{
  "id": 1471045,
  "title": "The Power of Opportunity Mindset in Hiring",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/17/the-power-of-opportunity-mindset-in-hiring",
  "topic": "business",
  "section": "Business",
  "published": "2026-08-17T11:00:28.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "MIT Sloan",
    "slug": "mit-sloan",
    "url": "https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/the-power-of-opportunity-mindset-in-hiring/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Every organization and every hiring manager desires to discover the best candidates. Competitors often seek to differentiate themselves by claiming to have a unique edge. However, one must reflect on a personal experience when a decision-maker took a chance on them despite lacking extensive experience or an impeccable resume. Often, individuals can rise to the occasion and deliver more than their credentials would predict. Yet, the majority of leaders don't often exhibit such trust in potential today. Consequently, organizations lose out on numerous opportunities.\n\nOver the course of more than two decades, extensive research has been conducted into how companies recruit, promote, reward, and retain employees. This investigation has led to the discovery that a company’s readiness to grant opportunities significantly influences employee interest, recruitment, engagement, effort, and retention. More crucially, opportunity can unlock human motivation and potential, assets that are frequently underappreciated within an organization's balance sheet.\n\nTraditionally, leaders tend to reserve their most significant opportunities for individuals perceived as \"the best.\" A stringent focus on impressive credentials and meeting all criteria on a job description might seem prudent. However, this approach results in one of the most expensive mistakes an organization can make. Firstly, there is no consensus on defining what genuine talent entails. My research indicates that two hiring managers within the same company, when evaluating the same candidate, can reach vastly different conclusions regarding their fit, potential, and leadership qualities. The belief that a company possesses a rigorous, objective talent-selection process is often misguided. In reality, decisions frequently rely on subjective judgments and gut feelings. Additionally, many managers default to conventional choices, which are easily defensible. Choosing the candidate with a prestigious university degree is rarely questioned, as no one wants to be associated with a hiring mistake.\n\nThe second issue lies in the market dynamic. The persistent emphasis on the \"best\" leads to a mindset known as \"only the best.\" This mindset assumes that there is a scarce, identifiable elite, and success hinges on finding and hiring them while also paying them extraordinary salaries. Recent examples, such as Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's aggressive recruitment of top AI talent, demonstrate this phenomenon. However, this mindset leads to predictable outcomes: extended hiring periods, eye-watering compensation bands, and a narrowing of talent pipelines to a select group of schools and employers. Moreover, it creates talent risks that may go unanticipated. High-performing individuals brought in from other organizations often perform poorly when transferred to a new organization, as Boris Groysberg, Ashish Nanda, and Nitin Nohria have highlighted.\n\nA viable alternative to this pursuit of \"the best\" is the adoption of an \"opportunity mindset.\" Unlike the conventional perspective, the opportunity mindset does not imply lowering standards or settling for less talented individuals. Instead, it involves recognizing the difference between identifying candidates who excel on paper and those who would be suitable for a specific role. Leaders who embrace this mindset make hires who can succeed and then provide the necessary structural support to help them excel. They evaluate potential based on actual job performance rather than factors such as the schools attended, past employers, or previous job titles.\n\nSome practical applications of this mindset include broadening the candidate pool for entry-level roles to include nontraditional applicants, such as those with community college degrees, career switchers, parents returning to work, or apprentices. A senior person may also be selected from within the organization through an internal promotion opportunity rather than through an expensive external search. Each choice may appear minor, but collectively, they broaden the talent pool and foster a more diverse workforce.\n\nThe core of this concept lies in the tension between the \"only the best\" mindset and the opportunity mindset. As detailed in my book, \"The Meritocracy Paradox,\" talent management systems claiming to reward top talent and hard work can unintentionally promote bias and inefficiency. When hiring managers believe their decisions are solely driven by objective metrics or operate within a supposedly meritocratic organization, they may overlook the importance of nurturing potential and creating an environment where good people can become great.",
  "summary": "Patrick George/Ikon Images Every organization, and every hiring manager, wants to know how to hire the best people. And every company wants to feel like it has an edge over its competitors. But let me ask you a personal question: Can you think back to a moment when someone in a decision-making position took a […]",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}