A friend of mine, and I want to be clear that it was definitely not me, recently applied for a senior executive role. The job description asked for someone innovative, strategic, and proactive. They might as well have printed my friend’s name in the margin.
True to form, my friend did not just send a CV. They wrote to the hiring manager directly, introducing themselves, outlining a few strategic ideas related to the role, and sharing some innovative ways the organisation could achieve its goals. It was thoughtful, relevant, and designed to start a proper professional conversation.
The reply arrived two days later.
“Thank you for reaching out. Please apply through the process stipulated to ensure fairness for all applicants.”
My friend stared at it, half amused, and half bewildered. The message was polite and professional, yet it completely missed the point. It felt like offering a handshake and being told to take a ticket and wait in line.
The irony was hard to ignore. The organisation wanted someone who was innovative, strategic, and proactive. Yet the moment a candidate demonstrated those qualities; he or she was told to get back in line with everyone else.
This is a quiet contradiction at the heart of modern hiring. Companies say they want people who think differently, challenge assumptions, and bring ideas. But their recruitment systems are built to reward compliance. The candidate who follows every rule exactly often beats the one who dares to stand out. We end up screening out the very qualities we claim to value.
Recruitment has become a process of procedural hygiene. HR teams are understandably keen to ensure fairness, but in doing so, they often remove judgement. Fairness has come to mean rigidity. The human element of curiosity, dialogue, and discernment has been replaced by automated systems and scripted workflows.
These systems protect consistency but not intelligence. They exclude initiative, often unintentionally. The people who might genuinely innovate are filtered out early, either by algorithms or by gatekeepers who have been trained to follow procedure rather than to think.
It is not malice. HR professionals have to balance compliance, transparency, and accountability. Yet leadership requires more than compliance. It requires the courage to recognise when someone is already demonstrating the qualities the organisation claims to prize.
When did hiring become a test of obedience rather than of potential?
Imagine if my friend had sent the same message as a consultant instead of a candidate. It would have been applauded as initiative. The ideas would have been welcomed. The tone would have been described as engaged and insightful. But as an applicant, the same behaviour was treated as a procedural inconvenience.
Fairness matters. But fairness should not mean treating everyone identically. It should mean giving each person a genuine opportunity to show what they can do. Sometimes that means responding when someone brings you a spark of insight. You can still ask them to complete the formal process, but you can also recognise that they have already demonstrated something valuable.
This story is about more than one job application. It reflects a deeper discomfort in many organisations with initiative. We say we want proactive people, but we are unsettled when we meet them. Proactive people move faster than systems are built to handle. Strategic thinkers ask awkward questions. Innovative minds notice the gaps in the very structures that others want to protect.
My friend, that was most definitely not me, did, in the end, apply through the official process. They never heard back. But they were not bitter. The experience confirmed something useful. The best indicator of an organisation’s culture is not what it says in a job description, but how it behaves when someone actually does what it claims to value.
Key Takeaways
- Many recruitment systems reward compliance instead of creativity.
- Fairness and flexibility can coexist, but few organisations manage both.
- A company’s culture is revealed in how it responds to initiative.
- Processes built for control often exclude imagination.
- Hiring for innovation requires the courage to act human.
Try This
If you are a hiring manager, review your recruitment process. Ask yourself whether a truly innovative candidate could ever shine through it. Build in space for conversation. Allow curiosity to count as a strength, not an interruption.
If you are a candidate, keep showing initiative even when systems push back. The right organisation will not ask you to queue. It will invite you in.
Closing Thought
If this made you smile in recognition, share it. Somewhere, another highly capable “friend” is being told to apply through the portal. It is time we remembered that fairness and imagination can live in the same room.
#Leadership #Hiring #Innovation #CorporateCulture #FutureOfWork #StrategicThinking #CareerGrowth
