Partner or Laborer?

For your upcoming project, do you need an indispensable asset with a proven track record or a useful but replaceable instruction taker with a particular skill on his resume?

Your decision, of course, hinges on the purpose of the hire. What is the scope of the project and the budget consideration? Are you looking to build an internal team to support your company’s needs? Or are you looking for someone to take ownership and delivery of a project? Do you have time for this person to grow into this role or do you need a rock-solid solution to this project as soon as possible?

I’ve seen both scenarios carried out successfully. The key is intent. I have also, however, seen my fair share of headaches when a client is unclear in his purpose and chooses incorrectly.

“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?
That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.
I don’t much care where –
Then it doesn’t matter which way you go.”

In the article “When Cheaper Costs More“, I wrote of when a client was very proud on getting the lowest price for a project.

Assuming that all things were equal, I can see how he may have reached that conclusion. The list of skills on my resume were similar to that of the lower-priced resources. However, that resource also wasted 12 days of time and expense on an incomplete design while I leveraged prior experience to build and deliver a solution in 1 one day.

I understand that as a manager, you are busy and this may be one of many projects you are juggling.  Perhaps you’re building a Center of Excellence (COE) and you need technical resources to fills out the roles. Or you may have a visible but smaller project where you need someone to come in, deliver to spec, and help make your day a little more manageable.

Before you pull that trigger, just recall the initial purpose. Am I looking for someone to augment my team or a professional to deliver a one-off project? How much time will I need to devote to training this person? Do I need a subject-matter expert (SME) that I can ramp up and down as needed? Is he a good, long term fit for the team or will I need someone short-term?

After reflecting on the original intent, go with your gut. It’s usually right.

 

Hau Ngo is a SAP Business Intelligence Architect. Over the years, he has helped numerous companies build robust and efficient reporting solutions. If you enjoyed this article, join his monthly newsletter.