• by Trevor Monteiro , Yesterday

Here's what most C-suites get wrong about talent: they optimize for the resume that looks best in a pitch deck. The blue-chip agency on the LinkedIn profile. The awards, the mentions, the pedigree.

They're hiring trophy collectors -- and trophy collectors are expensive. Not just in salary, but in what they cost the ecosystem. They hoard credit. They optimize for their own showcase, not the garden. And when a better offer comes along, they take their trophies and leave.

Meanwhile, the people who actually build enduring organizations are sitting right in front of you. You're just not looking for them.

The Business Case

This isn't soft skills theater. This is hard ROI.

Gardeners compound. They make the people around them better, which makes those people more likely to stay, which makes your clients more likely to stay, which makes your business more valuable. It's not a linear return. It's exponential.

Trophy collectors extract. Gardeners multiply.

Gardeners Attract Gardeners

Here's what happens when you put a gardener into a garden: They thrive, and they tell their friends.

Here's what happens when you hire a gardener into a trophy case: They leave, and they warn their friends.

Gardeners want to work with other gardeners. They're drawn to places where their work compounds, where care is reciprocated, where the culture rewards tending to others, not just personal performance metrics.

That’s why one gardener hire isn't enough. You need critical mass. Because the best gardeners won't stay in a garden where they're the only one pulling weeds.

How to Spot a Gardener

Pedigree doesn't automatically make someone a trophy collector. There are plenty of people from elite schools and top companies who are natural gardeners. But the incentive structures at many prestigious institutions often select for trophy-collecting behavior. You need to look past the credentials.

Look for people who've been underestimated. Not because they couldn't perform, but because they didn't fit someone else's narrow template.

Look for people who talk about "we" more than "I" when they describe their wins.

Look for people who've built things in under-resourced environments or toxic cultures. They didn't just survive—they found a way to help others thrive.

And here's the question that separates gardeners from collectors:

"Tell me about someone you've worked with who struggled, and what you did to help them succeed."

Trophy collectors will deflect or give vague answers about being a team player. Gardeners will light up. Because that's the work they're most proud of.

But Here's the Hard Part

You can't hire gardeners if you're not willing to be one yourself.

If you're a leader who hoards information, who takes credit, who optimizes for your own trophy case, gardeners will see through it immediately -- and they'll leave.

To hire gardeners, you have to build a garden worth tending. That means creating an environment where people are celebrated for elevating others, where knowledge sharing is rewarded, where growth is measured by team capability, not just individual output 

This isn't a hiring strategy. It's a leadership philosophy.

You don't just choose who you hire. You choose who you are.