The people you want working for you are not necessarily the people who want to work for you.

This is one of those hard truths that everyone knows and no one talks about.

Gretchen Ledgard of Microsoft recently told this truth, and God bless her for it.

Because it's not just a truth at Microsoft.

Ledgard's post, which she later felt duty-bound to soften, told a real truth, and the fact she felt compelled to soften her tone speaks loudly to just how bad the problem is -- across corporate America.

The people doing the hiring, and the people seeking those positions, both think working at Microsoft (or wherever) is the greatest thing since pasteurized milk. In some ways it is. Look at the medicine cabinet you get to use at Microsoft (at the top of this item). Look at the salaries, the benefits, the family-friendly attitude. It's paradise.

Well, paradise leads to lotus eating. And it attracts lotus eaters. The people who really drive change are hungry, and may not want to be inside your corporate structure. You have to work hard to find these people, and to convince these people to come to you.

Meanwhile, at the very same time, there are thousands of people beating on your door, begging to come in, many with high marks, advanced degrees from top colleges. But what are they going to do if you let them in -- and remember these are the easy hires, the ones your managers want to make. What these people are going to do is, simply, bleed you dry. They're going to be devoted to what's inside your company, to their own advancement within your bureaucracy, rather than to what they should be thinking about, the customers, and what's outside your company.

Can a "mere" technical recruiter, one who herself is just a part of the bureaucracy, actually change any of this?

Not really. Not unless she's empowered by top management.

When Gretchen's blog post came out, Steve Ballmer should have publicly responded "Hell, yes!" and "She's absolutely right" and "Anyone who criticizes this just doesn't get it." Where else is the next Steve Ballmer going to come from, if you don't go out and find him, beat the bushes for him, recruit him? He doesn't want to work for Microsoft. He wants to become Microsoft.

But if your company is going to renew itself, to keep going forward in the market, that's just the person you want. You don't want a sycophant, someone who loves you and loves working for you.

So God bless Gretchen, and people like her. If the flak at Microsoft ever gets too thick, its big competitors would be very wise to take a run at her.