“Come on, climb right behind me,” Jonathan said to his armor bearer, “for the Lord will help us defeat them!”

I was asked the question by an entrepreneur who asked me if she should hire for experience or hire for potential?  As I dug into it, she was asking should she put her emphasis in hiring someone who has been there, done that?  Or, should she hire someone inexperienced to be trained and raised in the company?  Of course, the answer is one based on the situation. For other than mission critical positions, I am a fan of hiring the best athlete and watch how she/he can grow into the role.  But, for mission critical roles, the risk may be too high and the time not long enough to afford to bring them up to speed.  For certain jobs, we need the person who has been to the top of the hill and who is able and willing to pull us to the top.  In these roles the risk and cost is too high to experiment or to not have seen the situation before.  Do you have roles right now that you are struggling to figure who to recruit? Consider if it should be someone who is at the top of the hill already, or someone who is still looking up.

Jonathan exemplified for us what it means to lead from the top.  He was already up on the hill and he leaned over and looked back down to bring up his armor bearer.  And, when he asked him to come on up, Jonathan assured him that God was already before them both to help them defeat the Philistines.  That’s what we are to do, bring up those behind us and lean on God for His assurances and promises to lead us over the hill. That’s how we are to lead.

Reference: 1 Samuel 14:12