This week had me thinking a lot about the trades, urgency, and the pressure organizations feel when work starts ramping up fast.

New projects get awarded. Customers need support. Service boards fill up. Managers need manpower yesterday. And in the middle of all that pressure, recruiting becomes a balancing act. Move too slowly and you lose talent. Move too emotionally and you create bigger problems later. That is why I kept coming back this week to something I think matters more than people realize in hiring:

Teachability.

Not perfection. Not the cleanest resume. Not the candidate with every answer rehearsed perfectly.

Teachability.

Because the trades are hard.

The physical side is hard. The mental side is hard. The pressure is hard. The accountability is hard. And honestly, some people discover very quickly that they liked the idea of the trades more than the reality of the work itself.

That is why deeper conversations matter so much in recruiting.

Not just: “Can you do the job?”

But: “Can you learn?” “Can you adapt?” “Can you handle feedback?” “Can you stay humble enough to grow?” “Can you keep showing up when the work gets difficult?” The best tradespeople I have met over the years usually were not the ones who thought they knew everything already. They were the ones willing to listen. Willing to be coached. Willing to learn. Willing to stay uncomfortable long enough to improve.

And I think organizations miss that sometimes when urgency gets high. Pressure can make companies focus too heavily on immediate production while overlooking long-term potential.

But teachability changes trajectories.

A teachable apprentice can become a leader. A teachable technician can become invaluable. A teachable employee can grow into roles nobody originally imagined for them. That is why standards still matter even in urgent hiring environments. Because desperation should never completely override discernment. The strongest recruiting conversations are usually not about trying to “sell” someone into the trades.

They are about helping someone honestly determine whether they are built for the type of growth, pressure, accountability, and learning the trades require. And the candidates who lean into that challenge for the right reasons usually last the longest.

The trades are hard. That is exactly why they are rewarding.