes from the Latin 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘦 meaning to be suitable.

Suitable.

We spent fifty years engineering sophisticated frameworks around that word. Behavioural interviews. Competency matrices. Structured scoring rubrics. Increasingly elaborate systems... all measuring the same thing.

Adequacy. And calling it talent.

𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲 𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐰𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐟𝐚𝐢𝐥. 𝐈𝐭 𝐬𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐟𝐥𝐲.

Consider three equally competent FDs sitting across from you.

One is technically sharp, loyal, steady. Executes brilliantly within defined lanes.

One is technically sharp, curious, restless. Finds problems before you know they exist.

One is technically sharp, resourceful. Believes in the mission like it's personal.

Three identical CVs. Three completely different outputs.

In marketing, we'd never brief a campaign on demographics alone. Same income bracket, same postcode, same age but completely different buying behaviour, different values, different triggers. We call this the psychographic. It's the layer beneath the data that actually explains the human.

HR has been ignoring it entirely.

And then there's passion.

Every talent conversation arrives here eventually. We need passionate people. It's in every job description. It comes up in every debrief.

But passion is a flicker. It performs brilliantly in interviews. Shows up in the first 90 days. Then the work gets hard, the politics get heavy, the vision gets blurry, and passion has already quietly moved on.

𝐁𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐟 𝐬𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬. 𝐂𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐬𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬. 𝐆𝐫𝐢𝐭 𝐬𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬.

The quiet ones still asking questions at 6pm on a Friday. That's what sustains. These are not soft qualities. They are your hardest competitive advantage. And no competency framework is designed to find them.

Because competency is a floor. We've been mistaking it for a ceiling.

The employment relationship, at its best, is a value exchange. The organisation gives direction, resource, and context. The talent gives capability, conviction, and momentum. Together they move toward something.

That's not a transaction. That's not a headcount decision.

𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭'𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐭.

And the right person in the right seat - the one with the package beyond the paper - doesn't just perform.

They lift.

If you're building a team and something still feels missing — that's usually where I come in.