‘Look beyond a CV’ Property Mogul, Paul Nicholson on crafting a team.

The CEO of Nicholson Group says 'if you give people the environment to flourish, there’s every chance they will'

After over 20 years in business, I've learned that it's about spotting the potential in people - not looking at their past.

Six years ago, a young man called Callum took a chance and approached myself and my fiancé at a charity event; we hired him as a junior marketing & administration apprentice. He’s now Head of Digital & HR of the group.

“Since primary school, I’ve faced many challenges and adversities. I was excluded, lost a parent and put in an SEN school in year 8 and gained no qualifications. I got a job with a local business constancy on £6/hour and I was held back on any chance of a career. I was always told I can’t, Paul and Kristina heard my story and never hesitated to change my life. They made me a better person, saw past my diagnosis and gave me the mentoring and guidance I needed to find out who I actually was”

Businesses stereotype and pigeonhole people, but collectively we need to look at the capability within individuals rather than just their experience. We've got to nurture untapped, raw talent.

If you give people the environment to flourish, there's every chance they will.

At Nicholson Group, we've been far more successful with those recruits we've grown and developed. We look to give people an opportunity.

From the moment I walked out on my legal career with Hill Dickinson, I always knew I was capable of more than what was on my CV - and it's those people we look for now.

But lots of big companies miss out talent because they can't see beyond what's already in the past.

This goes to the heart of a big educational issue: the commercial world is at odds with the academic world. Kids aren't trained to think; they're trained to remember.

As an industry, we should be chasing people with entrepreneurial mindsets who don't know where their limits are - not people whose previous experience means their beliefs and self-imposed limitations are already set in stone.

There's so much untapped potential out there.