I talked to a friend yesterday. He works at an IT consultancy that is best left unnamed here, a well-respected one, I might add, and yesterday, they had a job ad in the paper. They have everything, the ad claimed, but they need to grow. They need a few more good men (and women).

My friend and I, we have a mutual acquaintance, a developer who’s one of three or four top developers in his field. He’s also a nice, likable guy, and so my friend recommended him to his bosses at the well-respected IT consultancy. Of course, they asked to see his CV, and so far, so good.

Except they said no. He isn’t what they’re looking for. He’s got the wrong profile.

So I started to think about this, and realized that the people who hire other people are usually the ones who are the least qualified for the job. They’re executives, salespeople, or perhaps HR people in som cases, but most of them have never done any dirty, hands-on work in “their” fields. They lead, and they hire people, and they make executive decisions, all of which is fine and dandy, but they don’t know the details of what their companies do.

Therefore, they shouldn’t be the ones hiring other people. In this case, everyone in the field but the bosses know the value of our mutual acquaintance. We all know he’s top notch, he’s a real find, he’s proven his worth many times over. Yet, the bosses are the ones doing the decisions, and they say no. Why?

A part of what’s supposed to make a leader great is the ability to listen, to trust those working for you. Why is it that this trust is so rarely extended to the employees?