Duds are just imperfect people

Tuesday 19 June 2007 at 12:18 pm I recently gave a lecture on hiring the right people. As I was reviewing my notes, I began thinking which is always dangerous. I had previously researched that there were three types of employees - Superstars, Journeymen and Duds. I started thinking about the notion of Duds. The word Dud has a negative association but the more I thought about it the more I realized it could be good.

After all, if you add the word milk, you get Milk Duds, that is good, a famous milk chocolate-covered carmel candy that was first made in 1928. The name Milk Dud actually came about as the result of an imperfect product. The manufacturers were trying to make a product that was perfectly round and found out it was impossible to do. So, they chose to call it a dud and it became a good thing.

What does this tell us about employees? For one, everyone has an imperfection and obviously not every employee thinks alike, behaves alike, or is liked. It is not surprising then that managers get frustrated with the people they think are duds. What managers need to do is focus on what employees are doing right and realize the imperfections are what make things interesting and can result in a better product. Buy a box of Milk Duds as a reminder!