And why smart companies break their rules to hire them

In the chaotic and competitive Nigerian job market, there’s a truth every founder, HR leader, and ambitious professional feels deep down: not all employees are created equal.

We’ve all seen it. You post a job vacancy and receive 500 CVs. You sift through credentials from top universities and impressive-sounding job titles, only to hire someone who needs constant supervision. On the other hand, you sometimes find a quiet candidate who, within six months, has completely transformed their entire department.

What separates them? It’s not just skill. It’s not just experience. It’s their mindset, their initiative, and the value they create.

This is the 1x to 10x employee framework. Understanding this scale is a superpower. For leaders, it’s the key to building a team that wins. For professionals, it’s the roadmap to becoming indispensable in a world where job security is a myth. Let’s break it down.

The employee value spectrum

Where do you (or your team) stand?

The 1x employee: “Just tell me what to do.”

This is the baseline. The 1x employee does the bare minimum required to not get fired. They clock in, perform their assigned tasks, and clock out. They are not bad people, but they view their job as a series of instructions to be followed, not problems to be solved.

You’ll often hear: “That’s not in my job description,” “No one told me to do that,” or “I just did what I was asked.”

Impact: They require constant supervision and produce average, predictable results. In a tough economy, they are the most replaceable.

The 2x employee: “I’ll do my job well.”

These are your reliable pillars. The 2x employee takes pride in their work. They don’t just follow instructions; they execute them with competence and care. They meet deadlines, communicate clearly, and might even learn a new skill to do their job better.

You’ll rely on them for: Structured roles where consistency is key. Every business needs them to keep the engine running smoothly.

Limitation: They are still task-driven and rarely think beyond their assigned duties. They won’t change your company’s direction.

The 3x employee: “I’ll improve what I’m given.”

Now we’re talking initiative. The 3x employee doesn’t just see a task; they see a system. Give them a messy Excel sheet, and they’ll organize it. Give them a clunky customer onboarding process, and they’ll suggest a way to simplify it.

Key trait: They take ownership. They refine, clean up, and add value to every task they touch, making their manager’s life easier. They are the first glimmers of leadership potential.

The 4x employee: “I’ll take responsibility without being told.”

This is the proactive problem-solver. They don’t wait for permission to fix things. They see a gap and fill it. They notice a recurring customer complaint and investigate the root cause. They anticipate needs and start working on the solution before you’ve even assigned the problem.

Leadership energy: They have influence even without a title. They mentor junior colleagues and own their mistakes, asking “How can we do this better?” instead of hiding from failure.

The 5x employee: “I understand what moves the business.”

This is the critical turning point. At this level, an employee stops thinking like staff and starts thinking like an owner. They understand the connection between their daily work and the company’s bottom line: revenue, customer retention, and brand perception.

Business acumen: They offer ideas based on strategic goals, not just personal convenience. They read between the lines during meetings and connect their work to the bigger picture. Most team leads should be at this level, but many aren’t.

The 6x employee: “I connect dots across the company.”

These are your organisational weavers. They don’t live in a silo. A 6x marketer understands the challenges of the customer support team and aligns their campaigns to reduce support tickets. A 6x engineer works with the sales team to understand customer objections and build features that help close deals.

In Nigeria: These multi-lingual talents (speaking business, tech, and people) are often the most underutilized assets in rigid, hierarchical companies. Smart founders identify them and give them room to operate across teams.

The 7x employee: “I multiply the output of others.”

A 7x employee is a force multiplier. Their value isn’t just in their own output, but in how they elevate the entire team.

How they do it: They create Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), build templates, document processes, and mentor junior staff, raising the average performance of everyone around them. They don’t just shine; they make the whole team shine.

The 8x employee: “I am an intrapreneur.”

Give an 8x employee a piece of your company, and they will run it as if it were their own. They are not just managing resources; they are creating value.

Their focus: They pitch new product ideas, find ways to generate revenue, protect the company’s brand fiercely, and are comfortable enough to challenge you respectfully when they believe a decision is off-track. They are true partners in growth.

The 9x employee: “I change how we think and work.”

These are your visionaries and systems thinkers. They don’t just improve existing processes; they introduce entirely new frameworks. They challenge outdated assumptions and push the company to evolve, ensuring it stays relevant in a rapidly changing market like Nigeria’s.

Warning: The bureaucracy and “this is how we’ve always done it” culture in many traditional companies will push these people out. Forward-thinking companies fight to keep them.

The 10x employee: “I create new value ecosystems.”

This is the unicorn, the true game-changer. A 10x employee doesn’t just do a job; they create new jobs, new departments, or entirely new revenue streams from scratch. They are relentless, emotionally intelligent, highly adaptable, and obsessed with results.

Hiring them: When companies find someone like this, they break the rules. They offer significant equity, create a brand-new role tailored to their strengths, and break salary structures because they know one 10x employee can deliver more value than ten 1x employees combined.

For ambitious professionals: how to climb from 1x to 10x in the Nigerian job market

Knowing the levels is one thing; climbing them is another. In a market where opportunities can seem scarce, increasing your value is the ultimate career security.

Master your domain (moving to 2x/3x): Before you can change the company, you must be excellent at your core job. Become the go-to person for your specific role. Take online courses, read industry blogs, and deliver your assigned work with flawless execution.

Develop a “fix-it” mindset (reaching 4x): Stop seeing problems as someone else’s responsibility. See a typo in the company’s website? Report it with a suggested fix. Notice that the customer feedback form is broken? Flag it to your manager with a solution. Start owning problems instead of just identifying them.

Learn the language of business (becoming a 5x): Your career will stall if you only speak the language of your department (e.g., “marketing,” “code,” “design”). Learn the language of business: revenue, profit margins, customer acquisition cost (CAC), and lifetime value (LTV). Read publications like Stears Business or BusinessDay. When you understand what your CEO cares about, you can align your work with those goals.

Become a generous expert (the 6x/7x leap): Don’t hoard your knowledge. Mentor the new intern. Create a simple “how-to” guide for a complex task your team struggles with. When you make others better, you become a leader, with or without the title.

For founders & HR: how to hire for value, not just CVs

Too many Nigerian hiring managers are stuck in a broken loop, prioritizing the wrong things. The obsession with a specific university degree, arbitrary “years of experience,” or a CV stuffed with fancy buzzwords is a well-known problem. It’s a system that favors good packaging over actual substance.

But the issue often goes deeper, beyond professional metrics and into the realm of personal bias. An even more insidious challenge arises when hiring decisions are dictated by a leader’s personal moral compass, religious affiliations, or rigid cultural principles. It’s the unwritten rule book that many businesses operate by.

This is where you see a brilliant, highly competent 4x employee; someone who can solve problems and drive growth, but gets rejected. It’s not for a lack of skill, but because they don’t measure up to the hirer’s narrow definition of “good character.” Perhaps their lifestyle, visible on their social media, doesn’t align with the founder’s conservative values. Maybe they don’t belong to the “right” church or social circle. Or perhaps their independent thinking is perceived as a threat to a culture that values conformity over competence.

In these moments, a business makes a critical error: it chooses a “likeable” 1x employee who fits a comfortable mold over a “challenging” but transformative 4x employee who could propel the business forward. They sacrifice innovation and high performance for the comfort of cultural uniformity.

It’s time for a mindset shift. To build a truly resilient and competitive company, leaders must learn to separate personal ideology from professional evaluation.

Rewrite your job descriptions

Stop listing tasks. Start describing outcomes.

Instead of: “Responsible for posting on social media.”
Try: “You will own our social media channels to increase qualified leads by 20% in the next quarter.”
This attracts problem-solvers (3x and above), not just instruction-followers.

Ask problem-solving questions

Ditch the generic “Where do you see yourself in 5 years?”. Ask questions that reveal their mindset:

• “Tell me about a time you identified a problem in a process and fixed it without being asked.” (Tests for 3x/4x)
• “If you were CEO of your previous company, what is the one thing you would have changed to improve its revenue?” (Tests for 5x)
• “Describe a time you had to work with another department to get a project done. What were the challenges, and how did you bridge the gap?” (Tests for 6x).

Use practical, real-world assessments

A CV can be misleading. A practical test cannot. Give candidates a small, real-world problem your business is facing and ask them how they would solve it. Their approach will tell you more than any interview answer could.

Be prepared to break your rules for 10x talent

In an era of “japa,” you are not just competing with other Nigerian companies; you are competing with the world for top talent. If you find a 7x-10x employee, be prepared to be flexible on salary, offer remote work, or create a hybrid role. The investment will pay for itself many times over.

A high-performance culture

Imagine a company where your average employee is a 5x, someone who thinks like an owner. Imagine your worst hire is a 3x, someone who still takes initiative and seeks to improve.

Your business would stop crawling and start compounding. Projects would move faster, innovation would become standard practice, and you would build a resilient organization capable of thriving in Nigeria’s tough but opportunity-rich environment.

Stop hiring just to fill seats. Start hiring to build momentum. Because once you build a team of high-value individuals, opportunities won’t just find you, they’ll stay with you.