Colin de Graaf

Football clubs can learn a lot about recruitment from tech companies. Player and staff recruitment should be people first, role second. As a club/organization, you want to recruit the best people (A players). But A players are A players because they are unique, multi-disciplinary, and hard to define. They are not cogs in a machine. They do not fit into a predetermined cookie-cutter shape. As a consequence, over-specifying a role filters out A players. Over-specifying a role adds (perceived) risk to hiring people who do not exactly fit the job specs. The odds of an A player emerging from the application process are low because the application process prioritizes conformity. Teams/organizations will have gaps that need to be filled, but roles (whether player or staff) should be a rough outline, not a strict shape. Criteria should shift away from specific skillsets to scalable, context-sensitive traits - low ego, adaptable, self-motivated. Criteria and specifications do not solve problems. People solve problems, often in ways that cannot be precisely predicted because they do so in a uniquely authentic manner. Identify the best people/players first, build roles/processes/systems second. This principle applies to player and staff recruitment. You get better returns organizing top people/players into roles and systems that suit them rather than settling for B/C players who fit into a rigid, predefined role or system.