The Demand

This week, you look at every open position you have right now — or every position you filled in the last ninety days with an outside hire — and you name the internal candidate who should have been ready to fill it and was not. If you cannot name one, your farm system does not exist, and the next departure will send you back to the want ad instead of the bench.

The Work

  1. List every open role and every externally filled role from the last ninety days. For each one, write the name of the internal person who should have been developed enough to step into it.
  2. For every blank, write down why that person was not ready: never identified as bench, never given the responsibility, never coached toward the role.
  3. Pick one current cast member for each gap and start their development toward that role this week — a specific responsibility handed over, a specific skill practiced, a specific conversation about where they are headed.
  4. Screen your next candidate — internal or external — against the five hiring criteria before you screen for skill: optimism, warmth, curiosity, empathy, self-awareness with integrity. If they fail on character, do not proceed regardless of availability.
  5. For any role you are tempted to fill with a warm body this week, run the triage: is this a role that touches Guests directly, or one that can absorb a temporary compromise hire? Treat a server opening differently than a dishwasher opening.
  6. If you bring in an external hire for specialized expertise, name their internal successor and their development plan at the offer letter — not after they’ve been there a year.

This week, you close at least one internal development gap instead of opening one more external req to cover it.